He never entered any charge. He never
answered any letter. Not that he was idle. He was carrying on a wicked
and clandestine plot for the destruction of the Rajah, under the
pretence of this fine; although the plot was not known, I verily
believe, to any European at the time. He does not pretend that he told
any one of the Company's servants of his intentions of fining the Rajah;
but that some hostile project against him had been formed by Mr.
Hastings was perfectly well known to the natives. Mr. Hastings tells
you, that Cheyt Sing had a vakeel at Calcutta, whose business it was to
learn the general transactions of our government, and the most minute
particulars which could in any manner affect the interest of his
employer.
I must here tell your Lordships, that there is no court in Asia, from
the highest to the lowest, no petty sovereign, that does not both employ
and receive what they call _hircarrahs_, or, in other words, persons to
collect and to communicate political intelligence. These men are
received with the state and in the rank of ambassadors; they have their
place in the durbar; and their business, as authorized spies, is as well
known there as that of ambassadors extraordinary and ordinary in the
courts of Europe.
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