tary
offerings of gratitude, but contributions levied on the weakness of
the government, and violently exacted from the dependent state and
timid disposition of the minister. The charge, indeed, is denied on
the one hand, as well as affirmed on the other. Your honorable board
must therefore determine how far the circumstance of extortion may
aggravate the crime of disobedience to your positive orders, the
exposing the government in a manner to sale, and receiving the
infamous wages of corruption from opposite parties and contending
interests. We speak with boldness, because we speak from conviction
founded upon indubitable facts, that, besides the above sums
specified in the distribution account to the amount of 228,125
pounds sterling, there was likewise to the value of several lacs of
rupees procured from Nundcomar and Roydullub, each of whom aspired
at and obtained a promise of that very employment it was
predetermined to bestow on Mahomed Reza Khan.

(Signed at the end)

"CLIVE.
W^M B. SUMNER.
JOHN CARNAC.
H. VERELST.
FRA^S SYKES."

This paper cannot be denied to be a paper of weight and authenticity,
because it is signed by a gentleman now in this House, who sits on one
side of the gentleman at your bar, as his bail. This grievance,
therefore, so authenticated, so great, and described in so many
circumstances, I think it might be sufficient for me, in this part of
the business, to show was, when Mr. Hastings was sent to India, a
prevalent evil.

But, my Lords, it is necessary that I should show to you something more,
because, _prima fronte_, this is some exculpation of Mr. Hastings: for,
if he was only a partaker in a general misconduct, it was rather _vitium
loci et vitium temporis_ than _vitium hominis_. This might be said in
his exculpation. But I am next to show your Lordships the means which
the Company took for removing this grievance; and that Mr. Hastings's
peculiar trust, the great specific ground of his appointment, was a
confidence that he would eradicate this very evil, of which we are going
to prove that he has been one of the principal promoters. I wish your
Lordships to advert to one particular circumstance,--namely, that the
two persons who were bidders at this time, and at this auction of
government, for the favor and countenance of the Presidency at Calcutta,
were Mah