I ought to have particularly marked for your Lordships' attention this
second era of clandestine correspondence between Mr. Hastings and Mr.
Markham. It commenced after Mr. Hastings had quitted Benares, and had
nothing to do with it but as Governor-General: even after his
extraordinary, and, as we contend, illegal, power had completely
expired, the same clandestine correspondence was carried on. He
apparently considered Benares as his private property; and just as a man
acts with his private steward about his private estate, so he acted with
the Resident at Benares. He receives from him and answers letters
containing a series of complaints against Durbege Sing, which began in
April and continued to the month of November, without making any public
communication of them. He never laid one word of this correspondence
before the Council until the 29th of November, and he had then
completely settled the fate of this Durbege Sing.
This clandestine correspondence we charge against him as an act of
rebellion; for he was bound to lay before the Council the whole of his
correspondence relative to the revenue and all the other affairs of the
country. We charge it not only as rebellion against the orders of the
Company and the laws of the land, but as a wicked plot to destroy this
man, by depriving him of any opportunity of defending himself before the
Council, his lawful judges.
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