We have proved upon your
minutes that Colonel Hannay was the only person possessed of power in
the country; that there was no magistrate in it, nor any administration
of the law whatever. We have proved to your Lordships that in his
character of farmer-general he availed himself of the influence derived
from commanding a battalion of soldiers. In short, we have proved that
the whole power, civil, military, municipal, and financial, resided in
him; and we further refer your Lordships to Mr. Lumsden and Mr. Halhed
for the authority which he possessed in that country. Your Lordships, I
am sure, will supply with your diligence what is defective in my
statement; I have therefore taken the liberty of indicating to you where
you are to find the evidence to which I refer. You will there, my Lords,
find this Colonel Hannay in a false character: he is ostensibly given to
the Nabob as a commander of his troops, while in reality he is forced
upon that prince as his farmer-general. He is invested with the whole
command of the country, while the sovereign is unable to control him, or
to prevent his extorting from the people whatever he pleases.
If we are asked what the terms of his farm were, we cannot discover that
he farmed the country at any certain sum.
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