rsh order it
was, to take away one half of the Nabob's allowance which he had by
treaty. I do not charge Mr. Hastings with this reduction: he had nothing
to do with that. Sixteen lac were cut off, and sixteen left; these two
sums had been distributed, one for the support of the seraglio and the
dignity of the state, the other for the court establishment and the
household. The sixteen lac which was left, therefore, required to be
well economized, and well administered. There was a rigor in the
Company's order relative to it, which was, that it should take place
from an antedated time, that is, a whole year prior to the communication
of their order to the Nabob. The order was, that the Nabob's stipend
should be reduced to sixteen lac a year from the month of January. Mr.
Hastings makes this reflection upon it, in order to leave no doubt upon
your mind of his integrity in administering that great trust: he says,--

"Your order for the reduction of the Nabob's stipend was communicated to
him in the month of December, 1771. He remonstrated against it, and
desired it might be again referred to the Company. The board entirely
acquiesced in his remonstrance, and the subsequent payments of his
stipend were paid as before. I might easily have availed myself of this
plea. I might have treated it as an act of the past government, with
which I had no cause to interfere, and joined in asserting the
impossibility of his defraying the vast expense of his court and
household without it, which I could have proved by plausible arguments,
drawn from the actual amount of the nizamut and bhela establishments;
and both the Nabob and Begum would have liberally purchased my
forbearance. Instead of pursuing this plan, I carried your orders
rigidly and literally into execution. I undertook myself the laborious
and reproachful task of limiting his charges, from an excess of his
former stipend, to the sum of his reduced allowance."

He says in another place,--"The stoppage of the king's tribute was an
act of mine, and I have been often reproached with it. It was certainly
in my power to have continued the payment of it, and to have made my
terms with the king for any part of it which I might have chosen to
reserve for my own use. He would have thanked me for the remainder."

My Lords, I believe it is a singular thing, and what your Lordships have
been very little used to, to see a man in the situation of Mr. Hastings,
or in any situation like it,