ertained by the question put by Mr. Hastings to her, and her
answer. And thus at last comes his accomplice in this business, and
gives the fullest testimony to the lac and a half.

I must beg leave, before I go further, to state the circumstances of
the several witnesses examined upon this business. They were of two
kinds: voluntary witnesses, and accomplices forced by inquiry and
examination to discover their own guilt. Of the first kind were
Nundcomar and Rajah Gourdas: these were the only two that can be said to
be voluntary in the business, and who gave their information without
much fear, though the last unwillingly, and with a full sense of the
danger of doing it. The other was the evidence of his accomplice, Munny
Begum, wrung from her by the force of truth, in which she confessed that
she gave the lac and a half, and justifies it upon the ground of its
being a customary entertainment. Besides this, there is the evidence of
Chittendur, who was one of Mr. Hastings's instruments, and one of the
Begum's servants. He, being prepared to confound the two lacs with the
one lac and a half, says, upon his examination, that a lac and a half
was given; but upon examining into the particulars of it, he proves that
the sum he gave was two lacs, and not a lac and a half: for he says that
there was a dispute about the other half lac; Nundcomar demanded
interest, which the Begum was unwilling to allow, and consequently that
half lac remained unpaid. Now this half lac can be no part of the lac
and a half, which is admitted on all hands, and proved by the whole body
of concurrent testimony, to have been given to Mr. Hastings in one
lumping sum. When Chittendur endeavors to confound it with the lac and a
half, he clearly establishes the fact that it was a parcel of the two
lacs, and thus bears evidence, in attempting to prevaricate in favor of
Mr. Hastings, that one lac and a half was paid, which Mr. Hastings is
willing to allow; but when he enters into the particulars of it, he
proves by the subdivision of the payment, and by the non-payment of part
of it, that it accords with the two lacs, and not with the lac and a
half.

There are other circumstances in these accounts highly auxiliary to this
evidence. The lac and a half was not only attested by Rajah Gourdas, by
the Begum, by Chittendur, by the Begum again upon Mr. Hastings's own
question, indirectly admitted by Mr. Hastings, proved by the orders for
it to be written off to e