hom he was referred by the
Begums for an account of this very transaction?

I hope your Lordships have got enough of this kind of evidence. All the
rest is of the same batch, and of the same description,--made up of
nothing but hearsays, except in one particular only. This I shall now
mention to your Lordships. Colonel Popham and another gentleman have
told you, that, in a battle with Cheyt Sing's forces, they took
prisoners two wounded nudjeeves or swordsmen, and that these men told
them that they were sent there by the Begums,--that they had got two
rupees and two wounds, but that they thought two rupees a bad
compensation for two wounds. These two men, with their two wounds and
two rupees, had, however, been dismissed. It does not appear that this
accident was considered by these officers to be of consequence enough to
make them ever tell one word of it to Mr. Hastings, though they knew he
was collecting evidence of the disaffection of the Begums, of all kinds,
good, bad, and indifferent, from all sorts of persons.

My Lords, I must beg leave to say a few words upon this matter; because
I consider it as one of the most outrageous violations of your
Lordships' dignity, and the greatest insult that was ever offered to a
court of justice. A nudjeeve is a soldier armed with a sword. It appears
in evidence that the Nabob had several corps of nudjeeves in his
service; that the Begums had some nudjeeves; and that Colonel Hannay had
a corps of nudjeeves. It is well known that every prince in Hindostan
has soldiers of that description,--in like manner, probably, as the
princes of Europe have their guards. The whole, then, amounts to this:
that a story told by two men who were wounded in an action far from the
place from which they were supposed to come, who were not regularly
examined, not cross-examined, not even kept for examination, and whose
evidence was never reported, is to be a reason why you are to believe
that these Begums were concerned in a rebellion against their son, and
deserved to forfeit all their lands and goods, and to suffer the
indignities that we have stated.

My Lords, I am really ashamed to mention so scandalous a thing; but let
us put a case: let us suppose that we had accused Mr. Hastings of
instigating the Rajah of Berar to fall upon some of the country powers,
and that the evidence we produced at your bar to prove it was, that an
officer had taken two nudjeeves, who declared they were instigated b