both by father and
mother, notwithstanding the slander of the prisoner against his
benefactor, was undoubtedly of the first and most distinguished nobility
of the Mahometan empire. Accordingly, his uncles, all his near
relations, his mother, grandmother, all possessed jaghires, some of very
long standing, and most of them not given by the Nabob.

I take some pains in explaining this business, because I trust your
Lordships will have a strong feeling against any confiscation for the
purpose of revenue. Believe me, my Lords, if there is anything which
will root the present order of things out of Europe, it will begin, as
we see it has already begun in a neighboring country, by confiscating,
for the purposes of the state, grants made to classes of men, let them
be held by what names or be supposed susceptible of what abuses soever.
I will venture to say that Jacobinism never can strike a more deadly
blow against property, rank, and dignity than your Lordships, if you
were to acquit this man, would strike against your own dignity, and the
very being of the society in which we live.

Your Lordships will find in your printed Minutes who the jaghiredars
were, and what was the amount of their estates. The jaghires of which
Mr. Hastings authorized the confiscation, or what he calls a
_resumption_, appear from Mr. Purling's account, when first the forced
loan was levied upon them under his Residentship, to amount to
285,000_l._ sterling per annum; which 285,000_l._, if rated and valued
according to the different value of provisions and other necessaries of
life in that country and in England, will amount, as near as may be, to
about 600,000_l._ a year. I am within compass. Everybody conversant with
India will say it is equivalent at least to 600,000_l._ a year in
England; and what a blow such a confiscation as this would be on the
fortunes of the peers of Great Britain your Lordships will judge. I like
to see your estates as great as they are; I wish they were greater than
they are; but whatever they are, I wish, above all that they should be
perpetual. For dignity and property in this country, _Esto perpetua_
shall be my prayer this day, and the last prayer of my life. The
Commons, therefore, of Great Britain, those guardians of property, who
will not suffer the monarch they love, the government which they adore,
to levy one shilling upon the subject in any other way than the law and
statutes of this kingdom prescribe, will not