This is all that I think necessary to state to your Lordships upon this monstrous part of the arrangement; and therefore, from his rigorous obedience in cases of cruelty, and, where control was directed, from his total disobedience, and from his choice of persons, from his suppression of the accounts that ought to have been produced, and falsifying the accounts that were kept, there arises a strong inference of corruption.  When your Lordships see all this in proof, your Lordships will justify me in saying that there never was (taking every part of the arrangement) such a direct, open violation of any trust.—­I shall say no more with regard to the appointment of Munny Begum.

My Lords, here ended the first scene, and here ends that body of presumption arising from the transaction and inherent in it.  My Lords, the next scene that I am to bring before you is the positive proof of corruption in this transaction, in which I am sure you already see that corruption must exist.  The charge was brought by a person in the highest trust and confidence with Mr. Hastings, a person employed in the management of the whole transaction, a person to whom the management, subordinate to Munny Begum, of all the pecuniary transactions, and all the arrangements made upon that occasion, was intrusted.

On the 11th day of March, 1775, Nundcomar gives to Mr. Francis, a member of the Council, a charge against Mr. Hastings, consisting of two parts.  The first of these charges was a vast number of corrupt dealings, with respect to which he was the informer, not the witness, but to which he indicated the modes of inquiry; and they are corrupt dealings, as Mr. Hastings himself states them, amounting to millions of rupees, and in transactions every one of which implies in it the strongest degree of corruption.  The next part was of those to which he was not only an informer, but a witness, in having been the person who himself transmitted the money to Mr. Hastings and the agents of Mr. Hastings; and accordingly, upon this part, which is the only part we charge, his evidence is clear and full, that he gave the money to Mr. Hastings,—­he and the Begum (for I put them together).  He states, that Mr. Hastings received for the appointment of Munny Begum to the rajahship two lacs of rupees, or about 22,000_l._, and that he received in another gross sum one lac and a half of rupees:  in all making three lac and a half, or about 36,000_l._ This charge was signed by the man, and accompanied with the account.

Mr. Hastings, on that day, made no reflection or observation whatever upon this charge, except that he attempted to excite some suspicion that Mr. Francis, who had produced it, was concerned in the charge, and was the principal mover in it.  He asks Mr. Francis that day this question:—­

“The Governor-General observes, as Mr. Francis has been pleased to inform the board that he was unacquainted with the contents of the letter sent in to the board by Nundcomar, that he thinks himself justified in carrying his curiosity further than he should have permitted himself without such a previous intimation, and therefore begs leave to ask Mr. Francis whether he was before this acquainted with Nundcomar’s intention of bringing such charges against him before the board.