l up a vacant
part,--but Gunga Govind Sing was the great actor, the sole one. The
report of this Committee being laid before the Council, Mr. Stables, one
of the board, entered the following minute on the 15th of May, 1785.

"I have perused the several papers upon this subject, and am sorry to
observe that the Committee of Revenue are totally silent on the most
material points therein, and sending the petition to them has only been
so much time thrown away: I mean, on the actual value of the lands in
question, what the amount derived from them has been in the last year,
and what advantages or disadvantages to government by the sale, and
whether, in their opinion, the supposed sale was compulsive or not. But
it is not necessary for the discussion of the question respecting the
regularity or irregularity of the pretended sale of Salbarry to Gunga
Govind Sing, the dewan, to enter into the particular assertions of each
party.

"The representations of the Rajah's agent, confirmed by the petitions of
his principal, positively assert the sale to have been compulsive and
violent; and the dewan as positively denies it, though the fears he
expresses, 'that their common enemies would set aside the act before it
was complete,' show clearly that they were sensible the act was
unjustifiable, if they do not tend to falsify his denial.

"But it is clearly established and admitted by the language and writings
of both parties, that there has been a most unwarrantable collusion in
endeavoring to alienate the rights of government, contrary to the most
positive original laws of the constitution of these provinces, 'that no
zemindar and other landholder, paying revenue to government, shall be
permitted to alienate his lands without the express authority of that
government.'

"The defence set up by Gunga Govind Sing does not go to disavow the
transaction; for, if it did, the deed of sale, &c., produced by himself,
and the petition to the board for its confirmation, would detect him: on
the contrary, he openly admits its existence, and only strives to show
that it was a voluntary one on the part of the Ranny and the servants of
the Rajah. Whether voluntary or not, it was equally criminal in Gunga
Govind Sing, as the public officer of government: because diametrically
opposite to the positive and repeated standing orders of that government
for the rule of his conduct, as dewan, and native guardian of the public
rights intrusted especially t