in one morning, and raising by other under-jobs 27,000_l._ more.  In the distress [in?] which his own extravagance and prodigality had involved him, 200,000_l._ would have been a weighty benefit, although derived from his villany; but this relief he positively refused, because, says he, “the offer came too late.”  From these words, my Lords, we may infer that there was a time when the offer would not have been “too late,”—­a period at which it would have been readily accepted.  No such thing appears.  There is not a trace upon your minutes, not a trace in the correspondence of the Company, to prove that the Rajah would at any time have been permitted to buy himself off from this complicated tyranny.

I have already stated a curious circumstance in this proceeding, to which I must again beg leave to direct your Lordships’ attention.  Does it anywhere appear in that correspondence, or in the testimony of Mr. Benn, of Mr. Markham, or of any human being, that Mr. Hastings had ever told Cheyt Sing with what sum he should be satisfied?  There is evidence before you directly in proof that they did not know the amount.  Not one person knew what his intention was, when he refused this 200,000_l._ For when he met Mr. Markham at Boglipore, and for the first time mentioned the sum of 500,000_l._ as the fine he meant to exact, Mr. Markham was astonished and confounded at its magnitude.  He tells you this himself.  It appears, then, that neither Cheyt Sing nor the Resident at Benares (who ought to have been in the secret, if upon such an occasion secrecy is allowable) ever knew what the terms were.  The Rajah was in the dark; he was left to feel, blindfold, how much money could relieve him from the iniquitous intentions of Mr. Hastings; and at last he is told that his offer comes too late, without having ever been told the period at which it would have been well-timed, or the amount it was proposed to take from him.  Is this, my Lords, the proper way to adjudge a fine?

Your Lordships will now be pleased to advert to the manner in which he defends himself and these proceedings.  He says, “I rejected this offer of twenty lacs, with which the Rajah would have compromised for his guilt when it was too late.”  If by these words he means too late to answer the purpose for which he has said the fine was designed, namely, the relief of the Company, the ground of his defence is absolutely false; for it is notorious that at the time referred to the Company’s affairs were in the greatest distress.

I will next call your Lordships’ attention to the projected sale of Benares to the Nabob of Oude.  “If,” says Mr. Hastings, “I ever talked of selling the Company’s sovereignty over Benares to the Nabob of Oude, it was but in terrorem; and no subsequent act of mine warrants the supposition of my having seriously intended it.”  And in another place he says, “If I ever threatened” (your Lordships will remark, that he puts hypothetically a matter the reality of which he has got to be solemnly