Mogul, and of the Mahrattas together, and by the final event of the whole, which is sufficiently visible. For 66 XIX. | which chiefs were the ministers aforesaid, being cut off by their mutual dissensions, and the fort of Delhi being at length delivered to the Mahrattas, the said Scindia became the uncontrouled ruler of the royal army; and the person of the Mogul, with the use of all his pretensions and claims, fell into the hands of a nation already too powerful, together with an extensive territory, which entirely covers the company's possessions and dependencies on one side, and particularly those of the nabob of Oude. XX. That the circumstances of these countries did, in the opinion of the said Warren Hastings himself, sufficiently indicate to him the necessity of not aggrandizing any power whatsoever on their borders, he having in the aforesaid letter of the 16th June given a deliberate opinion of the situation of Oude, in the words following: that, "whilst we are at peace with the powers of That the said Hastings had declared, in his said letter of the 16th June 1784, that the Mogul's right to our assistance had been constantly acknowledged; that the Mogul had been oppressed by the lesser Mahomedan princes in the character of his officers of state, and military commanders; and he did plainly intimate, that the said Mogul ought to be relieved from that servitude. And he did, in giving an account to the court of directors of the conferences aforesaid, assure them, that "his in"clinations [the inclinations of the Mahratta chief "aforesaid] were not very dissimilar from his own;" and that "neither in this, nor in any other instance, "would he suffer himself to be drawn into mea"sures, which shall tend to weaken their connexion, nor in this even to oppose his [the said chief's] "inclinations;" the said Hastings well knowing, as Europe, it is only in this quarter, that your in his letter to Colonel Muir he has confessed, that "possessions under the government of Bengal are the inclinations of the said Scindia were to seize "vulnerable." And he did further in the said on the Mogul's territories, and that he himself did letter state, that "if things had continued as they secretly concur therein, though he did not formally "had been to that time with a divided governinsert his concurrence in the treaty with the said "ment," [viz. the company's and the vizier's, Mahratta chief. It is plain, therefore, that he did which government he had himself established, and all along concur with the Mahrattas in their de- under which it ever must in a great degree remain, signs against the said king and his ministers, under whilst the said country continues in a state of dethe treacherous pretence of supporting the authority pendence,]" the slightest shock from a foreign of the former against the latter, and did contrive "hand, or even an accidental internal commotion, and effect the ruin of them all.-For, first, he did might have thrown the whole into confusion, give evil and fraudulent counsel to the heir-apparent "and produced the most fatal consequences." In of the Mogul "to make advances to the Mahrattas," this perilous situation he made the above-recited when he well knew, and had expressly concurred in, sacrifices to the ambition of the Mahrattas, and the designs of that state against his father's [the did all along so actively countenance and forward Mogul's] dominions; and further to engage and their proceedings, and with so full a sense of their entrap the said prince, did assert, that our go- effect, that in his minute of the 24th December "vernment" [meaning the British government] 1784 he has declared, that in the countries, "was in intimate and sworn connexion with Ma- "which border on the dominions of the nabob "hadajee Scindia," when no alliance, offensive or "vizier, or on that quarter of our own, in effect defensive, appears to exist between the said Scindia "there is no other power." And he did further and the East India company, nor can exist, other- admit, that the presence of the Mahratta chief wise than in virtue of some secret agreement be- aforesaid, so near the borders of the nabob's tween him the said Scindia and Warren Hastings, dominions, was no cause of suspicion; for," that entered into by the latter without the knowledge of" it is the effect of his own solicitation, and is so his colleagues, and the government, and never communicated to the court of directors. secondly, he did, in order to further the designs of the Mahrattas, contrive and effect the ruin of the said Mogul and his authority by setting on foot, That, in further pursuit of the same pernicious. through the aforesaid Major Browne, sundry per- design, he the said Warren Hastings did enter plexed and intricate negociations, contrary to pub-into an agreement to withdraw a very great body of lick faith, and to the honour of the British nation, the British troops out of the nabob's dominions; by which he did exceedingly encrease the confusion asserting, however truly, yet in direct contradiction and disorders of the Mogul's court, exposing the said to his own declarations, that "this government Mogul to new indignities, insults, and distresses," [meaning the