Bristow, who was by his official engagement responsible to the Company
for fair and clear accounts, was appointed superintendent of political
affairs, an office for which Mr. Hastings declared he was totally unfit.
My Lords, you will judge of the designs which the prisoner had in
contemplation, when he dared to commit this act of rebellion against the
Company; you will see that it could not have been any other than getting
the money transactions of Oude into his own hands. The presumption of a
corrupt motive is here as strong as, I believe, it possibly can be.
The next point to which I have to direct your Lordships' attention is
that part of the prisoner's conduct, in this matter, by which he exposed
the nakedness of the Company's authority to the native powers. You would
imagine, that, after the first dismissal of Mr. Bristow, Mr. Hastings
would have done with him forever; that nothing could have induced him
again to bring forward a man who had dared to insult him, a man who had
shown an independent spirit, a man who had dishonored the Council and
insulted his masters, a man of doubtful integrity and convicted
unfitness for office. But, my Lords, in the face of all this, he
afterwards sends this very man, with undivided authority, into the
country as sole Resident.
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