Markham. The government, therefore, was taken completely and
entirely out of the hands of the person who had a legal right to
administer it,--out of the hands of his guardians,--out of the hands of
his mother,--out of the hands of his nearest relations,--and, in short,
of all those who, in the common course of things, ought to have been
intrusted with it. From all such persons, I say, it was taken: and
where, my Lords, was it deposited? Why, in the hands of a man of whom we
know nothing, and of whom we never heard anything, before we heard that
Mr. Markham, of his own usurped authority, authorized by the usurped
authority of Mr. Hastings, without the least communication with the
Council, had put him in possession of that country.
Mr. Markham himself, as I have just said, administered the revenues
alone, without the smallest authority for so doing, without the least
knowledge of the Council, till Jagher Deo Seo was appointed Naib. Did he
then give up his authority? No such thing. All the measures of Jagher
Deo Seo's government were taken with the concurrence and joint
management of Mr. Markham. He conducted the whole; the settlements were
made, the leases and agreements with farmers all regulated by him. I
need not tell you, I believe, that Jagher Deo Seo was not a person of
very much authority in the case: your Lordships would laugh at me, if I
said he was.
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