to their protection against the corrupt influence of their

servants.

XXVIII.

That the said Warren Hastings, on a reconciliation with Mr. Francis, one of the council-general, who made it a condition thereof, that certain of the Company's orders should be obeyed, and that Mahomed Reza Khân should be restored to his offices, did, a considerable time after, notwithstanding the pretended reluctance of the Nabob, and his pretended freedom, make, for his convenience in the said accommodation, the arrangement, which he had unwarrantably and illegally refused to the orders of the court of directors; and did, of his own authority and that of the board, restore Mahomed Reza Khân to his offices.

XXIX.

That soon after the departure of the said Mr. Francis he did again deprive the said Mahomed Reza Khân of his said offices, and did make several great changes in the constitution of the criminal justice in the said country; and after having, under pretence of the Nabob's sufficiency for the management of his own affairs, displaced, without any specific charge, trial, or inquiry whatsoever, the said Mahomed Reza Khân, he did submit the said Nabob to the entire direction, in all parts of his concerns, of a resident of his own nomination, Sir John Doyley, Bart., and did order an account of the most minute parts of his domestic economy to be made out, and to be delivered to the said Sir John Doyley, in the following words, contained in a paper by him entitled, INSTRUCTIONS from the governor-general to the Nabob Mobarek ul Dowla, respecting his conduct in the management of his affairs: "You will be pleased to direct your mutta seddies to form an account of the fixed sums of your monthly expenses, such as servants' wages in the different departments, pensions, and other allowances, as well as of the estimated amount of variable expenses, to be delivered to Sir John Doyley for my inspection. I have given such orders to Sir John Doyley as will enable him to propose to you such reductions of the pensions and other allowances, and such a distribution of the variable expenses, as shall be proportion

able to the total sum of your monthly income; and I must request you will conform to it." And he did, in the subsequent articles of the said instructions, order the whole management to be directed by Sir John Doyley, subject to his own directions as aforesaid; and did even direct what company he should keep; and did throw reflections on some persons in places the nearest to him, as of bad character and base origin-persons, whom he should decline to name as such, "unless he heard, that they still availed themselves of his goodness to retain the places, which they improperly hold near his person." And he did particularly order the said. Nabob not to admit any English, but such as the said Sir John Doyley should approve, to his presence: and did repeat the said order in the following peremptory manner: must forbid any person of that nation to be intruded into your presence, without his introduction." And he did require his obedience in the following authoritative style: "I shall think myself obliged to interfere in another manner, if you neglect it."

66

XXX.

You

That he the said Warren Hastings did insult the captive condition of the said Nabob by informing him, in his imperious instructions aforesaid, that this total, blind, and implicit obedience, in every respect whatsoever, to Sir John Doyley and himself personally, and without any reference to the board, was the very conditions of the compliance of the governor-general and council with his late requisition;' which requisition was that he should enjoy the free and uncontrolled management of his own affairs. And though the said captive did offer, as he the said Hastings himself admits, four lacks of his stipend, at that time reduced to sixteen lacks, for the free use of the remainder, yet he did place him the said Nabob in the state of servitude in the said instructions laid down, but a very short time after he had assumed and used the said Nabob's independent rights as a ground for refusing to obey the Company's orders; and although he has declared, or pretended, on another occasion, which he would have thought similar, that any attempt to limit the household expenses of the Nabob of Oude was an indignity, "which no man living, however mean his rank in life, or

dependent his condition in it, would permit to be exercised by any other, without the want or forfeiture of every manly principle."

XXXI.

That the said Warren Hastings did order the said stipend (which was to be distributed, in the minutest particular, according to the said Hastings's personal directions) to be paid monthly not to any officer of the Nabob, but to the said resident Sir John Doyley. And whereas the governorgeneral and council did, on the appointment of Mahomed Reza Khân, according to their duty instruct him, that "he do conform to the orders of the Company, which direct, that an annual account of the Nabob's expenses be transmitted, through the resident at the durbar, for the inspection of this board,"―the said Hastings, in making his new establishment in favour of his resident, did wholly omit the said instruction, and did confine the said communication to himself privately. And in fact it does not appear, that any account whatsoever of the disposition of the said large sum, exceeding £160,000 sterling a year, has been laid before the board, or at least that any such account has been transmitted to the court of directors; and it is not fitting, that any British servant of the Company should have the management of any public money, much less of so great a sum, without a public well-vouched account of the specific expenditure thereof.

