He states it as a kind of constant practice, by which the country had been robbed under Mr. Hastings, known and acknowledged to be so, to seize upon the inheritance of the widow and the fatherless. In this manner did Gunga Govind Sing govern himself, upon the direct precedent of Cantoo Baboo, the banian of Mr. Hastings; and this other instrument of his in like manner calls upon government for favor of some kind or other, upon the same principle and the same precedent. Your Lordships now see how necessary it was to say something about arbitrary power. For, first, the wicked people of that country (Mr. Hastings's instruments, I mean) pretend right, title, purchase, grant; and when their frauds in all these legal means are discovered, then they fly off, and have recourse to arbitrary power, and say, "It is true I can make out no right, title, grant, or purchase; the parties are minors; I am bound to take care of their right: but you have arbitrary power; you have exercised it upon other occasions; exercise it upon this; give me the rights of other people." This was the last act, and I hope will be the last act, of Mr. Hastings's wicked power, done by the wickedest man in favor of the wickedest man, and by the wickedest means, which failed upon his own testimony. To bring your Lordships to the end of this business, which I hope will lead me very near to the end of what I have to trouble your Lordships with, I will now state the conduct of the Council, and the resolution about Gunga Govind Sing. I am to inform your Lordships that there was a reference made by the Council to the Committee of Revenue, namely, to Gunga Govind Sing himself,--a reference with regard to the right, title, mode, and proceeding, and many other circumstances; upon which the Committee, being such as I have described, very naturally were silent. Gunga Govind Sing _loquitur solus_,--in the manner you have just heard; the Committee were the chorus,--they sometimes talk, fill up a vacant part,--but Gunga Govind Sing was the great actor, the sole one. The report of this Committee being laid before the Council, Mr. Stables, one of the board, entered the following minute on the 15th of May, 1785. "I have perused the several papers upon this subject, and am sorry to observe that the Committee of Revenue are totally silent on the most material points therein, and sending the petition to them has only been so much time thrown away: I mean, on the actual value of the lands in question, what the amount derived from them has been in the last year, and what advantages or disadvantages to government by the sale, and whether, in their opinion, the supposed sale was compulsive or not. But it is not necessary for the discussion of the question respecting the regularity or irregularity of the pretended sale of Salbarry to Gunga Govind Sing, the dewan, to enter into the particular assertions of each party.