ess it now) upon his brethren. We have shown you how he confiscated
the property of all the jaghiredars, the nobility of the country. We
have proved to your Lordships that he was well acquainted with all the
misery and distress occasioned by these proceedings, and that he
afforded the sufferers no relief. We now proceed to review the effect of
this general mass of usurpation, tyranny, and oppression upon the
revenues and the prosperity of the country.

Your Lordships will first be pleased to advert to the state in which Mr.
Hastings found the country,--in what state he found its revenues,--who
were the executive ministers of the government,--what their conduct was,
and by whom they were recommended and supported. For the evidence of
these facts we refer your Lordships to your printed Minutes: there, my
Lords, they stand recorded: they never can be expunged out of your
record, and the memory of mankind, whether we be permitted to press them
at this time upon your Lordships or not. Your Lordships will there find
in what manner the government was carried on in Oude in 1775, before the
period of Mr. Hastings's usurpation. Mr. Hastings, you will find, has
himself there stated that the minister was recommended by the Begums;
and you will remark this, because Mr. Hastings afterwards makes her
interference in the government of her son a part of his crimination of
the Begum.

* * * * *

The Resident at the court of Oude thus writes on the 2d of March, 1775.

"Notwithstanding the confidence the Nabob reposes in Murtezza Khan,
the Begums are much dissatisfied with his elevation. They
recommended to his Excellency to encourage the old servants of the
government, whose influence in the country, and experience, might
have strengthened his own authority, and seated him firmly on the
musnud. In some measure this, too, may appear consistent with the
interests of the Company; for, as Elija Khan and the old ministers
have by frequent instances within their own knowledge experienced
the power of our government, such men, I should conceive, are much
more likely to pay deference to the Company than a person who at
present can have but a very imperfect idea of the degree of
attention which ought to be paid to our connection with the Nabob."

Your Lordships see that the Begums recommended the old servants,
contrary to the maxims of Rehoboam,--those w