, and virtue is
said to be its own reward, the virtue of Gunga Govind Sing was in a good
way of seeking its own reward. Mr. Hastings, however, thought it was not
right that such a man should reward himself, but that it was necessary
for the honor and justice of government to find him a reward. Then the
next thing is, what that reward shall be. It is a grant of lands. Your
Lordships will observe, that Mr. Hastings declares some of these lands
to be unoccupied, others occupied, but not by the just owners. Now these
were the very lands of the Rajah of Dinagepore from whence he had taken
the bribe of 40,000_l._ My Lords, this was a monstrous thing. Mr.
Hastings had the audacity, as his parting act, when he was coming to
England, and ought to have expected (whatever he did expect) the
responsibility of this day,--he was, I say, shameless enough not only to
give this recommendation, but to perpetuate the mischiefs of his reign,
as he has done, to his successors: for he has really done so, by making
it impossible, almost, to know anything of the true state of that
country; and he has thereby made them much less responsible and criminal
than before in any ill acts they may have done since his time. But Mr.
Hastings not only recommends and backs the petition of Gunga Govind Sing
with his parting authority, which authority he made the people there
believe would be greater in England than it was in India, but he is an
evidence; he declares, that, "to his own knowledge, these lands are
vacant, and confessedly, therefore, by the laws of this as well as of
most other countries, in the absolute gift of government."

My Lords, as I said, Mr. Hastings becomes a witness, and I believe in
the course of the proceedings you will find a false witness, for Gunga
Govind Sing. "To my own knowledge," says he, "they are vacant." Why, I
cannot find that Mr. Hastings had ever been in Dinagepore; or if he had,
it must have been only as a passenger. He had not the supervision of the
district, in any other sense than with that kind of eagle eye which he
must have had over all Bengal, and which he had for no other purposes
than those for which eagles' eyes are commonly used. He becomes, you
see, a witness for Gunga Govind Sing, and orders to be given him, as a
recompense for all the iniquitous acts this man committed, the lands of
that very Rajah who through the hands of Gunga Govind Sing had given an
enormous bribe to Mr. Hastings. These lands were not