ar, nor indemnity for any of the persons whom he had
seduced into the rebellion in favor of Ragonaut Row; he gave them all up
to the vengeance of their governments, without a stroke of a pen in
their favor, to be banished, confiscated, and undone; and as to Ragonaut
Row, instead of getting him this honorable and secure retreat, as he was
bound to do, this unfortunate man was ordered to retire to his enemy's
(Mahdajee Sindia's) country, or otherwise he was not to receive a
shilling for his maintenance.

I will now ask your Lordships, whether any man but Mr. Hastings would
claim a merit with his own country for having broken the treaty of
Poorunder? Your Lordships know the opinion of the House of Commons
respecting it; his colleagues in Council had remonstrated with him upon
it, and had stated the mischiefs that would result from it; and Sir Eyre
Coote, the commander of the Company's forces, writing at the same time
from Madras, states, that he thought it would infallibly bring down upon
them Hyder Ali, who, they had reason to think, was bent upon the utter
destruction of the power of this country in India, and was only waiting
for some crisis in our affairs favorable to his designs. This, my Lords,
is to be one of the set-offs against all the crimes, against the
multiplied frauds, cruelties, and oppressions, all the corrupt
practices, prevarications, and swindlings, that we have alleged against
him.

My Lords, it would be an endless undertaking, and such as, at this hour
of the day, we, as well as your Lordships, are little fitted to engage
in, if I were to attempt to search into and unveil all the secret
motives, or to expose as it deserves the shameless audacity of this
man's conduct. None of your Lordships can have observed without
astonishment the selection of his merits, as he audaciously calls them,
which has been brought before you. The last of this selection, in
particular, looks as if he meant to revile and spit upon the legislature
of his country, because we and you thought it fit and were resolved to
publish to all India that we will not countenance offensive wars, and
that you felt this so strongly as to pass the first act of a kind that
was ever made, namely, an act to limit the discretionary power of
government in making war solely,--and because you have done this solely
and upon no other account and for no other reason under heaven than the
abuse which that man at your bar has made of it, and for which ab