rsons.
At the same time that he took these affidavits he became himself a
witness in this business; he appears as a witness. How? Did he know any
one circumstance of the rebellion? No, he does not even pretend to do
so. "But," says he, "in my travels I was obliged to avoid Fyzabad, upon
account of the suspected rebellion there." Another chief-justice would
have gone fifty miles about to avoid Lucknow, for everybody knows that
Lucknow was the focus and centre of extortion, corruption, and
peculation, and that a worse air for the lungs of a chief-justice could
not be found in the world. If his lungs wanted the benefit of pure air,
he would even have put himself in the focus of a rebellion, to have kept
at a distance from the smell of carrion and putrid corruption of every
kind that was at Lucknow. A chief-justice may go to a place where a
rebellion is raging, he may die a martyr to his honor; but a
chief-justice who puts himself into the focus of peculation, into the
focus of bribery, into the focus of everything that is base and
corrupt,--what can we expect from him but that he will be engaged in
clandestine jobs there? The former might kill Sir Elijah Impey, the
knight-errant, but the chief-justice would remain pure and entire;
whereas Sir Elijah Impey has escaped from Lucknow, and the chief-justice
is left by Mr. Hastings to shift for himself.

After mentioning this violation of the laws of hospitality by Sir Elijah
Impey, I would ask, Was any notice given by him, or by any of Mr.
Hastings's agents, to the Nabob, who was so immediately interested in
this matter? Was any notice given to the Begums that any such charge was
entertained against them? Not a word. Was it notified to the eunuchs?
Was it to Saadut Ali Khan? Not a word. They were all within their power.
The eunuchs were a year in irons, and they were subjected to the want of
food and water for a part of that year. They were dragged from Fyzabad
to Lucknow, and from Lucknow to Fyzabad. During all that time was there
a word mentioned to them by any one person on the part of Mr. Hastings,
that they were accused of this matter? Not a word.

We now submit to your Lordships' vindictive justice and condemnation
this recriminatory defence, in which every principle of justice has been
violated. And now I will ask your Lordships whether you would have
suffered such a procedure in the case of the prisoner at your bar. It
was asked by a person of great authority in this H