is deponent maketh oath, and saith, That the late President and
Council did, in or about the month of August, 1772, by their own
authority appoint Munny Begum, relict of the late Nabob, Mir
Jaffier Ali Khan, to be guardian to the present Nabob, Mobarek ul
Dowlah, and Rajah Gourdas, son of Maha Rajah Nundcomar, to be dewan
of the said Nabob's household, allowing to the said Munny Begum a
salary of 140,000 rupees per annum, and to the said Rajah Gourdas,
for himself and officers, a salary of 100,000 rupees per annum:
That the said late President and Council did, in or about the month
of August, 1772, plan and constitute regular and distinct courts of
justice, civil and criminal, by their own authority, for
administration of justice to the inhabitants throughout Bengal,
without consulting the said Nabob or requiring his concurrence, and
that the said civil courts were made solely dependent on the
Presidency of Calcutta; and the said criminal courts were put under
the inspection and control of the Company's servants, although
ostensibly under the name of the Nazim, as appears from the
following extracts from the plan for the administration of justice,
constituted by the President and Council as aforesaid."

My Lords, we need not go through all the circumstances of this
affidavit, which is in your minutes, and, to save time, I will refer
your Lordships to them. This affidavit, as I have already said, was put
into the court to prove that the Nabob had no power or authority at all;
but what is very singular in it, and which I recommend to the particular
notice of your Lordships, when you are scrutinizing this matter, is,
that there is not a single point stated, to prove the nullity of this
Nabob's authority, that was not Mr. Hastings's on particular act. Well,
the Governor-General swears; the judge of the court refers to him in his
decision; he builds and bottoms it upon the Governor-General's
affidavit;--he swears, I say, that the Council, by their own authority,
appointed Munny Begum to be guardian to the Nabob.

"By what authority," the Governor-General asks, "did the Council erect
courts of law and superintend the administration of justice, without any
communication with the Nabob? Had the Nabob himself any idea that he was
a sovereign? Does he complain of the reduction of his stipend or the
infringement of treaties? No; he appears to