dignity, and none were granted for a less term than life, except those
that were immediately annexed to a lease. We have shown your Lordships
(and in this we have followed the example of Mr. Hastings) that some of
them are fees granted actually in perpetuity; and in fact many of them
are so granted. We are farther to tell your Lordships, that by the
custom of the empire they are almost all grown, as the feods in Europe
are grown, by use, into something which is at least virtually an
inheritance. This is the state of the jaghires and jaghiredars.

Among these jaghires we find, what your Lordships would expect to find,
an ample provision for all the nobility of that illustrious family of
which the Nabob is the head: a prince whose family, both by father and
mother, notwithstanding the slander of the prisoner against his
benefactor, was undoubtedly of the first and most distinguished nobility
of the Mahometan empire. Accordingly, his uncles, all his near
relations, his mother, grandmother, all possessed jaghires, some of very
long standing, and most of them not given by the Nabob.

I take some pains in explaining this business, because I trust your
Lordships will have a strong feeling against any confiscation for the
purpose of revenue. Believe me, my Lords, if there is anything which
will root the present order of things out of Europe, it will begin, as
we see it has already begun in a neighboring country, by confiscating,
for the purposes of the state, grants made to classes of men, let them
be held by what names or be supposed susceptible of what abuses soever.
I will venture to say that Jacobinism never can strike a more deadly
blow against property, rank, and dignity than your Lordships, if you
were to acquit this man, would strike against your own dignity, and the
very being of the society in which we live.