That the then president and council, finding it necessary to make several reforms in the administration, were principally aided in the same by the suggestion, advice, and assistance of the said Mahomed Reza Khân; and, in their letter to the court of directors of the 24th of June 1767, they state their resolution of reducing the emoluments of office, which before had arisen from a variety of presents, and other perquisites, to fixed allowances; and they state the merits of Mahomed Reza Khân therein, as well as the importance, dignity, and responsibility of his station, in the following manner : 66 66 44 66 66 66 66 66 was reasonable we should not lose sight of Ma"homed Reza Khân's past services; he has pur"sued the company's interest with steadiness and diligence; his abilities qualify him to perform "the most important services. The unavoidable "charges of his particular situation are great; in dignity he stands second to the nabob only ;"and as he engages to encrease the revenues, "without injustice or oppression, to more than the amount of his salary, and to relinquish those advantages, to the amount of eight lacks of rupees per annum, which he heretofore enjoyed, we thought it proper, in the distribution of "salaries, to consider Mahomed Reza Khân in a light superiour to the other ministers. We have "only to observe further, that great and enormous as the sum must appear, which we have allotted "for the support of the ministers of the government, we will not hesitate to pronounce, that it is necessary and reasonable, and will appear so on "the consideration of the power, which men employed on these important services have, either "to obstruct or promote the publick good, unless "their integrity be confirmed by the ties of grati"tude and interest." 66 66 66 66 VII. That the said Mahomed Reza Khân continued, with the same diligence, spirit, and fidelity, to execute the trust reposed in him, which comprehended a large proportion of the weight of government, and particularly of the collections; and his attachment to the interest of the company, and his extensive knowledge, were again, in the course of the year 1767, fully acknowledged and stated to the court of directors: and it further appears, that by an incessant application to business his health was considerably impaired, which gave occasion in the year following, that is, in February 1768, to a fresh acknowledgment of his services in these terms: "we must, in justice to Mahomed "Reza Khân, express the high sense we entertain " of his abilities, and of the indefatigable attention "he has shewn in the execution of the important "trust reposed in him; and we cannot but lament "the prospect of losing his services from the pre VIII. "Mahomed Reza Khân has now of himself, "with great delicacy of honour, represented to us the evil consequences, that must ensue from the "continuance of this practice; since, by suffering the principal officers of the government to de"pend for the support of their dignity on the pre"carious fund of perquisites, they, in a manner, oblige them to pursue oppressive and corrupt measures, equally injurious to the country and "the company; and they accordingly assigned" sent declining state of his health." "twelve lacks of rupees for the maintenance and support of the said Mahomed Reza Khân, and "two other principal persons, who held in their "hands the most important employments of that government; having regard to their elevated "stations, and to the expediency of supporting "them in all the shew and parade requisite to keep "up the authority and influence of their respective offices, as they are all men of weight and con"sideration in the country, who held places of "great trust and profit under the former government. We further propose, by this act of generosity, to engage their cordial services, and "confirm them steady in our interests, since they "cannot hope, from the most successful ambition, "to rise to greater advantages by any chance "or revolution of affairs. At the same time it That as in the encrease of the revenue the said Mahomed Reza Khân was employed as a person likely to improve the same without detriment to the people, so, when the state of any province seemed to require a remission, he was employed as a person disposed to the relief of the people, without fraud to the revenue; and this was expressed by the president and council as follows, with relation to the remissions granted in the province of Bahar; "that the general knowledge of Mahomed "Reza Khân, in all matters relative to the Duan That the said Mahomed Reza Khân, in the execution of the said great and important trusts and powers, was not so much as suspected of an ambitious or encroaching spirit, which might make him dangerous to the company's, then recent, authority, or which might render his precedence injurious to the consideration due to his colleagues in office; but, on the contrary, it appears, that a plan having been adopted for dividing the administration, in order to remove the nabob's jealousies, the same was in danger of being subverted by the ambition" of two of his colleagues, and the exces"sive moderation of Mahomed Reza Khan." And for a remedy of the inconveniencies, which might arise from the excess of an accommodating temper, though attended with irreproachable integrity, the president and council did send one of their own members, as their deputy, to the nabob of Bengal at his capital of Muxadavad; and this measure appears to have been adopted for the support of Mahomed Reza Khân, in consequence of an enquiry made, and advice given, by Lord Clive, in his letter of the 3d of July 1765; in which letter he expresses himself of the said Mahomed Reza Khân as follows: "it is with pleasure I can acquaint you, that the more I see of Mahomed Reza Khán, the stronger is my conviction of his "honour and moderation; but that, at the same "time, I cannot help observing, that either from