n he was looking for a woman in the
seraglio, (for he could find women only there,) must have found actually
in authority there the Nabob's own mother: certainly a person who by
nature was most fit to be his guardian; and there is no manner of doubt
of her being sufficiently competent to that duty. Here, then, was a
legitimate wife of the Nabob Jaffier Ali Khan, a woman of rank and
distinction, fittest to take care of the person and interests, as far as
a woman could take care of them, of her own son. In this situation she
had been placed before, during the administration of Mahomed Reza Khan,
by the direct orders of the Governor, Sir John Cartier. She had, I say,
been put in possession of that trust which it was natural and proper to
give to such a woman. But what does Mr. Hastings do? He deposes this
woman. He strips her of her authority with which he found her invested
under the sanction of the English government. He finds out a woman in
the seraglio, called Munny Begum, who was bound to the Nabob by no tie
whatever of natural affection. He makes this woman the guardian of the
young Nabob's person. She had a son who had been placed upon the musnud
after the death of his father, Sujah Dowlah, and had been appointed his
guardian. This young Nabob died soon afterwards, and was succeeded by
Nujim ul Dowlah, another natural son of Sujah Dowlah. This prince being
left without a mother, this woman was suffered to retain the
guardianship of the Nabob till his death. When Mobarek ul Dowlah, a
legitimate son of Sujah Dowlah, succeeded him, Sir John Cartier did what
his duty was: he put the Nabob's own mother into the place which she was
naturally entitled to hold, the guardianship of her own son, and
displaced Munny Begum. The whole of the arrangement by which Munny Begum
was appointed guardian of the two preceding Nabobs stands in the
Company's records stigmatized as a transaction base, wicked, and
corrupt. We will read to your Lordships an extract from a letter which
has the signature of Mr. Sumner, the gentleman who sits here by the side
of Mr. Hastings, and from which you will learn what the Company and the
Council thought of the original nomination of Munny Begum and of her
son. You will find that they considered her as a great agent and
instrument of all the corruption there; and that this whole transaction,
by which the bastard son of Munny Begum was brought forward to the
prejudice of the legitimate son of the Nabob, was