My Lords, you see what this man says himself, when endeavoring to prove his own innocence.  Instead of proving it by the facts alleged by his counsel, he declares that by preserving good faith you might have conquered India, the most glorious conquest that was ever made in the world; that all the people want our assistance, but dread our connection.  Why?  Because our whole conduct has been one perpetual tissue of perfidy and breach of faith with every person who has been in alliance with us, in any mode whatever.  Here is the man himself who says it.  Can we bear that this man should now stand up in this place as the assertor of the honor of the British nation against us, who charge this dishonor to have fallen upon us by him, through him, and during his government?

But all the mischief, he goes on to assert, was in the previous system, in the formation of which he had no share,—­the system of 1775, when the first treaty with the Nabob was made.  “That system,” says he, “is not mine; it was made by General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis.”  So it was, my Lords.  It did them very great honor, and I believe it ever will do them honor, in the eyes of the British nation, that they took an opportunity, without the violation of faith, without the breach of any one treaty, and without injury to any person, to do great and eminent services to the Company.  But Mr. Hastings disclaims it, unnecessarily disclaims it, for no one charges him with it.  What we charge him with is the abuse of that system.  To one of these abuses I will now call your Lordships’ attention.  Finding, soon after his appointment to the office of Governor-General, that the Nabob was likely to get into debt, he turns him into a vassal, and resolves to treat him as such.  You will observe that this is not the only instance in which, upon a failure of payment, the defaulter becomes directly a vassal.  You remember how Durbege Sing, the moment he fell into an arrear of tribute, became a vassal, and was thrown into prison, without any inquiry into the causes which occasioned that arrear.  With respect to the Nabob of Oude, we assert, and can prove, that his revenue was 3,600,000_l._ at the day of his father’s death; and if the revenue fell off afterwards, there was abundant reason to believe that he possessed in abundance the means of paying the Company every farthing.

Before I quit this subject, your Lordships will again permit me to reprobate the malicious insinuations by which Mr. Hastings has thought proper to slander the virtuous persons who are the authors of that system which he complains of.  They are men whose characters this country will ever respect, honor, and revere, both the living and the dead,—­the dead for the living, and the living for the dead.  They will altogether be revered for a conduct honorable and glorious to Great Britain, whilst their names stand as they now do, unspotted by the least imputation of oppression, breach of faith, perjury, bribery,