nature, were delegated to me by any provisions
of any act of Parliament, I confess myself too little of a lawyer to
pronounce. I only know that the acceptance of the sovereignty of
Benares, &c., is not acknowledged or admitted by any act of Parliament;
and yet, by the particular interference of the majority of the Council,
the Company is clearly and indisputably seized of that sovereignty." So
that this gentleman, because he is not a lawyer, nor clothed with those
robes which distinguish, and well distinguish, the learning of this
country, is not to know anything of his duty; and whether he was bound
by any, or what act of Parliament, is a thing he is not lawyer enough to
know! Now, if your Lordships will suffer the laws to be broken by those
who are not of the long robe, I am afraid those of the long robe will
have none to punish but those of their own profession. He therefore goes
to a law he is better acquainted with,--that is, the law of arbitrary
power and force, if it deserves to be called by the name of law. "If,
therefore," says he, "the _sovereignty_ of Benares, as ceded to us by
the Vizier, have _any rights whatever_ annexed to it, and be not a mere
empty word without meaning, those rights must be such as are held,
countenanced, and established by the law, custom, and usage of the Mogul
empire, and not by the provisions of any British act of Parliament
hitherto enacted. _Those rights_, and none other, I have been the
involuntary instrument of enforcing. And if any future act of Parliament
shall positively or by implication tend to annihilate those very rights,
or their exertion as I have exerted them, I much fear that the boasted
sovereignty of Benares, which was held up as an acquisition, almost
obtruded on the Company against my consent and opinion, (for I
acknowledge that even then I foresaw many difficulties and
inconveniences in its future exercise,)--I fear, I say, that this
sovereignty will be found a burden instead of a benefit, a heavy clog
rather than a precious gem to its present possessors: I mean, unless the
whole of our territory in that quarter shall be rounded and made an
uniform compact body by one grand and systematic arrangement.--such an
arrangement as shall do away all the mischiefs, doubts, and
inconveniences (both to the governors and the governed) arising from the
variety of tenures, rights, and claims in all cases of landed property
and feudal jurisdiction in India, from the informality