British government] has not any end almost all of the northern parts of India to right to force defence with its maintenance great and ruinous convulsions, until three out of upon him" [the nabob]; and he did thus not four of the principal chieftains, some of them only avowedly aggrandize the Mahratta state, and possessing the territories lately belonging to Nud-weaken the defence upon the frontier, but did as jiff Cawn, and maintaining among them eighty avowedly detain their captain-general in force on thousand troops of horse and foot, and some of that very frontier, notwithstanding he was well And 66 far the effect of an act of that XXI. government." apprized, that they had designs against those dependent territories of Oude, which they had with great difficulty been persuaded, even in appear ance, to include in the treaty of peace; and that they have never renounced their claims upon certain large and valuable portions of them, and have shewn evident signs of their intentions, on the first opportunity, of asserting and enforcing them. And finally, the said Warren Hastings, in contradiction to sundry declarations of his own concerning the necessity of curbing the power of the Mahrattas, and to the principle of sundry measures undertaken by himself professedly for that purpose, and to the sense of the house of commons expressed in their resolution of 28th May 1782 against any measures, that tended to unite the dangerous powers of the Mahratta empire under one active command, has endeavoured to persuade the company, that, "while Scindia lives, every "accession of territory obtained by him will be an advantage to this [the British] government;" which, if it was true as respecting the personal dispositions of Scindia, which there is no reason to believe, yet it was highly criminal to establish a power in the Mahrattas, which must survive the man, in confidence of whose personal dispositions a power more than personal was given, and which may hereafter fall into hands disposed to make a more hostile use of it. XXII. That in consequence of all the before-recited intrigues, the Mogul emperour being in the hands of the Mahrattas, he the said Mogul has been obliged to declare the head of the Mahratta state to be vicegerent of the Mogul empire, an authority, which supersedes that of vizier, and has thereby consolidated in the Mahratta state all the powers acknowledged to be of legal authority in India; in consequence of which they have acquired, and have actually already attempted to use, the said claims of general superiority against the company itself; the Mahrattas claiming a right in themselves to a fourth part of the revenues of all the provinces in the company's possession, and claiming, in right of the Mogul, the tribute due to him; by which actings and doings the said Hastings has to the best of his power brought the British provinces in India into a dependence on the Mahratta state; and in order to add to the aforesaid enor-mous claims a proportioned force, he did never cease, during his stay in India, to contrive the means for its encrease; for it is of publick notoriety, that one great object of the Mahratta policy is to unite under their dominion the nation or religious sect of the Seiks, who being a people abounding with soldiers, and possessing large territories, would extend the Mahratta power over the whole of the vast countries to the northwest of India. XXIII. That the said Warren Hastings, further to augment the power of the said Mahrattas, and to endanger the safety of the British possessions, having established in force the said Mahrattas on the frontier, as afore recited, and finding the council general averse in that situation to the withdrawing the British forces therefrom, and for disbanding them to the extent required by the said Hastings, did in a minute of the 4th December 1784, after stating a supposition, that, contrary to his opinion, the said troops should not be reduced, propose to employ them under the command of the Mogul's son, then under the influence of the Mahrattas, in a war against the aforesaid people or religious sect called Seiks, defending the same on the following principles: "I feel the sense of an obligation imposed on me, "by the supposition I have made, to state a mode "of rendering the detachment of use in its pre"scribed station, and of affording the appearance "of a cause for its retention." XXIV. That the said Hastings did admit, that there was no present danger to the company's possessions from that nation, which could justify him in such a war, as he had declared, that the Mahrattas were the only power, that bordered on the company's possessions and those of the vizier; but he did assign as a reason for going to war with them their military and enthusiastick spirit; the hardness of their natural constitution; the dangers, which might arise from them in some future time, if they should ever happen to be united under one head, they existing at present in a state little different from anarchy; and he did predict great danger from them, and at no very remote period, "if this people be permitted to grow into matu"rity without interruption." And though he doth pretend, that the solicitations