(Signed) “JON^N DUNCAN, Resident. 
        “BENARES, the 12th September, 1788.”

Here your Lordships find, in spite of Mr. Hastings himself, in spite of all the testimonies which he has called, and of all the other testimonies which he would have called, that his own account of the matter is confirmed against his own pretended evidence; you find his own written account confirmed in a manner not to be doubted:  and the only difference between his account and this is, that the people did not fly from Mr. Duncan, when he approached, as they fled from Mr. Hastings.  They did not feel any of that terror at the approach of a person from the beneficent government of Lord Cornwallis with which they had been entirely filled at the appearance of the prisoner at your bar.  From him they fled in dismay.  They fled from his very presence, as from a consuming pestilence, as from something far worse than drought and famine; they fled from him as a cruel, corrupt, and arbitrary governor, which is worse than any other evil that ever afflicted mankind.

You see, my Lords, in what manner the country has been wasted and destroyed; and you have seen, by the date of these measures, that they have happened within a few years, namely, since the expulsion of Rajah Cheyt Sing.  There begins the era of calamity.  Ask yourselves, then, whether you will or can countenance the acts which led directly and necessarily to such consequences.  Your Lordships will mark what it is to oppress and expel a cherished individual from his government, and finally to subvert it.  Nothing stands after him; down go all order and authority with him; ruin and desolation fall upon the country; the fields are uncultivated, the wells are dried up.  The people, says Mr. Duncan, promised, indeed, some time or other, under some other government, to do something.  They will again cultivate the lands, when they can get an assurance of security.  My Lords, judge, I pray you, whether the House of Commons, when they had read the account which Mr. Hastings has himself given of the dreadful consequences of his proceedings, when they had read the account given by Mr. Duncan of an uncultivated country as far as the eye could reach, would not have shown themselves unworthy to represent not only the Commons of Great Britain, but the meanest village in it, if they had not brought this great criminal before you, and called upon your Lordships to punish him.  This ruined country, its desolate fields and its undone inhabitants, all call aloud for British justice, all call for vengeance upon the head of this execrable criminal.

Oh! but we ought to be tender towards his personal character,—­extremely cautious in our speech; we ought not to let indignation loose.—­My Lords, we do let our indignation loose; we cannot bear with patience this affliction of mankind.  We will neither abate our energy, relax in our feelings, nor in the expressions which those feelings dictate.  Nothing but corruption like his own could enable any man to see such a scene of desolation and ruin unmoved.  We feel pity for the works of God and man; we feel horror for the debasement of human nature; and feeling thus, we give a loose to our indignation, and call upon your Lordships for justice.