gs, that charge, as far as we can find, might have
stood upon the records forever, without his making the smallest
observation upon it, or taking any one step to clear his own character.
But Nundcomar was not so inattentive to his duties as an accuser as Mr.
Hastings was to his duties as an inquirer; for, without a moment's
delay, upon the first board-day, two days after, Nundcomar came and
delivered the following letter.

"I had the honor to lay before you, in a letter of the 11th instant, an
abstracted, but true account of the Honorable Governor in the course of
his administration. What is there written I mean not the least to alter:
far from it. I have the strongest written vouchers to produce in support
of what I have advanced; and I wish and entreat, for my honor's sake,
that you will suffer me to appear before you, to establish the fact by
an additional, incontestable evidence."

My Lords, I will venture to say, if ever there was an accuser that
appeared well and with weight before any court, it was this man. He does
not shrink from his charge; he offered to meet the person he charged
face to face, and to make good his charge by his own evidence, and
further evidence that he should produce. Your Lordships have also seen
the conduct of Mr. Hastings on the first day; you have seen his
acquiescence under it; you have seen the suspicion he endeavored to
raise. Now, before I proceed to what Mr. Hastings thought of it, I must
remark upon this accusation, that it is a specific accusation, coming
from a person knowing the very transaction, and known to be concerned in
it,--that it was an accusation in writing, that it was an accusation
with a signature, that it was an accusation with a person to make it
good, that it was made before a competent authority, and made before an
authority bound to inquire into such accusation. When he comes to
produce his evidence, he tells you, first, the sums of money given, the
species in which they were given, the very bags in which they were put,
the exchange that was made by reducing them to the standard money of the
country; he names all the persons through whose hands the whole
transaction went, eight in number, besides himself, Munny Begum, and
Gourdas, being eleven, all referred to in this transaction. I do believe
that since the beginning of the world there never was an accusation
which was more deserving of inquiry, because there never was an
accusation which put a false accuser i