of the heir-apparent of the Mogul, who he says did repeatedly and earnestly solicit him to obtain the permission to use the company's troops for the purpose aforesaid, had weight with him; yet he doth declare, as he expresses himself in the minute aforesaid, that "a stronger impulse, arising from the hope "of blasting the growth of a generation, whose "strength might become fatal to our own, strongly "pleaded in my mind for supporting his wishes. and determined on not disbanding the frontier regiments, and thinking, that therein he had found an advantage, he did ground thereon the following proposition: 66 66 "If the expence [of the frontier troops] is to "be continued, it may be surely better continued "for some useful purpose, than to keep up the "parade of a great military corps, designed merely "to lie inactive in its quarters. On this ground "therefore, and on the supposition premised, I "revert to my original sentiments in favour of "the prince's plan; but as this will require some qualification in the execution of it, I will state my recommendation of it in the terms of a pro'position, viz. that if it shall be the resolution "of the board to continue the detachment now "under the command of Colonel Sir John Cumming at Furruckabad; and if the prince Mirza "Jehander Shâh shall apply, with the authority of the king, and the concurrence of Madajee "Scindia, for the assistance of an English military "force to act in conjunction with him, to expel "the Seiks from the territories, of which they have lately possessed themselves in the neighbour"hood of Delhi, it may be granted, and such a portion of the said detachment allotted to that "service as shall be hereafter judged adequate "to it." 66 66 XXVI. That the said Warren Hastings did, in the said proposal, endeavour to circumvent and overreach the council, general, by converting an apparent and literal compliance with their resolution into a real and substantial opposition to and disappoint ment thereof. For his first proposal was to withdraw the company's troops from the vizier's country on the pretence of relieving him from the burthen of that establishment, but in reality with a view of facilitating the Mahratta pretensions on that province, which would then be deprived of the means of defence. And when the council rejected the said proposal on the express ground of danger to the province by withdrawing from the Mahrattas the restraint of our troops, the said Hastings, finding his first scheme in favour of the Mahrattas against the provinces dependent on the company defeated by the refusal of the council to concur in the said measure of withdrawing the troops, did then endeavour to obtain the same purpose in a different way; and instead of leaving the troops, according to the intention and policy of the council, as a check to the ambition and progress of the Mahrattas, he proposed to employ them in the actual furtherance of those schemes of aggrandizement, of which his colleagues were jealous, and which it was the object of their resolution to counteract. XXVII. That in the whole of the letters, negociations, proposals, and projects of the said Warren Hastings, relative to the Mogul, he did appear to pursue but one object, namely, the aggrandizement of the lately hostile and always dangerous power of the Mahrattas; and did pursue the same by means highly dishonourable to the British character for honour, justice, candour, plain-dealing, moderation, and humanity. XIX. LIBEL ON THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. I. ration, and to treat the said court of directors, his lawful masters, with respect. II. That the said Warren Hastings did print and publish, or cause to be printed and published, at Calcutta in Bengal, the narrative of his transactions at Benares, in a letter written at that place, without leave had of the court of directors, in order to pre-occupy the judgment of the servants in that settlement, and to gain from them a factious countenance and support, previous to the judgment and opinion of the court of directors, his lawful superiours. THAT Warren Hastings, Esquire, was, during the whole of the year 1783, a servant of the East India company, and was bound by the duties of that relation not only to yield obedience to the orders of the court of directors, but to give to the whole of their service an example of submission, reverence, and respect to their authority: and that if they should in the course of their duty call in question any part of his conduct, he was bound to conduct his defence with temper and decency; and while his conduct was under their consideration, it was not allowable to print and publish any of his letters to them, without their consent first had and obtained; and he was bound by the same principles of duty, enforced by still more cogent reasons, to observe, in a paper in- That the court of directors having come to certended for publication, great modesty and mode- | tain resolutions of fact relative to the engagements III. subsisting between them and the rajah of Benares, | "policy, I forbear to speak. Most happily the and the manner in which the same had been ful- wretch, whose hopes may be excited by the filled on the