Markham, his Persian moonshee, and a clerk in his private house, made
their estimates without any documents, or with whatever documents, or
God only knows, for nothing appears on the record of the
transaction,--the collections yielded in that year but 340,000_l._, that
is, 20,000_l._ less than Mr. Markham's estimate. But take it which way
you will, whether you take it at Mr. Markham's 360,000_l._, or at Mr.
Duncan's 340,000_l._, your Lordships will see, that, after reserving
60,000_l._ for his own private expenses, the Rajah could not realize a
sum nearly equal to the tribute demanded.
Your Lordships have also in evidence before you an account of the
produce of the country for I believe full five years after this period,
from which it appears that it never realized the forty lacs, or anything
like it,--yielding only thirty-seven and thirty-nine lacs, or
thereabouts, which is 20,000_l._ short of Mr. Markham's estimate, and
160,000_l._ short of Mr. Hastings's. On what data could the prisoner at
your bar have formed this estimate? Where were all the clerks and
mutsuddies, where were all the men of business in Benares, who could
have given him complete information upon the subject? We do not find the
trace of any of them; all our information is Mr.
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