You will see, as no Englishman, properly speaking, acts by himself, that he must be made responsible for that person called his banian,--for the power he either uses under him, or the power he has acquired over him.

The banian escapes, in the night of his complexion and situation, the inquiry that a white man cannot stand before in this country.

Through the banians, or other black natives, a bad servant of the Company receives his bribes.
Through them he decides falsely against the titles of litigants in the court of castes, or in the offices of public registry.

Through them Mr.
Hastings has exercised oppressions which, I will venture to say, in his own name, in his own character, daring as he is, (and he is the most daring criminal that ever existed,) he never would dare to practise.
Many, if not most, of the iniquities of his interior bad administration have been perpetrated through these banians, or other native agents and confidants; and we shall show you that he is not satisfied with one of them, confiding few of his secrets to Europeans, and hardly any of his instruments, either native or European, knowing the secrets of each other.

This is the system of banianism, and of concealment, which Mr.
Hastings, instead of eradicating out of the service, has propagated by example and by support, and enlarged by converting even Europeans into that dark and insidious character.
I have explained, or endeavored to explain, to your Lordships these circumstances of the true spirit, genius, and character, more than the ostensible institutions of the Company's service: I now shall beg leave to bring before you one institution, taken from the mercantile constitution of the Company, so excellent, that I will venture to say that human wisdom has never exceeded it.