leasure,--if this man knew nothing about it,
your Lordships will judge of the falsehood of this wicked rumor, spread
about from hand to hand, and which was circulated by persons who at the
same time have declared that they never heard of it before Sir Elijah
Impey went up into the country, the messenger of Mr. Hastings's orders
to seize the treasures of the Begums, and commissioned to procure
evidence in justification of that violence and robbery.

I now go to another part of this evidence. There is a person they call
Hoolas Roy,--a man in the employment of the Resident, Mr. Middleton. The
gentlemen who are counsel for the prisoner have exclaimed, "Oh! he was
nothing but a news-writer. What! do you take any notice of him?" Your
Lordships would imagine that the man whom they treat in this manner, and
whose negative evidence they think fit to despise, was no better than
the writers of those scandalous paragraphs which are published in our
daily papers, to misrepresent the proceedings of this court to the
public. But who in fact is this Hoolas Roy, whom they represent, for the
convenience of the day, to be nothing but a news-writer? I will read to
your Lordships a letter from Major Naylor to Colonel Jaques, commanding
the second battalion, twentieth regiment.

"Sir,--Hoolas Roy, the person appointed by the Nabob for
transacting the business for which the troops are required here,
will hold constant communication and intercourse with you; and as
he is instructed and acquainted with the best method to accomplish
this business, Mr. Middleton requests implicit attention to be paid
to what he may from time to time represent respecting the prisoners
or the business on which he is employed; in short, as he is the
person nominated by the Nabob, he wishes Hoolas Roy to be
considered in the same light as if he himself was present."

Mr. Middleton, in a letter to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, writes thus
of him:--

"Sir,--When, this note is delivered to you by Hoolas Roy, I have to
desire that you order the two prisoners to be put in irons, keeping
them from all food, &c., agreeable to my instructions of
yesterday."

You will first see in how confidential a manner Hoolas Roy was employed,
and in what light he was held: that he was employed to carry some
instructions which do not indeed appear, but were accompanied by an
order from Mr. Middleton. "When these instruct