, the general
voice being against the accused. Nor did his majesty escape public
censure on this occasion. While the Rohilla charge was pending, a packet
arrived from India, which brought Hastings a diamond of great size
and value, as a present from the Nizam of the Decean, who had acted
a neutral part during the last war in the Carnatic, but who, as the
company were victorious, was now anxious for British friendship. This
diamond was presented to the king at a levee on the 14th of June, which
was the very day after the decision of the house on the charge relative
to the imposition of the fine on Cheyte Sing. This presentation was made
at an unlucky moment, for it was interpreted by the public as a bribe
to check the "impending vote." Two nights after, when Major Scott called
the attention of the house to some alarming intelligence which had been
reported concerning Benares, and to some suspicious preparations which
the French were making in the Mauritius, the witty Sheridan said that
the only extraordinary news that had come to his ears, was the arrival
of an extraordinary large diamond, which diamond was said to have been
presented to his majesty at an extraordinary period; and, which was also
extraordinary, presented by an individual charged, by that house with
high crimes and misdemeanors! The story of the diamond soon got abroad,
and it formed the subject not only of public conversation, but of songs,
pamphlets, epigrams, and caricatures. In one caricature, the king
was represented with crown and sceptre huddled in a wheelbarrow, and
Hastings wheeling him about, with a label from his mouth, saying, "What
a man buys he may sell;" while in another the king was depicted on his
knees, with his mouth wide open, and Hastings pitching diamonds into it.
It seems to have been very generally believed at the time that there
was no end to the diamonds possessed by Hastings, and that his majesty
showed him favour for what he could obtain. And this belief was further
strengthened by the fact that the queen, notwithstanding her known
severity towards ladies whose virtue would not bear the test of
examination, had yet received Mrs. Hastings--who had lived with the late
governor-general before her marriage with him, and had been divorced
from her former husband in consequence--at court most graciously. To
account for this phenomenon, people fancied that the wife or the accused
was a "congeries of diamonds and jewels:" and in truth Qu