I have shown your Lordships how he managed the private property of the country, how he managed the government, and how he managed the trade.  I am now to call your Lordships’ attention to some of the consequences which have resulted from the instances of management, or rather gross mismanagement, which have been brought before you.  Your Lordships will recollect that none of these violent and arbitrary measures, either in their conception or in the progress of their execution, were officially made known to the Council; and you will observe, as we proved, that the same criminal concealment existed with respect to the fatal consequences of these acts.

After the flight of Cheyt Sing, the revenues were punctually paid by the Naib, Durbege Sing, month by month, kist by kist, until the month of July, and then, as the country had suffered some distress, the Naib wished this kist, or instalment, to be thrown on the next month.  You will ask why he wished to burden this month beyond the rest.  I reply, The reason was obvious:  the month of August is the last of the year, and he would, at its expiration, have the advantage of viewing the receipts of the whole year, and ascertaining the claim of the country to the remission of a part of the annual tribute which Mr. Hastings had promised, provided the instalments were paid regularly.  It was well known to everybody that the country had suffered very considerably by the revolt, and by a drought which prevailed that year.  The Rajah, therefore, expected to avail himself of Mr. Hastings’s flattering promise, and to save by the delay the payment of one of the two kists.  But mark the course that was taken.  The two kists were at once demanded at the end of the year, and no remission of tribute was allowed.  By the promise of remission Mr. Hastings tacitly acknowledged that the Rajah was overburdened; and he admits that the payment of the July kist was postponed at the Rajah’s own desire.  He must have seen the Rajah’s motive for desiring delay, and he ought to have taken care that this poor man should not be oppressed and ruined by this compliance with requests founded on such motives.

So passed the year 1781.  No complaints of arrears in Durbege Sing’s payments appear on record before the month of April, 1782; and I wish your Lordships seriously to advert to the circumstances attending the evidence respecting these arrears, which has been produced for the first time by the prisoner in his defence here at your bar.  This evidence does not appear in the Company’s records; it does not appear in the book of the Benares correspondence; it does not appear in any documents to which the Commons could have access; it was unknown to the Directors, unknown to the Council, unknown to the Residents, Mr. Markham’s successors, at Benares, unknown to the searching and inquisitive eye of the Commons of Great Britain.  This important evidence was drawn out of Mr. Markham’s pocket, in the presence of your Lordships.  It consists of a private correspondence