timidity, or an erroneous principle, he is too ready to submit to encroachments upon that proportion of power, that has been allotted "him." 66 66 X. That the nabob Jaffier Ali Khân dying in February 1765, Mahomed Reza Khân was appointed guardian to his children, and administrator of his office, or regent, which appointment the court of directors did approve. But the party opposite to Mahomed Reza Khân having continued to cabal against him, sundry accusations were framed relative to oppression at the time of the famine, and for a balance due during his employment of collector of the revenues; upon which the directors did order him to be deprived of his office; and a strict enquiry to be made into his conduct. XI. That the said Warren Hastings, then lately appointed to the presidency, did, on the 1st of April, and on the 24th of September 1772, write letters to the court of directors, informing them, that on the very next day after he had received (as he asserts) their private orders," addressed to himself alone," and not to the board, he did dispatch, by express messengers, his orders to Mr. Middleton, the resident at the nabob's court at Muxadavad, in a publick character and trust with the nabob, to arrest in his capital, and at his court, and without any previous notice given of any charge, his principal minister, the aforesaid Mahomed Reza Khan, and to bring him down to Calcutta; and he did carefully conceal his said proceedings from the knowledge of the board, on pretext of his not being acquainted with their dispositions, and the influence which he thought that the said Mahomed Reza Khân had amongst them. XII. That the said Warren Hastings, at the time he gave his orders as aforesaid for arresting the said Mahomed Reza Khân, did not take any measures to compel the appearance of any other persons as witnesses, declaring it as his opinion, "that there "would be little need of violence to obtain such "intelligence as they could give against their "former master, when his authority is taken from him;" but he did afterwards, in excuse for the long detention and imprisonment of the said Mahomed Reza Khân, without any proofs having been obtained of his guilt, or measures taken to bring him to a trial, assure the directors, in direct contradiction to his former declaration," that the "influence of Mahomed Reza Khân still pre"vailed generally throughout the country, in "the nabob's household, and at the capital, and "was scarcely affected by his present disgrace," notwithstanding, as he, the said Hastings, doth confess, he had used his utmost endeavours" to break that influence, by removing his "dependants, and putting the direction of all "the affairs, that had been committed to his care, "into the hands of the most powerful or active of "his enemies; that he depended on the activity "of their hatred to Mahomed Reza Khân, incited That although it might be true, that enemies will become the most active prosecutors, and as such may, though under much guard and many precautions, be used even as witnesses; and that it ought not to be an exception, supposing their character and capacity otherwise good, to the appointing them to power; yet to advance persons to power on the ground not of their honour and integrity, which might have produced the enmity of bad men, but merely for the enmity itself, without any reference whatsoever to a lauda ble cause, and even with a declared ill opinion of the morals of one of the party, such as was actually delivered in the said letter by him, the said Hastings, of Nundcomar, (and which, time has shewn, he might also on good ground have conceived of others,) was, in the circumstances of a criminal enquiry, a motive highly disgraceful to the honour of government, and destructive of impartial justice, by holding out the greatest of all possible temptation to false accusation, to corrupt and factious conspiracies, to perjury, and to every species of injustice and oppression. XIV. That the council general, established by act of parliament in the year 1773, did restore the said Mahomed Reza Khân, with the consent and approbation of the nabob, (but under a protest from the said Warren Hastings,) to his liberty, and to his offices, according to the spirit of the orders. given by the court of directors as aforesaid; and the court of directors did approve of the said appointment, and did assure the said Mahomed Reza Khân of their favour and protection, as long as his conduct should merit the same, in the following terms; as "the abilities of Mahomed "Reza Khân have been sufficiently manifested; as "official experience qualifies him for so high a "station in a more eminent degree than any other "native with whom the company has been connect"ed; and as no proofs of maleadministration have "been established against him, either during the "strict investigation of his conduct, or since his "retirement, we cannot under all circumstances "but approve your recommendation of him to "the nabob to constitute him his naib. We are That in consequence of the aforesaid motives, and others pretended, which were by no means a sufficient justification to the said Warren Hastings, he did appoint the woman aforesaid, called Munny Begum, who had been of the lowest and most discreditable order in society, according to the ideas prevalent in India, but from whom he received several sums of money, to be guardian to the nabob in preference to his own mother, and to administer the affairs of the government in the place of the said Mahomed Reza Khân, the second Mussulman in rank after the nabob, and the first in knowledge, gravity, weight, and character, among the Mussulmen of that province. And in order to try every method, and to take every chance for his destruction, the said Warren Hastings did maliciously and oppressively keep him under confinement, for a part of the time, without any enquiry, and after-"well pleased, that he has received that appointwards, with