this period, exhibited to the honorable court of directors; at least never vouched by undeniable testimony and authentic documents by Juggut Seet, who himself was obliged to contribute largely to the sums demanded by Moolyram, who was employed by Mr. Johnstone in all these pecuniary transactions by the nabob and Mahomed Reza Khân, who were the heaviest sufferers; and lastly, by the confession of the gentlemen themselves, whose names are specified in the distribution list."

"8.Juggut Seet expressly declared in his narrative, that the sum which he agreed to pay the deputation, amounting to 125,000 rupees, was extorted by menaces; and since the close of our inquiry, and the opinions we delivered in the proceedings of the 21st of June, it fully appears, that the presents from the nabob and Mahomed Reza Khân, exceeding the immense sum of seventeen lacks, were not the voluntary offerings of gratitude, but contributions levied on the weakness of the government, and violently exacted from the dependent state and timid disposition of the minister. The charge, indeed, is denied on the one hand, as well as affirmed on the other. Your honorable board must therefore determine, how far the circumstance of extortion may aggravate the crime of disobedience to your positive orders; the exposing the government in a manner to sale, and receiving the infamous wages of corruption from opposite parties and contending interests. We speak with boldness, because we speak from conviction founded upon indubitable evidence, that, besides the above sums specified in the distribution account, to the amount of £228,125 sterling, there was likewise to the value of several lacks of rupees procured from Nundcomar and Roydullub, each of whom aspired at, and obtained, a promise of that very employment it was predetermined to bestow on Mahomed Reza Khân.-Signed at the end,Clive, Wm B. Sumner, John Carnac, H. Verelst, Fra3 Sykes."

My lords, the persons who sign this letter are mostly the

friends of, and one of them is the gentleman who is bail for, and sits near, Mr. Hastings. They state to you this horrible and venal transaction, by which the government was set to sale, by which a bastard son was elevated to the wrong of the natural and legitimate heir; and in which a prostitute, his mother, was put in the place of the honorable and legitimate mother of the representative of the family.

Now if there was one thing more than another under heaven, which Mr. Hastings ought to have shunned, it was the suspicion of being concerned in any such infamous transaction as that which is here recorded to be so-a transaction in which the country government had before been sold to this very woman and her offspring, and in which two great candidates for power in that country fought against each other, and perhaps the largest offerer carried it.

When a governor-general sees the traces of corruption in the conduct of his predecessors, the traces of injustice following that corruption, the traces of notorious irregularity, in setting aside the just claimants in favor of those that have no claim at all, he has that before his eyes which ought to have made him the more scrupulously avoid, and to keep at the farthest distance possible from, the contagion, and even the suspicion of being corrupted by it. Moreover, my lords, it was in consequence of these very transactions, that the new covenants were made, which bind the servants of the company, never to take a present of above £200, or some such sum of money, from any native in circumstances there described. This covenant I shall reserve for consideration in another part of this business. It was in pursuance of this idea, and to prevent the abuse of the prevailing custom of visiting the governing powers of that country, with a view of receiving presents from them, that the House of Commons afterwards, in its inquiries, took up this matter, and passed the regulating act in 1773. But to return to Munny Begum― this very person, that had got into power by the means already mentioned, did Mr. Hastings resort to, knowing her to be

well skilled in the trade of bribery ; — knowing her skilful practice in business of this sort; knowing the fitness of her eunuchs, instruments, and agents to be dealers in this kind of traffic. This very woman did Mr. Hastings select, stigmatized as she was in the company's record, stigmatized by the very gentleman who sits next to him, and whose name you have heard read to you, as one of those members of the council that reprobated the horrible iniquity of the transaction, in which this woman was a principal agent. For though neither the young nabob nor his mother ought to have been raised to the stations in which they were placed, and were placed there for the purpose of facilitating the receipt of bribes; yet the order of nature was preserved, and the mother was made the guardian of her own son. For though she was a prostitute and he a bastard, yet still she was a mother and he a son; and both nature and legitimate disposition, with regard to the guardianship of a son, went together.

