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My Lords, if, since the beginning of the world, such a paper as this was ever before written, by a person standing in the relation of a servant to his master, I shall allow that every word we have said to your Lordships upon this occasion to mark his guilt ought to be expunged from your Minutes, and from our Charges.

Before I proceed to make any observations upon this act of open rebellion against his superiors, I must beg your Lordships to remark the cruelty of purpose, the hostile feeling towards these injured women, which were displayed in this daring defiance. Your Lordships will find, that he never is a rebel to one party, without being a tyrant to some others; that rebel and tyrant are correlative terms when applied to him, and that they constantly go together.

It is suggested by the Directors, that the Nabob is the persecutor, the oppressor, and that Mr. Hastings is the person who is to redress the wrong; but here they have mistaken the matter totally. For we have proved to your Lordships, that Mr. Hastings was the principal in the persecution, and that the Nabob was only an instrument :-" If I am rightly informed," he says, "the Nabob and the Begums are "on terms of mutual good will. It would ill "become this government to

interpose its

"influence

"influence by any act which might tend to "revive their animosities, and a very slight "occasion would be sufficient to effect it."What animosities had they towards each other? None, that we know of. Mr. Hastings gets the Nabob to rob his mother; and then he supposes, contrary to truth, contrary to fact, contrary to every thing your Lordships have heard, that the Nabob would fall into a fury if his mother was to obtain any redress; and that if the least inquiry into this business was made, it would create a flame in the Nabob's mind, on account of the active, energetick, spirited part he had taken in these transactions. Therefore, says he, Oh! for God's sake, sooth the matter:-it is a green wound:-don't uncover it:-do nothing to irritate :-it will be to little purpose to tell them that their conduct has in our estimation of it been very wrong, and at the same time announce to them the orders of our superiors, which more than indicate the reverse. Now, my Lords, to what does all this amount? First, says he, I will not do them justice. I will not enter upon an inquiry into their wrongs. Why?-Because they charge us with having inflicted them. Then surely for that reason, you ought to commence an inquiry. No, says he, that would be telling them that our superiors suspect we are in the wrong. But when

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when his superiors more than indicated suspicions, was he not bound ten fold to make that inquiry, for his honour and for their satisfaction, which they direct him to make? No, he will not do it, because, says he, the Begums would either accept the offer of an asylum in the Company's territories to the proclaimed scandal of the Vizier, which would not add to the credit of our government; or they would remain in his dominions, but not under his authority, to add to his vexations, and the disorders of the country, by continual intrigues and seditions.

You see, my Lords, this man is constantly thrusting this peaceable Nabob before him, goading and pushing him on as if with a bayonet behind, to the commission of every thing that is base and dishonourable. You have him here declaring that he will not satisfy the Directors his masters, in their inquiries about those acts, for fear of the Nabob's taking umbrage, and getting into a flame with his mother; and for fear the mother, supported by the opinion of the Directors, should be induced to resent her wrongs. What, I say, does all this amount to? -It amounts to this-The Begums accuse me of doing them injustice; the Directors indicate a suspicion that they have been injured; therefore I will not inquire into the matter. Why?

because

because it may raise disturbances. But what disturbance could it raise?-the mother is disarmed and could not hurt the Nabob. All her landed estates he knew were confiscated. He knew all her money was in his own possession; he knew she had not the means, if she had been disposed, to create intrigues and cabals;-what disturbance then could be created by his sending a letter to know what she had to say upon the subject of her wrongs?

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If" says he, "the Begums think them"selves aggrieved." Observe, my Lords, that the institution of an inquiry is no measure of the Begums; it is an order of the Court of Directors made by them upon his own representation of his own case, and upon nothing else. The Begums did not dare to murmur.-They did not dare to ask for redress. God knows the poor creatures were at or about the time his prisoners; robbed-stripped of every thing; without hope and without resource.-But the Directors, doing their duty upon that occasion, did condemn him upon his own false representations contained in that bundle of affidavits, upon which his counsel now contend that your Lordships should acquit him. But, says he, are they to appeal to a foreign jurisdiction? When these women were to be robbed we were not foreigners to them; on the contrary we adjudged them guilty of rebellion. We sent an

English

English Chief Justice to collect materials of accusation against them. We sent English officers to take their money. The whole was an English transaction. When wrong is to be done, we have then an interest in the country to justify our acting in it; but when the question is of redressing wrongs, when the question is of doing justice, when the question is of inquiry, when the question is of hearing complaints, then it is a foreign jurisdiction.-You are to suffer Mr. Hastings to make it foreign, or to make it domestic, just as it answers his purposes. But they are to appeal against a man standing in the, relation of son and grandson to them, and to appeal to the justice of those who have been the abettors and instruments of their imputed wrongs.—

Why, my Lords, if he allows that he is the abettor of, and the instrument to which the Directors impute these wrongs, why, I ask, does he, with those charges lying upon him, object to all inquiry in the manner you have seen?

But the Company's Governour is, it seems, all at once transformed into a great sovereignthe majesty of justice ought to be approached with solicitation. Here, my Lords, he forgets at once the Court of Directors; he forgets the laws of England, he forgets the act of Parliament, he forgets that any obedience is due to his superiors. The Begums were to approach

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