My Lords, the maintenance of these women had been guarantied by the Company; but it was doubly guarantied under the great seal of humanity.  The conscience of every man, and more especially of the great and powerful, is the keeper of that great seal, and knows what is due to its authority.  For the violation of both these guaranties, without even the vain and frivolous pretence of a rebellion, and for all its consequences, Mr. Hastings is answerable; and he will not escape your justice by those miserable excuses which he has produced to the Court of Directors, and which he has produced here in his justification.  My Lords, that justification we leave with your Lordships.

* * * * *

We now proceed to another part of our charge, which Mr. Hastings has not thought proper to deny, but upon which we shall beg leave to make a few observations.  You will first hear read to you, from the 17th article of our charge, the subject-matter to which we now wish to call your attention.

“That in or about the month of March, 1783, three of the said brothers of the Nabob, namely, Mirza Hyder Ali, Mirza Imayut Ali, and Mirza Syef Ali, did represent to the said Bristow that they were in distress for dry bread and clothes, and in consequence of such representation were relieved by the intervention of the said Bristow, but soon after the deputation of the said Warren Hastings to Oude, in the year 1784, that is to say, some time in or about the month of September, in the said year 1784, the said Mirza Hyder Ali, one of the three princes aforesaid, did fly to the province of Benares, and did remain there in great distress; and that, although the said Warren Hastings did write to the said Nabob an account of the aforesaid circumstances, in certain loose, light, and disrespectful expressions concerning the said Mirza Hyder Ali, he did not, as he was in duty bound to do, in any wise exert that influence which he actually and notoriously possessed over the mind of the said Nabob, for the relief of the said prince, the brother of the said Nabob, but, without obtaining any satisfactory and specific assurances, either from the said Nabob or the said minister, the said Warren Hastings did content himself with advising the said prince to return to his brother, the said Nabob.”

The answer of Mr. Hastings to that part of the 17th article states:—­

“And the said Warren Hastings says, that in or about the month of July, in the year 1783, a paper was received, inclosed in a letter to the Governor-General and Council, from Mr. Bristow, purporting to be a translation of a letter from three brothers of the said Vizier, in which they did represent themselves to be in distress for dry bread and clothes; but whether such distress actually existed, and was relieved by the said Bristow, the said Warren Hastings cannot set forth.

“And the said Warren Hastings further says, that some time in the month of