FOOTNOTES:
[98] Hedaya, Vol. II. p. 621.
SPEECH
IN
GENERAL REPLY.
THIRD DAY: TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1794.
My Lords,--We are called, with an awful voice, to come forth and make
good our charge against the prisoner at your bar; but as a long time has
elapsed since your Lordships heard that charge, I shall take the liberty
of requesting my worthy fellow Manager near me to read that part to your
Lordships which I am just now going to observe upon, that you may be the
better able to apply my observations to the letter of the charge.
[_Mr. Wyndham reads._]
"That the said Warren Hastings, having, as aforesaid, expelled the said
Cheyt Sing from his dominions, did, of his own usurped authority, and
without any communication with or any approbation given by the other
members of the Council, nominate and appoint Rajah Mehip Narrain to the
government of the provinces of Benares, and did appoint his father,
Durbege Sing, as administrator of his authority, and did give to the
British Resident, William Markham, a controlling authority over both;
and did farther abrogate and set aside all treaties and agreements which
subsisted between the state of Benares and the British nation; and did
arbitrarily and tyrannically, of his mere authority, raise the tribute
to the sum of four hundred thousand pounds sterling, or thereabouts; did
further wantonly and illegally impose certain oppressive duties upon
goods and merchandise, to the great injury of trade and ruin of the
provinces; and did farther dispose of, as his own, the property within
the said provinces, by granting the same, or parts, thereof, in pensions
to such persons as he thought fit.
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