On the whole, your Committee conceive that all the parts of the
transaction, as they appear in the Company's records, are consistent,
and mutually throw light on each other.
The Court of Directors order the President and Council to appoint a
_minister_ to transact the _political_ affairs of the government, and to
_select_ for that purpose some person well qualified for the _affairs of
government_, and to be the _minister of government_. Mr. Hastings
selects for the minister so described and so qualified a woman locked up
in a seraglio. He is ordered to appoint a guardian to the Nabob's
minority. Mr. Hastings passes by his natural parent, and appoints
another woman. These acts would of themselves have been liable to
suspicion. But a great deficiency or embezzlement soon appears in this
woman's account. To exculpate herself, she voluntarily declares that she
gave a considerable sum to Mr. Hastings, who never once denies the
receipt. The account given by the principal living witness of the
transaction in his evidence is perfectly coherent, and consistent with
the recorded part.
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