When Mr. Hastings had appointed those persons to the guardianship who had an interest in the management of the Rajah’s education and fortune, one should have thought, before they were turned out, he would at least have examined whether such a step was proper or not.  No:  they were turned out without any such examination; and when I come to inquire into the proceedings of Gunga Govind Sing’s Committee, I do not find that the new guardians have brought to account one single shilling they received, appointed as they were by that council newly made to superintend all the affairs of the Rajah.  There is not one word to be found of an account:  Debi Sing’s honor, fidelity, and disinterestedness, and that of Mr. Goodlad, is sufficient; and that is the way in which the management and superintendence of one of the greatest houses in that country is given to the guardianship of strangers.  And how is it managed?  We find Debi Sing in possession of the Rajah’s family, in possession of his affairs, in the management of his whole zemindary; and in the course of the next year he is to give him in farm the whole of the revenues of these three provinces.  Now whether the peshcush was received for the nomination of the Rajah as a bribe in judgment, or whether Mr. Hastings got it from Debi Sing as a bribe in office, for appointing him to the guardianship of a family that did not belong to him, and for the dominion of three great and once wealthy provinces,—­(which is best or worst I shall not pretend to determine,)—­you find the Rajah in his possession; you find his education, his household, in his possession; the public revenues are in his possession; they are given over to him.

If we look at the records, the letting of these provinces appears to have been carried on by the new Committee of Revenue, as the course and order of business required it should.  But by the investigation into Mr. Hastings’s money transactions, the insufficiency and fallacy of these records is manifest beyond a doubt.  From this investigation it is discovered that it was in reality a bargain secretly struck between the Governor-General and Debi Sing, and that the Committee were only employed in the mere official forms.  From the time that Mr. Hastings new-modelled the revenue system, nothing is seen in its true shape.  We now know, in spite of the fallacy of these records, who the true grantor was:  it will not be amiss to go a little further in supplying their defects, and to inquire a little concerning the grantee.  This makes it necessary for me to inform your Lordships who Debi Sing is.

     [Mr. Burke read the Committee’s recommendation of Debi Sing to the
     Governor-General and Council; but the copy of the paper alluded to
     is wanting.]

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