General and Council."

This is the unanimous opinion of all the judges concerning the state and
condition of the Nabob. We have thus established the point we mean to
establish: that any use which shall be made of the Nabob's name for the
purpose of justifying any disobedience to the orders of the Company, or
of bringing forward corrupt and unfit persons for the government, could
be considered as no other than the act of the persons who shall make
such a use of it; and that no letter that the Nabob writes to any one in
power was or could be considered as any other than the letter of that
person himself. This we wish to impress upon your Lordships, because, as
you have before seen the use that has been made in this way of the Nabob
of Oude, you may judge of the use that has been made of the name of
Hyder Beg Khan, and of the names of all the eminent persons of the
country.

One word more and I have done. If, whilst you remark the use that is
made of this man's name, your Lordships shall find that this use has
ever been made of his name for his benefit, or for the purpose of giving
him any useful or substantial authority, or of meliorating his condition
in any way whatever; forgive the fraud, forgive the disobedience. But if
we have shown your Lordships that it was for no other purpose than to
disobey the orders of the Company, to trample upon the laws of his
country, to introduce back again, and to force into power, those very
corrupt and wicked instruments which had formerly done so much
mischief, and for which mischief they were removed, then we shall not
have passed our time in vain, in endeavoring to prove that this man, in
the opinion of a court of justice, and by public notoriety, and by Mr.
Hastings's own opinion, was held to be fit for nothing but to be made a
tool in his hands.

* * * * *

Having stated to your Lordships generally the effects produced upon the
Mahometan interest of Bengal by the misconduct of the prisoner at your
bar with respect to the appointment of the guardian of the Nabob or
Subahdar of that province, and of the ministers of his government, I
shall have the honor of attending your Lordships another day, and shall
show you the use that has been made of this government and of the
authority of the Nabob, who, as your Lordships have seen, was the mere
phantom of power; and I shall show how much a phantom he was for every
good purpose, and how effectual an instr