ith them a clear refutation of all the
charges against the Begum, are never once produced, though Captain
Gordon was referred to expressly for inquiry and explanation of the
whole transaction by the woman herself. You hear nothing of them; there
is no appearance of them in the affidavits; no such papers were laid
before the Supreme Council; none were transmitted to the Court of
Directors: but at last the House of Commons having come at the truth of
this matter, Mr. Hastings, not daring to deny the existence of these
papers, brings Captain Gordon to be examined here, in order to prove
that papers which he had himself written were false. Is this to be
tolerated? What will your Lordships think of a man that comes to attest
his own infamy,--to declare that he has written papers containing
falsehoods, and to invalidate the false testimony which he had before
given? Is he to be suffered, I say, to come here, and endeavor to prove
the absolute falsity of his own deeds by his own evidence?

The next point for your Lordships' consideration is the evidence which
he produces to prove the falsity of a paper written by himself. Why, he
himself is the sole evidence. And how does he prove it? Why, says he,
"The reason of my writing that letter was this: she had sent a person
with me as an escort, and this person was desirous of receiving some
proof that he had done his duty; and therefore I wrote a complaisant
letter. I meant nothing by it. It was written merely to satisfy the mind
of the man." Now is that the way in which formal and solemn letters,
written upon great occasions to great people, are to be explained away?
If he had said nothing but "Your servant, such a one, has done his
duty," this explanation might pass. But you see it has another
complexion. It speaks of his owing his life to her. But if you admit
that it is possible (for possibilities have an unknown extent) that he
wrote such a letter at such a time and for such a purpose, and that the
letter he wrote was false, and that the falsity of the letter is proved
by his own testimony given in an affidavit which we have also reason to
believe is false, your Lordships must at the same time admit that it is
one of the most complex pieces of fraud and falsehood that, I believe,
ever existed in the world. But it is worse than all this. There is
another letter, written some days after, which I will read to you, and
which he has not pretended to say was written only to testify th