ability and knowledge of business, with the following proviso,--"If he would submit to hold his office on such conditions as I require. He exists by his dependence on the influence of our government. It must be advisable to try him by the mode of conciliation; at the same time that in your _final conversation with him_ it will be necessary to declare to him, _in the plainest terms_, the footing and condition on which he shall be _permitted_ to retain his place, with the alternative of a dismission, and a scrutiny into his conduct, if he refuses it. In the first place, I will not receive from the Nabob, _as his_, letters dictated by _the spirit of opposition_; but shall consider every such attempt _as an insult on our government_. In the second place, I shall expect that _nothing_ is done in his official character but with your knowledge and participation." LIV. That the said Hastings having described, in the manner aforesaid, the relative situation of the Resident and the minister, he did state also the relative situation of the said minister and his master, the Nabob, declaring, "that the minister did hold _without control_ the unparticipated and entire administration, with all the powers annexed to that government,--_the Nabob being, as he ever must be in the hands of some person, a mere cipher in his_" (the minister's). And having thus stated the subordination of the minister to the Resident, and the subordination of the Nabob to the minister, he did naturally declare, "that the first share of the responsibility would rest upon the said Resident" And he did further declare, "that the other conditions did follow distinctly in their places, because he did _consider the Resident as responsible for them_." LV. That, for the direction of the Resident in the exercise of so critical a trust, wherein all the true and substantial powers of government were in an inverted relation and proportion to the official and ostensible authorities, and in which the said Hastings did suppose the necessity constantly existing for exercising an influence, and frequently for substituting _entirely_ the British authority "in the place of the avowed and constitutional government," he, the said Hastings, did properly leave to the Resident a discretionary power for his deviation from any part of his instructions,--interposing a caution for his security and direction, that, as much as he could, he would leave the subject free for his, the said Hastings's, correction of it, and would instantly inform him or the board, according to the degree of its importance, with his reasons for it.