part of the rajah, did, in the fifth re- "appearances in his favour is ill qualified to solution, which was partly a resolution of opinion,"avail himself of them, and the force which is declare as follows:-"That it appears to this "stationed in the province of Benares, is sufficourt, that the conduct of the governour-general "cient to suppress any symptoms of internal se"towards the rajah, whilst he was at Benares, was "dition; but it cannot fail to create distrust and "improper; and that the imprisonment of his "suspense in the minds both of the rulers and of the "person, thereby disgracing him in the eyes of his people, and such a state is always productive of subjects, and others, was unwarrantable and "disorder. But it is not in this partial considera"highly impolitick, and may tend to weaken the "tion, that I dread the effects of your commands; "confidence, which the native princes of India "it is in your proclaimed indisposition against "ought to have in the justice and moderation of "the first executive member of your first govern"the company's government." "ment in India. I almost shudder at the reflec"tion of what might have happened, had these "denunciations against your own minister, in fa IV. That the said resolutions being transmitted to the said Warren Hastings, he the said Warren Hastings did write, and cause to be printed and published, a certain false, insolent, malicious, and seditious libel, purporting to be a letter from him, the said Warren Hastings, to the court of directors, dated Fort William, 20th March 1783, cal"culated [as the directors truly affirm] to bring "contempt, as well as an odium, on the court of "directors for their conduct on that occasion;" and the said libel had a direct tendency to excite a spirit of disobedience to the lawful government of this nation in India through all ranks of their service. V. 66 vour of a man universally considered in this "part of the world as justly attainted for his crimes, the murderer of your servants and sol"diers, and the rebel to your authority, arrived "two months earlier." VI. That the said Warren Hastings did also presume to censure and asperse the court of directors for the moderate terms, in which they had expressed their displeasure against him, as putting him under the necessity of stating in his defence a strong accusation against himself; and as implying in the said court a consciousness, that he was not guilty of the offences charged upon him, being, as he asserts, in the resolutions of the court of directors, " arraigned and prejudged of a vio"lation of national faith in acts of such com"plicated aggravation, that, if they were true, no punishment SHORT OF DEATH could "atone for the injury, which the interest and cre"dit of the publick had sustained in them :" and he did therefore censure the said court for applying no stronger or more criminating epithets than those of "improper, unwarrantable, and highly 66 That he, the said Warren Hastings, among other insolent and contumacious charges and aspersions on the court of directors, did address them in the printed letter aforesaid, as follows:-" I deny "that Rajah Cheit Sing was a native prince of In"dia. Cheit Sing is the son of a collector of the "revenue of that province, which his arts, and the "misfortunes of his master, enabled him to convert "to a permanent and hereditary possession. This man, whom you have thus ranked among the "princes of India, will be astonished, when he "hears it, at an elevation so unlooked for; nor "less at the independent rights, which your com"mands have assigned him; rights which are so "foreign to his conceptions, that I doubt whether "he will know in what language to assert them; "unless the example which you have thought it con"sistent with justice, however opposite to policy, "to shew, of becoming his advocates against your own interests, should inspire any of your own 66 servants to be his advisers and instructors." And he did further, to bring into contempt the authority of the company, and to excite a resistance to their lawful orders, frame a supposition, that the court of directors had intended the restoration of the rajah of Benares; and on that ground did presume in the said libel to calumniate, in disrespectful and contumelious terms, the policy of the court of directors, as well as the person, whom he did conceive to be the object of their protection," as followeth :-" Of the consequences of such a impolitick," to an offence so by them charged, and by him described. And though it be true, that the expressions aforesaid are much too reserved for the purpose of duly characterizing the offences of the said Hastings, yet was it in him most indecent to libel the court of directors for the same; and his implication, from the tenderness of the epithets and descriptions aforesaid used towards him, was not only indecent, but ungrounded, malicious, and scandalous; he having himself highly, though truly, aggravated "the charge "of the injuries done by him to the rajah of Be"nares," in order to bring the said directors into contempt and suspicion; the paragraphs in the said libel being as follow: "Here I must crave "leave to say, that the terms improper, unwar"rantable, and