ss, though they are in
reality no better than concubines, and are subject to the power and
caprices of their lords, are yet allowed, in the eye of the severest
moralists, to have some excuse for their frailty and their weakness; and
they accordingly always do find a degree of favor in this world, and
become the object of particular protection.

We know that Sujah ul Dowlah was a man unquestionably in his manners
very licentious with regard to women, that he had a great number of
these women in his family, and that his women and the women attendant
upon the persons of his favorites had increased to a very great number.
We know that his sons amounted to twenty,--or, according to Mr.
Hastings's own account, to nineteen. Montesquieu supposes that there are
more females born in the East than in the West. But he says this upon no
good ground. We know by better and more regular information concerning
this matter, that the birth of males and females in that country is in
the same proportion as it is here; and therefore, if you suppose that he
had twenty sons, you may suppose he had about nineteen daughters. By the
customs of that country, all these sons and daughters were considered as
persons of eminent distinction, though inferior to the legitimate
children,--assuming the rank of their father, without considering the
rank which their mother held. All these wives with their children, and
all their female servants and attendants, amounting in the whole to
about eight hundred persons, were shut up in what they call the _Khord
Mohul_, or Lesser Palace. This place is described by one of the
witnesses to be about as large as St. James's Square. Your Lordships
have been told, that, in other circumstances as well as this, these
women were considered as objects of a great degree of respect, and of
the greatest degree of protection. I refer your Lordships to the treaty
by which their maintenance was guarantied by the English government.

In order to let your Lordships see that I state nothing to you but what
is supported not only by general history, which is enough to support an
account of general manners, but by the particular and peculiar opinions
of a person best informed of the nature of the case, I will refer you to
the Nabob himself: for, undoubtedly, the Nabob of Oude, the Vizier of
the Empire, the Subahdar of the country, was most likely to be the best
judge of what respect was due to the women of his father's family. I
will t