a slow and dilatory trial, for two "ment, and authorize you to assure him of our years together. favour, so long as a firm attachment to the in"terest of the company, and a proper discharge "of the duties of his station, shall render him worthy of our protection." And the said Mahomed Reza Khan did continue to execute the same without any complaint whatsoever of malversation or negligence, in any manner or degree, in his said office. XV. That notwithstanding a total revolution in the power, in part avowedly made for his destruction, the persons appointed for his trial did, on full enquiry, completely acquit the said Mahomed Reza Khân of the criminal charges against him, on account of which he had been so long persecuted and confined, and suffered much in mind, body, and fortune; and the court of directors, in their letter of the 3d of March 1775, testify their satisfaction in the conduct and result of the said enquiry, and did direct the restoration of the said Mahomed Reza Khân to liberty, and to the offices, which he had lately held, which comprehended the management of the nabob's household, and the general superintendency of the justice of Bengal; but according to the orders of the court of directors, his appointments were reduced to thirty thousand pounds a year, or thereabouts, of which he did make grievous complaint on account of the expences attendant on his station, and the heavy debts, which he had been obliged to contract during his unjust persecution and imprisonment aforesaid. XVI. That on the removal of the said Mahomed Reza Khân from the superintendency of the criminal | 66 66 declared his opinion, " that our national character is concerned in the character, which the nabob may obtain in the publick opinion," on obtaining a majority in council, without any complaint, real or pretended, remove the said Mahomed Reza from all his offices, and did partition his salary as a spoil in the following manner :-to Munny Begum, the dancing-girl aforesaid, an additional allowance of seventy-two thousand rupees [£.7,200] a year; to the nabob's own mother but half that sum, that is to say, 36,000 rupees [£.3,600] a year; to Rajah Gourdas, son of Nundcomar, (whom he had described as a weak young man,) 72,000 rupees [£.7,200] a year, as controuler of the household; and to a magistrate, called Sudder ul Hock, who in real subserviency to the said Munny Begum was nominally to act in the department of criminal justice, 78,000 rupees [£.7,800] a year; the total of which allowances exceeding the salary of Mahomed Reza Khân by 18,000 rupees [£.1,800] yearly, he did, for the corrupt and scandalous purposes aforesaid, order the same to be made up from the company's treasury. XIX. That, in a subsequent letter to the governour, the said superintendent of justice did inform him, the said Warren Hastings, of the audacious and corrupt manner, in which by violence, fraud, and forgery, the eunuchs of Munny Begum had abused the nabob's name, to deprive the judicial and executory officers of justice of the salaries, which they ought to have drawn from the company's treasury, in the following words:-"The begum's ministers, "before my arrival, with the advice of their coun"sellors, caused the nabob to sign a receipt, in consequence of which they received, at two dif"ferent times, near 50,000 rupees [£.5,000] in "the name of the officers of the adawlut, fousdary, &c. from the company's circars; and "having drawn up an account-current in the manner they wished, they had got the nabob to sign it, and sent it to me." And in the same letter he asserts," that these people had the nabob entirely in their power." 66 That Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler having moved, that the execution of the aforesaid arrangement, the whole expence of which, ordinary and extraordinary, was charged upon the company's treasury, and therefore could not be even colourably disposed" of at the pretended will of the said nabob, might be suspended until the pleasure of the court of directors thereon should be known; and the same being resolved agreeably to law by a majority of the council then present, the said Hastings, urging on violently the immediate execution of his corrupt project, and having obtained, by the return of Richard Barwell, Esquire, a majority in council in his own casting vote, did rescind the aforesaid resolution, and did carry into immediate execution the aforesaid most unwarrantable, mischievous, and scandalous design. XX. XXII. That the said Warren Hastings, upon this representation, did, notwithstanding his late pretended opinion of the fitness and the right of the nabob to the sole administration of his own affairs, authoritatively forbid him from any interference therein, and ordered, that the whole should be left to the magistrate aforesaid; to which the nabob did, notwithstanding his pretended independence, yield an immediate and unreserved submission; for the said Hastings's order being given on the first of September at Calcutta, he received an answer from Muxadavad on the third, in the following terms : "all concern with the affairs of the fousdary "and adawlut, leaving the entire management "in Judder ul Hock's hands." Which said circumstance, as well as many others, abundantly proves, that all the nabob's actions were in truth and fact entirely governed by the influence of the said Hastings; and that however the said Hastings may have publickly discouraged the corrupt transactions of the said court, yet he did secretly uphold the authority and influence of Munny Begum, who did entirely direct, with his knowledge and countenance, all the proceedings therein. For That the consequences, which might be expected" Agreeably to your pleasure I have relinquished from such a plan of administration, did almost instantly flow from it. For the person appointed to execute one of the offices, which had been filled by Mahomed Reza Khân, did soon find, that