tain circumstances respecting this property, which are mentioned in his minutes, were to his knowledge true, but which your lordships, upon examination, will find to be false, and falsified in every particular, recommends, in the strongest manner, to the board, a compliance with this application. He was at this time on the eve of his departure from India, in haste to provide for his faithful servants; and he well knew that this his last act would be held binding upon his successors, who were devoted to him.

Here, indeed, is genuine and heroic gratitude; gratitude for money received, not for money taken away; and yet this gratitude was towards a person who had paid himself out of the benefit which had been conferred, at the expense of a third party. For Gunga Govin Sing had kept for himself £20,000 out of £40,000 taken from the rajah. For this cheat, stated by Mr. Larkins to be such, and allowed by Mr. Hastings himself to be such-he, with a perfect knowledge of that fraud and cheat committed upon the public, (for he pretends that the money was meant for the company,) makes this supplication to his colleagues, and departs.

After his departure, Gunga Govin Sing, relying upon the continuance of the corrupt influence which he had gained, had the impudence to come forward and demand the confirmation of this grant by the council general. The council, though willing to accede to Mr. Hastings's proposition, were stopped in a moment by petitions much more natural, but of a direct contrary tenor. The poor infant rajah raises his cries not to be deprived of his inheritance; his mother comes forward and conjures the council not to oppress her son and wrong her family; the uncle comes and supplicates the board to save from ruin these devoted victims which were under his protection. All these counter-petitions come before the council, while the ink is hardly dry upon the petitions which Mr. Hastings had left behind him, as proofs of the desire of this family to be disinherited in favor of Gunga Govin Sing. Upon the receipt of these remonstrances, the board could not

proceed in the business, and accordingly Gunga Govin Sing was defeated.

But Gunga Govin Sing was unwilling to quit his prey. And what does he do?-I desire your lordships to consider seriously the reply of Gunga. Govin Sing, as it appears upon your minutes. It is a bold answer. He denies the right of the rajah to these estates. Why, says he, all property in this country depends upon the will of your government; how came this rajah's family into possession of this great zemindary? Why, they got it at first by the mere favor of government. The whole was an iniquitous transaction. This is a family, that in some former age has robbed others, and now let me rob them. In support of this claim, he adds the existence of other precedents; namely, that many clerks or mutseddies and banyans at Calcutta had, as he says, got possession of the lands of other people, without any pretence of right. Why should not I? Good God, what precedents are these! Your lordships shall now hear the razynama, or testimonial, which, since Mr. Hastings's arrival in England, this rajah has been induced to send to the company from India, and you will judge then of the state in which Mr. Hastings has left that country. Hearken, my lords, I pray you, to the razynama of this man, from whom £40,000 was taken by Mr. Hastings and Gunga Govin Sing, and against whom an attempt was made by the same persons, to deprive him of his inheritance. Listen to this razynama, and then judge of all the other testimonials which have been produced on the part of the prisoner at your bar. His counsel rest upon themthey glory in them, and we shall not abate them one of these precious testimonials. They put the voice of grateful India against the voice of ungrateful England. Now, hear what grateful India says, after our having told you for what it was so grateful.

“I, Radaunat, zemindar of pergunnah, Havelly Penjuna, &c., commonly called Dinagepore :-As it has been learnt by

the mutseddies and the respectable officers of my zemindary, that the ministers of England are displeased with the late Governor Warren Hastings, Esq., upon the suspicion that he oppressed us, took money from us by deceit and force, and ruined the country-therefore, we, upon the strength of our religion, which we think it incumbent on and necessary for us to abide by, following the rules laid down in giving evidence, declare the particulars of the deeds of Warren Hastings, Esq. full of circumspection and caution, civility and justice, superior to the conduct of the most learned; and by representing what is fact, wipe away the doubts that have possessed the minds of the ministers of England. That Mr. Hastings is possessed of fidelity and confidence and yielding protection to us; that he is clear of the contamination of mistrust and wrong, and his mind is free of covetousness or avarice. During the time of his administration, no one saw other conduct than that of protection to the husbandmen and justice; no inhabitant ever experienced afflictions; no one ever felt oppression from him; our reputations have always been guarded from attacks by his prudence, and our families have always been protected by his justice."

