Strange as it may appear to your Lordships, there remains to be stated an aggravation of his crimes, and of his victims’ misery.  Would you consider it possible, my Lords, that there could be an aggravation of such a case as you have heard?  Would you think it possible for a people to suffer more than the inhabitants of Benares have suffered, from the noble possessor of the splendid mansion down to the miserable tenants of the cottage and the hut?  Yes, there is a state of misery, a state of degradation, far below all that you have yet heard.  It is, my Lords, that these miserable people should come to your Lordships’ bar, and declare that they have never felt one of those grievances of which they complain; that not one of those petitions with which they pursued Mr. Hastings had a word of truth in it; that they felt nothing under his government but ease, tranquillity, joy, and happiness; that every day during his government was a festival, and every night an illumination and rejoicing.  The addresses which contain these expressions of satisfaction have been produced at your bar, and have been read to your Lordships.  You must have heard with disgust, at least, these flowers of Oriental rhetoric, penned at ease by dirty hireling moonshees at Calcutta, who make these people put their seals, not to declarations of their ruin, but to expressions of their satisfaction.  You have heard what he himself says of the country; you have heard what Mr. Duncan says of it; you have heard the cries of the country itself calling for justice upon him:  and now, my Lords, hear what he has made these people say.  “We have heard that the gentlemen in England are displeased with Mr. Hastings, on suspicion that he oppressed us, the inhabitants of this place, took our money by deceit and force, and ruined the country.”  They then declare solemnly before God, according to their different religions, that Mr. Hastings “distributed protection and security to religion, and kindness and peace to all.  He is free,” say they, “from the charge of embezzlement and fraud, and his heart is void of covetousness and avidity.  During the period of his government no one ever experienced from him other than protection and justice, never having felt hardships from him; nor did the poor ever know the weight of an oppressive hand from him.  Our characters and reputation have been always guarded in quiet from attack, by the vigilance of his prudence and foresight, and by the terror of his justice.”

Upon my word, my Lords, the paragraphs are delightful.  Observe, in this translation from the Persian there is all the fluency of an English paragraph well preserved.  All I can say is, that these people of Benares feel their joy, comfort, and satisfaction in swearing to the falseness of Mr. Hastings’s representation against himself.  In spite of his own testimony, they say, “He secured happiness and joy to us; he reestablished the foundation of justice; and we at all times, during his government, lived in comfort