was done to give some appearance and color to it by a false representation, as your Lordships will see, of every part of the transaction. The proof, then, of the two lacs rests upon the evidence of Nundcomar, the letter of Munny Begum, and the evidence of Rajah Gourdas. The evidence of the lac and a half, by way of entertainment, was at first the same; and afterwards begins a series of proofs to which Mr. Hastings has himself helped us. For, in the first place, he produces this office paper in support of his attempt to establish the confusion between the payment of the two lacs and of the lac and a half. He did not himself deny that he received a lac and a half, because with respect to that lac and a half he had founded some principle of justification. Accordingly this office paper asserts and proves this lac and a half to have been given, in addition to the other proofs. Then Munny Begum herself is inquired of. There is a commission appointed to go up to her residence; and the fact is proved to the satisfaction of Mr. Goring, the commissioner. The Begum had put a paper of accounts, through her son, into his hands, which shall be given at your Lordships' bar, in which she expressly said that she gave Mr. Hastings a lac and a half for entertainment. But Mr. Hastings objects to Mr. Goring's evidence upon this occasion. He wanted to supersede Mr. Goring in the inquiry; and he accordingly appoints, with the consent of the Council, two creatures of his own to go and assist in that inquiry. The question which he directs these commissioners to put to Munny Begum is this:--"Was the sum of money charged by you to be given to Mr. Hastings given under an idea of entertainment customary, or upon what other ground, or for what other reason?" He also desires the following questions may be proposed to the Begum:--"Was any application made to you for the account which you have delivered of three lacs and a half of rupees said to have been paid to the Governor and Mr. Middleton? or did you deliver the account of your own free will, and unsolicited?" My Lords, you see that with regard to the whole three lacs and a half of rupees the Begum had given an account which tended to confirm the payment of them; but Mr. Hastings wanted to invalidate that account by supposing she gave it under restraint. The second question is,--"In what manner was the application made to you, and by whom?" But the principal question is this:--"On what account was the one lac and a half given to the Governor-General which you have laid to his account? Was it in consequence of any requisition from him, or of any previous agreement, or of any established usage?" When a man asks concerning a sum of money, charged to be given to him by another person, on what account it was given, he does indirectly admit that that money actually was paid, and wants to derive a justification from the mode of the payment of it; and accordingly that inference was drawn from the