Good God! my lords, "our families protected by his justice!" What! after Gunga Govin Sing, in concert with Mr. Hastings, had first robbed him of £40,000, and then had attempted to snatch, as it were, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, the inheritance of their fathers, and to deprive this infant of a great part of his family estate! Here is a child, eleven years old, who never could have seen Mr. Hastings; who could know nothing of him but from the heavy hand of oppression, affliction, wrong, and robbery, brought to bear testimony to the virtues of Mr. Hastings, before a British parliament. Such is the confidence they repose in their hope of having bribed the English nation by the millions and millions of money, the countless lacks of rupees poured into it from India; that they had dared to bring this

poor robbed infant, to bear testimony to the character of Mr. Hastings. These are the things which are to be opposed to the mass of evidence, which the House of Commons bring against this man; evidence which they bring from his own acts, his own writing, and his own records; a cloud of testimony furnished by himself, in support of charges brought forward and urged by us agreeably to the magnitude of his crimes, with the horror which is inspired by them, and with the contempt due to this paltry attempt towards his defencewhich they had dared to produce from the hands of an infant, but eleven years old, when Mr. Hastings quitted that country.

But to proceed with the razynama :-" He never omitted the smallest instance of kindness towards us, but healed the wounds of despair with the salve of consolation, by means of his benevolent and kind behavior, never permitting one of us to sink into the pit of despondence; he supported every one by his goodness, overset the designs of evil-minded men, by his authority, tied the hand of oppression, with the strongest bandage of justice, and by these means expanded the pleasing appearance of happiness and joy over us; he reëstablished justice and impartiality. We were during his government in the enjoyment of perfect happiness and ease, and many of us are thankful and satisfied. As Mr. Hastings was well acquainted with our manners and customs, he was always desirous in every respect of doing whatever would preserve our religious rites, and guard them against every kind of accident and injury; and at all times protected us. Whatever we have experienced from him, and whatever happened from him, we have written without deceit or exaggeration."

My lords, before I take leave of this affair of bribes and of the great bribe broker, let me just offer a remark to your lordships upon one curious transaction. My lords, we have charged a bribe taken from the nabob of Oude, and we have stated the corrupt and scandalous proceeding which attended it. I thought I had done with Oude; but as there is a

golden chain between all the virtues, so there is a golden chain which links together all the vices. Mr. Hastings, as you have seen, and as my honorable colleague has fully opened it to you, received a bribe or corrupt present from the nabob of Oude, in September, 1781. We heard no more of this bribe than what we had stated, (no other trace of it ever appearing in the company's records, except in a private letter written by Mr. Hastings to the court of directors, and afterwards in a communication such as you have heard through Mr. Larkins,) till October, 1783.

But, my lords, we have since discovered, through and in consequence of the violent disputes which took place between Mr. Hastings and the clan of residents that were in Oude, the resident of the company, Mr. Bristow, the two residents of Mr. Hastings, Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson, and the two residents sent by him to watch over all the rest, Major Palmer and Major Davy;-upon quarrels, I say, between them, we discovered that Mr. Middleton had received the offer of a present of £100,000 in February, 1782. This circumstance is mentioned in a letter of Mr. Middleton's, in which he informs Mr. Hastings that the nabob had destined such a sum for him.

Now the first thing that will occur to your lordships, upon such an affair, will be a desire to know what it was that induced the nabob to make this offer. It was but in the September preceding, that Mr. Hastings had received, for his private use, as the nabob conceived, so bountiful a present as £100,000; what motive then could he have had in February, to offer him another £100,000?—This man, at the time, was piercing heaven itself with the cries of despondency, despair, beggary, and ruin. You have seen, that he was forced to rob his own family, in order to satisfy the company's demands upon him; and yet this is precisely the time when he thinks proper to offer £100,000 to Mr. Hastings. Does not the mind of every man revolt, whilst he exclaims-and say, What! another £100,000 to Mr. Hastings! What reason had the