their jaghires in the quiet possession of his aumils, and their wealth in such charge as may secure it against private embezzlement.  You will have a force more than sufficient to effect both these purposes.

     “The reformation of his army and the new settlement of his revenues
     are also points of immediate concern, and ought to be immediately
     concluded.  Has anything been done in either?

“I now demand and require you most solemnly to answer me.  Are you confident in your own ability to accomplish all these purposes, and the other points of my instructions?  If you reply that you are, I will depart with a quiet and assured mind to the Presidency, but leave you a dreadful responsibility, if you disappoint me.  If you tell me that you cannot rely upon your power, and the other means which you possess for performing these services, I will free you from the charge.  I will proceed myself to Lucknow, and I will myself undertake them; and in that case, I desire that you will immediately order bearers to be stationed, for myself and two other gentlemen, between Lucknow and Allahabad, and I will set out from hence in three days after the receipt of your letter.

“I am sorry that I am under the necessity of writing in this pressing manner.  I trust implicitly to your integrity, I am certain of your attachment to myself, and I know that your capacity is equal to any service; but I must express my doubts of your firmness and activity, and above all of your recollection of my instructions, and of their importance.  My conduct in the late arrangements will be arraigned with all the rancor of disappointed rapacity, and my reputation and influence will suffer a mortal wound from the failure of them.  They have already failed in a degree, since no part of them has yet taken place, but the removal of our forces from the Dooab and Rohilcund, and of the British officers and pensioners from the service of the Nabob, and the expenses of the former thrown without any compensation on the Company.

     “I expect a supply of money equal to the discharge of all the
     Nabob’s arrears, and am much disappointed and mortified that I am
     not now able to return with it.

     “Give me an immediate answer to the question which I have herein
     proposed, that I may lose no more time in fruitless inaction.”

About this time Mr. Hastings had received information of our inquiries in the House of Commons into his conduct; and this is the manner in which he prepares to meet them.  “I must get money.  I must carry with me that great excuse for everything, that salve for every sore, that expiation for every crime:  let me provide that, all is well.  You, Mr. Middleton, try your nerves:  are you equal to these services?  Examine yourself; see what is in you:  are you man enough to come up to it?” says the great robber to the little robber, says Roland the Great to his puny accomplice.  “Are you equal to it?  Do you feel yourself a man?  If not, send messengers and dawks to me, and I, the great master tyrant, will come myself, and put to shame all the paltry delegate tools of despotism, that have not edge enough to cut their way through and do the services I have ordained for them.”