The last of those
was dictated the 23rd December, 1778, almost two years past. They were
dictated at a time when, I am sorry to say, the Court of Directors were
in _the habit of casting reproach upon my conduct and heaping
indignities upon my station_."
Had the language and opinions which prevail throughout this part of the
minute, as well as in all the others to which your Committee refer, been
uttered suddenly and in a passion, however unprovoked, some sort of
apology might be made for the Governor-General. But when it was produced
five months after the supposed offence, and then delivered in writing,
which always implies the power of a greater degree of recollection and
self-command, it shows how deeply the principles of disobedience had
taken root in his mind, and of an assumption to himself of exorbitant
powers, which he chooses to distinguish by the title of "_his
prerogative_." In this also will be found an obscure hint of the cause
of his disobedience, which your Committee conceive to allude to the main
cause of the disorders in the government of India,--namely, an underhand
communication with Europe.
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