I say, my Lords, this is a traitorous and
rebellious assumption, which he has no right to make, and which we
charge against him, and therefore it cannot be urged in justification of
his conduct in any respect.
He next alleges, with reference to one particular case, that he received
this sovereignty from the Vizier Sujah Dowlah, who he pretends was
sovereign, with an unlimited power over the life, goods, and property of
Cheyt Sing. This we positively deny. Whatever power the supreme
sovereign of the empire had, we deny that it was delegated to Sujah
Dowlah. He never was in possession of it. He was a vizier of the empire;
he had a grant of certain lands for the support of that dignity: and we
refer you to the Institutes of Timour, to the Institutes of Akbar, to
the institutes of the Mahometan law, for the powers of delegated
governors and viceroys. You will find that there is not a trace of
sovereignty in them, but that they are, to all intents and purposes,
mere subjects; and consequently, as Sujah Dowlah had not these powers,
he could not transfer them to the India Company. His master, the Mogul
emperor, had them not. I defy any man to show an instance of that
emperor's claiming any such thing as arbitrary power; much less can it
be claimed by a rebellious viceroy who had broken loose from his
sovereign's authority, just as this man broke loose from the authority
of Parliament.
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