e, in his said office.

XVIII. That in March, 1778, the said Warren Hastings, under color that
the Nabob had completed his twentieth year, and had desired to be placed
in the entire and uncontrolled management of his own affairs, and that
Mahomed Reza Khan should be removed from his office, and that Munny
Begum, his step-mother, the dancing-girl aforesaid, "should take on
herself the management of the _nizamut_ [the government and general
superintendency of criminal justice] without the interference of any
person whatsoever," and notwithstanding the contradictions in the
pretended applications from the Nabob, with whose incapacity for all
affairs he was well acquainted, did, in defiance of the orders of the
Court of Directors, and without regard to the infamy of an arrangement
made for the evident and declared purpose of delivering not only the
family with the prince, but the government and justice of a great
kingdom, into such insufficient, corrupt, and scandalous hands, and
though he has declared his opinion "that our national character is
concerned in the character which the Nabob may obtain in the public
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
72,000 rupees (7,200_l._) a year; to the Nabob's own mother but half
that sum, that is to say, 36,000 rupees (3,600_l._) a year; to Rajah
Gourdas, son of Nundcomar, (whom he had described as a weak young man,)
72,000 rupees (7,200_l._) a year, as controller 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_l._) a year: the total of which allowances
exceeding the salary of Mahomed Reza Khan by 18,000 rupees (1,800_l._)
yearly, he did, for the corrupt and scandalous purposes aforesaid, order
the same to be made up from the Company's treasury.

XIX. That Mr. Francis and Mr. Wheler having moved that the execution of
the aforesaid arrangement, the whole expense of which, ordinary and
extraordinary, was charged upon the Company's treasury, and therefore
could not be even colorably disposed of at the pretended will of the
said Nabob, might be suspended until the pleasure of the Court of
Directors thereon should