should have pocketed the letter of the Court of Directors; he should never have made the least mention of it; he should have come to my Banyan Cantoo Baboo; he should have offered him a bribe upon the occasion. That would have been the way to succeed with me, who am a publick. spirited taker of bribes and nuzzeers. But this base fool-this man, who is but a vile negotiator for his own interest, has dared to accept the patronage of the Court of Directors. He should have secured the protection of Cantoo Baboo their more efficient rival. This would have been the skilful mode of doing the business. But this man, it seems had not only shewn himself an unskilful negotiator;-he had likewise afforded evidence of his want of integrity. And what is this evidence? His having "enabled himself "to become the principal in such a competition." That is to say, he had, by his meritorious conduct in the service of his masters the Directors, obtained their approbation and favour, Mr. Hastings then contemptuously adds, "and for "the test of his abilities, I appeal to the letter "which he has dared to write to the Board, and "which I am ashamed to say, we have suffered.” Whatever that letter may be, I will venture to say there is not a word or syllable in it that tastes of such insolence and arbitrariness, with regard to the servants of the Company, his fellow

servants;

servants; of such audacious rebellion, with regard to the laws of his country, as are contained in this Minute of Mr. Hastings.

But, my Lords, why did he choose to have Mr. Middleton appointed Resident? Your Lordships have not seen Mr. Bristow. You have only heard of him as a humble suppliant, to have the orders of the Company obeyed: but you have seen Mr. Middleton. You know that Mr. Middleton is a good man to keep a secret: I describe him no further. You know what qualifications Mr. Hastings requires in a favourite; you also know why he was turned out of his employment, with the approbation of the Court of Directors; that it was principally because, when Resident in Oude, he positively, audaciously and rebelliously refused to lay before the Council the correspondence with the country powers. He says he gave it up to Mr. Hastings; whether he has or has not destroyed it we know not; all we know of it is that it is not found to this hour. We cannot even find Mr. Middleton's trunk, though Mr. Jonathan Scott did at last produce his. The whole of the Persian correspondence, during Mr. Middleton's residence, was refused, as I have said, to the Board at Calcutta and to the Court of Directors; was refused to the legal authorities; and Mr. Middleton, for that very refusal, was again appointed by Mr. Hastings to supersede

Mr.

Mr. Bristow, removed without a pretence of offence; he received, I say, this appointment from Mr. Hastings, as a reward for that servile compliance, by which he dissolved every tie between himself and his legal masters.

The matter being now brought to a simple issue, whether the Governour General is or is not bound to obey his superiors? I shall here leave it with your Lordships, and I have only to beg your Lordships will remark the course of events as they follow each other; keeping in mind that the Prisoner at your bar declared Mr. Bristow to be a man of suspected integrity, on account of his independence, and deficient in ability, because he did not know how best to promote his own interest.

I must here state to your Lordships, that it was the duty of the Resident to transact the money concerns of the Company, as well as its political negotiations; you will now see how Mr. Hastings divided that duty, after he became apprehensive that the Court of Directors might be inclined to assert their own authority, and to assert it in a proper manner, which they so rarely did. When, therefore, his passion had cooled, when his resentment of those violent indignities, which had been offered to him, namely, the indignity of being put in mind, that he had any superior VOL. XV. Y

under

under heaven (for I know of no other) he adopts the expedient of dividing the Residency into two offices; he makes a fair compromise between himself and the Directors. He appoints Mr. Middleton to the management of the money concerns, and Mr. Bristow to that of the political affairs. Your Lordships see, that Mr. Bristow, upon whom he had fixed the disqualification for political affairs, was the very person appointed to that department; and to Mr. Middleton, the man of his confidence, he gives the management of the money transactions. He discovers plainly where his heart was; for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. This private agent, this stifler of correspondence, a man whose costive retention discovers no secret committed to him, and whose slippery memory is subject to a diarrhoea, which permits every thing he did know to escape; this very man he places in a situation where his talents could only be useful for concealment, and where concealment could only be used to cover fraud; while Mr. Bristow, who was by his official engagement responsible to the Company for fair and clear accounts, was appointed superintendent of political affairs, an office for which Mr. Hastings declared he was totally unfit.

My Lords, you will judge of the designs which

the

the Prisoner had in contemplation, when he dared to commit this act of rebellion against the Company; you will see that it could not have been any other than getting the money transactions of Oude into his own hands. The presumption of a corrupt motive is here as strong as, I believe, it possibly can be.

The next point to which I have to direct your Lordships' attention, is that part of the Prisoner's conduct in this matter, by which he exposed the nakedness of the Company's authority to the native powers. You would imagine that after the first dismissal of Mr. Bristow, Mr. Hastings would have done with him for ever, that nothing could have induced him again to bring forward a man, who had dared to insult him, a man who had shewn an independent spirit, a man who had dishonoured the Council, and insulted his masters, a man of doubtful integrity, and convicted unfitness for office. But, my Lords, in the face of all this, he afterwards sends this very man, with undivided authority, into the country as sole Resident and now, your Lordships shall hear, in what manner he accounts for this appointment to Gobind Ram, the Vakeel or Ambassador of the Nabob Azoph ul Dowlah, at Calcutta. It is in page 795 of the printed Minutes.