This history of this Dinagepore peshcush is the public one received by the Company, and which is entered upon the record,—­but not the private, and probably the true history of this corrupt transaction.

Very soon after this decision, very soon after this peshcush was given, we find all the officers of the young Rajah, who was supposed to have given it, turned out of their employment by Gunga Govind Sing,—­by the very man who received the peshcush for Mr. Hastings.  We find them all turned out of their employments; we find them all accused, without any appearance or trace in the records of any proof of embezzlement, of neglect in the education of the minor Rajah, of the mismanagement of his affairs, or the allotment of an unsuitable allowance.  And accordingly, to prevent the relations of his adopted mother, to prevent those who might be supposed to have an immediate interest in the family, from abusing the trust of his education and the trust of the management of his fortune, Gunga Govind Sing, (for I trust your Lordships would not suffer me, if I had a mind, to quote that tool of a thing, the Committee of Revenue, bought at 62,000_l._ a year,—­you would not suffer me to name it, especially when you know all the secret agency of bribes in the hand of Gunga Govind Sing,)—­this Gunga Govind Sing produces soon after another character, to whom he consigns the custody of the whole family and the whole province.

I will do Mr. Hastings the justice to say, that, if he had known there was another man more accomplished in all iniquity than Gunga Govind Sing, he would not have given him the first place in his confidence.  But there is another next to him in the country, whom you are to hear of by-and-by, called Debi Sing.  This person, in the universal opinion of all Bengal, is ranked next to Gunga Govind Sing; and, what is very curious, they have been recorded by Mr. Hastings as rivals in the same virtues.

                Arcades ambo,
    Et cantare pares, et respondere parati.

But Mr. Hastings has the happiest modes in the world:  these rivals were reconciled on this occasion, and Gunga Govind Sing appoints Debi Sing, superseding all the other officers for no reason whatever upon record.  And because, like champions, they ought to go in pairs, there is an English gentleman, one Mr. Goodlad, whom you will hear of presently, appointed along with him.  Absolute strangers to the Rajah’s family, the first act they do is to cut off a thousand out of sixteen hundred a month from his allowance.  They state (though there was a great number of dependants to maintain) that six hundred would be enough to maintain him.  There appears in the account of these proceedings to be such a flutter about the care of the Rajah, and the management of his household:  in short, that there never was such a tender guardianship as, always with the knowledge of Mr. Hastings, is exercised over this poor Rajah, who had just given (if he did give) 40,000_l._ for his own inheritance, if it was his due,—­for the inheritance of others, if it was not his due.  One would think he was entitled to some mercy; but, probably because the money could not otherwise be supplied, his establishment was cut down by Debi Sing and Mr. Goodlad a thousand a month, which is just twelve thousand a year.