He says he gave it
up to Mr. Hastings. Whether he has or has not destroyed it we know not;
all we know of it is, that it is not found to this hour. We cannot even
find Mr. Middleton's trunk, though Mr. Jonathan Scott did at last
produce his. The whole of the Persian correspondence, during Mr.
Middleton's Residence, was refused, as I have said, to the board at
Calcutta and to the Court of Directors,--was refused to the legal
authorities; and Mr. Middleton, for that very refusal, was again
appointed by Mr. Hastings to supersede Mr. Bristow, removed without a
pretence of offence; he received, I say, this appointment from Mr.
Hastings, as a reward for that servile compliance by which he dissolved
every tie between himself and his legal masters.
The matter being now brought to a simple issue, whether the
Governor-General is or is not bound to obey his superiors, I shall here
leave it with your Lordships; and I have only to beg your Lordships will
remark the course of events as they follow each other,--keeping in mind
that the prisoner at your bar declared Mr. Bristow to be a man of
suspected integrity, on account of his independence, and deficient in
ability, because he did not know how best to promote his own interest.
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