"We come now to consider the great and important affairs of the dewannee, on which we shall give our sentiments with every objection that occurs to us. "When we consider that the barrier of the country government was entirely broken down, and every Englishman throughout the country armed with an authority that owned no superior, and exercising his power to the oppression of the helpless natives, who knew not whom to obey; at such a crisis, we cannot hesitate to approve your obtaining the dewannee for the Company. "When we look back to the system that Lord Clive and the gentlemen of the Select Committee found established, it presents to us a subah disarmed, with a revenue of almost two millions sterling, (for so much seems to have been left, exclusive of our demands on him,) at the mercy of our servants, who had adopted an unheard-of ruinous principle, of an interest distinct from the Company. This principle showed itself in laying their hands upon every thing they did not deem the Company's property. "In the province of Burdwan, the resident and his council took an annual stipend of near 80,000 rupees per annum from the Rajah, in addition to the Company's salary. This stands on the Burdwan accounts, and we fear was not the whole; for we apprehend it went further, and that they carried this pernicious principle even to the sharing with the Rajah of all he collected beyond the stipulated malguzary, or land revenue, overlooking the point of duty to the Company, to whom, properly, every thing belonged that was not necessary for the Rajah's support. It has been the principle, too, on which our servants have falsely endeavoured to gloss over the crime of their proceedings, on the accession of the present Subah; and we fear would have been soon extended to the grasping the greatest share of that part of the Nabob's revenues which was not allotted to the Company. In short, this principle was directly undermining the whole fabric; for whilst the Company were sinking under the burden of the war, our servants were enriching themselves from those very funds that ought to have supported the war. But to Lord Clive and our Select Committee we owe, that the Company are at last considered as principals in the advantages as well as dangers."