highly impolitick,' are much too "gentle, as deductions from such premises; and as every reader of the latter will obviously feel, as he reads, the deductions, which inevitably belong to them, I will add, that the strict per"formance of solemn engagements on one part, 66 66 66 "followed by acts directly subversive of them, 66 VII. "the will of his principal? When the state of this "administration was such as seemed to admit of "the appointment of Mr. Bristow to the residency "of Lucknow without much diminution of my own influence, I gladly seized the occasion to shew my readiness to submit to your commands: I proposed his nomination; he was nominated and declared to be the agent of my own choice. "Even this effect of my caution is defeated by your absolute command for his re-appointment "independent of me, and with the supposition, "that I should be adverse to it.-I am now wholly deprived of my official powers both in "the province of Oude, and in the zemindary of "Benares." 66 66 IX. That the said Hastings, being well aware, that his own declarations did contain the clearest con- That, further to emancipate others and himself demnation of his own conduct from his own pen, from due obedience to the court of directors, he did, in the said libel, attempt to overturn, frustrate, did, in the libel aforesaid, enhance his services; and render of none effect, all the proofs to be which, without specification or proof, he did supgiven of prevarication, contradiction, and of oppo- pose in the said libel to be important and valuable, sition of action to principle, which can be used by representing them as done under their disagainst men in publick trust, and did contend, pleasure; and doth attribute his not having done. that the same could not be used against him; more to their opposition, as followeth :-"It is and, as if false assertions could be justified by fac-"now a complete period of eleven years since I tious motives, he did endeavour to do away the "first received the first nominal charge of your authority of his own deliberate, recorded decla- "affairs; in the course of it I have invariably had rations, entered by him in writing on the council- "to contend, not with ordinary difficulties, but books of the presidency; for, after asserting, but "such as most unnaturally arose from the opnot attempting to prove, that his declarations were "position of those very powers, from which I priconsistent with his conduct, he writes in the said libel as follows: for "were it otherwise, they were "not to be made the rules of my conduct; and "God forbid, that every expression dictated by "the impulse of present emergency, and unpre"meditatedly uttered in the heat of party conten"tion, should impose upon me the obligation of a fixed principle, and be applied to every varia"ble occasion." VIII. marily derived my authority, and which were "required for the support of it. My exertions, "though applied to an unvaried and consistent "line of action, have been occasional and desul"tory; yet I please myself with the hope, that "in the annals of your dominion, which shall be "written after the extinction of recent prejudices, "this term of its administration will appear not "the least conducive to the interests of the com pany, nor the least reflective of the honour of "the British name; and allow me to suggest the "instructive reflection of what good might have "been done, and what evil prevented, had due support been given to that administration, which "has performed such eminent and substantial services without it." 66 That the said Hastings, in order to draw the lawful dependence of the servants of the company from the court of directors to a factious dependence on himself, did, in the libel aforesaid, treat the acts and appointments of their undoubted authority, when exercised in opposition to his arbitrary And the said Hastings, further to render the will, as ruinous to their affairs, in the following authority of the said court perfectly contemptible, terms: "It is as well known to the Indian world, doth, in a strain of exultation for his having escaped as to the court of English proprietors, that the out of a measure, in which by his guilt he had "first declaratory instruments of the dissolution involved the company in a ruinous war, and out "of my influence, in the year 1774, were Mr. of which it had escaped by a sacrifice of almost all "John Bristow and Mr. Francis Fowke. By the territories before acquired (from that enemy, which he had made) either by war, or former treaties, and by the abandoning the company's allies to their mercy, attribute the said supposed services to his acting in such a manner as had on former occasions excited their displeasure, in the following words: 66 your ancient and known constitution the governour has been ever held forth and understood to possess the ostensible powers of government; "all the correspondence with foreign princes is " conducted in his name; and every person re"sident with them for the management of your "political concerns is understood to be more especially his representative, and of his choice"and such ought to be the rule; for how other"wise can they trust an agent nominated against |