.

'haps the cruelest of the afflictions they endured, 'arose from the management of the country having been taken out of the hands of its natural rulers, and given up to Mr. Hastings's farmers, namely, the banyans of Calcutta. These are the things that ought to go to your Lordships' hearts. You see a country wasted and desolated. You see a third of it become a jungle for wild beasts. You see the other parts oppressed by persons in the form and shape of men, but with all the character and disposition of beasts of prey. This state of the country is brought before you, and by the most unexceptionable evidence, being brought forward through Mr. Hastings himself. This evidence, whatever opinion you may entertain of the effrontery or of the impudence of the criminal who has produced it, is of double and treble force. And yet at the very time when Lord Cornwallis is giving this statement of the country and its inhabitants, at the very time when he is calling for pity.upon their condition, are these people brought forward to bear testimony to the benign and auspicious government of Mr. Hastings, directed, as your Lordships know it was, by the merciful and upright Gunga Govin Sing.

My Lords, you have now the evidence of Lord Cornwallis on the one hand, and the razanamas of India on the other. But before I dismiss this

ordered by an Act of Parliament to be made. The existence then of the grievances, and the cause of them, are expressly declared in an Act of Parliament. It orders an inquiry, and Lord Cornwallis, in consequence of that inquiry, transmits to the Court of Directors this very information; he gives you this identical state of the country; so that it is consolidated, mixed and embodied with an Act of Parliament itself, which no power on earth, I trust, but the power that made it, can shake. I trust, I say, that neither we the Commons, nor you the Lords, nor his Majesty the sovereign of this country, can shake one word of this Act of Parliament, can invalidate the truth of its declaration, or the authority of the persons, men of high honour and character, that made that inquiry and this report. Your Lordships must repeal this Act in order to acquit Mr. Hastings.

But Mr. Hastings and his counsel have pro duced evidence against this Act of Parliament, against the order of the Court of Directors, by which an inquiry and report were made under that Act, against Lord Cornwallis's return, to that inquiry; and now, once for all, hear what the miserable wretches are themselves made to say, to invalidate the Act of Parliament, to invalidate the authority of the Court of Directors, to invalidate the evidence of an official return of Lord

f

Lord Cornwallis under the Act. Pray hear what these miserable creatures describe as an Elysium, speaking with rapture of their satisfaction under the government of Mr. Hastings.

"All we Zemindars, Choudries, and Talook"dars of the district of Akbarnagur, commonly "called Raje Mhal, in the kingdom of Bengal, have heard, that the gentlemen in England

are displeased with Mr. Hastings, on suspicion "that he oppressed us inhabitants of this place, "took our money by deceit and force, and ruined "the country; therefore we, upon the strength "of our religion and religious tenets, which we "hold as a duty upon us, and in order to act "conformable to the duties of God, in deliversing evidence, relate the praiseworthy actions, "full of prudence and rectitude, friendship and

politeness of Mr. Hastings, possessed of great ❝ abilities and understanding, and by representing facts, remove the doubts that have pos"sessed the minds of the gentlemen in England; "that Mr. Hastings distributed protection

and security to religion, and kindness and "peace to all; he is free from the charge of ❝embezzlement and fraud, and that his heart is "void of covetousness and avidity: during the

period of his government, no one experienced "from him other than protection and justice,

**never having felt hardships from him, nor did "the poor ever know the weight of an oppres"sive hand from him.CID

"Our characters and reputations have always "been guarded in quiet from attack by the "vigilance of his power and foresight, and pre"served by the terrour of his justice; he never *** omitted the smallest instance of kindness and "goodness towards us and those entitled to it,

but always applied by soothings and mildness "the salve of comfort to the wounds of affliction, "not allowing a single person to be overwhelmed "by despair; he displayed his friendship and

kindness to all; he destroyed the power of the "enemies and wicked men by the strength of his "terrour; he tied the hands of tyrants and op"pressors by his justice, and by this conduct he "secured happiness and joy to us; he re-esta"blished the foundation of justice, and we at all "times, during his government, lived in comfort " and passed our days in peace; we are many, "many of us satisfied and pleased with him. As "Mr. Hastings was perfectly. well acquainted "with the manners and customs of these coun. "tries, he was always desirous of performing "that which would tend to the preservation of ." our religion, and of the duties of our sects, "and guard the religious customs of each from "the effects of misfortune and accidents; in