article of the treaty of Chunar, the said Hastings hath established divers matters of weighty and serious crimination against himself.

1st. That the said Hastings doth acknowledge therein, that he did, in a publick Instrument, solemnly recognise," as a breach of treaty," and as such did subject to the consequent penalties, an act, which he the said Hastings did at the same time think, and did immediately declare, to be

tory Mi

no breach of treaty," and by so falsely and Explanaunjustly proceeding against a person under the nute. Company's guarantee, the said Hastings, on his own confession, did himself break the faith of the said guarantee.›

2d. That in justifying this breach of the Company's faith the said Hastings doth wholly abandon This second peremptory demand for the 3,000 horse, stand the protest consequent thereon; and the said Hastings doth thereby himself condemn the violence and injustice of the same..

to 3dly. That in recurring to the original demand hof five thousand horse as the ground of his justiification, the said Hastings doth falsely assert ff the engagement in the treaty to be literally FIVE "thousand horse and foot," whereas it is in fact for TWO or THREE thousand men; and the said Hastings doth thereby wilfully attempt to deceive and emislead his employers, which is an high crime and b misdemeanor in a servant of so great trust.

4thly. That

4thly. That with a view to his further justifica, tion, the said Hastings doth advance a principle, that " a scrupulous attention to the literal expression" of a guarantied treaty "leaves" to the person so observing the same " but little claim to the exertions" of a guarantee on his behalf; that such a principle is, utterly subversive, of all faith of guarantees, and is therefore highly criminal in the first executive member of a government, that must necessarily stand in that mutual relation to many.

5thly. That the said Hastings doth profess his opinion of an article, to which he gave an "instant "and unqualified assent," that it was a measure

by which neither the Vizier's nor the Company's "interests would be promoted," but from which, "without some interposition, "ill effects must be "expected;" and that the said Hastings doth thereby charge himself with a high breach of trust towards his employers.

b

6thly. That the said Hastings having thus confessed that consciously and wilfully (from what motives he hath not chosen to confess) he did give! his formal sanction to a measure both of injustice" and impolicy, he the said Hastings doth urge in his defence, that he did at the same time insert words "reserving the execution of the said agree"ment to an indefinite term;" with an intent that it might in truth be never executed at all; but "that our Government might always interpose," et without

without right, by means of an indirect and undue influence, to prevent the ill effects following from a collusive surrender of a clear and authorized right to interpose; and the said Hastings doth thereby declare himself to have introduced a principle of duplicity, deceit, and double-dealing, into a publick engagement, which ought in its essence to be clear, open, and explicit; that such a declaration tends to shake and overthrow the confidence of all in the most solemn Instruments of any person so declaring, and is therefore an high crime and misdemeanor in the first executive member of government, by whom all treaties and other engagements of the state are principally to be conducted.

V.

*

That by the explanatory Minute aforesaid the said Warren Hastings doth further, in the most direct manner, contradict his own assertions in the very letter, which enclosed the said Minute to his colleagues; for that one of the articles, to which he there gave" an instant and unqualified assent, as no less to our interest than to the Vizier's, he doth here declare unequivocally to be neither to our interests nor the Vizier's; and the unquali

fied assent" given to the said article is now so qualified, as wholly to defeat itself. That by such irreconcilable contradictions the said Hastings doth incur the suspicion of much criminal misrepresentation

VOL. XII.

K K

representation in other like cases of unwitnessed conferences; and in the present instance (as far as it extends) the said Hastings doth prove himself to have given an account both of his actions and motives, by his own confession untrue, for the purpose of deceiving his employers, which is an high crime and misdemeanor in a servant of so great trust.

VI.

*That the said third article of the treaty of Chunar, as it thus stands explained by the said Hastings himself, doth on the whole appear designed to hold the protection of the Company in suspense; that it acknowledges all right of interference to cease, but leaves it to our discretion to determine when it will suit our conveniency to give the Vizier the liberty of acting on the principles by us already admitted that it is dexterously constructed to balance the desires of one man, rapacious and profuse, against the fears of another, described as "of extreme pusillanimity, and wealthy:" but that, whatever may have been the secret objects of the artifice and intrigue confessed to form its very essence, it must on the very face of it necessarily implicate the Company in a breach of faith, whichever might be the event, as they must equally break their faith, either by withdrawing their guarantee unjustly, or by continuing that guarantee in contradiction to this treaty of Chunar; that it thus tends to hold out to India,

and

and to the whole world, that the publick principle of the English Government is a deliberate system of injustice, joined with falsehood; of impolicy, of bad faith, and treachery; and that the said article is therefore in the highest degree derogatory to the honour, and injurious to the interests, of this nation.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY
OF CHUNAR.

I.

THAT in consequence of the treaty of Chunar the Governour-General, Warren Hastings, did send official instructions, respecting the various articles of the said treaty, to the said Resident Middleton ; and that, in a postscript, the said Hastings did forbid the resumption of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân's Jaghire, "until circumstances may render it more

66

expedient, and easy to be attempted, than the pre"sent more material pursuits of Government make

it appear;" thereby intimating a positive limitation of the indefinite term in the explanatory Minute above recited; and confining the suspension of the article to the pressure of war.