" And he did further propose heads and modes of
inquiry suitable to the doubts expressed by the Court of Directors. But
the said Warren Hastings, who ought long before, on principles of
natural justice, to have instituted a diligent inquiry in support of his
so improbable a charge, and was bound, even for his own honor, as well
as for the satisfaction of the Court of Directors, to take a strong part
in the said inquiry, did set himself in opposition to the same, and did
carry with him a majority of Council against the said inquiry into the
justice of the cause, or any proposition for the relief of the
sufferers: asserting, "that the reasons of the Court of Directors, if
transmitted with the orders for the inquiry, will prove in effect an
order for collecting evidence _to the justification and acquittal of the
Begums, and not for the investigation of the truth of the charges which
have been preferred against them_." That Mr. Stables did not propose (as
in the said Hastings's minute is groundlessly supposed) that the reasons
of the Court of Directors should be transmitted with the orders for an
inquiry.
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