It appears that this unhappy and injured man was,
without any solicitation of his own, placed in a situation the duties of
which even Mr. Hastings considered it impossible for him to execute.
Instead of supporting him with the countenance of the supreme
government, Mr. Hastings did everything to lessen his weight, his
consequence, and authority. And when the business of the collection
became embarrassed, without any fault of his, that has ever yet been
proved, Mr. Markham instituted an inquiry. What kind of inquiry it was
that would or could be made your Lordships will judge. While this was
going on, Mr. Markham tells you, that, in consequence of orders which
he had received, he first put him into a gentle confinement. Your
Lordships know what that confinement was; and you know what it is for a
man of his rank to be put into any confinement. We have shown he was
thereby incapable of transacting business. His life had been threatened,
if he should not pay in the balance of his accounts within a short
limited time; still he was subjected to confinement, while he had money
accounts to settle with the whole country. Could a man in gaol,
dishonored and reprobated, take effectual means to recover the arrears
which he was called upon to pay? Could he, in such a situation, recover
the money which was unpaid to him, in such an extensive district as
Benares? Yet Mr.
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