LXIV.  That the manner in which the said inhuman acts of rapacity and violence were felt, both by the women of high rank concerned, and by all the people, strongly appears in the joy expressed on their release, which took place on the 5th of December, 1782, and is stated in two letters of that date from Major Gilpin to the Resident, in the words following.

LXV.  “I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d instant, and in consequence immediately enlarged the prisoners Behar Ali Khan and Jewar Ali Khan from their confinement:  a circumstance that gave the Begums, and the city of Fyzabad in general, the greatest satisfaction.

LXVI.  “In tears of joy Behar and Jewar Ali Khan expressed their sincere acknowledgments to the Governor-General, his Excellency the Nabob Vizier, and to you, Sir, for restoring them to that invaluable blessing, liberty, for which they would ever retain the most grateful remembrance; and at their request I transmit you the inclosed letters.

LXVII.  “I wish you had been present at the enlargement of the prisoners.  The quivering lips, with the tears of joy stealing down the poor men’s cheeks, was a scene truly affecting.

LXVIII.  “If the prayers of these poor men will avail, you will, at the LAST TRUMP, be translated to the happiest regions in heaven.”

LXIX.  And the Resident, Bristow, knowing how acceptable the said proceeding would be to all the people of Oude, and the neighboring independent countries, did generously and politically, (though not truly,) in his letter to the princess mother attribute the said relief given to herself, and the release of her ministers, to the humanity of the said Warren Hastings, agreeably to whose orders he pretended to act:  asserting, that he, the said Hastings, “was the spring from whence she was restored to her dignity and consequence."[76] And the account of the proceedings aforesaid was regularly transmitted to the said Warren Hastings on the 30th of December, 1782, with the reasons and motives thereto, and a copy of the report of the officer concerning the inutility of further force, attended with sundry documents concerning the famishing, and other treatment, of the women and children of the late sovereign:  but the same appear to have made no proper impression on the mind of the said Warren Hastings; for no answer whatsoever was given to the said letter until the 3d of March, 1783, when the said Hastings, writing in his own character and that of the Council, did entirely pass by all the circumstances before recited, but did give directions for the renewal of measures of the like nature and tendency with those which (for several of the last months at least of the said proceeding) had been employed with so little advantage to the interest and with so much injury to the reputation of the Company, his masters, in whose name he acted,—­expressing himself in the said letter of the 3d of March, 1783, as follows:  “We desire you will inform us what means have