But to proceed.—­Sir John D’Oyly says there, that the Nabob is reduced again to a cipher.  Now hear what he afterwards says.  “About the month of June, 1781, Mr. Hastings, being then at Moorshedabad, communicated to me his intention of performing his promise to the Nabob, by restoring him to the management of his own affairs,”—­that is to say, by restoring Munny Begum again, and by turning out Mahomed Reza Khan.  Your Lordships see that he communicated privately his intentions to Sir John D’Oyly, without communicating one word of them to his colleagues in the Supreme Council, and without entering any minute in the records of the Council, by which it could be known to the Directors.

Lastly, in order to show you in what manner the Nabob was to be restored to his power, I refer your Lordships to the order he gave to Sir John D’Oyly for investigating the Nabob’s accounts, and for drawing up articles of instructions for the Nabob’s conduct in the management of his affairs.  You will there see clearly how he was restored:  that is to say, that he was taken out of the hands of the first Mussulman in that country, the man most capable of administering justice, and whom the Company had expressly ordered to be invested with that authority, and to put him into the hands of Sir John D’Oyly.  Is Sir John D’Oyly a Mussulman?  Is Sir John D’Oyly fit to be at the head of such a government?  What was there that any person could see about him, that entitled him to or made him a fit person to be intrusted with this power, in defiance of the Company’s orders?  And yet Mahomed Reza Khan, who was to have the management of the Nabob’s affairs, was himself put under the most complete and perfect subjection to this Sir John D’Oyly.  But, in fact, Munny Begum had the real influence in everything.  Sir John D’Oyly himself was only Mr. Hastings’s instrument there to preserve it, and between them they pillaged the Nabob in the most shocking manner, and must have done so to the knowledge of Mr. Hastings.  A letter written at this time by Mr. Hastings to the Nabob discovers the secret beyond all power of evasion.

     Instructions from the Governor-General to the Nabob Mobarek ul
     Dowlah, respecting his Conduct in the Management of his Affairs.

“9th.  These I make the conditions of the compliance which the Governor-General and Council have yielded to your late requisition.  It is but just that you should possess what is your acknowledged right; but their intention would be defeated, and you would be in a worse situation, if you were to be left a prey, without a guide, until you have acquired experience, (which, to the strength and goodness of your understanding, will be the work but of a short period,) to the rapacity, frauds, and artifices of mankind.  You have offered to give up the sum of four lacs of rupees to be allowed the free use of the remainder of your stipend.  This we have refused, because it would be contrary to justice.  You should consider