ABSTRACT
The anarchy of Bengal was plainly intolerable, and Parliament was certain to intervene. But the Company was deeply moved by the facts revealed, and every motive of self-interest drove it to seek to establish order before worse befell. The Company was forbidden to declare a dividend exceeding 6 per cent and required to submit accounts half-yearly to the Treasury. But far more important was the accompanying Act imposing new political conditions, the Regulating Act, which Burke denounced as 'an infringement of national right, national faith, and national justice'. Warren Hastings was unfortunate from the first in his colleagues on the council and in the rule that he had no power to override them, though in case of equality he was given a casting vote. In the internal affairs of Bengal Hastings and his council, for once normally in accord, were confronted by a struggle with the Supreme Court, due almost inevitably to the circumstances attending the creation of that body.
