t was committed to
one black secretary, another part to another black secretary. So that it
is almost impossible to make up a complete body of all his bribery: you
may find the scattered limbs, some here and others there; and while you
are employed in picking them up, he may escape entirely in a prosecution
for the whole.

The first act of his government in Bengal was the most bold and
extraordinary that I believe ever entered into the head of any man,--I
will say, of any tyrant. It was no more or less than a general, almost
exceptless confiscation, in time of profound peace, of all the landed
property in Bengal, upon most extraordinary pretences. Strange as this
may appear, he did so confiscate it; he put it up to a pretended public,
in reality to a private corrupt auction; and such favored landholders as
came to it were obliged to consider themselves as not any longer
proprietors of the estates, but to recognize themselves as farmers under
government: and even those few that were permitted to remain on their
estates had their payments raised at his arbitrary discretion; and the
rest of the lands were given to farmers-general, appointed by him and
his committee, at a price fixed by the same arbitrary discretion.

It is necessary to inform your Lordships that the revenues of Bengal
are, for the most part, territorial revenues, great quit-rents issuing
out of lands. I shall say nothing either of the nature of this property,
of the rights of the people to it, or of the mode of exacting the rents,
till that great question of revenues, one of the greatest which we shall
have to lay before you, shall be brought before your Lordships
particularly and specially as an article of charge. I only mention it
now as an exemplification of the great principle of corruption which
guided Mr. Hastings's conduct.

When the ancient nobility, the great princes, (for such I may call
them,) a nobility, perhaps, as ancient as that of your Lordships, (and a
more truly noble body never existed in that character,)--my Lords, when
all the nobility, some of whom have borne the rank and port of princes,
all the gentry, all the freeholders of the country, had their estates in
that manner confiscated,--that is, either given to themselves to hold on
the footing of farmers, or totally confiscated,--when such an act of
tyranny was done, no doubt some good was pretended. This confiscation
was made by Mr. Hastings, and the lands let to these farmers for