with the Nabob in passing from Lucknow to Chunar, and while you was with him or the army returning from Chunar, did you then, out of the whole army, regular or irregular, ever hear of any report of the Begums being in rebellion?—­A. No, I do not recollect I ever did.—­Q. (Upon cross-examination.) Do you recollect at what time in August, 1781, you left Lucknow to proceed with the Nabob to Chunar?—­A. No, I cannot rightly mention the date:  all that I know is this, that I accompanied the Nabob, Mr. Middleton, and his attendants, all the way from Lucknow to Chunargur.  I really cannot recollect; I have no notes, and it is so distant a time since that I do not recollect the particulars of the month or the day; but I recollect perfectly I accompanied the Nabob all the way from Lucknow to Chunar, and returned again with him until he struck off on the road for Fyzabad.”

Your Lordships see plainly the whole of this matter.  When they had resolved to seize the Begums’ treasures, they propagated this report just in proportion to their acts.  As they proceeded, the report grew hotter and hotter.  This man tells you when it was that the propagation of this report first began, when it grew hot, and when it was in its greatest heat.  He tells you that not one native of credit in the country believed it,—­that he did not think the Nabob himself believed it; and he gives a reason that speaks for itself, namely, that he, the Nabob, would have been the first man to give the alarm, if he believed in a rebellion, as he was to be the object of it.  He says the English were the principal spreaders of the report.  It was, in fact, a wicked report, propagated by Mr. Middleton and the English agents for the purpose of justifying their iniquitous spoliation of the Begums.

This is the manner in which the matter stands upon the ground of rebellion, with the exception of Major Gilpin’s and Hyder Beg Khan’s testimony.  This last man we have proved to have been kept in his office by Mr. Hastings’s influence, and to have been entirely under his government.  When this dependant comes to give his attestation, he gives a long account of all the proceedings of Cheyt Sing’s rebellion, with which the rebellion charged on the Begums was supposed to be coincident; and he ends it very remarkably,—­that he tells the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  But it is also remarkable, that even this Hyder Beg Khan never mentions by name the rebellion of the Begums, nor says that he ever heard a word about it:  a strong proof that he did not dare, in the face of his country, to give countenance to such a falsehood.

Major Gilpin’s evidence leaves not even the shadow of a pretence for this charge.  He had the Begums and their eunuchs under his custody for a full year; he was strictly ordered to watch them and to guard them; and during all that time he lived at Fyzabad.  He was the man who commanded the troops, who had all the witnesses in his power, who had daily access to all parties at Fyzabad, and who, moreover, was a person attached to Mr. Hastings in the strongest manner.  Your Lordships will now be pleased to hear read to you this part of Major Gilpin’s evidence.