good or bad, had been killed.  Infinite mischiefs would have followed such an event.  The situation in which he placed himself, by his own misconduct, was pregnant with danger; and he put himself in the way of that danger without having any armed force worth mentioning, although he has acknowledged that Cheyt Sing had then an immense force.  In fact, the demand of two thousand cavalry proves that he considered the Rajah’s army to be formidable; yet, notwithstanding this, with four companies of sepoys, poorly armed and ill provisioned, he went to invade that fine country, and to force from its sovereign a sum of money, the payment of which he had reason to think would be resisted.  He thus rashly hazarded his own being and the being of all his people.

“But,” says he, “I did not imagine the Rajah intended to go into rebellion, and therefore went unarmed.”  Why, then, was his presence necessary?  Why did he not send an order from Calcutta for the payment of the money?  But what did he do, when he got there?  “I was alarmed,” says he; “for the Rajah surrounded my budgero with two thousand men:  that indicated a hostile disposition.”  Well, if he did so, what precaution did Mr. Hastings take for his own safety?  Why, none, my Lords, none.  He must therefore have been either a madman, a fool, or a determined declarer of falsehood.  Either he thought there was no danger, and therefore no occasion for providing against it, or he was the worst of governors, the most culpably improvident of his personal safety, of the lives of his officers and men, and of his country’s honor.

The demand of 500,000_l._ was a thing likely to irritate the Rajah and to create resistance.  In fact, he confesses this.  Mr. Markham and he had a discourse upon that subject, and agreed to arrest the Rajah, because they thought the enforcing this demand might drive him to his forts, and excite a rebellion in the country.  He therefore knew there was danger to be apprehended from this act of violence.  And yet, knowing this, he sent one unarmed Resident to give the orders, and four unarmed companies of sepoys to support him.  He provokes the people, he goads them with every kind of insult added to every kind of injury, and then rushes into the very jaws of danger, provoking a formidable foe by the display of a puny, insignificant force.

In expectation of danger, he seized the person of the Rajah, and he pretends that the Rajah suffered no disgrace from his arrest.  But, my Lords, we have proved, what was stated by the Rajah, and was well known to Mr. Hastings, that to imprison a person of elevated station, in that country, is to subject him to the highest dishonor and disgrace, and would make the person so imprisoned utterly unfit to execute the functions of government ever after.