fficer, call him by what
name you please. This man, in fact, has all the revenue paid at the
Presidency at his disposal, and can, if he has any abilities, bring all
the renters under contribution. It is little advantage to restrain the
Committee themselves from bribery or corruption, when their executive
officer has the power of practising both undetected. To display the arts
employed by a native on such occasions would fill a volume. He discovers
the secret resources of the zemindars and renters, their enemies and
competitors; and by the engines of hope and fear, raised upon these
foundations, he can work them to his purpose. The Committee, with the
best intentions, best abilities, and steadiest application, must after
all be a tool in the hands of their dewan."

Your Lordships see what the opinion of the Council was of their own
constitution. You see for what it was made. You see for what purposes
the great revenue trust was taken from the Council-General, from the
supreme government. You see for what purposes the executive power was
destroyed. You have it from one of the gentlemen of this commission, at
first four in number, and afterwards five, who was the most active,
efficient member of it. You see it was made for the purpose of being a
tool in the hands of Gunga Govind Sing; that integrity, ability, and
vigilance could avail nothing; that the whole country might be laid
under contribution by this man, and that he could thus practise bribery
with impunity. Thus your Lordships see the delegation of all the
authority of the country, above and below, is given by Mr. Hastings to
this Gunga Govind Sing. The screen, the veil, spread before this
transaction, is torn open by the very people themselves who are the
tools in it. They confess they can do nothing; they know they are
instruments in the hands of Gunga Govind Sing; and Mr. Hastings uses his
name and authority to make them such in the hands of the basest, the
wickedest, the corruptest, the most audacious and atrocious villain ever
heard of. It is to him all the English authority is sacrificed, and four
gentlemen are appointed to be his tools and instruments. Tools and
instruments for what? They themselves state, that, if he has the
inclination, he has the power and ability to lay the whole country under
contribution, that he enters into the most minute secrets of every
individual in it, gets into the bottom of their family affairs, and has
a power totally to subve