good from the revenues of the resumed jaghírs. After some months of further bondage, the cruelty of which was absurdly exaggerated by Hastings' accusers, the eunuchs in December were set free, under peremptory instructions from Hastings himself. The Begams, who had suffered no indignities and very little discomfort, lived to send Hastings 'strong letters of friendship and commiseration' during his trial before the House of Lords. The younger lady was 'alive and hearty, and very rich,' when Lord Valentia visited Lucknow in 1803; and one of the eunuchs on the same occasion was reported as being 'well, fat, and enormously rich[1].'
Hastings' conduct throughout these transactions, as well as his treatment of Chait Singh, was condemned by the Court of Directors, and furnished grounds for one of the charges on which he was afterwards impeached and acquitted. The despoiling of the Begams would give his enemies a new handle for violent invective, and commentators a theme for endless debate. In the eyes of Burke and his followers whatever Hastings did or sanctioned was sure to be wrong. But to judge his acts by the torchlights of party prejudice and passion would be as unfair as to judge them solely by the ethical and political standards of our own day. Apart from the question of public needs, he had no reason to doubt that the Begams had been 'levying war against the Company,' besides being a constant danger to the peace of Oudh. The
- ↑ Gleig, Impey, Wilson's Notes on Mill.
