to comply with what he required. He has accordingly
stopped the pensions of my old servants for thirty years, whether
sepoys, mutsuddies, or household servants, and the expenses of my
family and kitchen, together with the jaghires of my grandmother,
mother, and aunts, and of my brothers and dependants, which were
for their support. I had raised fifteen hundred horse and three
battalions of sepoys to attend upon me; but, as I have no resources
to support them, I have been obliged to remove the people stationed
in the mahals, and to send his people into the mahals, so that I
have not now one single servant about me. Should I mention what
further difficulties I have been reduced to, it would lay me open
to contempt. Although I have willingly assented to this which
brings such distress on me, and have in a manner altogether ruined
myself, yet I failed not to do it for this reason, because it was
for your satisfaction, and that of the Council; and I am patient,
and even thankful, in this condition; but I cannot imagine from
what cause you have conceived displeasure against me. From the
commencement of my administration, in every circumstance, I
received strength and security from your favor, and that of the
Council; and in every instance you and the Council have shown your
friendship and affection for me; but at present, that you have sent
these orders, I am greatly perplexed."
We will not trouble your Lordships with the remainder of the letter,
which is all in the same style of distress and affliction, and of the
abject dependence of a man who considers himself as insulted, robbed,
and ruined in that state of dependence.
In addition to the evidence contained in this letter, your Lordships
will be pleased to recollect the Nabob's letter which we read to your
Lordships yesterday, the humble and abject style of which you will never
forget. Oh, consider, my Lords, this instance of the fate of human
greatness! You must remember that there is not a trace anywhere, in any
of the various trunks of Mr. Hastings, that he ever condescended so much
as to give an answer to the suppliant letters of that unhappy man. There
was no mode of indignity with which he did not treat his family; there
was no mode of indignity with which he did not treat his person; there
was no mode of indignity with which he did not treat his minister, Hyder
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