in Sir Elijah Impey’s trunk, in Jonathan Scott’s trunk, nor in any other place whatever.  The evidence of a witness who could speak most clearly, as probably he did, and most decisively, upon this subject, is sunk.  They suppress, and dare not produce, the affidavit of the man who was at the bottom of every secret of both governments.  They had the folly to let you know, obliquely, that he had been sent for by Mr. Hastings, but they conceal the information obtained from him:  a silence more damning than any positive evidence could be.  You have here a proof of their practice of producing such evidence only as they thought most favorable to their wicked purposes, in the destruction of this great and ancient family.

But all the English, they say, believed in the existence of this rebellion.  This we deny.  Mr. Purling, who was Resident the year before its pretended explosion, has told you that he never knew of anything like a plot carrying on by these women.  We were almost ashamed to put the question to him.  Did Mr. Bristow, the next Resident, know or believe in this plot?  He seems, indeed, to have been induced to give some oblique hints to Mr. Hastings of improper conduct on the part of the Begums, but without stating what it was.  In a letter to Mr. Hastings, he appears to endeavor to soften the cruel temper of this inflexible man by going a little way with him, by admitting that he thought they had behaved improperly.  When Mr. Wombwell, another Resident, is asked whether any Englishman doubted of it, he says Mr. Bristow doubted of it.  No one, indeed, who reads these papers, can avoid seeing that Mr. Bristow did not believe one word of it,—­no more, in fact, than did Mr. Hastings, or anybody else.

But, my Lords, let us go from these inferior agents and servants of the Company to their higher officers.  Did Mr. Stables believe it?  This gentleman was Mr. Hastings’s colleague in the Council,—­a man of as much honor, I really believe, as ever went to India,—­a faithful old servant of the Company, and very worthy of credit.  I believe there is not a spot upon him during all his long service under the Company:  if any, it is his being a little too obsequious, sometimes, to Mr. Hastings.  Did he believe it?  No, he did not:  and yet he was one of the persons authorized to investigate it coolly, and most able to do so.

Upon the whole, then, the persons who best knew the state of the country did not believe it; the Nabob did not believe it; the Begums were never charged with it; no ground of suspicion is suggested, except loose rumors and the story of two nudjeeves.  Under these circumstances the treasures of these ancient ladies were seized, their property confiscated, and the Nabob dragged most reluctantly to this act.  Yes, my Lords, this poor, miserable victim was forced to violate all the laws of Nature, all decency, all property, to rob his own mother, for the benefit of Mr. Hastings.  All this he was forced to do:  he was made the reluctant instrument of punishing his mother and grandmother for a plot of which even their accusers do not pretend to say that the parties accused had ever received any intimation.