Matters of account cannot be made
too public; and it is not the most confidential agent, but the most
responsible, who is the fittest for the management of pecuniary trusts.
That man was the fittest at once to do the duty, and to remove all
suspicions from the Governor-General's character, whom, by not being of
his appointment, he could not be supposed to favor for private purposes,
who must naturally stand in awe of his inspection, and whose misconduct
could not possibly be imputable to him. Such an agency in a pecuniary
trust was the very last on which Mr. Hastings ought to have risked his
disobedience to the orders of the Direction,--or, what is even worse for
his motives, a direct contradiction to all the principles upon which he
had attempted to justify that bold measure.
The conduct of Mr. Hastings in the affair of Mahomed Reza Khan was an
act of disobedience of the same character, but wrought by other
instruments. When the Duanne (or universal perception, and management of
the revenues) of Bengal was acquired to the Company, together with the
command of the army, the Nabob, or governor, naturally fell into the
rank rather of a subject than that even of a dependent prince.
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