duty, brought before this House and my country; and it will be seen, when we come to the proof, whether what I have asserted was the effect either of a deluded judgment or disordered imagination, and whether the facts I state cannot be substantiated by authentic reports, and were none of my invention, and, lastly, whether the means that were taken to discredit them do not infinitely aggravate the guilt of the offenders.  Mr. Hastings wanted to fly from judicial inquiry; he wanted to put Debi Sing anywhere but in a court of justice.  A court of justice, where a direct assertion is brought forward, and a direct proof applied to it, is an element in which he cannot live for a moment.  He would seek refuge anywhere, even in the very sanctuary of his accusers, rather than abide a trial with him in a court of justice.  But the House of Commons was too just not to send him to this tribunal, whose justice they cannot doubt, whose penetration he cannot elude, and whose decision will justify those managers whose characters he attempted to defame.

But this is not all.  We find, that, after the cruel sale of this infant, who was properly and directly under the guardianship of the Company, (for the Company acts as steward and dewan of the province, which office has the guardianship of minors,) after he had been robbed of 40,000_l._ by the hands of Gunga Govind Sing, and afterwards, under pretence of his being in debt to the Company, delivered into the hands of that monster, Debi Sing, Mr. Hastings, by way of anticipation of these charges, and in answer to them, has thought proper to produce the certificate from this unfortunate boy which I will now again read to you.

“I, Radanaut, Zemindar of Purgunnah Havelly Punjera, commonly called Dinagepore:—­As it has been learnt by me, the mutsuddies, and the respectable officers of my zemindary, that the ministers of England are displeased with the late Governor, Warren Hastings, Esquire, upon the suspicion that he oppressed us, took money from us by deceit and force, and ruined the country; therefore we, upon the strength of our religion, which we think it incumbent on and necessary for us to abide by, following the rules laid down in giving evidence, declare the particulars of the acts and deeds of Warren Hastings, Esquire, full of circumspection and caution, civility and justice, superior to the caution of the most learned, and, by representing what is fact, wipe away the doubts that have possessed the minds of the ministers of England:  that Mr. Hastings is possessed of fidelity and confidence, and yielding protection to us; that he is clear of the contamination of mistrust and wrong, and his mind is free of covetousness or avarice.  During the time of his administration, no one saw other conduct than that of protection to the husbandmen, and justice; no inhabitant ever experienced afflictions, no one ever felt oppression from him.  Our reputations have always been guarded from attacks by his prudence,