i
Khan, and before Lord Clive arrived, quitted for a while the scene in
which he had been so mischievously employed, and returned to England to
strengthen himself by those cabals which again sent him out with new
authority to pursue the courses which were the natural sequel to his
former proceedings. He returned to India with great power,
indeed,--first to a seat in Council at Fort St. George, and from thence
to succeed to the Presidency of Fort William. On him the Company placed
their chief reliance. Happy had it been for them, happy for India and
for England, if his conduct had been such as to spare your Lordships and
the Commons the exhibition of this day!

When this government, with Mr. Hastings at the head of it, was settled,
Moorshedabad did still continue the seat of the native government, and
of all the collections. Here the Company was not satisfied with placing
a Resident at the durbar, which was the first step to our assuming the
government in that country. These steps must be traced by your
Lordships; for I should never have given you this trouble, if it was not
necessary to possess you clearly of the several progressive steps by
which the Company's government came to be established and to supersede
the native. The next step was the appointment of supervisors in every
province, to oversee the native collector. The third was to establish a
general Council of Revenue at Moorshedabad, to superintend the great
steward, Mahomed Reza Khan. In 1772 that Council by Mr. Hastings was
overturned, and the whole management of the revenue brought to Calcutta.
Mahomed Reza Khan, by orders of the Company, was turned out of all his
offices, and turned out for reasons and principles which your Lordships
will hereafter see; and at last the dewanny was entirely taken out of
the native hands, and settled in the Supreme Council and Presidency
itself in Calcutta; and so it remained until the year 1781, when Mr.
Hastings made another revolution, took it out of the hands of the
Supreme Council, in which the orders of the Company, an act of
Parliament, and their own act had vested it, and put it into a
subordinate council: that is, it was entirely vested in himself.

* * * * *

Now your Lordships see the whole of the revolutions. I have stated them,
I trust, with perspicuity,--stated the grounds and principles upon which
they were made,--stated the abuses that grew upon them,--and that every
revoluti