Lave before you the first women in Asia, who consider their honor as joined with that of these people, weeping and bewailing the calamities of their house. You have seen that in this misery and distress the sons of the Nabob were involved, and that two of them were wounded in an attempt to escape: and yet this man has had the impudence to declare his doubts of the Nabob's having had any children in the place, though the account of what was going on had been regularly transmitted to him. After this, what is there in his conduct that we can wonder at?

My Lords, the maintenance of these women had been guarantied by the Company; but it was doubly guarantied under the great seal of humanity. The conscience of every man, and more especially of the great and powerful, is the keeper of that great seal, and knows what is due to its authority. For the violation of both these guaranties, without even the vain and frivolous pretence of a rebellion, and for all its consequences, Mr. Hastings is answerable; and he will not escape your justice by those miserable excuses which he has produced to the Court of Direc tors, and which he has produced here in his justification. My Lords, that justification we leave with your Lordships.

We now proceed to another part of our charge, which Mr. Hastings has not thought proper to deny, but upon which we shall beg leave to make a few observations. You will first hear read to you, from the 17th article of our charge, the subject-matter to which we now wish to call your attention.

"That in or about the month of March, 1783, three of the said brothers of the Nabob, namely,

Mirza Hyder Ali, Mirza Imayut Ali, and Mirza Syef Ali, did represent to the said Bristow that they were in distress for dry bread and clothes, and in consequence of such representation were relieved by the intervention of the said Bristow, but soon after the deputation of the said Warren Hastings to Oude, in the year 1784, that is to say, some time in or about the month of September, in the said year 1784, the said Mirza Hyder Ali, one of the three princes aforesaid, did fly to the province of Benares, and did remain there in great distress; and that, although the said Warren Hastings did write to the said Nabob an account of the aforesaid circumstances, in certain loose, light, and disrespectful expressions concerning the said Mirza Hyder Ali, he did not, as he was in duty bound to do, in any wise exert that influence which he actually and notoriously possessed over the mind of the said Nabob, for the relief of the said prince, the brother of the said Nabob, but, without obtaining any satisfactory and specific assurances, either from the said Nabob or the said minister, the said Warren Hastings did content himself with advising the said prince to return to his brother, the said Nabob."

The answer of Mr. Hastings to that part of the 17th article states:

"And the said Warren Hastings says, that in or about the month of July, in the year 1783, a paper was received, inclosed in a letter to the GovernorGeneral and Council, from Mr. Bristow, purporting to be a translation of a letter from three brothers of the said Vizier, in which they did represent themselves to be in distress for dry bread and clothes;

but whether such distress actually existed, and was relieved by the said Bristow, the said Warren Hastings cannot set forth.

"And the said Warren Hastings further says, that some time in the month of September, 1784, the said Warren Hastings, being then at Benares, did receive information that Mirza Hyder Ali was arrived there, and the said Warren Hastings, not knowing before that time that there was any such person, did write to the Nabob Vizier, to the purport or effect following: A few days since I learnt that a person. called Mirza Hyder Ali was arrived at Benares, and calls himself a son of the deceased Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah, and I was also told that he came from Fyzabad; as I did not know whether he left Fyzabad with or without your consent, I therefore did not pay him much attention, and I now trouble you to give me every information on this subject, how he came here, and what your intentions are about him; he remains here in great distress, and I therefore wish to know. your sentiments.'

“And the said Warren Hastings further says, that, having received an answer from the said Vizier, he did, on or about the 13th of October, 1784, inclose the same in a letter to the said Mirza, of which letter the following is a copy: 'An answer is arrived to what I wrote on your account to the Nabob Vizier, which I inclose to you: having read it, you will send it back. I conceive you had better go to the Nabob Vizier's presence, who will certainly afford you protection and assistance. I will write what is proper to carry with you to the Nabob, and it will in every respect be for your good; whatever may be your intention on this head, you will write to me.'

"And the said Warren Hastings submits, that it was no part of his duty as Governor-General to interfere with the said Vizier on behalf of the said Mirza, or to obtain from the said Vizier any specific assurances on the subject."

Continuation of the 17th article of the charge:

"That, in order to avoid famine at home, another of the said Nabob's brothers, by name Mirza Jungli, was under the necessity of flying from his native country, and did seek protection from a certain Mahometan lord called Mirza Shuffee Khân, then prime-minister of the Mogul, from whom he did go to the camp of the Mahratta chief Mahdajee Sindia, where he did solicit and obtain a military command, together with a grant of lands, or jaghire, for the subsistence of himself, his family, and followers; but wishing again. to be received under the protection of the British government, the said Mirza Jungli, in 1783, did apply to the said Resident Bristow, through David Anderson, Esquire, then on an embassy in the camp of the said Sindia; and in consequence of such application, the said Bristow, sensible of the disgrace which the exile of the said Mirza Jungli reflected both on the said Nabob of Oude and the British nation, did negotiate with the said Nabob and his ministers for the return of the said Mirza Jungli, and for the settlement and regular payment of some proper allowance for the maintenance of the said Mirza Jungli; but the allowance required was ultimately refused; and although the whole of the transactions aforesaid were duly represented to the said Warren Hastings by the said Anderson and by the said Bristow, and although he had himself received, so early as the 23d of August,

1782, a letter from the Vizier, grievously complaining of the cruel and extortious demands made upon him by the said Warren Hastings, in which letter he did expressly mention the flight of his brothers, and the distresses of the women of his late father, who he said were all as his mothers, and that his said brothers, from the resumption of their jaghires, were reduced to great affliction and distress, and he did attribute the said flight of some of his brethren, and the distresses of the rest, and of the women who stood in a species of maternal relation to him, as owing to the aforesaid oppressive demands, yet he, the said Warren Hastings, did cruelly, inhumanly, and corruptly decline to make any order for the better provision of any of the said eminent family, or for the return of the said prince, who had fled from his brother's court to avoid the danger of perishing by famine."

Answer of Mr. Hastings to that part of the charge:

"And the said Warren Hastings further says, that he was informed that Mirza Jungli, in the said article also mentioned, did leave his native country in distress, and did go to Mirza Shuffee Khân, in the said article also mentioned; and the said Warren Hastings likewise admits he was informed that the said Mirza Jungli did afterwards leave the said Mirza Shuffee Khân, and repair to the camp of Mahdajee Sindia, with a view of obtaining some establishment for himself and followers.

"And the said Warren Hastings further says, that in certain letters written by David Anderson, Esquire, and John Bristow, Esquire, it was represented that the said Mirza Jungli did apply to the said Bristow,