rupees abovementioned, and was entitled to continue to receive it, by virtue of an engagement deliberately, and for an adequate consideration, entered into with him by the Company's servants, and approved of and ratified by the Company themselves; -that this engagement was absolute and unconditional, and did neither express, nor suppose, any case, in which the said king should forfeit, or the Company should have a right to resume, the tribute;-that, nevertheless, the said Warren Hastings and his Council, immediately after selling the king's country to Suja Dowla, resolved to withhold, and actually withheld, the payment of the said tribute, of which the king Shaw Allum has never since received any part;-that this resolution of the Council is not justified, even by themselves, on principles of right and justice, but by arguments, of policy and convenience, by which the best founded claims of right and justice may at all times be set aside and defeated. They judged it highly im "politick and unsafe to answer the draughts of the

king until they were satisfied of his amicable in"tentions, and those of his new allies.". But neither had they any reason to question the king's amicable intentions, nor was he pledged to answer for those of the Mahrattas; his trusting to the good faith of that people, and relying on their assistance to reinstate him in the possession of his capital, might have been imprudent and impolitick; but

these measures, however ruinous to himself, indicated no enmity to the English, nor were they productive of any effects injurious to the English interests. And it is plain, that the said Warren Hastings and his Council were perfectly aware, that their motives or pretences for withholding the tribute were too weak to justify their conduct, having principally insisted on the reduced state of their treasury, which, as they said, rendered it impracticable to comply with those payments. The right of a creditor does not depend on the circumstances of the debtor; on the contrary, the plea of inability includes a virtual acknowledgment of the debt, since, if the creditor's right were denied, the plea would be superfluous.

That the East-India Company, having on their part violated the engagements, and renounced the conditions, on which they received, and have hitherto held and enjoyed, the Dewanny of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, from the king Shaw Allum, have thereby forfeited all right and title to the said Dewanny arising from the said grant, and that it is free and open to the said king to resume such grant; and to trans fer it to any other prince or state;-that, notwithstanding any distress, or weakness, to which he may be actually reduced, his lawful authority, as sove, reign of the Mogul Empire, is still acknowledged in India, and that his grant of the Dewanny would sufficiently authorize, and materially assist, any

·,

prince or state, that might attempt to dispossess the East-India Company thereof, since it would convey a right, which could not be disputed, and to which nothing but force could be opposed. Nor can these opinions be more strongly expressed than they have been lately by the said Warren Hastings himself, who, in a Minute, recorded the 1st of December 1784, has declared that, "fallen

as the house of Timur is, it is yet the relick of "the most illustrious line of the Eastern world; "that its sovereignty is universally acknowledged, "though tlie substance of it no longer exists; and "that the Company itself derives its constitutional "dominion from its ostensible bounty."

That the said Warren Hastings by this declaration has renounced and condemned the principle, on which he avowedly acted towards the Mogul in the year 1773, when he denied that the Sunnuds or grants of the Mogul, if they were in the hands of another nation, would avail them any thing; and when he declared, "that the sword, which gave us "the dominion of Bengal, must be the instrument "of its preservation; and that if it should ever

cease to be ours, the next proprietor would de

"rive his right and possession from the same: "natural charter." That the said Warren Hastings, to answer any immediate purpose, adopts any principle of policy, however false or dangerous, without any regard to former declarations made,

or

or to principles avowed on other occasions by himself; and particularly, that in his conduct to Shaw Allum he first maintained, that the grants of that prince were of no avail; that we held the dominion of Bengal by the sword, which he has falsely declared the source of right, and the natural charter of dominion; whereas at a later period he has declared, that the sovereignty of the family of Shaw Allum is universally acknowledged; and that the Company itself derives its constitutional dominion from their ostensible bounty.

THAT the territory of Benares is a fruitful, and has been, not long since, an orderly, wellcultivated, and improved province; of great extent; and its capital city, as Warren Hastings, Esquire, has informed the Court of Directors, in his letter of the 21st of November 1781, "is highly revered by the natives of the Hindû persuasion; so that

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many, who have acquired independent fortunes, "retire to close their days in a place so eminently. distinguished

"distinguished for its sanctity:" and he further acquaints the Directors, "that it may rather be "considered as the seat of the Hindu religion, "than as the capital of a province. But as its "inhabitants are not composed of Hindus only, "the former wealth, which flowed into it from the offerings of pilgrims, as well as from the trans"actions of exchange, for which its central situation "is adapted, has attracted numbers of Mahome"dans, who still continue to reside in it with their "families." And these circumstances of the city of Benares, which not only attracted the attention of all the different descriptions of men, who inhabit Indostan, but interested them warmly in whatever it might suffer, did, in a peculiar manner, require, that the Governour-General and Council of Calcutta should conduct themselves with regard to its rulers and inhabitants, when it became dependent on the Company, on the most distinguished principles of good faith, equity, moderation and mildness.

II.

That the Rajah Bulwant Sing late prince or Zemindar of the province aforesaid, was a great lord of the Mogul empire, dependent on the same, through the Vizier of the empire, the late Sujah ul Dowla, Nabob of Oude; and the said Bulwant Sing, in the commencement of the English power,