e latter were
reduced to the worst of all bad states, a state of subserviency to the
will of the Governor-General. I have shown your Lordships that in this
state they were not only rendered incapable of performing their own
duty, but were fitted for the worst of all purposes, cooeperation with
him in the perpetration of his criminal acts, and collusion with him in
the concealment of them. I have lastly to speak of these effects as they
regard the general state and welfare of the country. And here your
Lordships will permit me to read the evidence given by Lord Cornwallis,
a witness called by the prisoner at your bar, Mr. Hastings himself.

_The Evidence of Lord Cornwallis. Page 2721._

"_Q._ Whether your Lordship recollects an account that you have
given to the Court of Directors, in your letter of the 2d of
August, 1789, concerning the state of those provinces?--_A._ I
really could not venture to be particular as to any letter I may
have written so long since, as I have brought no copies of my
letters with me from India, having left them at Bengal when I went
to the coast.--_Q._ Whether your Lordship recollects, in any letter
that you wrote about the 2d of August, 1789, paragraph 18, any
expressions to this effect, namely: 'I am sorry to be obliged to
say, that agriculture and internal commerce have for many years
been gradually declining, and that at present, excepting the class
of shroffs and banians, who reside almost entirely in great towns,
the inhabitants of these provinces are advancing hastily to a
general state of poverty and wretchedness':--whether your Lordship
recollects that you have written a letter to that effect?--_A._ I
cannot take upon me to recollect the words of a letter that I have
written five years ago, but I conclude I must have written to that
effect.--_Q._ Whether your Lordship recollects that in the
immediately following paragraph, the 19th, you wrote to this
effect: 'In this description' (namely, the foregone description) 'I
must even include almost every zemindar in the Company's
territories, which, though it may have been partly occasioned by
their own indolence and extravagance, I am afraid must also be in a
great measure attributed to the defects of our former system of
management.' (Paragraph 20.) 'The settlement, in conformity to
your orders, will on