But what did Mr. Hastings do? Improving upon the preceding transaction, improving on it by a kind of refinement in corruption-he drives away the lawful mother from her lawful guardianship; the mother of nature he turns out, and he delivers her son to the stepmother, to be the guardian of his person. That your lordships may see who this woman was, we shall read to you a paper from your lordships' minutes, produced before Mr. Hastings's face, and never contradicted by him from that day to this.

At a consultation, 24th July, 1775 :-" Shah Chanim, deceased, was sister to the nabob Mahub ul Jung by the same father, but different mothers; she married Meer Mahomed Jaffier Khân, by whom she had a son and a daughter; the name of the former was Meer Mahomed Sadduc Ali Khân, and the latter was married to Meer Mahomed Cossim Khân Sadduc; Ali Khân had two sons and two daughters; the sons' names are Meer Sydoc and Meer Sobeem, who are now living; the daughters were married to Sultan Merza Daood.

"Baboo Begum, the mother of the nabob Mobarick ul Dowlah, was the daughter of Summim Ali Khân, and married Meer Mahomed Jaffier Khân. The history of Munny Begum, is this:-At a village called Balcurda, near Sehindra, there lived a widow, who from her great poverty, not being able to bring up her daughter Munny, gave her to a slave girl belonging to Summin Ali Khân, whose name was Bissoo; during the space of five years she lived at Shahjehunabad, and was educated by Bissoo, after the manner of a dancing girl; afterward the nabob Shamot Jung, upon the marriage of Ikram ul Dowlah, brother to the nabob Surage ul Dowlah, sent for Bissoo Beg's set of dancing girls from Shahjehunabad, of which Munny Begum was one, and allowed them 10,000 rupees for their expenses, to dance at the wedding; while this ceremony was celebrating they were kept by the nabob, but some months afterwards he dismissed them, and they took up their residence in this city. Meer Mahomed Jaffier Khân then took them into keeping, and allowed Munny and her set 500 rupees per month; till at length finding that Munny was pregnant, he took her into his own house; she gave birth to the nabob Nijam ul Dowlah, and in this manner she has remained in the nabob's family ever since."

My lords, I do not mean to detain you long upon this part of the business; but I have thought it necessary to advert to these particulars. As to all the rest, the honorable and able manager who preceded me has sufficiently impressed upon your lordships' minds the monstrous nature of the deposing of the nabob's mother from the guardianship of her son, for the purpose of placing this woman there at the head of all his family, and of his domestic concerns in the seraglio within doors, and at the head of the state without; together with the disposal of the whole of the revenue that was allowed him. Mr. Hastings pretends, indeed, to have appointed at the same time a trusty mutseddy to keep the accounts of the revenue, but he has since declared that no account had been kept, and that it was in vain to desire it or to call for it.

This is the state of the case with respect to the appointment of Munny Begum. With regard to the reappointment of Mahomed Reza Khân, you have heard from my worthy fellow manager, that he was acquitted of the charges that had been brought against him by Mr. Hastings, after a long and lingering trial. The company was perfectly satisfied with the acquittal, and declared that he was not only acquitted, but honorably acquitted; and they also declared that he had a fair claim to a compensation for his sufferings. They not only declared him innocent, but meritorious. They gave orders that he should be considered as a person who was to be placed in office again upon the first occasion, and that he had entitled himself to this favor by his conduct in the place which he had before filled.

The council of the year 1775, (whom I can never mention nor shall mention without honor,) who complied faithfully with the act of parliament, who never disobeyed the orders of the company, and to whom no man has imputed even the shadow of corruption, found that this Munny Begum had acted in the manner which my honorable fellow manager has stated; that she had dissipated the revenue; that she had neglected the education of the nabob, and had thrown the whole judicature of the country into confusion. They ordered that she should be removed from her situation; that the nabob's own mother should be placed at the head of the seraglio, a situation to which she was entitled; and, with regard to the rest of the offices, that Mahomed Reza Khân should be employed to fill them.

Mr. Hastings resisted these propositions with all his might; but they were by that happy momentary majority carried against him, and Mahomed Reza Khân was placed in his former situation. But Mr. Hastings, though thus defeated, was only waiting for what he considered to be the fortunate moment for returning again to his corrupt, vicious, tyrannical, and disobedient habits. The reappointment of Mahomed Reza Khân had met the fullest approbation of the company;