Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/531

A.D.1791.] lords to reject the evidence of all natives, the real plaintiffs? The war which was now carrying on against Tippoo Sahib afforded him a fine opportunity of appealing to the self-interest of the nation. He pointed to the difficulties which lord Cornwallis had now to contend with in raising money and troops, and compared these with the still greater which he had experienced, thus justifying his gross robberies on the begums and others, and the horrible tortures of the unhappy natives by his agents. "My lords," he said, "you are now better enabled to judge of the difficulties which I had to encounter in the last war, than I did suppose it possible for your lordships to be when this trial commenced. Your lordships will now feel for the necessities under which I laboured, when I had to contend with all the powers of India combined with the French and Dutch, because your lordships have proofs before you, in the council chamber of parliament, that the resources of India are now utterly inadequate to the support of a war against one native power who is unassisted by any European ally.



We are now in alliance with all the Mahratta chiefs, and with the subadar of the Deccan, who were in the former war confederated against us. The government of Bengal, when this war was commenced, was free from foreign and domestic embarrassments. The nabob vizier had completely liquidated his debts, and his subsidy was paid with the utmost punctuality. Benares afforded the full revenue, which I am impeached for having procured! The salt, the opium, and the land revenues of Bengal, added to the subsidies from Oude and Benares, produced annually nearly five millions four hundred thousand pounds. But, my lords, so inadequate have these resources proved, with the addition of the revenues of Fort St. George and Bombay, that since the commencement of