gant, and even frantic, as these positions
appear, they are less so than what I shall now read to you; for he
asserts, that, if any one should urge an exemption from more than a
stated payment, or should consider the deeds which passed between him
and the Board "as bearing _the quality and force_ of a treaty between
equal states," he says, "that such an opinion is itself criminal to the
state of which he is a subject; and that he was himself amenable to its
justice, if he gave _countenance_ to such a _belief_." Here is a new
species of crime invented, that of countenancing a belief,--but a belief
of what? A belief of that which the Court of Directors, Hastings's
masters, and a committee of this House, have decided as this prince's
indisputable right.

But supposing the Rajah of Benares to be a mere subject, and that
subject a criminal of the highest form; let us see what course was taken
by an upright English magistrate. Did he cite this culprit before his
tribunal? Did he make a charge? Did he produce witnesses? These are not
forms; they are parts of substantial and eternal justice. No, not a word
of all this. Mr. Hastings concludes him, _in his own mind_, to be
guilty: he makes this conclusion on reports, on hearsays, on
appearances, on rumors, on conjectures, on presumptions; and even these
never once hinted to the party, nor publicly to any human being, till
the whole business was done.

But the Governor tells you his motive for this extraordinary proceeding,
so contrary to every mode of justice towards either a prince or a
subject, fairly and without disguise; and he puts into your hands the
key of his whole conduct:--"I will suppose, for a moment, that I have
acted with unwarrantable rigor towards Cheit Sing, and even with
injustice.--Let my MOTIVE be consulted. I left Calcutta, impressed with
a belief that _extraordinary means_ were necessary, and those exerted
with a _steady hand_, to preserve the Company's _interests from sinking
under the accumulated weight which oppressed them_. I saw a _political
necessity_ for curbing the _overgrown_ power of a great member of their
dominion, and _for making it contribute to the relief of their pressing
exigencies_." This is plain speaking; after this, it is no wonder that
the Rajah's wealth and his offence, the necessities of the judge and the
opulence of the delinquent, are never separated, through the whole of
Mr. Hastings's apology. "The justice and _policy_ of exactin