aforesaid Mahomed Reza Khân, and give your permission that I take on myself the management of the adowlet and fouzdarry.”—There is no doubt of this latter application, in contradiction to the former, having arisen from a suspicion that the appointment of Munny Begum would be too gross, and would shock the council; and Mr. Hastings therefore orders the second letter to be written from the nabob, in which he claims the powers of government for himself. Then follows a letter from the governor-general, informing the nabob, that it had been agreed that his excellency being now arrived at years of maturity, the control of his own household, and the courts dependent on the nizamut and fouzdarry, should be placed in his hands; and Mahomed Reza Khân was directed, at the same time, to resign his authority to the nabob.

Here your lordships see Munny Begum, in effect, completely invested with, and you will see how she has used her power; for I suppose your lordships are sick of the name of nabob, as a real actor in the government. You now see the true parties in the transaction, namely, the lover, Warren Hastings, Esq.; and Munny Begum, the object of his passion and flame; to which he sacrifices as much as Antony ever did to Cleopatra. You see the object of his love and affection placed in the administration of the viceroyalty; you see placed at her disposal the administration of the civil judicature, and of the executory justice; together with the salary, which was intended for Mahomed Reza Khân.

Your lordships will be pleased to remember, that this distribution of the nabob's government was made in direct defiance of the orders of the company. And as a further proof of this defiance, it will not escape your lordships, that, before this measure was carried into execution, Mr. Barwell being one day absent from the council, Mr. Hastings fell into a minority; and it was agreed, upon that occasion, that the whole affair should be referred home to the court of directors, and that no arrangement should be made till the directors had given their opinion. Mr. Hastings, the very moment after

Mr. Barwell's return to his seat in the council, rescinds this resolution, which subjected the orders of the court of directors to their own reconsideration; and he hurries headlong and precipitately into the execution of his first determination. Your lordships will also see, in this act, what sort of use Mr. Hastings made of the council; and I have therefore insisted upon all these practices of the prisoner at your bar, because there is not one of them in which some principle of government is not wounded, if not mortally wounded.

My lords, we have laid before you the consequences of this proceeding. We have shown what passed within the walls of the seraglio, and what tyranny was exercised by this woman over the multitude of women there. I shall now show your lordships, in what manner she made use of her power over the supreme judicature, to peculate, and to destroy the country; and I shall adduce, as proofs of this abuse of her authority, the facts I am about to relate, and of which there is evidence before your lordships. There was an ostensible man, named Sudder ul Hoe Khân, placed there at the head of the administration of justice, with a salary of £7,000 a year of the company's money. This man, in a letter to the governor-general and council, received the 1st of September, 1778,—says, "His highness, himself, [the nabob,] is not deficient in regard for me, but certain bad men have gained an ascendancy over his temper, by whose instigation he acts." You will see, my lords, how this poor man was crippled in the execution of his duty, and dishonored by the corruption of this woman and her eunuchs, to whom Mr. Hastings had given the supreme government, and with it an uncontrolled influence over all the dependant parts. After thus complaining of the slights he receives from the nabob, he adds, "Thus they cause the nabob to treat me, sometimes with indignity, and others with kindness, just as they think proper to advise him; their view is that by compelling me to displeasure at such unworthy treatment, they may force me either to relinquish my station, or to join with them and act

with their advice, and appoint creatures of their recommendation to the different offices, from which they might draw profit to themselves."-In a subsequent letter to the governor, Sudder ul Hoe Khân says, "The begum's ministers, before my arrival, with the advice of their counsellors, caused the nabob to sign a receipt, in consequence of which they received, at two different times, near 50,000 rupees, in the name of the officers of the adowlet, fouzdarry, &c. from the company's sircar; and having drawn up an account current in the manner they wished, they got the nabob to sign it, and then sent it to me." In the same letter, he asserts, that these people have the nabob entirely in their power.

