After he had ended this conflict with the Directors, and had entirely shook off their authority, he resolved that the native powers should know that they were not to look to the Court of Directors, but to look to his arbitrary will in all things; and therefore, to the astonishment of the world, and as if it were designedly to expose the nakedness of the Parliament of Great Britain, to expose the nakedness of the laws of Great Britain, and the nakedness of the authority of the Court of Directors to the country powers, he wrote a letter, which your Lordships will find in page 795 of the printed Minutes.  In this letter the secret of his government is discovered to the country powers.  They are given to understand, that, whatever exaction, whatever oppression or ruin they may suffer, they are to look nowhere for relief but to him:  not to the Council, not to the Court of Directors, not to the sovereign authority of Great Britain, but to him, and him only.

Before we proceed to this letter, we will first read to you the Minute of Council by which he dismissed Mr. Bristow upon a former occasion, (it is in page 507 of the printed Minutes,) that your Lordships may see his audacious defiance of the laws of the country.  We wish, I say, before we show you the horrible and fatal effects of this his defiance, to impress continually upon your Lordships’ minds that this man is to be tried by the laws of the country, and that it is not in his power to annihilate their authority and the authority of his masters.  We insist upon it, that every man under the authority of this country is bound to obey its laws.  This minute relates to his first removal of Mr. Bristow:  I read it in order to show that he dared to defy the Court of Directors so early as the year 1776.

“Resolved, That Mr. John Bristow be recalled to the Presidency from the court of the Nabob of Oude, and that Mr. Nathaniel Middleton be restored to the appointment of Resident at that court, subject to the orders and authority of the Governor-General and Council, conformably to the motion of the Governor-General.”

I will next read to your Lordships the orders of the Directors for his reinstatement, on the 4th of July, 1777.

“Upon the most careful perusal of your proceedings upon the 2d of December, 1776, relative to the recall of Mr. Bristow from the court of the Nabob of Oude, and the appointment of Mr. Nathaniel Middleton to that station, we must declare our strongest disapprobation of the whole of that transaction.  We observe that the Governor-General’s motion for the recall of Mr. Bristow includes that for the restoration of Mr. Nathaniel Middleton; but as neither of those measures appear to us necessary, or even justifiable, they cannot receive our approbation.  With respect to Mr. Bristow, we find no shadow of charge against him.  It appears that he has executed his trust to the entire satisfaction even of those members of the Council who did not concur in his appointment.