y could
have for their loss. Can your Lordships believe that this can be any
other than a systematical, deliberate fraud, grossly conducted? I will
not allow Mr. Hastings to be the man he represents himself to be: he was
supposed to be a man of parts; I will only suppose him to be a man of
mere common sense. Are these the accounts we should expect from such a
man? And yet he and Mr. Larkins are to be magnified to heaven for great
financiers; and this is to be called book-keeping! This is the Bengal
account saved so miraculously on the 22d of May.

Next comes the Persian account. You have heard of a present to which it
refers. It has been already stated, but it must be a good deal farther
explained. Mr. Larkins states that this account was taken from a paper,
of which three lines, and only three lines, were read to him by a
Persian moonshee; and it is not pretended that this was the whole of it.
The three lines read are as follows.

"From the Nabob" (meaning the Nabob
of Oude) "to the Governor-General,
six lac L60,000

From Hussein Reza Khan and Hyder Beg
Khan to ditto, three lac 30,000

And ditto to Mrs. Hastings, one lac 10,000."

Here, I say, are the three lines that were read by a Persian moonshee.
Is he a man you can call to account for these particulars? No: he is an
anonymous moonshee; his name is not so much as mentioned by Mr. Larkins,
nor hinted at by Mr. Hastings; and you find these sums, which Mr.
Hastings mentions as a sum in gross given to himself, are not so. They
were given by three persons: one, six lacs, was given by the Nabob to
the Governor; another, of three lacs more, by Hussein Reza Khan [and
Hyder Beg Khan?]; and a third, one lac, by both of them clubbing, as a
present to Mrs. Hastings. This is the first discovery that appears of
Mrs. Hastings having been concerned in receiving presents for the
Governor-General and others, in addition to Gunga Govind Sing, Cantoo
Baboo, and Mr. Croftes. Now, if this money was not received for the
Company, is it proper and right to take it from Mrs. Hastings? Is there
honor and justice in taking from a lady a gratuitous present made to
her? Yet Mr. Hastings says he has applied it all to the Company's
service. He has done ill, in suffering it to be received at all, if she
has not justly and properly received it. Whether, in fact, she ever
received this money at all, she not being upon the spot, as I can fi