had founded some principle of justification. Accordingly
this office paper asserts and proves this lac and a half to have been
given, in addition to the other proofs. Then Munny Begum herself is
inquired of. There is a commission appointed to go up to her residence;
and the fact is proved to the satisfaction of Mr. Goring, the
commissioner. The Begum had put a paper of accounts, through her son,
into his hands, which shall be given at your Lordships' bar, in which
she expressly said that she gave Mr. Hastings a lac and a half for
entertainment. But Mr. Hastings objects to Mr. Goring's evidence upon
this occasion. He wanted to supersede Mr. Goring in the inquiry; and he
accordingly appoints, with the consent of the Council, two creatures of
his own to go and assist in that inquiry. The question which he directs
these commissioners to put to Munny Begum is this:--"Was the sum of
money charged by you to be given to Mr. Hastings given under an idea of
entertainment customary, or upon what other ground, or for what other
reason?" He also desires the following questions may be proposed to the
Begum:--"Was any application made to you for the account which you have
delivered of three lacs and a half of rupees said to have been paid to
the Governor and Mr. Middleton? or did you deliver the account of your
own free will, and unsolicited?" My Lords, you see that with regard to
the whole three lacs and a half of rupees the Begum had given an account
which tended to confirm the payment of them; but Mr. Hastings wanted to
invalidate that account by supposing she gave it under restraint. The
second question is,--"In what manner was the application made to you,
and by whom?" But the principal question is this:--"On what account was
the one lac and a half given to the Governor-General which you have laid
to his account? Was it in consequence of any requisition from him, or of
any previous agreement, or of any established usage?" When a man asks
concerning a sum of money, charged to be given to him by another person,
on what account it was given, he does indirectly admit that that money
actually was paid, and wants to derive a justification from the mode of
the payment of it; and accordingly that inference was drawn from the
question so sent up, and it served as an instruction to Munny Begum; and
her answer was, that it was given to him, as an ancient usage and
custom, for an entertainment. So that the fact of the gift of the money
is asc