definite sum, without knowing whether they had it or not,
whether they could procure it or not. The Bhow Begum has told us, as
your Lordships have it in evidence, that they demanded from her a
million of money; that she, of course, denied having any such sums; but
Mr. Middleton forced her unfortunate eunuchs or treasurers, by some _few
severities_, to give their bond for 600,000_l._

You would imagine, that, when these eunuchs had given up all that was in
their power, when they had given a bond for what they had not, (for they
were only the treasurers of other people,) that the bond would not have
been rigidly exacted. But what do Mr. Hastings and Mr. Middleton, as
soon as they get their plunder? They went to their own assay-table, by
which they measured the rate of exchange between the coins in currency
at Oude and those at Calcutta, and add the difference to the sum for
which the bond was given. Thus they seize the secret hoards, they
examine it as if they were receiving a debt, and they determine what
this money would and ought to produce at Calcutta: not considering it as
coming from people who gave all they had to give, but as what it would
produce at the mint at Calcutta, according to a custom made for the
profit of the Residents; even though Mr. Hastings, upon another
occasion, charged upon Mr. Bristow as a crime that he had made that
profit. This money, my Lords, was taken to that assay-table, which they
had invented for their own profit, and they made their victims pay a
rupee and a half batta, or exchange of money, upon each gold mohur; by
which and other charges they brought them 60,000_l._ more in debt, and
forced them to give a bond for that 60,000_l._

Your Lordships have seen in what manner these debts were
contracted,--and that they were contracted by persons engaging, not for
themselves, for they had nothing; all their property was apparently
their mistresses'. You will now see in what manner the payment of them
was exacted; and we shall beg leave to read to you their own accounts of
their own proceedings. Your Lordships will then judge whether they were
proceeding against rebels as rebels, or against wealthy people as
wealthy people, punishing them, under pretence of crimes, for their own
profit.

In a letter from Mr. Middleton to Mr. Hastings, after two other
paragraphs, he goes on thus.

"It remained only to get possession of her wealth; and to effect this,
it was then and is still my firm and u