Now, I have only to remark to your lordships, that the first and immediate operation of Mr. Hastings's regulation, which put every thing into the hands of this wicked woman. for her corrupt purposes, was, that the office of chief justice was trampled upon and depraved, and made use of to plunder the company of money, which was appropriated to their own uses; and that the person, ostensibly holding this office was forced to become the instrument in the hands of this wicked woman and her two wicked eunuchs. This then was the representation which the chief justice made to Mr. Hastings, as one of the very first fruits of his new arrangement. I am now to tell you what his next step was. This same Mr. Hastings, who had made the nabob master of every thing, and placed every thing at his disposal, who had maintained that the nabob was not to act a secondary part, and to be a mere instrument in the hands of the company, who had, as you have seen, revived the nabob, now puts him to death again. He pretends to be shocked at these proceedings of the nabob, and not being able to prevent their coming before the council of the directors at home, he immediately took Sudder ul Hoe Khân under his protection.

Now your lordships see Mr. Hastings appearing in his own character again; exercising the power he had pretended to abdicate, whilst the nabob sinks and subsides under him.

He becomes the supporter of Sudder ul Hoe Khân, now that the infamy of the treatment he received could no longer be concealed from the council. On the 1st of September, 1778, the governor informs the nabob, "that it is highly expedient that Sudder ul Hoe Khân should have full control in all matters relative to his office, and the sole appointment and dismission of the sudder and mofussal officers; and that his seal and signature should be authentic to all papers having relation to the business entrusted to him; I therefore intimate to you, that he should appoint and dismiss all the officers under him, and that your excellency should not interfere in any one."

The nabob, in a letter to the governor, received the 3d of September, 1778, says, "Agreeably to your pleasure, I have relinquished all concern with the affairs of the fouzdarry and adowlet, leaving the entire management in Sudder ul Hoe Khân's hands."-Here you see the nabob again reduced to his former state of subordination. This chief justiceship, which was declared to be his inherent right, he is obliged to submit to the control of Mr. Hastings, and to declare that he will not interfere at all in a matter, which Mr. Hastings had declared to be his incommunicable attribute. I do not say, that Mr. Hastings interfered improperly. Certainly it was not fit that the highest court of justice in all Bengal should be made the instrument of the rapacity of a set of villains, with a prostitute at their head; just as if a gang of thieves in England, with their prostitutes at their head, should seize the judge which ought to punish them, and endeavor to make use of his name in their iniquitous transactions. But your lordships will find that Mr. Hastings is here acting a merely ostensible part, and that he has always a means of defeating privately what he declares publicly to be his intention. Your lordships will see soon how this ended. Mr. Hastings gets the nabob to give up all his authority over the chief justice; but he says not one word of Munny Begum, the person who

had the real authority in her hands, and who was not forbidden to interfere with him.-Mr. Hastings's order is dated the 1st September, 1778. On the 3d of September, the nabob is said to have relinquished all concern with Sudder ul Hoe Khân. In a letter received the 30th of September, (that is about 27 days after the date of Mr. Hastings's order,) you will see how this pretended order was managed. Sudder ul Hoe Khân thus writes in a letter received the 30th of September:-"Yattibar Ali Khân, (Munny Begum's chief eunuch,) from the amount of salaries of the officers of the adowlet and fouzdarry, which before my arrival he had received for two months from the sircar, made disbursements according to his own pleasure. He had before caused the sum of 7,400 rupees, on account of the price of mine and my paishcars kelants to be carried to account, and now continually sends a man to demand from me 4,300 and odd rupees, as a balance of the price of kelants, and constantly presses me to take it from the amount of the salaries of the officers of the adowlet and fouzdarry and send it to him, and I shall be under the necessity of complying. I mention this for your information."

My lords, you see again how Mr. Hastings's pretended orders were obeyed; they were orders addressed to the nabob, whom he knew to be nothing, and who could neither control or take the least share in the execution of them; but he leaves the thing loose as to Munny Begum and her eunuchs, who, he knew, could alone carry them into effect. Your lordships see that the first use made of the restored authority of the nabob was, under various pretences, to leave the salaries of the officers of government unprovided for; to rob the public treasury, and to give the company's money to the eunuchs who were acting in the manner I have stated to you.

Information of these proceedings reaches Calcutta ;-a regular complaint from a person in the highest situation in the government is made, and the governor-general is obliged