But supposing the Rajah of Benares to be a mere subject, and that subject a criminal of the highest form; let us see what course was taken by an upright English magistrate.  Did he cite this culprit before his tribunal?  Did he make a charge?  Did he produce witnesses?  These are not forms; they are parts of substantial and eternal justice.  No, not a word of all this.  Mr. Hastings concludes him, in his own mind, to be guilty:  he makes this conclusion on reports, on hearsays, on appearances, on rumors, on conjectures, on presumptions; and even these never once hinted to the party, nor publicly to any human being, till the whole business was done.

But the Governor tells you his motive for this extraordinary proceeding, so contrary to every mode of justice towards either a prince or a subject, fairly and without disguise; and he puts into your hands the key of his whole conduct:—­“I will suppose, for a moment, that I have acted with unwarrantable rigor towards Cheit Sing, and even with injustice.—­Let my MOTIVE be consulted.  I left Calcutta, impressed with a belief that extraordinary means were necessary, and those exerted with a steady hand, to preserve the Company’s interests from sinking under the accumulated weight which oppressed them.  I saw a political necessity for curbing the overgrown power of a great member of their dominion, and for making it contribute to the relief of their pressing exigencies.”  This is plain speaking; after this, it is no wonder that the Rajah’s wealth and his offence, the necessities of the judge and the opulence of the delinquent, are never separated, through the whole of Mr. Hastings’s apology.  “The justice and policy of exacting a large pecuniary mulct.”  The resolution “to draw from his guilt the means of relief to the Company’s distresses." His determination “to make him pay largely for his pardon, or to execute a severe vengeance for past delinquency.”  That “as his wealth was great, and the Company’s exigencies pressing, he thought it a measure of justice and policy to exact from him a large pecuniary mulct for their relief.”—­“The sum” (says Mr. Wheler, bearing evidence, at his desire, to his intentions) “to which the Governor declared his resolution to extend his fine was forty or fifty lacs, that is, four or five hundred thousand pounds; and that, if he refused, he was to be removed from his zemindary entirely; or by taking possession of his forts, to obtain, out of the treasure deposited in them, the above sum for the Company.”

Crimes so convenient, crimes so politic, crimes so necessary, crimes so alleviating of distress, can never be wanting to those who use no process, and who produce no proofs.