There are other circumstances in these accounts highly auxiliary to this evidence.  The lac and a half was not only attested by Rajah Gourdas, by the Begum, by Chittendur, by the Begum again upon Mr. Hastings’s own question, indirectly admitted by Mr. Hastings, proved by the orders for it to be written off to expense, (such a body of proof as perhaps never existed,) but there is one proof still remaining, namely, a paper, which was produced before the Committee, and which we shall produce to your Lordships.  It is an authentic paper, delivered in favor of Mr. Hastings by Major Scott, who acted at that time as Mr. Hastings’s agent, to a committee of the House of Commons, and authenticated to come from Munny Begum herself.  All this body of evidence we mean to produce; and we shall prove, first, that he received the two lacs,—­and, secondly, that he received one lac and a half under the name of entertainment.  With regard to the lac and a half, Mr. Hastings is so far from controverting it, even indirectly, that he is obliged to establish it by testimonies produced by himself, in order to sink in that, if he can, the two lacs, which he thinks he is not able to justify, but which he fears will be proved against him.  The lac and a half, I do believe, he will not be advised to contest; but whether he is or no, we shall load him with it, we shall prove it beyond all doubt.  But there are other circumstances further auxiliary in this business, which, from the very attempts to conceal it, prove beyond doubt the fraudulent and wicked nature of the transaction.  In the account given by the Begum, a lac, which is for Mr. Hastings’s entertainment, is entered in a suspicious neighborhood; for there is there entered a lac of rupees paid for the subahdarry sunnuds to the Mogul through the Rajah Shitab Roy.  Upon looking into the account, and comparing it with another paper produced, the first thing we find is, that this woman charges the sum paid to be a sum due; and then she charges this one lac to have been paid when the Mogul was in the hands of the Mahrattas, when all communication with him was stopped, and when Rajah Shitab Roy, who is supposed to have paid it, was under confinement in the hands of Mr. Hastings.  Thus she endeavors to conceal the lac of rupees paid to Mr. Hastings.

In order to make this transaction, which, though not in itself intricate, is in some degree made so by Mr. Hastings, clear to your Lordships, we pledge ourselves to give to your Lordships, what must be a great advantage to the culprit himself, a syllabus, the heads of all this charge, and of the proofs themselves, with their references, to show how far the proof goes to the two lacs, and then to the one lac and a half singly.  This we shall put in writing, that you may not depend upon the fugitive memory of a thing not so well, perhaps, or powerfully expressed as it ought to be, and in order to give every advantage to the defendant, and to give every facility to your Lordships’ judgment: