and by himself [the reigning Vizier] with Fyzoola Khân," and that the treaty itself, therefore, was at the very moment before the said Warren Hastings: which treaty (as the said Hastings observed with respect to another treaty, in the case of another person) "most assuredly does not contain a syllable to justify his conduct; but, by the unexampled latitude which he assumes in his constructions, he may, if he pleases, extort this or any other meaning from any part of it."

IV. That the Vizier himself appears by no means to have been persuaded of his own right to five thousand horse under the treaty, since, in his correspondence on the subject, he, the Vizier, nowhere mentions the treaty as the ground of his demand, except where he is recapitulating to the GovernorGeneral, Warren Hastings, the substance of his, the said Hastings's, own letters; on the contrary, the Vizier hints his apprehensions lest Fyzoola Khân should appeal to the treaty against the demand, as a breach thereof, in which case, he, the Vizier, informs the said Hastings of the projected reply. "Should Fyzoola Khân" (says the Vizier) "mention anything of the tenor of the treaty, the first breach of it has been committed by him, in keeping up more men than allowed of by the treaty: I have accordingly sent a person to settle that point also. In case he should mention to me anything respecting the treaty, I will then reproach him with having kept up too many troops, and will oblige him to send the five thousand horse": thereby clearly intimating, that, as a remonstrance against the demand

*Observations on Mr. Bristow's Defence.

as a breach of treaty could only be answered by charging a prior breach of treaty on Fyzoola Khân, so by annulling the whole treaty to reduce the question to a mere question of force, and thus "oblige Fyzoola Khân to send the five thousand horse": "for," (continues the Vizier,) "if, when the Company's affairs, on which my honor depends, require it, Fyzoola Khân will not lend his assistance, what USE is there to continue the country to him?”

That the Vizier actually did make his application to Fyzoola Khân for the five thousand horse, not as for an aid to which he had a just claim, but as for something over and above the obligations of the treaty, something "that would give increase to their friendship and satisfaction to the Nabob Governor," (meaning the said Hastings,) whose directions he represents as the motive "of his call for the five thousand horse to be employed," not in his, the Vizier's, "but in the Company's service."

And that the aforesaid Warren Hastings did, therefore, in recording the answer of Fyzoola Khân as an evasion of treaty, act in notorious contradiction not only to that which ought to have been the fair construction of the said treaty, but to that which he, the said Hastings, must have known to be the Vizier's own interpretation of the same, disposed as the Vizier was "to reproach Fyzoola Khân with breach of treaty," and to "send up persons who should settle points with him."

V. That the said Warren Hastings, not thinking himself justified, on the mere plea of an evasion, to push forward his proceedings to that extremity which he seems already to have made his scope and object,

and seeking some better color for his unjust and violent purposes, did further move, that commissioners should be sent from the Vizier and the Company to Fyzoola Khân, to insist on a clause of a treaty which nowhere appears, being essentially different from the treaty of Lall-Dang, though not in the part on which the requisition is founded; and the said Hastings did then, in a style unusually imperative, proceed as follows.

"Demand immediate delivery of three thousand cavalry; and if he should evade or refuse compliance, that the deputies shall deliver him a formal protest against him for breach of treaty, and return, making this report to the Vizier, which Mr. Middleton is to transmit to the board."

VI. That the said motion of the Governor-General, Hastings, was ordered accordingly, -the Council, as already has been herein related, consisting but of two members, and the said Hastings consequently "uniting in his own person all the powers of government."

VII. That, when the said Hastings ordered the said demand for three thousand cavalry, he, the said Hastings, well knew that a compliance therewith, on the part of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân, was utterly impossible: for he, the said Hastings, had at the very moment before him a letter of Fyzoola Khân, stating, that he, Fyzoola Khân, had " but two thousand cavalry" altogether; which letter is entered on the records of the Company, in the same Consultation, immediately preceding the Governor-General's minute. That the said Hastings, therefore, knew that the only possible consequence of the aforesaid demand necessarily

and inevitably must be a protest for a breach of treaty; and the Court of Directors did not hesitate to declare that the said demand "carried the appearance of a determination to create a pretext for depriving him [Fyzoola Khân] of his jaghire entirely, or to leave him at the mercy of the Vizier."

VIII. That Richard Johnson, Esquire, Assistant Resident at Oude, was, agreeably to the afore-mentioned order of Council, deputed commissioner from Mr. Middleton and the Vizier to Fyzoola Khân; but that he did early give the most indecent proofs of glaring partiality, to the prejudice of the said Fyzoola Khân: for that the very next day (as it seems) after his arrival, he, the said Johnson, from opinions imbibed in his journey, did state himself to be "unwilling to draw any favorable or flattering inferences relatively to the object of his mission," and did studiously seek to find new breaches of treaty, and, without any form of regular inquiry whatever, from a single glance of his eye in passing, did take upon himself to pronounce "the Rohilla soldiers, in the district of Rampoor alone, to be not less than twenty thousand," and the grant of course to be forfeited. And that such a gross and palpable display of a predetermination to discover guilt did argue in the said Johnson a knowledge, a strong presumption, or a belief, that such representations would be agreeable to the secret wishes and views of the said Hastings, under whose orders he, the said Johnson, acted, and to whom all his reports were to be referred.

IX. That the said Richard Johnson did soon af ter proceed to the immediate object of his mission,

"which" (the said Johnson relates) "was short to a degree." The demand was made, and “a flat refusal" given. The question was repeated, with like effect. The said Johnson, in presence of proper witnesses, then drew up his protest, "together with a memorandum of a palliative offer made by the Nabob Fyzoola Khân," and inserted in the protest:

"That he would, in compliance with the demand, and in conformity to the treaty, which specified no definite number of cavalry or infantry, only expressing troops, furnish three thousand men: viz., he would, in addition to the one thousand cavalry already granted, give one thousand more, when and wheresoever required, and one thousand foot,"-together with one year's pay in advance, and funds for the regular payment of them in future.

And this, the said Richard Johnson observes, "I put down at his [the Nabob Fyzoola Khân's] particular desire, but otherwise useless; as my orders" (which orders do not appear) "were, not to receive any palliation, but a negative or affirmative": though such palliation, as it is called by the said Johnson, might be, as it was, in the strictest conformity to the treaty.

X. That in the said offer the Nabob Fyzoola Khân, instead of palliating, did at once admit the extreme right of the Vizier under the treaty, by agreeing to furnish three thousand men, when he, Fyzoola Khân, would have been justified in pleading his inability to send more than two thousand; that such inability would not (as appears) have been a false and evasive plea, but perfectly true and valid,— as the three thousand foot maintained by Fyzoola Khân were for the purposes of his internal government, for which the