any farm at all to his banyan, finding himself bolder, broke the second too, and, instead of 10,000l. gave him farms paying a revenue of 130,000l. a year to government. Men undoubtedly have been known to be under the dominion of their domestics: such things have happened to great men ; they never have happened justifiably in my opinion. They have never happened excusably; but we are acquainted sufficiently with the weakness of human nature to know, that a domestick, who has served you in a near office long, and in your opinion faithfully, does become a kind of relation: it brings on a great affection and regard for his interest. Now was this the case with Mr. Hastings and Cantoo Baboo? Mr. Hastings was just arrived at his government, and Cantoo Baboo had been but a year in his service; so that he could not in that time have contracted any great degree of friendship for him. These people do not live in your house; the Hindoo servants never sleep in it; they cannot eat with your servants; they have no second table, in which they can be continually about you, to be domesticated with yourself, a part of your being, as people's servants are to a certain degree. These persons live all abroad; they come at stated hours upon matters of business, and nothing more. But if it had been otherwise, Mr. Hastings's connexion with Cantoo Baboo had been but of a year's standing: he had before served in that capacity Mr. Sykes, who recommended him to Mr. Hastings. Your lordships then are to judge, whether such outrageous violations of all the principles, by which Mr. Hastings pretended to be guided in the settlement of these farms, were for the benefit of this old, decayed, affectionate servant of one year's standing-your lordships will judge of that.

I have here spoken only of the beginning of a great notorious system of corruption; which branched out so many ways, and into such a variety of abuses, and has afflicted that kingdom with such horrible evils from that day to this, that I will venture to say it will make one of the greatest, weightiest, and most material parts of the charge, that is now before you; as I believe I need not tell your lordships, that an attempt to set up the whole landed interest of a king

dom to auction must be attended, not only in that act but every consequential act, with most grievous and terrible consequences.

My lords, I will now come to a scene of peculation of another kind; namely, a peculation by the direct sale of offices of justice; by the direct sale of the successions of families; by the sale of guardianships, and trusts, held most sacred among the people of India; by the sale of them, not as before to farmers, not as you might imagine to near relations of the families, but a sale of them to the unfaithful servants of those families, their own perfidious servants, who had ruined their estates, who, if any balances had accrued to the government, had been the cause of those debts. Those very servants were put in power over their estates, their persons and their families by Mr. Hastings for a shameful price. It will be proved to your lordships in the course of this business, that Mr. Hastings has done this in another sacred trust, the most sacred trust a man can have; that is, in the case of those vackiels (as they call them) agents, or attornies, who had been sent to assert and support the rights of their miserable masters before the council-general. It will be proved, that these vackiels were by Mr. Hastings, for a price to be paid for it, put in possession of the very power, situation, and estates of those masters, who sent them to Calcutta to defend them from wrong and violence. The selling offices of justice, the sale of succession in families, of guardianships and other sacred trusts, the selling masters to their servants, and principals to the attornies they employed to defend themselves, were all parts of the same system; and these were the horrid ways, in which he received bribes beyond any common rate.

When Mr. Hastings was appointed in the year 1773 to be governour-general of Bengal, together with Mr. Barwell, General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, the company, knowing the former corrupt state of their service (but the whole corrupt system of Mr. Hastings at that time. not being known, or even suspected at home) did order them, in discharge of the spirit of the act of parliament, to make an inquiry into all manner of corruptions and malver

sations in office, without the exception of any persons whatever. Your lordships are to know, that the act did expressly authorize the court of directors to frame a body of instructions, and to give orders to their new servants, appointed under the act of parliament, lest it should be supposed, that they, by their appointment under the act, could supersede the authority of the directors.

The directors, sensible of the power left in them over their servants by the act of parliament, though their nomination was taken from them, did, agreeably to the spirit and power of that act, give this order.

The council consisted of two parties; Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, who were chosen, and kept there, upon the idea of their local knowledge; and the other three, who were appointed on account of their great parts and known integrity. And I will venture to say, that those three gentlemen did so execute their duty in India in all the substantial parts of it, that they will serve as a shield to cover the honour of England, whenever this country is upbraided in India.

