most confidential agent, but the most responsible, who is the fittest for the management of pecuniary trusts.  That man was the fittest at once to do the duty, and to remove all suspicions from the Governor-General’s character, whom, by not being of his appointment, he could not be supposed to favor for private purposes, who must naturally stand in awe of his inspection, and whose misconduct could not possibly be imputable to him.  Such an agency in a pecuniary trust was the very last on which Mr. Hastings ought to have risked his disobedience to the orders of the Direction,—­or, what is even worse for his motives, a direct contradiction to all the principles upon which he had attempted to justify that bold measure.

The conduct of Mr. Hastings in the affair of Mahomed Reza Khan was an act of disobedience of the same character, but wrought by other instruments.  When the Duanne (or universal perception, and management of the revenues) of Bengal was acquired to the Company, together with the command of the army, the Nabob, or governor, naturally fell into the rank rather of a subject than that even of a dependent prince.  Yet the preservation of such a power in such a degree of subordination, with the criminal jurisdiction, and the care of the public order annexed to it, was a wise and laudable policy.  It preserved a portion of the government in the hands of the natives; it kept them in respect; it rendered them quiet on the change; and it prevented that vast kingdom from wearing the dangerous appearance, and still more from sinking into the terrible state, of a country of conquest.  Your Committee has already reported the manner in which the Company (it must be allowed, upon pretences that will not bear the slightest examination) diverted from its purposes a great part of the revenues appropriated to the country government; but they were very properly anxious that what remained should be well administered.  In the lifetime of General Clavering and Colonel Monson, Mahomed Reza Khan, a man of rank among the natives, was judged by them the fittest person to conduct the affairs of the Nabob, as his Naib, or deputy:  an office well known in the ancient constitution of these provinces, at a time when the principal magistrates, by nature and situation, were more efficient.  This appointment was highly approved, and in consequence confirmed, by the Court of Directors.  Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell, however, thought proper to remove him.  To the authority of the Court of Directors they opposed the request of the Nabob, stating that he was arrived at the common age of maturity, and stood in no need of a deputy to manage his affairs.  On former occasions Mr. Hastings conceived a very low opinion of the condition of the person whom he thus set up against the authority of his masters.  “On a former occasion,” as the Directors tell him, “and to serve a very different purpose, he had not scrupled to declare it as visible as the sun that the Nabob was a mere pageant, without even the shadow of authority.”  But on this occasion he became more substantial.  Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell yielded to his representation that a deputy was not necessary, and accordingly Mahomed Reza Khan was removed from his office.