said Warren Hastings, is solely answerable, the same having been proposed and resolved in Council, when the Governour-General and Council consisted but of two persons present; namely, the said Warren Hastings, and the late Edward Wheler, Esquire; and when consequently the GovernourGeneral, by virtue of the casting voice, possessed the whole power of the Government.-That in all the changes and innovations hereinbefore described, the pretence used by the said Warren Hastings to recommend and justify the same to the Court of Directors has been, that such changes and innovations would be attended with increase of revenue, or diminution of expense to the EastIndia Company:-that such pretence, if true, would not have been a justification of such acts; but that such pretence is false and groundless.That, during the administration of the said Warren Hastings, the territorial revenues have declined; that the charges of collecting the same have greatly increased; and that the said Warren Hastings by his neglect, mismanagement, and by a direct and intended waste of the Company's property, is chargeable with, and answerable for, all the said decline of revenue, and all the said increase of expense.

XVI. MISDEMEANORS IN OUDE.

I.

THAT the province of Oude and its dependencies were, before their connexion with and subordination to the Company, in a flourishing condition with regard to culture, commerce, and population, and their rulers and principal nobility maintained themselves in a state of affluence and splendour; but very shortly after the period aforesaid, the prosperity both of the country and its chiefs began sensibly and rapidly to decline; insomuch that the revenue of the said province, which on the lowest estimation had been found, in the commencement of the British influence, at upwards of three millions sterling annually (and that ample revenue raised without detriment to the country) did not, in the year 1779, exceed the sum of £. 1,500,000, and in the subsequent years did fall much short of that sum, although the rents were generally advanced, and the country grievously oppressed in order to raise it.

II.

That in the aforesaid year 1779 the demands of the East-India Company on the Nabob of

Oude

Oude are stated by Mr. Purling, their Resident at the Court of Oude, to amount to the sum of £. 1,360,000 sterling and upwards, leaving (upon the supposition, that the whole revenue should amount to the sum of £. 1,500,000 sterling, to which it did not amount) no more than £.140,000 sterling for the support of the dignity of the household and family of the Nabob, and for the maintenance of his government, as well as for the payment of the publick debts due within the province.

III.

That by the treaty of Fyzabad a regular brigade of the Company's troops, to be stationed in the dominions of the Nabob of Oude, was kept up at the expense of the said Nabob; in addition to which a temporary brigade of the same troops was added to his establishment, together with several detached corps in the Company's service, and a great part of his own native troops were put under the command of British officers.

IV.

That the expense of the Company's temporary brigade increased in the same year (the year of 1779) upwards of £. So,000 sterling above the estimate; and the expense of the country troops under British officers, in the same period, increased upwards of £. 40,000 sterling; and in addition to the aforesaid

aforesaid ruinous expenses a large civil establishment was gradually, secretly, and without any authority from the Court of Directors, or record in the books of the Council-General concerning the same, formed for the Resident, and another under Mr. Wombwell, an agent for the Company; as also several pensions and allowances, in the same secret and clandestine manner, were charged on the revenues of the said Nabob for the benefit of British subjects, besides large occasional gifts to persons in the Company's service.

V.

That in the month of November 1779 the said Nabob did represent to Mr. Purling, the Company's Resident aforesaid, the distressed state of his revenues in the following terms: " during three years

past, the expense occasioned by the troops in "brigade, and others commanded by European "officers, has much distressed the support of my "household, insomuch that the allowances made "to the seraglio and children of the deceased "Nabob have been reduced to one fourth of what "it had been, upon which they have subsisted in a

very distressed manner for two years past. The "attendants, writers, and servants, &c. of my

court, have received no pay for two years past; and there is at present no part of the country, "that can be allotted to the payment of my father's

"private

39

30

private creditors, whose applications are daily pressing upon me. All these difficulties I have "for these three years past struggled through, "and found this consolation therein, that it was complying with the pleasure of the Honourable

Company, and in the hope, that the Supreme "Council would make inquiry from impartial per

sons into my distressed situation; but I am now "forced to a representation. From the great increase of expense the revenues were necessarily "farmed out at a high rate; and deficiencies fol"lowed yearly. The country and cultivation is "abandoned, and this year, in particular, from the "excessive drought, deductions of many lacks" [sated by the Resident, in his letter to the Board of the 13th of the month following, to amount to 25 lacks, or £. 250,000 sterling] "have been al"lowed the farmers, who were still left unsatisfied. "I have received but just sufficient to support my "absolute necessities, the revenues being deficient

66

to the amount of 15 lacks [£. 150,000 sterling] "and for this reason many of the old chieftains, "with their troops, and the useful attendants of "the Court, were forced to leave it, and there is now only a few foot and horse for the collection "of my revenues; and should the Zemindars be "refractory, there is not left a sufficient number

60

to reduce them to obedience." And the said Nabob did therefore pray, that the assignments for

the