Mr. Benfield, to secure the permanency of his power, and the perfection of his schemes, thought it necessary to render the Nabob an absolute stranger to the state of his affairs.  He assured his Highness that full justice was not done to the strength of his sentiments and the keenness of his attacks, in the translations that were made by the Company’s servants from the original Persian of his letters.  He therefore proposed to him that they should for the future be transmitted in English.—­Of the English language or writing his Highness or the Amir cannot read one word, though the latter can converse in it with sufficient fluency.  The Persian language, as the language of the Mahomedan conquerors, and of the court of Delhi, as an appendage or signal of authority, was at all times particularly affected by the Nabob.  It is the language of all acts of state, and all public transactions, among the Mussulman chiefs of Hindostan.  The Nabob thought to have gained no inconsiderable point, in procuring the correspondence from our predecessors to the Rajah of Tanjore to be changed from the Mahratta language, which that Hindoo prince understands, to the Persian, which he disclaims understanding.  To force the Rajah to the Nabob’s language was gratifying the latter with a new species of subserviency.  He had formerly contended with considerable anxiety, and, it was thought, no inconsiderable cost, for particular forms of address to be used towards him in that language.  But all of a sudden, in favor of Mr. Benfield, he quits his former affections, his habits, his knowledge, his curiosity, the increasing mistrust of age, to throw himself upon the generous candor, the faithful interpretation, the grateful return, and eloquent organ of Mr. Benfield!—­Mr. Benfield relates and reads what he pleases to his Excellency the Amir-ul-Omrah; his Excellency communicates with the Nabob, his father, in the language the latter understands.  Through two channels so pure, the truth must arrive at the Nabob in perfect refinement; through this double trust, his Highness receives whatever impression it may be convenient to make on him:  he abandons his signature to whatever paper they tell him contains, in the English language, the sentiments with which they had inspired him.  He thus is surrounded on every side.  He is totally at their mercy, to believe what is not true, and to subscribe to what he does not mean.  There is no system so new, so foreign to his intentions, that they may not pursue in his name, without possibility of detection:  for they are cautious of who approach him, and have thought prudent to decline, for him, the visits of the Governor, even upon the usual solemn and acceptable occasion of delivering to his Highness the Company’s letters. Such is the complete ascendency gained by Mr. Benfield. It may be partly explained by the facts observed already, some years ago, by Mr. Benfield himself, in regard to the Nabob, of the infirmities natural to his advanced age, joined to the decays of