hat though the act of 1773 requires
that an account of all proceedings should be diligently transmitted,
that this, like all the other injunctions of the law, is totally
despised, and that half at least of the most important papers are
intentionally withheld.

I wish you, Sir, to advert particularly, in this transaction, to the
quality and the numbers of the persons spoiled, and the instrument by
whom that spoil was made. These ancient matrons, called the Begums, or
Princesses, were of the first birth and quality in India: the one
mother, the other wife, of the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah Dowlah, a
prince possessed of extensive and flourishing dominions, and the second
man in the Mogul Empire. This prince (suspicious, and not unjustly
suspicious, of his son and successor) at his death committed his
treasures and his family to the British faith. That family and household
consisted of _two thousand women_, to which were added two other
seraglios of near kindred, and said to be extremely numerous, and (as I
am well informed) of about fourscore of the Nabob's children, with all
the eunuchs, the ancient servants, and a multitude of the dependants of
his splendid court. These were all to be provided, for present
maintenance and future establishment, from the lands assigned as dower,
and from the treasures which he left to these matrons, in trust for the
whole family.

So far as to the objects of the spoil. The _instrument_ chosen by Mr.
Hastings to despoil the relict of Sujah Dowlah was _her own son_, the
reigning Nabob of Oude. It was the pious hand of a son that was selected
to tear from his mother and grandmother the provision of their age, the
maintenance of his brethren, and of all the ancient household of his
father. [_Here a laugh, from some young members_.] The laugh is
_seasonable_, and the occasion decent and proper.

By the last advices, something of the sum extorted remained unpaid. The
women, in despair, refuse to deliver more, unless their lands are
restored, and their ministers released from prison; but Mr. Hastings and
his council, steady to their point, and consistent to the last in their
conduct, write to the resident to stimulate the son to accomplish the
filial acts he had brought so near to their perfection. "We desire," say
they in their letter to the resident, (written so late as March last,)
"that you will inform us if any, and what means, have been taken for
recovering the balance due from the Begum