Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 28.2.6

28.2.6

The rules of the Council happen to be such, that whatever business has come to be offered to the Governor of Calcutta, or to the ruler of some other place, at the present moment, or has been prayed for by the petitioners this long-while, all that is kept in store for the day of assembling the Council, when the above affairs are proposed in that assembly, the respective Agents and Advocates attending the same; at which time, if all that store of business is put an end to, and is determined, the Council give their answer in the form of a decree; else, the petitioners are to wait for another Council; and as over and above the multiplicity of public business, there are at all times dissensions in that assembly, and a diversity of opinions, whether out of friendship to any one, or out of disgust to the petitioner, whilst there is often an opposition of votes, as for instance, when two of the Members side with one person, and two or three more support another, or because some enmity has been conceived by one of their dependants to the petitioner; hence a sensible man will easily conclude that a determination becomes difficult and nearly impossible. And thus, after numbers have been consuming their time in attendance, if any one should, by chance, come to gain his cause, it proves that upon the whole he is no gainer at all.