Mr.Warren Hastings, a young gentleman about twenty-seven years of age, was Resident for the Company at the durbar, or court, of Mir Jaffier, our new-created Nabob of Bengal, allied to this country by the most solemn treaties that can bind men; for which treaties he had paid, and was then paying, immense sums of money.

Mr.
Warren Hastings was the pledge in his hands for the honor of the British nation, and their fidelity to their engagements.
In this situation, Mr.Holwell, whom the terrible example of the Black Hole at Calcutta had not cured of ambition, thought an hour was not to be lost in accomplishing a revolution and selling the reigning Nabob.
My Lords, there was in the house of Mir Jaffier, in his court, and in his family, a man of an intriguing, crafty, subtle, and at the same time bold, daring, desperate, bloody, and ferocious character, called Cossim Ali Khan.

He was the son-in-law of Mir Jaffier; and he made no other use of this affinity than to find some means to dethrone and to murder him.
This was the person in whose school of politics Mr.Hastings made his first studies, and whose conduct he quotes as his example, and for whose friends, agents, and favorites he has always shown a marked predilection.

This dangerous man was not long without finding persons who observed his talents with admiration, and who thought fit to employ him.
The Council at Calcutta was divided into two departments: one, the Council in general; the other a Select Committee, which they had arranged for the better carrying on their political affairs.

But the Select Committee had no power of acting wholly without the Council at large,--at least, finally and conclusively.