ome
elephants and carriages, and some other things that he said were in the
hands of their steward, did allow that the treasures in the custody of
his grandmother and of his mother's principal servants were their
property. This is the Nabob who is now represented by Mr. Hastings and
his counsel to have become the instrument of destroying his mother and
grandmother, and everything else that ought to be dear to mankind,
throughout the whole train of his family.

Mr. Hastings, having resolved to seize upon the treasures of the Begums,
is at a loss for some pretence of justifying the act. His first
justification of it is on grounds which all tyrants have ready at their
hands. He begins to discover a legal title to that of which he wished to
be the possessor, and on this title sets up a claim to these treasures.
I say Mr. Hastings set up this claim, because by this time I suppose
your Lordships will not bear to hear the Nabob's name on such an
occasion. The prisoner pretended, that, by the Mahometan law, these
goods did belong to the Nabob; but whether they did or did not, he had
himself been an active instrument in the treaty for securing their
possession to the Begums,--a security which he attempts to unlock by his
constructions of the Mahometan law. Having set up this title, the
guaranty still remained; and how is he to get rid of that? In his usual
way. "You have rebelled, you have taken up arms against your own son,"
(for that is the pretext,) "and therefore my guaranty is gone, and your
goods, whether you have a title to them or not, are to be confiscated
for your rebellion." This is his second expedient by way of
justification.

Your Lordships will observe the strange situation in which we are here
placed. If the fact of the rebellion can be proved, the discussion of
the title to the property in question will be totally useless; for, if
the ladies had actually taken up arms to cut the Nabob's throat, it
would require no person to come from the dead to prove to us that the
Nabob, but not Mr. Hastings, had a right, for his own security and for
his own indemnification, to take those treasures, which, whether they
belonged to him or not, were employed in hostilities against him. The
law of self-defence is above every other law; and if any persons draw
the sword against you, violence on your part is justified, and you may
use your sword to take from them that property by which they have been
enabled to draw their sword a