the eunuchs of Munny Begum began to employ their power with superiority and insolence in all the concerns of government, and the administration of justice, and did endeavour to dispose of the offices relative to the same for their corrupt purposes, and to rob the nabob's servants of their due allowances; and in his letter of the 1st September 1778, he sent a complaint to the board, stating, " that certain "bad men had gained an ascendency over the "nabob's temper, by whose instigation he acts." And after complaining of the slights he received from the nabob, he adds, "thus they cause the "nabob to treat me, sometimes with indignity, at XXIII. That on the 13th of the same month of September he did receive a further complaint of the cor 66 another occasion he had requested him to permit to remain in the hands which then held them) into his own disposal; telling him, or rather the woman and eunuchs, who governed him, “that if his Excellency has any plan for the manage"ment of the affairs in future, be pleased to com"municate it to me, and every attention shall be paid to give your Excellency satisfaction." By which means not only particular parts, as before, but the whole system of justice, was to be afloat, and to be subject to the purposes of the aforesaid corrupt cabal of women and eunuchs. 66 XXV. That the court of directors, on receiving an account of the above arrangements, and being well apprized of the spirit, intention, and probable effect of the same, did, in a clear, firm, and decisive manner, express their condemnation of the measure, and their rejection and reprobation of all the pretended grounds and reasons, on which the same was supported; marking distinctly his prevarication and contradictions in the same, and pointing to him their full conviction of the unworthy motives, on which he had made so shameful an arrangement; telling him, in the 17th paragraph of their general letter, of the 4th of February 1779, "the nabob's letters of the 25th and 30th "of August, of the 3d of September, and 17th of November, leave us no doubt of the true design of this extraordinary business being to bring "forward Munny Begum, and again to invest "her with improper power and influence, notwithstanding our former declaration, that so great rupt and fraudulent practices of the chief eunuch of the said Munny Begum; and these corrupt practices did so continue and encrease, that on the 10th of October 1778 he was obliged to confess, in the strongest terms, the pernicious consequences of his before-created, unwarrantable, and illegal arrangements; for, in a letter of that date to the nabob, he expresses himself as follows: "At your Excellency's request, I send Sudder ul Hock "Khân to take on him the administration of the af"fairs of the adawlut and fouzdary, and hoped by "that means not only to have given satisfaction to your Excellency, but that, through his abilities "and experience, these affairs would have been "conducted in such manner as to have secured "the peace of the country, and the happiness of "the people; and it is with the greatest concern I learn, that this measure is so far from being at"tended with the expected advantages, that the "affairs both of the fouzdary and adawlut are "in the greatest confusion imaginable, and daily "robberies and murders are perpetrated through❝out the country. This is evidently owing to the "want of a proper authority in the person appointed to superintend them. I therefore ad"dressed your Excellency on the importance and delicacy of the affairs in question, and of the necessity of lodging full power in the hands of the person chosen to administer them; in reply to "which your Excellency expressed sentiments co"incident with mine; notwithstanding which, "your dependants and people, actuated by selfish" "and avaricious views, have by their interference so impeded the business, as to throw the "whole country into a state of confusion; from "which nothing can retrieve it but an unlimited power lodged in the hands of the superinten"dent. I therefore request, that your Excellency "will give the strictest injunctions to all your dependants not to interfere in any manner with any matter relative to the affairs of the adawlut "and fouzdary; and that you will yourself relinquish all interference therein, and leave them "entirely to the management of Sudder ul Hock “Khân: this is absolutely necessary to restore "the country to a state of tranquillity." And he concluded by again recommending the nabob to withdraw all interference with the administrator aforesaid; "otherwise a measure, which I adopt"ed at your Excellency's request, and with a view "to your satisfaction, and the benefit of the country, will be attended with quite contrary effects, " and bring discredit on me.' 66 66 XXIV. That the said Hastings, in the letter aforesaid, in which he so strongly condemns the acts, and so clearly marks out the mischievous effects of the corrupt influence, under which alone the nabob acted, and under which alone, from his known incapacity, and his dependence on the person supported by the said Hastings, he could act, did propose to put all the offices of justice (which on 66 66 66 a part of the nabob's allowance had been em"bezzled and misapplied under her superintend"ence." XXVI. That in consequence of the censure and condemnation of the unwarrantable measures of the said Warren Hastings by the court of directors, on the aforesaid and other weighty and substantial grounds, they did order and direct as follows, in the 20th paragraph of the general letter of the same date: "As we deem it for the welfare of "the country, that the office of naib soubadar "be for the present continued, and that this high "office should be filled by a person of wisdom, "experience, and of approved fidelity to the com66 pany; and as we have no reason to alter the opinion given of Mahomed Reza Khân, in our "letter of the 24th December 1776, we positively |