XXXII.

That the court of directors did, on the 17th of May, 1766, propose certain rules for regulating the correspondence of the resident with the Nabob of Bengal, in which they did direct, as a principle for the said regulations, as follows (paragraph 16th): "We would have his correspondence to be carried on with the select committee through the channel of the president; he should keep a diary of all his transactions. His correspondence with the natives must be publicly conducted; copies of all his letters, sent and received, be transmitted monthly to the presidency, with duplicates and triplicates to be transmitted home in our general packet by every ship."

XXXIII.

That the president and select committee (Lord Clive being then president) did approve of the whole substantial part of the said regulation (the diary excepted); and the principle, in all matters of account, ought to have been strictly adhered to, whatever limitations may have been given to the office of resident. Yet he the said Warren Hastings, in defiance of the aforesaid good rules, orders, and late precedent in conformity to the same, did not only withhold any order for the purpose, but, in order to carry on the business of the said durbar in a clandestine manner for his own purposes, did, as aforesaid, exclude all English from an intercourse with the Nabob, who might carry complaints or representations to the board, or the court of directors, of his condition or the conduct of the resident; and did further, to defeat all possible publicity, insinuate to him to give the preference to verbal communication above letters, in the words following of the 9th article of his instructions to the Nabob: "Although I desire to receive your letters frequently, yet, as many matters will occur, which cannot be so easily explained by letters as by conversation, I desire, that you will on such occasions give your orders to him respecting such points as you may desire to have imparted to me; and I, postponing every other concern, will give an immediate and the most satisfactory reply concerning them." Accordingly, no relation whatsoever has been received by the court of directors of the said Nabob's affairs; nor any account of the money monthly paid, except from public fame, which reports, that his affairs are in great disorder, his servants unpaid, and many of them dismissed, and all the Mussulmen dependent on his family in a state of indigence.

XVIII. THE MOGUL DELIVERED UP TO
THE MAHRATTAS.

I.

THAT Shâh Allum, the prince, commonly called the Great Mogul, or, by eminence, The King, is, or lately was, in the

possession of the ancient capital of Hindostan; and though without any considerable territory, and without a revenue sufficient to maintain a moderate state, he is still much respected and considered; and the custody of his person is eagerly sought by many of the princes in India, on account of the use to be made of his title and authority; and it was for the interest of the East-India Company, that, while on one hand no wars shall be entered into in support of his pretensions, on the other no steps should be taken, which may tend to deliver him into the hands of any of the powerful states of that country; but that he should be treated with friendship, good faith, and respectful attention.

II.

That Warren Hastings, in contradiction to this safe, just, and honourable policy, strongly prescribed and enforced by the orders of the court of directors, did (at a time when he was engaged in a negotiation, the declared purpose of which was to give peace to India) concur with the captain-general of the Mahratta state, called Madajee Scindia, in hostile designs against the few remaining territories of that same Mogul emperor, by virtue of whose grant the Company actually possess the government, and enjoy the revenues, of great provinces, and also against the possessions of a Mahomedan chief called Nudjif Cawn, a person of much merit with the East-India Company; in acknowledgment of which they had granted him a pension, included in the tribute due to the king, and, together with that tribute, taken from him by the said Warren Hastings, though expressly guaranteed to him by the Company. With both these powers the Company had been in friendship, and were actually at peace at the time of the said clandestine concurrence in a design against them; and the said Hastings hath since declared, that the right of one of them, namely, "the right of the Mogul emperor, to our assistance has been constantly acknowledged."

III.

That the said Warren Hastings, at the time of his treacherous concurrence in a design against a power, which he was himself of opinion we were bound to assist, and against