the record before you.  They were brought out—­where? there?  No:  they were brought out in another place; they were brought out at Calcutta,—­but were never communicated to the Nabob.  He never knew anything of the matter.  Let us now see what those attestations were.  Your Lordships will bear in mind that I do not advert to this thing, which they bring as evidence, in the way of imputation of its being weak, improper, and insufficient evidence, but as an incontrovertible proof of crimes, and of a systematic design to ruin the accused party, by force there and by chicane here:  these are the principles upon which I am going to talk to you upon this abominable subject,—­of which, I am sorry to say, I have no words sufficient to express my horror.  No words can express it; nor can anything but the severity of your Lordships’ judgments find an adequate expression of it.  It is not to be expressed in words, but in punishment.

Having stated before whom the evidence collected in this body of affidavits was taken, I shall now state who the persons were that gave it.  They were those very persons who were guilty of robbing and ruining the whole country:  yes, my Lords, the very persons who had been accused of this in the mass by Mr. Hastings himself.  They were nothing less than the whole body of those English officers who were usurping the office of farmers-general, and other lucrative offices in the Nabob’s government, and whose pillage and peculations had raised a revolt of the whole kingdom against themselves.  These persons are here brought in a mass to clear themselves of this charge by criminating other persons, and clandestinely imputing to them the effect of their own iniquity.

But supposing these witnesses to be good for anything, supposing it fit that the least attention should be paid them, the matter of their testimony may very possibly be true without criminating the Begum.  It criminates Saadut Ali Khan, the brother of the Nabob; the word Begum is never mentioned in the crimination but in conjunction with his; and much the greater part of it criminates the Nabob himself.  Now, my Lords, I will say, that the matter of these affidavits, forgetting who the deponents were, may possibly be true, as far as respects Saadut Ali Khan, but that it is utterly as improbable, which is the main point and the stress of the thing, with respect to the Begums, as it is impossible with respect to the Nabob.  That Saadut Ali, being a military man, a man ambitious and aspiring to greatness, should take advantage of the abuses of the English government and of the discontent of the country, that he should, I say, raise a revolt against his brother is very possible; but it is scarcely within possibility that the mother of the Nabob should have joined with the illegitimate son against her legitimate son.  I can only say that in human affairs there is the possibility of truth in this.  It is possible she might wish to depose her legitimate son, her only