says the Nabob would give oath of it,
that the Nabob never gave a commission to any one to make such an
offer. That such an offer was made had been long published and long in
print, with the remarks such as I have made upon it in the Ninth Report
of the Select Committee; that the Committee had so done was well known
to Mr. Hastings and Sir John D'Oyly; not one word on the part of Mr.
Hastings, not one word on the part of Sir John D'Oyly was said to
contradict it, until the appearance of the latter before the House of
Commons. But, my Lords, there is something much more serious in this
transaction. It is this,--that the evidence produced by Mr. Hastings is
the evidence of witnesses who are mere phantoms; they are persons who
could not, under Mr. Hastings's government, eat a bit of bread but upon
his own terms, and they are brought forward to give such evidence as may
answer his purposes.

You would naturally have imagined, that, in the House of Commons, where
clouds of witnesses had been before produced by the friends and agents
of Mr. Hastings, he would then have brought forward Sir John to
contradict this reported offer; but not a word from Sir John D'Oyly. At
last he is examined before the Committee of Managers. He refuses to
answer. Why? Because his answers might criminate himself. My Lords,
every answer that most of them have been required to make they are
sensible they cannot make without danger of criminating themselves,
being all involved in the crimes of the prisoner. He has corrupted and
ruined the whole service; there is not one of them that dares appear and
give a fair and full answer in any case, as you have seen in Mr.
Middleton, and many others at your bar. "I will not answer this
question," they say, "because it tends to criminate myself." How comes
it that the Company's servants are not able to give evidence in the
affairs of Mr. Hastings, without its tending to criminate themselves?

Well,--Sir John D'Oyly is in England,--why is he not called now? I have
not the honor of being intimately acquainted with him, but he is a man
of a reputable and honorable family. Why is he not called by Mr.
Hastings to verify the assertion, and why do they suffer this black
record to stand before your Lordships to be urged by us, and to press it
as we do against him? If he knows that Sir John D'Oyly can acquit him of
this part of our accusation, he would certainly bring him as a witness
to your bar; but he knows he canno