on the evidence of Nundcomar, yet his suppressing it is
a crime, a violation of the orders of the Court of Directors. He
disobeyed those instructions; and if it be only for disobedience, for
rebellion against his masters, (putting the corrupt motive out of the
question,) I charge him for this disobedience, and especially on account
of the principles upon which he proceeded in it.

Then he took another step: he accused Nundcomar of a conspiracy,--which
was a way he then and ever since has used, whenever means were taken to
detect any of his own iniquities.

And here it becomes necessary to mention another circumstance of
history: that the legislature, not trusting entirely to the
Governor-General and Council, had sent out a court of justice to be a
counter security against these corruptions, and to detect and punish any
such misdemeanors as might appear. And this court I take for granted has
done great services.

Mr. Hastings flew to this court, which was meant to protect in their
situations informers against bribery and corruption, rather than to
protect the accused from any of the preliminary methods which must
indispensably be used for the purpose of detecting their guilt,--he flew
to this court, charging this Nundcomar and others with being
conspirators.

A man might be convicted as a conspirator, and yet afterwards live; he
might put the matter into other hands, and go on with his information;
nothing less than _stone-dead_ would do the business. And here happened
an odd concurrence of circumstances. Long before Nundcomar preferred his
charge, he knew that Mr. Hastings was plotting his ruin, and that for
this purpose he had used a man whom he, Nundcomar, had turned out of
doors, called Mohun Persaud. Mr. Hastings had seen papers put upon the
board, charging him with this previous plot for the destruction of
Nundcomar; and this identical person, Mohun Persaud, whom Nundcomar had
charged as Mr. Hastings's associate in plotting his ruin, was now again
brought forward as the principal evidence against him. I will not enter
(God forbid I should!) into the particulars of the subsequent trial of
Nundcomar; but you will find the marks and characters of it to be these.
You will find a close connection between Mr. Hastings and the
chief-justice, which we shall prove. We shall prove that one of the
witnesses who appeared there was a person who had been before, or has
since been, concerned with Mr. Hastings in his most ini