f English
honor and fidelity in such delicate cases, he required that Major
Calliaud should set his seal to the agreement. This proposition was made
to an English commander: what discourse happened upon it is uncertain.
Mr. Hastings is stated by some evidence to have acted as interpreter in
this memorable congress. But Major Calliaud agreed to it without any
difficulty. Accordingly, an instrument was drawn, an indenture
tripartite prepared by the Persian secretary, securing to the party the
reward of this infamous, perfidious, murderous act. First, the Nabob put
his own seal to the murder. The Nabob's son, Meeran, affixed _his_ seal.
A third seal, the most important of all, was yet wanting. A pause
ensued: Major Calliaud's seal was not at hand; but Mr. Lushington was
sent near half a mile to bring it. It was brought at length; and the
instrument of blood and treachery was completely executed. Three seals
were set to it.

This business of the three seals, by some means not quite fully
explained, but (as suspected by the parties) by means of the information
of Mr. Holwell, who soon after came home, was conveyed to the ears of
the Court of Directors. The Court of Directors wrote out, under date of
the 7th of October, 1761, within a little more than a year after this
extraordinary transaction, to this effect:--that, in conjunction with
the Nabob, Major Calliaud had signed a paper offering a reward of a lac
of rupees, or some such sum, to several black persons, for the
assassination of the Shahzada, or Prince heir-apparent,--which paper was
offered to the then Chief of Patna to sign, but which he refused on
account of the infamy of the measure. As it appeared in the same light
to them, the Directors, they ordered a strict inquiry into it. The India
Company, who here did their duty with apparent manliness and vigor, were
resolved, however, to do it with gentleness, and to proceed in a manner
that could not produce any serious mischief to the parties charged; for
they directed the commission of inquiry to the very clan and set of
people who, from a participation in their common offences, stood in awe
of one another,--in effect, to the parties in the transaction. Without a
prosecutor, without an impartial director of the inquiry, they left it
substantially to those persons to try one another for their common acts.

Here I come upon the principle which I wish most strongly to mark to
your Lordships: I mean collusive trials and