treachery, cool and premeditated; of
oppression, unprovoked; off barbarity, wanton and unmanly. So long since
as the year 1775, the Begum princess, wife of Sujah-ul-Dowla, wrote to
him in the following terms:--'If it be your pleasure that the mother of
the late nabob, that myself, his other women, and his infant children,
should be reduced to a state of dishonour and distress, we must submit:
but if, on the contrary, you call to mind the friendship of the late
blessed nabob, you will exert yourself effectually in favour of us, who
are helpless.' But inflamed by disappointment at Benares, he hastened
to the fortress of Chanar, to put in execution the atrocious design of
instigating the nabob, son of this princess, to matricide and plunder.
No sooner had Mr. Hastings determined to invade the substance of justice
than he resolved to avail himself of her judicial forms, and despatched
a messenger for the chief-justice of India to assist him in perpetrating
the violence which he meditated. Without a moment's pause, or the shadow
of process instituted, sentence was pronounced; and thus at the same
time, when the sword of government was converted into an assassin's
dagger, the pure ermine of justice was stained and soiled with the
basest contamination. It was clear to demonstration that the Begums were
not concerned in the insurrection of Benares. No: their treasures
were their treason. If the mind of Mr. Hastings were susceptible of
superstition, he might image the proud spirit of Sujah-ul-Dowla looking
down on the ruin and devastation of his family; beholding the palace
which he had adorned with the spoils of the devoted Rohillas, plundered
by his base and perfidious ally; and viewing the man whom on his
death-bed he had constituted the guardian of his wife, his mother, and
his family, forcibly exposing those dear relations, the objects of his
solemn trust, to the rigour of the merciless seasons, or the violence
of the more merciless soldiery. Such were the awful dispensations of
retributive justice. It was not given to that house to witness the
tremulous joys of the millions whom the vote of that night would save
from the cruelty of corrupted power. But the blessing of the people thus
delivered would not be dissipated in empty air. No: they would lift up
their prayers to heaven, in gratitude to the power, which, by
stretching its mighty arm across the deep, bad saved them from ruin and
destruction." This subject was peculiar