be grounded; he does
not tell him that he has got the least proof of the want of title in
those ladies: not a word of the kind. You cannot help observing the soft
language used in this tender billet-doux between Mr. Middleton and Sir
Elijah Impey. You would imagine that they were making love, and that you
heard the voice of the turtle in the land. You hear the soft cooing, the
gentle addresses,--"Oh, my hopes!" to-day, "My fears!" to-morrow,--all
the language of friendship, almost heightened into love; and it comes at
last to "_I have got at the secret hoards of these ladies_.--Let us
rejoice, my dear Sir Elijah; this is a day of rejoicing, a day of
triumph; and this triumph we have obtained by seizing upon the old
lady's eunuchs,--in doing which, however, we found a great deal of
difficulty." You would imagine, from this last expression, that it was
not two eunuchs, with a few miserable women clinging about them, that
they had to seize, but that they had to break through all the guards
which we see lovers sometimes breaking through, when they want to get at
their ladies. Hardly ever did the beauty of a young lady excite such
rapture; I defy all the charms this country can furnish to produce a
more wonderful effect than was produced by the hoards of these two old
women, in the bosoms of Sir Elijah Impey and Mr. Middleton. "We have
got," he exultingly says, "we have got to the secret hoards of this old
lady!" And I verily believe there never was a passion less dissembled;
there Nature spoke; there was truth triumphant, honest truth. Others may
feign a passion; but nobody can doubt the raptures of Mr. Hastings, Sir
Elijah Impey, and Mr. Middleton.

My Lords, one would have expected to have found here something of their
crimes, something of their rebellion, for he talks of a few "necessary
severities." But no: you find the real criminal, the real object, was
the secret hoards of the old ladies. It is true, _a few severities_ were
necessary to obtain that object: however, they did obtain it. How then
did they proceed? First, they themselves took and received, in weight
and tale, all the money that was in the place. I say _all_; for whether
there was any more they never have discovered, with all their search,
from that day to this. Therefore we fairly presume that they had
discovered all that there was to discover with regard to money. They
next took from these unfortunate people an engagement for the amount of
treasure at a