But Mr. Hastings disclaims
it, unnecessarily disclaims it, for no one charges him with it. What we
charge him with is the abuse of that system. To one of these abuses I
will now call your Lordships' attention. Finding, soon after his
appointment to the office of Governor-General, that the Nabob was likely
to get into debt, he turns him into a vassal, and resolves to treat him
as such. You will observe that this is not the only instance in which,
upon a failure of payment, the defaulter becomes directly a vassal. You
remember how Durbege Sing, the moment he fell into an arrear of tribute,
became a vassal, and was thrown into prison, without any inquiry into
the causes which occasioned that arrear. With respect to the Nabob of
Oude, we assert, and can prove, that his revenue was 3,600,000_l._ at
the day of his father's death; and if the revenue fell off afterwards,
there was abundant reason to believe that he possessed in abundance the
means of paying the Company every farthing.
Before I quit this subject, your Lordships will again permit me to
reprobate the malicious insinuations by which Mr. Hastings has thought
proper to slander the virtuous persons who are the authors of that
system which he complains of.
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