"assent to each article;" and that the said Hastings assigns his reasons for such ready assent in the following words: "I considered the subjects of his (the Vizier's) requests as essential "to the reputation of our Government, and no "less to our interest than his."

II.

That in the said treaty of Chunar the third article is as follows:

"That as Fyzoola Khân has by his breach of treaty forfeited the protection of the English "Government, and causes by his continuance in "his present independent state great alarm and "detriment to the Nabob Vizier, he be permitted, "when time shall suit, to resume his lands, and pay him in money, through the Resident, the amount stipulated by treaty, after deducting the "amount and charges of the troops he stands en

gaged to furnish by treaty; which amount shall "be passed to the account of the Company during "the continuance of the present war."

III.

That for the better elucidation of his policy in the several articles of the treaty above mentioned, the said Hastings did send to the Council of Calcutta (now consisting of Edward Wheler and John Macpherson, Esquires) two different copies of the

said treaty, with explanatory Minutes opposed to each article; and that the Minute opposed to the third article is thus expressed:

3

"The conduct of Fyzoola Khân, in refusing the "aid demanded, though 'not an absolute breach of treaty, was evasive and uncandid. 2 The de"mand was made for 5,000 cavalry. The engagement in the treaty is literally for 5,000 "horse and foot. Fyzoola Khân could not be ignorant, that we had no occasion for any suc

66

cours of infantry from him, and that cavalry "would be of the most essential service. So + "scrupulous an attention to literal expression, “when a more liberal interpretation would have

been highly useful and acceptable to us, strongly "marks his unfriendly disposition, though it may not impeach his fidelity, and leaves him little "claim to any exertions from us for the continuance

of his Jaghires. But I am of opinion, that "neither the Vizier's nor the Company's interests "would be promoted by depriving Fyzoola Khán of "his independency, and I have therefore reserved "the execution of this agreement to an indefinite

66

term; and our Government may always interpose "to prevent any ill effects from it."

IV.

That in his aforesaid authentick evidence of his own purposes, motives, and principles, in the third

article

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 "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 his second peremptory demand for the 3,000 horse, and the protest consequent thereon; and the said Hastings doth thereby himself condemn the violence and injustice of the same.

3dly. That in recurring to the original demand of five thousand horse as the ground of his justification, the said Hastings doth falsely assert "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 mislead his employers, which is an high crime and misdemeanor in a servant of so great trust.

4thly. That

tory Mi

4thly. That with a view to his further justification, the said Hastings doth advance a principle, that "a scrupulous attention to the literal expression" of a guarantied treaty "leaves" to the persons 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,

66

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.

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,"

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.

ས.

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 such

criminal mis

representation