Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/536

 532 SHERIDAN. but as a friend; a character he equally preferred, in the strange office which he undertook of collecting defensive affidavits on the subject of Benares.” After the orator had expatiated, in a vein of irony, on the conduct of Sir Elijah, whom he styled in ridicule the “Oriental Grotius,” who had given “his premature sanction for plundering the Begums,” and “become the posthumous support of the expulsion and pillage of the Rajah Cheit sing;” he fully and ably insisted on the gross perversion of both the judi cial and executive power of India. “At the same moment,” continued he, “that the sword of government was turned to an assassin's dagger, the pure ermine of justice was stained and disgraced with the basest and meanest contamination. Under such circumstances did Mr. Hastings com plete the treaty of Chunar; a treaty which might challenge all the treaties that ever subsisted, for containing, in the smallest compass, the most ex tensive treachery. Mr. Hastings did not conclude that treaty until he had received from the Nabob a present, or rather a bribe, of 100,000l. The circumstances of this present were as extraordinary as the thing itself. Four months afterwards, and not till then, Mr. Hastings communicated the matter to the Company. Unfortunately for himself, however, this tardy disclosure was conveyed in words which betrayed his original meaning; for with no common incaution, he admits the present was of a magnitude not to be concealed. And what was the consideration for this extraordinary bribe? No less than the withdrawing from Oude, not only all the English gentlemen in official situations, but the whole also of the English army; and that too at the very moment when he himself had stated the whole country of Oude to be in open revolt and rebellion. Other very strange articles were contained in the same treaty, which nothing but this infamous bribe could have occasioned; together with the reserve which he had in his own mind, of treachery to the Nabob; for the only part of the treaty which he ever attempted to carry into execution, was to withdraw the English gentlemen from Oude. The Nabob, indeed, considered this as essential to his deliverance, on account of their supposed rapacity. Accordingly, at the very moment he pocketed the extorted spoil of the Nabob, with his usual grave hypocrisy and cant, “Go,” he said to the English gentlemen, “go, you oppressive rascals, go from this worthy, unhappy man, whom you have plundered, and leave him to my protection. You have robbed him, you have plundered him, you have taken advantage of his accumulated distresses; but, please God, he shall in future be at rest; for I have promised him he shall never see the face of an Englishman again.” This, however, was the only portion of the treaty which he even affected to fulfil; for as to all other parts, we learn from himself, that at the very moment he made i t , h e intended t o deceive the Nabob. Accordingly, h e advised general, instead o f partial resumptions, for the express purpose o f defeating his views; and instead o f giving instant and unqualified assent t o a l l the articles o f the treaty, h e perpe tually qualified, explained, and varied them with new diminutions and reservations. Was there any theory i n Machiavel, any treachery upon record, any cold Italian fraud, which could i n any degree b e put i n com