ts; for Mr. Hastings confesses it was a sum
of money corruptly received, but honestly applied. It does not signify
much, at first view, from whom he received it; it is enough to fix upon
him that he did receive it. But because the consequences of his bribes
make the main part of what I intend to bring before your Lordships, I
shall beg to state to you, with your indulgence, what I have been able
to discover by a very close investigation of the records respecting this
business of Dinagepore.

Dinagepore, Rungpore, and Edrackpore make a country, I believe, pretty
nearly as large as all the northern counties of England, Yorkshire
included. It is no mean country, and it has a prince of great, ancient,
illustrious descent at the head of it, called the Rajah of Dinagepore.

I find, that, about the month of July, 1780, the Rajah of Dinagepore,
after a long and lingering illness, died, leaving an half-brother and an
adopted son. A litigation respecting the succession instantly arose in
the family; and this litigation was of course referred to, and was
finally to be decided by, the Governor-General in Council,--being the
ultimate authority to which the decision of all these questions was to
be referred. This cause came before Mr. Hastings, and I find that he
decided the question in favor of the adopted son of the Rajah against
his half-brother. I find that upon that decision a rent was settled, and
a peshcush, or fine, paid. So that all that is in this transaction is
fair and above-board: there is a dispute settled; there is a fine paid;
there is a rent reserved to the Company; and the whole is a fair
settlement. But I find along with it very extraordinary acts; for I find
Mr. Hastings taking part in favor of the minor, agreeably to the
principles of others, and contrary to his own. I find that he gave the
guardianship of this adopted son to the brother of the Ranny, as she is
called, or the widow of the deceased Rajah; and though the hearing and
settling of this business was actually a part of the duty of his office,
yet I find, that, when the steward of the province of Dinagepore was
coming down to represent this case to Mr. Hastings, Mr. Hastings, on
pretence that it would only tend to increase the family dissensions, so
far from hearing fully all the parties in this business, not only sent
him back, but ordered him to be actually turned out of his office. If,
then, the 40,000_l._ be the same with the money taken from the Raj