s he, "_the Begums think themselves aggrieved._" Observe, my
Lords, that the institution of an inquiry is no measure of the Begums;
it is an order of the Court of Directors, made by them upon his own
representation of his own case, and upon nothing else. The Begums did
not dare to murmur; they did not dare to ask for redress, God knows the
poor creatures were, at or about the time, his
prisoners,--robbed,--stripped of everything,--without hope and without
resource. But the Directors, doing their duty upon that occasion, did
condemn him upon his own false representations contained in that bundle
of affidavits upon which his counsel now contend that your Lordships
should acquit him.--"But," says he, "are they to _appeal to a foreign
jurisdiction_?" When these women were to be robbed, we were not
foreigners to them; on the contrary, we adjudged them guilty of
rebellion. We sent an English chief-justice to collect materials of
accusation against them. We sent English officers to take their money.
The whole was an English transaction. When wrong is to be done, we have
then an interest in the country to justify our acting in it; but when
the question is of redressing wrongs, when the question is of doing
justice, when the question is of inquiry, when the question is of
hearing complaints, then it is a foreign jurisdiction. You are to suffer
Mr. Hastings--to make it foreign, or to make it domestic, just as it
answers his purposes.--But they are "_to appeal against a man standing
in the relation of son and grandson to them, and to appeal to the
justice of those who have been the abettors and instruments of their
imputed wrongs_." Why, my Lords, if he allows that he is the abettor of,
and the instrument to which the Directors impute these wrongs, why, I
ask, does he, with those charges lying upon him, object to all inquiry
in the manner you have seen?

But the Company's Governor is, it seems, all at once transformed into a
great sovereign;--"_the majesty of justice ought to be approached with
solicitation_." Here, my Lords, he forgets at once the Court of
Directors, he forgets the laws of England, he forgets the act of
Parliament, he forgets that any obedience is due to his superiors. The
Begums were to approach him by the orders of the Court of Directors; he
sets at nought these orders, and asserts that he must be approached with
solicitations.

"_Time_," says he, "_has obliterated their sufferings._" Oh, what a balm
of obliv