accused.

He says, there is the testimony of Indian princes in his favor. But do
we not know how seals are obtained in that country? Do we not know how
those princes are imposed upon? Do we not know the subjection and
thraldom in which they are held, and that they are obliged to return
thanks for the sufferings which they have felt? I believe your Lordships
will think that there is not, with regard to some of these princes, a
more dreadful thing that can be said of them than that he has obtained
their thanks.

I understand he has obtained the thanks of the miserable Princesses of
Oude, whom he has cruelly imprisoned, whose treasure he has seized, and
whose eunuchs he has tortured.[28] They thank him for going away; they
thank him for leaving them the smallest trifle of their subsistence; and
I venture to say, if he wanted a hundred more panegyrics, provided he
never came again among them, he might have them. I understand that
Mahdajee Sindia has made his panegyric, too. Mahdajee Sindia has not
made his panegyric for nothing; for, if your Lordships will suffer him
to enter into such a justification, we shall prove that he has
sacrificed the dignity of this country and the interests of all its
allies to that prince. We appear here neither with panegyric nor with
satire; it is for substantial crimes we bring him before you, and
amongst others for cruelly using persons of the highest rank and
consideration in India; and when we prove he has cruelly injured them,
you will think the panegyrics either gross forgeries or most miserable
aggravations of his offences, since they show the abject and dreadful
state into which he has driven those people. For let it be proved that I
have cruelly robbed and maltreated any persons, if I produce a
certificate from them of my good behavior, would it not be a
corroborative proof of the terror into which those persons are thrown by
my misconduct?

* * * * *

My Lords, these are, I believe, the general grounds of our charge. I
have now closed completely, and I hope to your Lordships' satisfaction,
the whole body of history of which I wished to put your Lordships in
possession. I do not mean that many of your Lordships may not have known
it more perfectly by your own previous inquiries; but, bringing to your
remembrance the state of the circumstances of the persons with whom he
acted, the persons and power he has abused, I have gone to the
principles he ma