Hastings's departure, to Mr. Macpherson, when
he succeeded to the government. That gentleman thus got possession of a
key to the trunk; and it appears to have been his intentions to follow
the steps of his predecessor, to act exactly in the same manner, and in
the same manner to make the Nabob the instrument of his own ruin. This
letter was written by the Nabob's minister to Sir John Macpherson, newly
inaugurated into his government, and who might be supposed not to be
acquainted with all the best of Mr. Hastings's secrets, nor to have had
all the trunk correspondence put into his hands. However, here is a
trunk extraordinary, and its contents are much in the manner of the
other. The Nabob's minister acquaints him with the whole secret of the
system. It is plain that the Nabob considered it as a system not to be
altered: that there was to be nothing true, nothing aboveboard, nothing
open in the government of his affairs. When you thus see that there can
be little doubt of the true nature of the government, I am sure that
hereafter, when we come to consider the effects of that government, it
will clear up and bring home to the prisoner at your bar all we shall
have to say upon this subject.
Mr. Hastings, having thrown off completely the authority of the Company,
as you have seen,--having trampled upon those of their servants who had
manifested any symptom of independence, or who considered the orders of
the Directors as a rule of their conduct,--having brought every
Englishman under his yoke, and made them supple and fit instruments for
all his designs,--then gave it to be understood that such alone were
fit persons to be employed in important affairs of state.
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