ppointment of Mahomed Reza Khan, you have heard
from my worthy fellow Manager that he was acquitted of the charges that
had been brought against him by Mr. Hastings, after a long and lingering
trial. The Company was perfectly satisfied with the acquittal, and
declared that he was not only acquitted, but honorably acquitted; and
they also declared that he had a fair claim to a compensation for his
sufferings. They not only declared him innocent, but meritorious. They
gave orders that he should be considered as a person who was to be
placed in office again upon the first occasion, and that he had entitled
himself to this favor by his conduct in the place which he had before
filled.

The Council of the year 1775, (whom I can never mention nor shall
mention without honor,) who complied faithfully with the act of
Parliament, who never disobeyed the orders of the Company, and to whom
no man has imputed even the shadow of corruption, found that this Munny
Begum had acted in the manner which my honorable fellow Manager has
stated: that she had dissipated the revenue, that she had neglected the
education of the Nabob, and had thrown the whole judicature of the
country into confusion. They ordered that she should be removed from her
situation; that the Nabob's own mother should be placed at the head of
the seraglio, a situation to which she was entitled; and with regard to
the rest of the offices, that Mahomed Reza Khan should be employed to
fill them.

Mr. Hastings resisted these propositions with all his might; but they
were by that happy momentary majority carried against him, and Mahomed
Reza Khan was placed in his former situation. But Mr. Hastings, though
thus defeated, was only waiting for what he considered to be the
fortunate moment for returning again to his corrupt, vicious,
tyrannical, and disobedient habits. The reappointment of Mahomed Reza
Khan had met with the fullest approbation of the Company; and they
directed, that, as long as his good behavior entitled him to it, he
should continue in the office. Mr. Hastings, however, without alleging
any ill behavior, and for no reason that can be assigned, but his
corrupt engagement with Munny Begum, overturned (upon the pretence of
restoring the Nabob to his rights) the whole of the Company's
arrangement, as settled by the late majority, and approved by the Court
of Directors.

I have now to show you what sort of a man the Nabob was, who was thus
set up in defiance of