Rohilla nation were either cut off or banished, and their wives and offspring reduced to utter ruin, but the country itself, heretofore distinguished above all others for the extent of its cultivation, as a garden, not having one spot in it of uncultivated ground, and from being in the most flourishing state that a country could be, was, by the inhuman mode of carrying on the war, and the ill government during the consequent usurpation, reduced to a state of great decay and depopulation, in which it still remains.

That the East-India Company, having had reason to conceive that, for the purpose of concealing corrupt transactions, their servants in India had made unfair, mutilated, and garbled communications of correspondence, and sometimes had wholly withheld the same, made an order in their letter of the 23d of March 1770, in the following tenour. "The Governour singly shall correspond with "the Country Powers; but all letters, before they "shall be by him sent, must be communicated to "the other members of the Select Committee, " and receive their approbation; and also all "letters whatsoever, which may be received by the "Governour, in answer to, or in course of corre"spondence, shall likewise be laid before the said "Select Committee for their information and "consideration."-And that in their instructions to their Governour-General and Council, dated

30th March 1774, they did repeat their orders to the same purpose and effect.

That the said Warren Hastings did not obey, as in duty he was bound to do, the said standing orders; nor did communicate all his correspondence with Mr. Middleton, the Company's agent at the Court of the Soubah of Oude, or with Colonel Champion, the commander in chief of the Company's forces in the Rohilla war, to the Select Committee and when afterwards, that is to say, on the 25th of October 1774, he was required by the majority of the Council appointed by the Act of Parliament of 1773, whose opinion was by the said Act directed to be taken as the act of the whole Council, to produce all his correspondence with Mr. Middleton and Colonel Champion for the direction of their future proceedings, relative to the obscure, intricate, and critical transaction aforesaid, he did positively and pertinaciously refuse to deliver any other than such parts of the said correspondence as he thought convenient; covering his said illegal refusal under general vague pretences of secrecy and danger from the communication; although the said order and instruction of the Court of Directors above mentioned was urged to him, and although it was represented to him by the said Council, that they, as well as he, were bound by an oath of secrecy; which refusal to obey the orders of the Court of Directors (orders. specially, and on weighty grounds of experience,

pointed

pointed to cases of this very nature) gave rise to much jealousy, and excited great suspicions relative to the motives and grounds, on which the Rohilla war had been undertaken.

That the said Warren Hastings, in the grounds alleged in his justification of his refusal to communicate to his colleagues in the superiour Council his correspondence with Mr. Middleton, the Company's Resident at Oude, was guilty of a new offence; arrogating to himself unprecedented and dangerous powers, on principles utterly subversive of all order and discipline in service, and introductory to corrupt confederacies and disobedience among the Company's servants; the said Warren Hastings insisting that Mr. Middleton, the Company's covenanted servant, the publick Resident for transacting the Company's affairs at the Court of the Soubah of Oude, and as such receiving from the Company a salary for his service, was no other than the official agent of him the said Warren Hastings, and that, being such, he was not obliged to communicate his correspondence.

"That the Court of Directors, and afterwards a General Court of the Proprietors of the EastIndia Company, although the latter showed favourable dispositions towards the said Warren Hastings, and expressed (but without assigning any ground or reason) the highest opinion of his services and integrity, did unanimously condemn (along with his conduct relative to the Rohilla

treaty

treaty and war) his refusal to communicate his whole correspondence with Mr. Middleton to the superiour Council; yet the said Warren Hastings, in defiance of the opinion of the Directors, and the unanimous opinion of the General Court of the said East-India Company, as well as the precedent positive orders of the Court of Directors, and the injunctions of an Act of Parliament has, from that time to the present, never made any communication of the whole of his correspondence to the Governour-General and Council, or to the Court of Directors.

II. SHAW ALLUM.

THAT, in a solemn Treaty of Peace, concluded the 16th of August 1765, between the East India Company and the late Nabob of Oude, Shuja uł Dowla, and highly approved of, confirmed, and ratified by the said Company, it is agreed, "that the king Shaw Allum shall remain "in full possession of Corah, and such part of the province of Illiabad as he now possesses, which

are ceded to his majesty as a royal demesne "for the support of his dignity and expenses. That, in a separate agreement, concluded at the same time between the king Shaw Allum and the

1

then Subudar of Bengal, under the immediate security and guarantee of the English Company, the faith of the Company was pledged to the said king for the annual payment of twenty-six lacks of rupees for his support out of the revenues of Bengal; and that the said Company did then receive from the said king a grant of the Dewanny of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, on the express condition of their being security for the annual payment abovementioned ;--that the EastIndia Company have held, and continue to hold, the Dewanny so granted, and for some years have complied with the conditions, on which they accepted of the grant thereof; and have at all times acknowledged that they held the Dewanny in virtue of the Mogul's grants.-That the said Court of Directors, in their letter of the 30th June 1769, to Bengal, declared, "that they esteemed "themselves bound by treaty to protect the king's

แ

person, and to secure him the possession of the "Corah and Illahabad districts;" and, supposing an agreement should be made respecting these. provinces between the king and Shuja ul Dowla, the Directors then said, "that they should be subject to no further claim or requisition from the king, excepting for the stipulated tribute for

''

Bengal, which they (the Governour and Coun

cil) were to pay to his agent, or remit to him in " such manner as he might direct."

That