as, indeed, escaped with life; but he has forfeited all
expectation of credit, consequence, party, and following. He may well
say, "_Me nemo ministro fur erit, atque ideo nulli comes exeo_." This
man, whose deep reach of thought, whose large legislative conceptions,
and whose grand plans of policy make the most shining part of our
Reports, from whence we have all learned our lessons, if we have learned
any good ones,--this man, from whose materials those gentlemen who have
least acknowledged it have yet spoken as from a brief,--this man, driven
from his employment, discountenanced by the Directors, has had no other
reward, and no other distinction, but that inward "sunshine of the soul"
which a good conscience can always bestow upon itself. He has not yet
had so much as a good word, but from a person too insignificant to make
any other return for the means with which he has been furnished for
performing his share of a duty which is equally urgent on us all.

Add to this, that, from the highest in place to the lowest, every
British subject, who, in obedience to the Company's orders, has been
active in the discovery of peculations, has been ruined. They have been
driven from India. When they made their appeal at home, they were not
heard; when they attempted to return, they were stopped. No artifice of
fraud, no violence of power, has been omitted to destroy them in
character as well as in fortune.

Worse, far worse, has been the fate of the poor creatures, the natives
of India, whom the hypocrisy of the Company has betrayed into complaint
of oppression and discovery of peculation. The first women in Bengal,
the Ranny of Rajeshahi, the Ranny of Burdwan, the Ranny of Ambooah, by
their weak and thoughtless trust in the Company's honor and protection,
are utterly ruined: the first of these women, a person of princely rank,
and once of correspondent fortune, who paid above two hundred thousand a
year quit-rent to the state, is, according to very credible information,
so completely beggared as to stand in need of the relief of alms.
Mahomed Reza Khan, the second Mussulman in Bengal, for having been
distinguished by the ill-omened honor of the countenance and protection
of the Court of Directors, was, without the pretence of any inquiry
whatsoever into his conduct, stripped of all his employments, and
reduced to the lowest condition. His ancient rival for power, the Rajah
Nundcomar, was, by an insult on everything which India h