no man or woman could attempt any such a trade in India, without being dishonored, ruined in character, and disgraced by it.  But she appears not only to have been a dealer in it, but, through the influence which Mr. Hastings gave her, to have monopolized the trade in brandy, and to have evaded the duties.  This, then, is the state in which we leave the two sentimental lovers,—­the one consoling herself with brandy, the other wheedling and whining; and, as Swift describes the progress of an intrigue in some respects similar, which he calls “The Progress of Love,” whereas this is the Progress of Sentiment,

    “They keep at Staines the Old Blue Boar,
    Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore.”

Here they set up the sign of the Old Blue Boar.  Munny Begum monopolizes the trade in spirits; and hence she and Mr. Hastings commence their sentimental correspondence.—­And now, having done with this progress of love, we return to the progress of justice.

* * * * *

We have seen how Sudder ul Huk Khan, the chief-justice of Mr. Hastings’s own nomination, was treated.  Now you shall see how justice was left to shift for herself under Mahomed Reza Khan.  In page 1280 of your Lordships’ Minutes you will see the progress of all these enormities,—­of Munny Begum’s dealing in spirits, of her engrossing the trade, of her evading duties,—­and, lastly, the extinction of all order in that country, and the funeral of justice itself.  Mr. Shore’s evidence respecting this state of the country will admit of no doubt.

     Mr. Shore’s Remarks accompanying the Governor-General’s Minutes of
     the 18th May, 1785.

“Foujdarry jurisdiction.—­Of the foujdarry jurisdiction nothing has yet been said.  In this department criminal justice is administered, and it is the only office left to the Nabob.  I do not see any particular reason for changing the system itself, and perhaps it would on many accounts be improper; but some regulations are highly necessary.  Mahomed Reza is at the head of this department, and is the only person I know in the country qualified for it.  If he were left to himself, I have not a doubt but he would conduct it well; but he is so circumscribed by recommendations of particular persons, and by the protection held out to his officers by Europeans, that to my knowledge he has not been able to punish them, even when they have been convicted of the greatest enormities; and he has often on this account been blamed, where his hands were tied up.”

My Lords, you now see in this minute of Sir John Shore, now Governor-General of Bengal, one of Mr. Hastings’s own committee for drawing up his defence, the review which he had just then taken of the ruins of the government which had been left to him by Mr. Hastings.  You see here not the little paltry things which might deserve in their causes the animadversion of a rough satirist like Doctor Swift, whom I have just quoted, but you