act.  He has the same sacred guardianship of minors that the Chancellor of England has.  This man got to himself those lands by a fraudulent, and probably forged deed,—­for that is charged too; but whether it was forged or not, this miserable minor was obliged to give the lands to him:  he did not dare to quarrel with him upon such an article; because he who would purchase could take.  The next step was to get one of his nearest relations to seem to give a consent; because taking it of the minor was too gross.  The relation, who could no more consent by the law of that country than the law of this, gave apparently his consent.  And these were the very lands that Mr. Hastings speaks of as “lands entirely at the disposal of government.”

All this came before the Council.  The moment Mr. Hastings was gone, India seemed a little to respire; there was a vast, oppressive weight taken off it, there was a mountain removed from its breast; and persons did dare then, for the first time, to breathe their complaints.  And accordingly, this minor Rajah got some person kind enough to tell him that he was a minor, that he could not part with his estate; and this, with the other shocking and illegal parts of the process, was stated by him to the Council, who had Mr. Hastings’s recommendation of Gunga Govind Sing before them.  The Council, shocked to see a minor attempted to be dispossessed in such a manner by him who was the natural guardian of all minors, shocked at such an enormous, daring piece of iniquity, began to inquire further, and to ask, “How came this his near relation to consent?” He was apparently partner in the fraud.  Partner in the fraud he was, but not partner in the profit; for he was to do it without getting anything for it:  the wickedness was in him, and the profit in Gunga Govind Sing.  In consequence of this inquiry, the man comes down to account for his conduct, and declares another atrocious iniquity, that shows you the powers which Gunga Govind Sing possessed.  “Gunga Govind Sing,” says he, “is master of the country; he had made a great festival for the burial of his mother; all those of that caste ought to be invited to the funeral festival; he would have disgraced me forever, if I had not been invited to that funeral festival.”  These funeral festivals, you should know, are great things in that country, and celebrated in this manner, and, you may depend upon it, in a royal manner by him, upon burying his mother:  any person left out was marked, despised, and disgraced.  “But he had it in his power, and I was threatened to be deprived of my caste by his register, who had the caste in his absolute disposition.”  Says he, “I was under terror, I was under duress, and I did it.”