Here, then, your Lordships see the state of the country in 1783. Your Lordships may trace the whole progress of these evils, step by step, from the death of Sujah ul Dowlah to the time of Mr. Hastings's obtaining a majority in the Council, after which he possessed the sole and uncontrolled management of the country; you have seen also the consequences that immediately followed till the year 1784, when he went up a second time into the country. I do not know, my Lords, that it is necessary to make any observation upon this state of things. You see that the native authority was, as we have proved, utterly extinguished by Mr. Hastings, and that there was no superintendent power but his. You have heard of the oppressions of the farmers of the revenues; and we have shown you that these farmers generally were English officers. We have shown you in what manner Colonel Hannay, one of these farmers sent by Mr. Hastings, acted, and particularly the accumulation of hostages which were made by him. We have shown you, that by their arbitrary and tyrannical proceedings all regular government was subverted, and that the country experienced the last and most dreadful effects of anarchy. We have shown you that no other security was left to any human being, but to intrench themselves in such forts as they could make, and that these forts, in one district only of the country, had increased in number to the amount of seven hundred. Your Lordships also know, that, when the prisons and mud forts in which Colonel Hannay kept his hostages confined were full, he kept them in uncovered cages in the open air. You know that all these farmers of revenue were either English and military men, or natives under an abject submission to them; you know that they had the whole country in assignments, that the jaghires were all confiscated for their benefits; and you find that the whole system had its origin at the time when Mr. Hastings alone formed in effect the authority of the Supreme Council. The weakness of the Nabob, as Sir Eyre Coote tells you, could not have been alone the cause of these evils, and that our influence over him, if not actually the cause of the utter ruin, desolation, and anarchy of that country, might have been successfully exerted in preventing.