law, in the case of the Nuddea Begum, did not dare to put this case to Sir Elijah Impey, and ask what was his opinion concerning the rights of these people.  He was tender, I suppose, of the reputation of the Chief-Justice.  For Sir Elijah Impey, though a very good man to write a letter, or take an affidavit in a corner, or run on a message, to do the business of an under-sheriff, tipstaff, or bum-bailiff, was not fit to give an opinion on a question of Mahometan law.

You have heard Ali Ibrahim Khan referred to.  This Mahometan lawyer was carried by Mr. Hastings up to Benares, to be a witness of the vast good he had done in that province, and was made Chief-Justice there.  All, indeed, that we know of him, except the high character given of him by Mr. Hastings, is, I believe, that he is the Ali Ibrahim Khan whom in the Company’s records I find mentioned as a person giving bribes upon some former occasion to Mr. Hastings; but whatever he was besides, he was a doctor of the Mahometan law, he was a mufti, and was made by Mr. Hastings the principal judge in a criminal court, exercising, as I believe, likewise a considerable civil jurisdiction, and therefore he was qualified as a lawyer; and Mr. Hastings cannot object to his qualifications either of integrity or of knowledge.  This man was with him.  Why did not he consult him upon this law?  Why did he not make him out a case of John Doe and Richard Roe, of John Stokes and John a Nokes?  Why not say, “Sinub possesses such things, under such and such circumstances:  give me your opinion upon the legality of the possession”?  No, he did no such thing.

Your Lordships, I am sure, will think it a little extraordinary, that neither this chief-justice made by himself, nor that other chief-justice whom he led about with him in a string,—­the one an English chief-justice, with a Mahometan suit in his court, the other a Mahometan chief-justice of the country,—­that neither of them was consulted as lawyers by the prisoner.  Both of them were, indeed, otherwise employed by him.  For we find Ali Ibrahim Khan employed in the same subservient capacity in which Sir Elijah Impey was,—­in order, I suppose, to keep the law of England and the law of Mahomet upon a just par:  for upon this equality Mr. Hastings always values himself.  Neither of these two chief-justices, I say, was ever consulted, nor one opinion taken; but they were both employed in the correspondence and private execution of this abominable project, when the prisoner himself had not either leisure or perhaps courage to give his public order in it till things got to greater ripeness.

To Sir Elijah Impey, indeed, he did put a question; and, upon my word, it did not require an Oedipus or a Sphinx to answer it.  Says he, “I asked Sir Elijah Impey.”  What? a question on the title between the Nabob and his mother?  No such thing.  He puts an hypothetical question.  “Supposing,” says he, “a rebellion to exist in that country; will the Nabob be justified