himself of the 22d of November 1773, in the

following words: "The commands of my supe"riours are, as I have repeatedly informed you,

peremptory, that I shall not suffer their arms to "be carried beyond the line of their own boun"daries, and those of your Excellency their ally."

That the said Warren Hastings, in direct contradiction to the said orders, and to his own sense of their propriety and coercive authority, and in breach of his express promises and engagements, did, in September 1773, enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of Oude, who was the special object of the prohibition, to furnish him, for a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the East-India Company, with a body of troops for the declared purpose of " thoroughly extirpating the nation of the Rohillas;"-a nation, from whom the Company had never received, or pretended to receive, or apprehend, any injury whatsoever; whose country, in the month of February 1773, by an unanimous resolution of the said Warren Hastings and his Council, was included in the line of defence against the Mahrattas, and from whom the Nabob never complained of an aggression or act of hostility, nor pretended a distinct cause of quarrel, other than the non-payment of a sum of money in dispute between him and that people.

That supposing the sum of money in question to

have been strictly due to the said Nabob, by virtue of any engagement between him and the Rohilla Chiefs, the East India Company, or their representatives, were not parties to that engagement, or guarantees thereof, nor bound by any obligation whatever to enforce the execution of it.

That, previous to the said Warren Hastings's entering into the agreement or bargain aforesaid to extirpate the said nation, he did not make, or cause to be made, a due inquiry into the validity of the sole pretext used by the said Nabob; nor did he give notice of the said claims of debt to the nation of the Rohillas, in order to receive an explanation on their part of the matter in litigation, nor did he offer any mediation, nor propose, nor afford an opportunity of proposing, an agreement or submission, by which the calamities of war might be avoided; as, by the high state, in which the EastIndia Company stood as a sovereign power in the East, and the honour and character it ought to maintain, as well as by the principles of equity and humanity, and by the true and obvious policy of uniting the power of the Mahometan princes against the Mahrattas, he was bound to do:-that, instead of such previous inquiry, or tender of good offices, the said Warren Hastings did stimulate the ambition and ferocity of the Nabob of Oude to the full completion of the inhuman end of the said unjustifiable enterprise by informing him, "that it

"would be absolutely necessary to persevere in it "until it should be accomplished;" pretending, that a fear of the Company's displeasure was his motive for annexing the accomplishment of the enterprise as a condition of his assistance, and asserting that he could not hazard or answer "for the displeasure of the Company, his masters, "if they should find themselves involved in a fruitless war, or in an expense for prosecuting "it;"-a pretence tending to the high dishonour of the East-India Company, as if the gain to be acquired was to reconcile that body to the breach of their own orders prohibiting all such enterprises. And in order further to involve the said Nabob beyond the power of retreating, he did, in the course of the proceeding, purposely put the said Nabob under difficulties in case he should decline that war, and did oblige him to accept even the permission to relinquish the execution of this unjust project as a favour, and to make, concessions for it; thereby acting as if the Company were principals in the hostility; and employing for this purpose much double dealing, and divers unworthy artifices, to entangle and perplex the said Nabob, but by means of which he found himself (as he has entered it on record) hampered and embarrassed in a particular manner.

That the said compact for offensive alliance in favour of a great prince, against a considerable na tion,

nation, was not carried on by projects and counterprojects in writing; nor were the articles and conditions thereof formed into any regular written instrument, signed and sealed by the parties; but the whole (both the negotiation and the compact of offensive alliance against the Rohillas) was a mere verbal engagement, the purport and conventions whereof no where appeared, except in subsequent correspondence, in which certain of the articles, as they were stated by the several parties, did materially differ;--a proceeding new and unprecedented, and directly leading to mutual misconstruction, evasion, and ill faith, and tending to encourage and protect every species of corrupt, clandestine practice that, at the time when this private verbal agreement was made by the said Warren Hastings with the Nabob of Oude, a publick ostensible treaty was concluded by him with the said Nabob, in which there is no mention whatever of such agreement, or reference whatever to it; in defence of which omission it is asserted by the said Warren Hastings, that the multiplication of treaties weakens their efficacy, and therefore they should be reserved only for very important and permanent obligations; notwithstanding he had previously declared to the said Nabob," that the points, which he had pro"posed, required much consideration, and the " previous ratification of a formal agreement before "he " he could consent to them."That the whole of

the said verbal agreement with the Nabob of Oude in his own person, without any assistance on his part, was carried on and concluded by the said Warren Hastings alone, without any person, who might witness the same; without the intervention even of an interpreter, though he confesses that he spoke the Hindostan language imperfectly, and although he had with him at that time and place several persons high in the Company's service and confidence, namely, the Commander in Chief of their forces, two members of their Council, and the Secretary to the Council, who were not otherwise acquainted with the proceedings between him and the said Nabob, than by such communications as he thought fit to make to them.

That the object avowed by the said Warren Hastings, and the motives urged by him for employing the British arms in the utter extirpation of the Rohilla nation, are stated by himself in the following terms: "the acquisition of forty lacks of

rupees to the Company, and of so much species "added to the exhausted currency of our pro"vinces; that it would give wealth to the Nabob "of Oude, of which we should participate ;-that "the said Warren Hastings should always be

--

ready to profess that he did reckon the probable "acquisition of wealth among his reasons for taking

up arms against his neighbours;-that it would

ease the Company of a considerable part of their

"military