voice in the Council he counterorders the orders of the Court of Directors, and sanctions a direct disobedience to their authority, by a resolution that Mahomed Reza Khan should not be restored to his employment, but that this Sudder ul Hoe Khan, who still continued in the condition already described, should remain in the possession of his office. I say nothing of Sudder ul Hoe Khan; he seems to be very well disposed to do his duty, if Mr. Hastings's arrangements had suffered him to do it; and indeed if Mahomed Reza Khan had been reinstated and no better supported by Mr. Hastings than Sudder ul Hoe Khan, he could, probably, have kept the country in no better order, though perhaps his name and the authority and weight which still adhered to him in some degree, might have had some influence.

My Lords, you have seen his defiance of the Company; you have seen his defiance of all decency; you see his open protection of pros. titutes and robbers of every kind ravaging Bengal; you have seen this defiance of the authority of the Court of Directors, flatly, directly and peremptorily persisted in, to the last. Order after order was reiterated, but his disobedience arose with an elastick spring in proportion to the pressure that was upon it.

My Lords, here there was a pause. The
Directors

Directors had been disobeyed; and you might suppose that he would have been satisfied with this act of disobedience. My Lords, he was resolved to let the Native governments of the country know that he despised the orders of the Court of Directors, and that, whenever he pretended to obey them, in reality he was resolved upon the most actual disobedience. An event now happened, the particulars of which we are not to repeat here: disputes conducted on Mr. Francis's side, upon no other principle, that we can discover, but a desire to obey the Company's orders, and to execute his duty with fidelity and disinterestedness, had arisen between him and Mr. Hastings. Mr. Francis, about the time we have been speaking of, finding resistance was vain, reconciles himself to him; but on the most honourable terms as a public inan, namely, that he should continue to follow and obey the laws, and to respect the authority of the Court of Directors. Upon this reconciliation it was agreed, that Mahomed Reza Khan should be restored to his office. For this Mr. purpose Hastings enters a Minute, and writes to the Nabob an ostensible letter. But your Lordships will here see an instance of what I said, respecting a double current in all Mr. Hastings's proceedings. Even when he obeys or pretends to obey the Company's orders, there is always

1

always a private channel through which he defeats them all.

Letter from Mr. Hastings to the Nabob Mobarick ul Dowlah, written the 10th of February 1780.-"The Company, whose orders are pe"remptory, have directed that Mahomed Reza "Khan shall be restored to the offices he held "in January 1778; it is my duty to represent "this to your Excellency, and to recommend "your compliance with their request, that Ma"homed Reza Khan may be invested with the "offices assigned to him under the Nizamut by "the Company."

Your Lordships see here that Mr. Hastings informs the Nabob, that having received peremptory orders from the Company, he restores and replaces Mahomed Reza Khan. Mahomed Reza Khan then is in possession; and in possession by the best of all titles, the orders of the Company. But you will also see the manner in which he evades his duty, and vilifies in the eyes of these miserable country powers, the authority of the Directors. He is prepared, as usual, with a defeasance of his own act, and the manner in which that defeasance came to our knowledge is this. We know nothing of this private affair till Mr. Hastings, in his answer before the House of Commons, finding it necessary to destroy the validity of some of his own acts, brought forward

Sir

Sir John D'Oyley. He was brought forward before us, not as a witness in his own person, for the defence of Mr. Hastings, but as a narrator who had been employed by Mr. Hastings as a member of that Council, which, as you have heard, drew up his defence. My Lords, you have already seen the publick agency of this business, you have heard read the publick letter sent to the Nabob; there you see the ostensible part of the transaction. Now hear the banyan, Sir John D'Oyley, give an account of his part in it, extracted from Mr. Hastings's defence before the House of Commons.

"I was appointed Resident [at the court of the Nabob,] on the resignation of Mr. Byam "Martin, in the month of January 1780, and "took charge about the beginning of February "of the same year. The substance of the in"structions I received, was to endeavour, by

every means in my power, to conciliate the

good opinion and regard of the Nabob and "his family, that I might be able to persuade "him to adopt effectual measures for the better "regulation of his expenses, which were under"stood to have greatly exceeded his income; "that I might prevent his forming improper "connections, or taking any steps derogatory to "his rank; and by every means in my power "support his credit and dignity in the eyes of

"the

"the world; and with respect to the various "branches of his family, I was instructed to en"deavour to put a stop to the dissensions which "had too frequently prevailed amongst them; "the Nabob on his part was recommended to

pay the same attention to my advice, as he "would have done to that of the Governour "General in person. Sometime, I think, in "the month of February of the same year, I re"ceived a letter from Mr. Hastings, purport"ing that the critical situation of affairs re

quiring the union and utmost exertion of every "member of the government, to give vigour "to the acts necessary for its relief, he had "agreed to an accommodation with Mr. Francis; "but to effect this point he had been under the "necessity of making some painful sacrifices, "and particularly that of the restoration of "Mahomed Keza Khan to the office of Naib "Soubah, a measure which he knew must be

66

highly disagreeable to the Nabob; and which "nothing but the urgent necessity of the case "should have led him to acquiesce in; that he "relied on me to state all these circumstances "in the most forcible manner to the Nabob, "and to urge his compliance; assuring him that "it should not continue longer than until the "next advices were received from the Court of "Directors."

Here