Mr. Hastings had a public spy, in the person of the
Resident, at Benares, and he had a private spy there in another person.
The spies employed by the native powers had by some means come to the
knowledge of Mr. Hastings's clandestine and wicked intentions towards
this unhappy man, Cheyt Sing, and his unhappy country, and of his
designs for the destruction and the utter ruin of both. He has himself
told you, and he has got Mr. Anderson to vouch it, that he had received
proposals for the sale of this miserable man and his country. And from
whom did he receive these proposals, my Lords? Why, from the Nabob Asoph
ul Dowlah, to whom he threatened to transfer both the person of the
Rajah and his zemindary, if he did not redeem himself by some pecuniary
sacrifice. Now Asoph ul Dowlah, as appears by the minutes on your
Lordships' table, was at that time a bankrupt. He was in debt to the
Company tenfold more than he could pay, and all his revenues were
sequestered for that debt. He was a person of the last degree of
indolence with the last degree of rapacity,--a man of whom Mr. Hastings
declared, that he had wasted and destroyed by his misgovernment the
fairest provinces upon earth, that not a person in his dominions was
secure from his violence, and that even his own father could not enjoy
his life and honor in safety under him.
Pages:
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317