That his learned counsel should be
ignorant of those things is a matter of course. That, if left to
himself, the person who has produced all this stuff should, in pursuit
of his darling arbitrary power, wander without a guide, or with false
guides, is quite natural. But your Lordships must have heard with
astonishment, that, upon points of law relative to the tenure of lands,
instead of producing any law document or authority on the usages and
local customs of the country, he has referred to officers in the army,
colonels of artillery and engineers, to young gentlemen just come from
school, not above three or four years in the country. Good God! would
not one rather have expected to hear him put all these travellers to
shame by the authority of a man who had resided so long in the supreme
situation of government,--to set aside all these wild, loose, casual,
and silly observations of travellers and theorists? On the contrary, as
if he was ignorant of everything, as if he knew nothing of India, as if
he had dropped from the clouds, he cites the observations of every
stranger who had been hurried in a palanquin through the country,
capable or incapable of observation, to prove to you the nature of the
government, and of the power he had to exercise.
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