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they are merely positive and do not contain any thing but mere matters of regulation, shall be strictly observed. The reason. is this, and a serious reason it is:-official tyranny and oppres sion, corruption, peculation, and bribery, are crimes so secret in their nature, that we can hardly ever get to the proof of them, without the assistance of rules, orders and regulations of a positive nature, intended to prevent the perpetration of these crimes, and to detect the offender in case the crimes should be actually perpetrated. You ought therefore to presume, that, whenever such rules or laws are broken, these crimes are intended to be committed; for you have no means of security against the commission of secret crimes, but by enforcing positive laws, the breach of which must be always plain, open, and direct. Such, for instance, is the spirit of the laws, that although you cannot directly prove bribery or smuggling in a hundred cases where they have been committed; you can proye whether the proper documents, proper cockets, proper entries in regular offices have been observed and performed, or not. By these means you lock the door against bribery; you lock the door against corruption, against smuggling, and contraband trade; but how, by falling upon and attacking the offence? No, by falling upon and attacking the breach of the regulation. B 3

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You prove that the man broke the regulation, and as he could have no other motive or interest in breaking it, you presume that he broke it fraudulently, and you punish the man not for the crime the regulation was meant to prevent, but you punish him for the breach of the regulation itself.

Next to the breach of these positive instructions, your Lordships will attend to the consequent concealment and mystery by which it was accompanied. All government must, to preserve its authority, be sincere in its declarations, and authentick in its acts. Whenever in any matter of policy there is a mystery, you must presume a fraud; whenever in any matter of money there is concealment, you must presume misconduct; you must therefore affix your punishment to the breach of the rule; otherwise the conviction of publick delinquents would be unattainable.

I have therefore put before you that rule which he has violated; and we the Commons call upon your Lordships to enforce that rule, and to avenge the breach of it. You have seen the consequences of breaking the rule; and we have charged and do charge it as a heavy aggravation of those consequences; that instead of consulting the Council, instead of laying the whole correspondence before them, instead of consulting

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consulting them upon his answers, he went himself up into the country, took His Majesty's Chief Justice along with him, and made that person the instrument of those wrongs, violences, robberies, and concealments, which we call upon your Lordships to punish.

My Lords, an extraordinary circumstance occurred in the course of our proceedings, in another place, which I must state to shew you in what a horrible manner your laws have been trampled upon and despised. None of the proceedings which have been last stated to your Lordships, respecting the seizure of the treasures of the Begums, appear upon any publick record whatever. From the manner in which they came to our knowledge, your Lordships will perceive what must have been the Prisoner's own opinion of the horrible nature of proceedings, which he thought so necessary to be concealed.

Whilst we were inquiring into the violences committed against the Begums, in breach of the treaty entered into with them, there came into my hands an anonymous letter, containing a full account of all the matter which has lately been stated to you. It came anonymously; and I did not know from what quarter it came. I do not even know with certainty at this hour. I say, not with certainty, for I can only form a eonjecture.

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conjecture. This anonymous communication enabled us to produce all the correspondence with Mr. Middleton respecting the cruelties exercised towards the Begums and their eunuchs, in order to extort money. We found the names of Major Gilpin and several other persons in these letters. We also found in them a strong fox smell of a Sir Elijah Impey, that his brush and crime had left behind him; we traced him by that scent; and as we proceeded we discovered the footsteps of as many of the wolves as Mr. Hastings thought proper to leave there. We sent for and examined Mr. Middleton, and Major Gilpin produced his correspondence. When we applied to Mr. Middleton, we found that all this part of his correspondence had been torn out of his book. But having come at it by means of our anonymous communication we subsequently proved and established it, in the manner we have done, before your Lordships. Here then you have important matter which this anonymous letter has brought to light; and otherwise the whole of this correspondence so essential to the interests and justice of Great Britain would have been concealed by this wicked man. Thus I say, his violation of a positive law would have remained undiscovered, if mere accident had not enabled us to trace this iniquity to its source. Therefore I begin

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our proceedings this day, by stating to your Lordships this fact, and by calling upon your justice to punish him for this violation of the laws of his country.

We have told you who the instruments were, by which all this wickedness was committed, Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson, persons who were sent as ambassadors to represent the interests of the Company at the court of an independent Prince. Over this Prince they usurped an absolute power, they even made use ́of British officers in his own service, and receiving his pay, to enslave his person, and to force him to rob his kindred. These agents were aided by an English Chief Justice, sent under the authority of an Act of Parliament to represent the Sovereign Majesty of English justice; and to be a restraint upon the misconduct of the Company's servants. These are the instruments with which this man works. We have shewn you his system; we have shewn you his instruments; we will now proceed with the examination of the pretences upon which this horrid and nefarious act is attempted to be justified. We have not entered into this examination for the sake of refuting things that want no refutation, but for the purpose of shewing you the spirit of the whole proceeding, and making it appear to your Lordships, as I trust

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