The next regulation they made was concerning the effective government of the country, which was become vacant by the removal of Mahomed Reza Khan.  The offices which he held were in effect these:  he was guardian to the Nabob by the appointment of the Company; he had the care and management of his family; he had the care of the public justice; and he represented that shadow of government to foreign nations which it was the policy of the Company, at that time, to keep up.  This was the person whom Mr. Hastings was ordered to remove; in consequence of which removal all these offices were to be supplied,—­of guardian of the Nabob’s person and manager of his family, of chief magistrate, and of representative of the fallen dignity of the native government to the foreign nations which traded to Bengal.

To these orders was added an instruction of a very remarkable nature, which was a third trust that was given to Mr. Hastings:  that during the Nabob’s minority he should reduce the annual allowance, which was thirty-two lacs, to sixteen; and that to prevent the abuse of this restricted sum, and to prevent its being directed by the minister’s authority to other purposes than that for which the Company allowed it, (that is to say, allowed him out of what was his own,) of these sixteen lacs an account was to be regularly kept, as a check upon the person so appointed, which account was ordered to be transmitted to Calcutta, and to be sent to England.

Now we are to show your Lordships what Mr. Hastings’s conduct was upon all these occasions; and for this we mean to produce testimony recorded in the Company’s books, and authentic documents taken from the public offices of that country.  At the same time I do admit that there never was a positive testimony that did not stand something in need of the support of presumption:  for, as we know that witnesses may be perjured, and as we know that documents can be forged, we have recourse to a known principle in the laws of all countries, that circumstances cannot lie; and therefore, if the testimony that is given was ever so clear and positive, yet, if it is contrary to the circumstances of the country, if it is contrary to the circumstances of the facts to which it alludes, if the deposition is totally adverse and alien to the characters of the persons, then I will say, that, though the testimonies should be many, though they should be consistent, and though they should be clear, yet they will still leave some degree of hesitation and doubt upon every mind timorous in the execution of justice, as every mind ought to be.  If, for instance, ten witnesses were to swear that the Chief-Justice of England, that the Lord High-Chancellor, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, was seen, in the robes of his function, at noonday, robbing upon the highway, it is not the clearness, the weight, the authority of testimonies, that could make me believe it; I should attribute it to any cause, either corruption, mistake,