or this he desires the Court of
Directors to make her a large allowance to comfort her in her old age.
In this situation Mr. Hastings leaves her. He leaves in the situation I
have described the justice of the country. The only concern he has at
parting is, that this woman may have a large allowance.

But I have yet to tell your Lordships, and it appears upon your printed
Minutes, that this woman had a way of comforting herself:--for old
ladies of that description, who have passed their youth in amusements,
in dancing, and in gallantries, in their old age are apt to take comfort
in brandy. This lady was a smuggler, and had influence enough to avoid
payment of the duty on spirits, in which article she is the largest
dealer in the district,--as, indeed, she is in almost every species of
trade. Thus your Lordships see that this sentimental lady, whom Mr.
Hastings recommends to the Directors, had ways of comforting herself.
She carried on, notwithstanding her dignity, a trade in spirits. Now a
Mahometan of distinction never carries on any trade at all,--it is an
unknown thing,--very few Mahometans of any rank carry on any trade at
all; but that a Mahometan should carry on a trade in spirits is a
prodigy never heard of before; for a woman of quality, for a woman of
sentiment, to become a dealer in spirits is, my Lords, a thing reserved
for the sentimental age of Mr. Hastings; and I will venture to say that
no man or woman could attempt any such a trade in India, without being
dishonored, ruined in character, and disgraced by it. But she appears
not only to have been a dealer in it, but, through the influence which
Mr. Hastings gave her, to have monopolized the trade in brandy, and to
have evaded the duties. This, then, is the state in which we leave the
two sentimental lovers,--the one consoling herself with brandy, the
other wheedling and whining; and, as Swift describes the progress of an
intrigue in some respects similar, which he calls "The Progress of
Love," whereas this is the Progress of Sentiment,

"They keep at Staines the Old Blue Boar,
Are cat and dog, and rogue and whore."

Here they set up the sign of the Old Blue Boar. Munny Begum monopolizes
the trade in spirits; and hence she and Mr. Hastings commence their
sentimental correspondence.--And now, having done with this progress of
love, we return to the progress of justice.

* * * * *

We have seen how Sudder ul Huk Kha