other charge of it whatever, but the charge of Warren
Hastings himself. He wants you to discredit a man for forgery upon no
evidence under heaven but that of his own, who thinks proper, without
any sort of authority, without any sort of reference, without any sort
of collateral evidence, to charge a man with that very direct forgery.
"You are," he says, "well informed of the reasons which first induced me
to give any share of my confidence to Nundcomar, with whose character I
was acquainted by an experience of many years. The means which he
himself took to acquire it were peculiar to himself. He sent a messenger
to me at Madras, on the first news of my appointment to this Presidency,
with pretended letters from Munny Begum and the Nabob Yeteram ul Dowlah,
the brother of the Nabob Jaffier Ali Khan, filled with bitter invectives
against Mahomed Reza Khan, and of as warm recommendations, as I
recollect, of Nundcomar. I have been since informed by the Begum that
the letter which bore her seal was a complete forgery, and that she was
totally unacquainted with the use which had been made of her name till I
informed her of it. Juggut Chund, Nundcomar's son-in-law, was sent to
her expressly to entreat her not to divulge it. Mr. Middleton, whom she
consulted on the occasion, can attest the truth of this story."

Mr. Middleton is dead, my Lords. This is not the Mr. Middleton whom your
Lordships have heard and know well in this House, but a brother of that
Mr. Middleton, who is since dead. Your Lordships find, when we refer to
the records of the Company for the proof of this forgery, that there is
no other than the unsupported assertion of Mr. Hastings himself that he
was guilty of it. Now that was bad enough; but then hear the rest. Mr.
Hastings has charged this unhappy man, whom we must not defend, with
another forgery; he has charged him with a forgery of a letter from
Yeteram ul Dowlah to Mr. Hastings. Now you would imagine that he would
have given his own authority at least for that assertion, which he says
was proved. He goes on and says, "I have not yet had the curiosity to
inquire of the Nabob Yeteram ul Dowlah whether his letter was of the
same stamp; but I cannot doubt it."

Now here he begins, in this very defence which is before your Lordships,
to charge a forgery upon the credit of Munny Begum, without supporting
it even by his own testimony,--and another forgery in the name of
Yeteram ul Dowlah, which he said he had