Gazette Of The United States

Mr. Hastings concluded his defence before the High Court of Parliament in the following animated and bold apostrophe to the British House of Commons: "You have told the world, that I have brought great loss and damage upon the East India Company, and disgrace upon the British nation. I tell you, that I improved your resources; that I made a numerous people happy; and that the British name and character never stood higher than when I left Bengal.—Every regulation in the East originated in me. I gave you the Salt Revenues, the Opium, Benaren and Oude—I formed all the official arrangements; and if any changes have been made, they are modifications only of my systems, for the purpose, as my noble and virtuous successor said (applying his remark to Oude) of rendering the principles established by me the more permanent.—"I gave you all—And what has been my return? A character degraded, as far as you could degrade it—a fortune totally ruined, and a life of impeachment."