manner agreeable to law. And in the said article he did state the
prevalence of rebellion in the said country of Oude,--as if rebellion
could exist in a country in which there was no magistracy, and no
protection for life or property, and in which the native authority had
no force whatever, and in which he himself states the exercise of
British authority to be an absolute usurpation; and he did accordingly
direct a rigorous prosecution against the offence of rebellion under
such circumstances, but "with a fair and impartial inquiry," when he did
not permit the establishment of those courts of justice and magistracy
by which alone rebellion could be prevented, or a fair and impartial
inquiry relative to the same could be had; and particularly he did
instruct the said Resident to obtain the Nabob's order for employing
some sure means for apprehending certain zemindars, and particularly
three, in the instruction named, whom he, the said Hastings, did cause
to be apprehended upon what he calls good information, founded upon some
facts to which he asserts he has the testimony of several witnesses,
"that they had the destruction of Colonel Hannay and the officers under
his command as their immediate object, and ultimately the extirpation of
the English influence and power throughout all the Nabob's dominions,"
and that they did still persevere in their rebellious conduct without
deviation, "though the Nabob's, and not our government, was then the
object of it"; and he did direct the said Resident, if it should appear,
"_on a fair and regular inquiry_, that their conduct towards the Nabob
had been such as it had been reported to be, to insist upon the Nabob's
punishing them with _death_, and to treat with the same rigor every
zemindar and every subject who shall be the leader in a rebellion
against his authority."

XLV. That the crime of the said Hastings, in his procedure aforesaid,
was further highly aggravated by his having received information of