these rebels?  No:  the attacks were levelled against the English.  The people rose in favor of their lawful sovereign, against a rebellion headed by Mr. Middleton, who, you see, usurped his authority,—­headed by Colonel Hannay,—­headed by Captain Gordon,—­headed by all those abominable persons exercising, under the Nabob’s name, an authority destructive to himself and his subjects.  Against them there was a rebellion.  But was this an unnatural rebellion,—­a rebellion against usurped authority, to save the prince, his children, and state, from a set of vile usurpers?

My Lords, I shall soon close our proceeding for this day, because I wish to leave this part of our charge strongly and distinctly impressed upon your Lordships’ memory, and because nothing can aggravate it.  I shall next proceed, in the farther examination of the prisoner’s defence, to dissipate, as I trust we have done, and as I hope we shall do, all the miserable stuff they have given by way of defence.  I shall often have occasion to repeat and press upon your Lordships that that miserable defence is a heavy aggravation of his crime.  At present, I shall conclude, leaving this part of our charge with the impression upon your Lordships’ minds that this pretended rebellion was merely an insurrection against the English, excited by their oppression.

If the rebellion was against the Nabob, or if he was the author of the oppression which caused it, why do the English only appear to be concerned in both of them?  How comes it that the Nabob never appears to have expressed any resentment against the rebels?  We shall prove beyond a doubt, that the Begums had nothing to do with it.  There was, indeed, as I have already said, what may be called a rebellion; but it was a rebellion against—­not the Nabob, but in favor of the lawful prince of the country,—­against the usurpers of his authority and the destroyers of his country.  With this, as a rebellion, Mr. Hastings has charged these women; he has charged them with a war against their son, for the purpose of exterminating the English.  Look, I pray you, at the whole business, consider all the circumstances of it, and ask yourselves whether this is not a charge, not only so grossly improbable, but so perfectly impossible, that there is not any evidence which can make it even plausible.  Consider next, my Lords, on the other side, the evidence of their innocence, and then ask yourselves whether any additional matter could make its probability in the least degree more probable.  My Lords, the evidence we have produced is neither more nor less than that of almost all the persons who have had a share in exciting that rebellion, and who, to justify their own horrible cruelty, have attempted to charge the natural consequences of that cruelty upon these unhappy women.