They found a rumour running through the country of great peculations and oppressions. Soon after, when it was known, what their instructions were, and that the council was ready, as is the first duty of all governours, even when there is no express order, to receive complaints against the oppressions and corruptions of government in any part of it -they found such a body (and that body shall be produced to your lordships) of corruption and peculation in every walk, in every department, in every situation of life, in the sale of the most sacred trusts, and in the destruction of the most antient families of the country, as I believe in so short a time never was unveiled since the world began.

Your lordships would imagine, that Mr. Hastings would at least ostensibly have taken some part in endeavouring to bring these corruptions before the publick, or that he would at least have acted with some little management in his opposition. But alas! it was not in his power; there was not one, I think, but I am sure very few, of these general articles of corruption, in which the most eminent figure in the

crowd, the principal figure as it were in the piece, was not Mr. Hastings himself. There were a great many others involved; for all departments were corrupted and vitiated. But you could not open a page, in which you did not see Mr. Hastings, or in which you did not see Cantoo Baboo. Either the black or white side of Mr. Hastings constantly was visible to the world in every part of these transactions.

With the other gentlemen, who were visible too, I have at present no dealing. Mr. Hastings, instead of using any management on that occasion, instantly set up his power and authority, directly against the majority of the council, directly against his colleagues, directly against the authority of the East-India company and the authority of the act of parliament, to put a dead stop to all these inquiries. He broke up the council the moment they attempted to perform this part of their duty. As the evidence multiplied upon him, the daring exertions of his power in stopping all inquiries increased continually. But he gave a credit and authority to the evidence by these attempts to suppress it.

Your lordships have heard, that among the body of the accusers of this corruption there was a principal man in the country, a man of the first rank and authority in it, called Nundcomar, who had the management of revenues amounting to 150,000l. a year, and who had, if really inclined to play the small game, with which he has been charged by his accusers, abundant means to gratify himself in playing great ones; but Mr. Hastings has himself given him, upon the records of the company, a character, which would at least justify the council in making some inquiry into charges made by him.

First, he was perfectly competent to make them, because he was in the management of those affairs, from which Mr. Hastings is supposed to have received corrupt emolument. He and his son were the chief managers in those transactions. He was, therefore, perfectly competent to it.-Mr. Hastings has cleared his character; for, though it is true in the contradictions, in which Mr. Hastings has entangled himself, he has abused and insulted him, and particularly after his appearance, as an accuser, yet before this he has given

this testimony of him, that the hatred, that had been drawn upon him, and the general obloquy of the English nation, was on account of his attachment to his own prince and the liberties of his country. Be he what he might, I am not disposed, nor have I the least occasion, to defend either his conduct or his memory.

It is to no purpose for Mr. Hastings to spend time in idle objections to the character of Nundcomar. Let him be as bad as Mr. Hastings represents him. I suppose he was a caballing, bribing, intriguing politician, like others in that country, both black and white. We know, associates in dark and evil actions are not generally the best of men; but be that as it will, it generally happens, that they are the best of all discoverers. If Mr. Hastings were the accuser of Nundcomar, I should think the presumptions equally strong against Nundcomar, if he had acted as Mr. Hastings has acted. He was not only competent, but the most competent of all men to be Mr. Hastings's accuser. But Mr. Hastings has himself established both his character, and his competency, by employing him against Mahomed Reza Khân. He shall not blow hot and cold. In what respect was Mr. Hastings better than Mahomed Reza Khân, that the whole rule, principle, and system of accusation and inquiry should be totally reversed in general, nay, reversed in the particular instance the moment he became accuser against Mr. Hastings. Such was the accuser. He was the man, that gave the bribes, and, in addition to his own evidence, offers proof by other witnesses.

What was the accusation ? Was the accusation improbable, either on account of the subject-matter, or the actor in it? Does such an appointment as that of Munny Begum in the most barefaced evasion of his orders appear to your lordships a matter, that contains no just presumptions of guilt? so that when a charge of bribery comes upon it, you are prepared to reject it, as if the action were so clear and proper, that no man could attribute it to an improper motive? And, as to the man, is Mr. Hastings a man, against whom a charge of bribery is improbable? Why, he owns it. He is a pro

fessor of it. He reduces it into scheme and system.

He