Here is a man that comes with information long after the fact deposed to, and, after having left to another the communication of his intelligence to the proper authority, that other neglects the matter.  No letter of Mr. Markham’s appears, communicating any such conversation to Mr. Hastings:  and, indeed, why he did not do so must appear very obvious to your Lordships; for a more contemptible, ridiculous, and absurd story never was invented.  Does Mr. Balfour come forward and tell him who his informant was?  No.  Does he say, “He was an informant whom I dare not name, upon account of his great consequence, and the great confidence I had in him”?  No.  He only says slightly, “I have some confidence in him.”  It is upon this evidence of a reporter of what another is said to have said, that Mr. Hastings and his Council rely for proof, and have thought proper to charge the Rajah, with having conceived rebellious designs soon after the time when Mr. Hastings had declared his belief that no such designs had been formed.

Mr. Hastings has done with his charge of rebellion what he did with his declaration of arbitrary power:  after he had vomited it up in one place, he returns to it in another.  He here declares (after he had recorded his belief that no rebellion was ever intended) that Mr. Markham was in possession of information which he might have believed, if it had been communicated to him.  Good heavens! when you review all these circumstances, and consider the principles upon which this man was tried and punished, what must you think of the miserable situation of persons of the highest rank in that country, under the government of men who are disposed to disgrace and ruin them in this iniquitous manner!

Mr. Balfour is in Europe, I believe.  How comes it that he is not produced here to tell your Lordships who was his informer, and what he knows of the transaction?  They have not produced him, but have thought fit to rely upon this miserable, beggarly semblance of evidence, the very production of which was a crime, when brought forward for the purpose of giving color to acts of injustice and oppression.  If you ask, Who is this Mr. Balfour?  He is a person who was a military collector of revenue in the province of Rohilcund:  a country now ruined and desolated, but once the garden of the world.  It was from the depth of that horrible devastating system that he gave this ridiculous, contemptible evidence, which if it can be equalled, I shall admit that there is not one word we have said that you ought to attend to.

Your Lordships are now enabled to sum up the amount and estimate the result of all this iniquity.  The Rajah himself is punished, he is ruined and undone; but the 500,000_l._ is not gained.  He has fled his country; but he carried his treasures with him.  His forts are taken possession of; but there was nothing found in them.  It is the report of the country, and is so stated by Mr. Hastings, that he carried away