end the manner in which I mean to conclude the business
to-day.

My Lords, we took the liberty of stating to you the condition of Bengal
before our taking possession of it, and of the several classes of its
inhabitants. We first brought before you the Mahometan inhabitants, who
had the judicial authority of the country in their hands; and we proved
to you the utter ruin of that body of people, and with them of the
justice of the country, by their being, both one and the other, sold to
an infamous woman called Munny Begum. We next showed you, that the whole
landed interest, the zemindars, or Hindoo gentry of the country, was
likewise ruined by its being given over, by letting it on a five years'
lease, to infamous farmers, and giving it up to their merciless
exactions,--and afterwards by subjecting the rank of those zemindars,
their title-deeds, and all their pecuniary affairs, to the minutest
scrutiny, under pain of criminal punishment, by a commission granted to
a nefarious villain called Gunga Govind Sing. We lastly showed you that
the remaining third class, that of the English, was partly corrupted, or
had its authority dissolved, and that the whole superintending English
control was subverted or subdued,--that the products of the country were
diminished, and that the revenues of the Company were dilapidated, by an
overcharge of expenses, in four years, to the amount of 500,000_l._, in
consequence of these corrupt, dangerous, and mischievous projects.

We have farther stated, that the Company's servants were corrupted by
contracts and jobs; we proved that those that were not so corrupted were
removed from their stations or reduced to a state of abject dependence;
we showed you the destruction of the Provincial Councils, the
destruction of the Council-General, and the formation of a committee for
no other ends whatever but for the purposes of bribery, concealment, and
corruption. We next stated some of the most monstrous instances of that
bribery; and though we were of opinion that in none of them any
satisfactory defence worth mentioning had been made, yet we have thought
that this should not hinder us from recalling to your Lordships'
recollection the peculiar nature and circumstances of one of those
proceedings.

The proceedings to which we wish to call your attention are those
belonging to the second bribe given by the Nabob of Oude to Mr.
Hastings. Mr. Hastings's own knowledge and opinion that that money was
s