"station ;" a conclusion, however, immediately tending to the total discredit of all powers delegated from the board to any individual servant of the company, and consequently to clog, perplex, and embarrass in future all transactions carried on at a distance from the seat of government, and to disturb the security of all persons possessing instruments already so ratified; yet the only conclusion left to Fyzoola Khân, which did not involve some affront either to the private honour of the company's servants, or to the publick honour of the company itself; and that the suspicions, which originated from the said idea in the breast of Fyzoola Khân to the prejudice of the resident Middleton's authority, did compel the governourgeneral, Warren Hastings, to obviate the bad effects of his first motion for the guarantee by a second motion, namely, "that a letter be written. "to Fyzoola Khân from myself, confirming the obligations of the company, as guarantees to "the treaty formed between him and the vizier; "which will be equivalent in its effect, though not in form, to an engagement sent him with the company's seal affixed to it." 66 66 66 XII. That whether the guarantee aforesaid was or was not necessary; whether it created a new obligation, or but more fully recognised an obligation previously existing; the governour-general, Warren Hastings, by the said guarantee, did, in the most explicit manner, pledge and commit the publick faith of the company, and the nation; and that by the subsequent letter of the said Hastings, (which he at his own motion wrote, confirming to Fyzoola Khân the aforesaid guarantee,) the said Hastings did again pledge and commit the publick faith of the company and the nation, in a manner (as the said Hastings himself remarked) "equiva"lent to an engagement with the company's seal "affixed to it ;" and more particularly binding the said Hastings personally to exact a due observance of the guarantied treaty, especially to protect the Nabob Fyzoola Khân against any arbitrary construction, or unwarranted requisition of the vizier. THANKS OF THE BOARD TO FYZOOLA KHÂN. THAT SOON after the completion of the guarantee, in the same year 1778, intelligence was received in India of a war between England and France; that on the first intimation thereof the Nabob Fyzoola Khân, "being indirectly sounded," did shew much "promptness to render the com"pany any assistance within the bounds of his "finances and ability;" and that by the suggestion of the resident Middleton, herein before named, he (the Nabob Fyzoola Khân) in a letter to the governour-general and council did make a That the Nabob Fyzoola Khân did even ticipate the wishes of the board;" and that on an application made to him by Lieutenant"Colonel Muir," the Nabob Fyzoola Khân did, "without hesitation or delay," furnish him (the said Muir) with 500 of his best cavalry. 66 66 That the said conduct of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân was communicated by the company's servants, both to each other, and to their employers, with expressions of "pleasure" and " particular satisfaction," as an event even surpassing their expectations" that the governour - general, Warren Hastings, was officially requested to convey "the thanks of the board;" and that, not satisfied with the bare discharge of his duty under the said request, he the said Hastings did, on the 8th of January 1779, write to Fyzoola, "that in "his own name," as well as "that of the board, "he (the said Hastings) returned him the warmest "thanks for this instance of his faithful attach"ment to the company and the English nation." IV. That, by the strong expressions above recited, the said Warren Hastings did deliberately and emphatically add his own particular confirmation to the general testimony of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân's meritorious fidelity, and of his consequent claim on the generosity, no less than the justice, of the British government. DEMAND OF FIVE THOUSAND HORSE. I. THAT notwithstanding his own private honour thus deeply engaged, notwithstanding the publick justice and generosity of the company and the nation thus solemnly committed, disregarding the plain import and positive terms of the guarantied treaty, the governour-general, Warren Hastings aforesaid, in November 1780, (while a body of Fyzoola Khân's cavalry, voluntarily granted, were still serving under a British officer,) did recommend to the vizier" to require from Fyzoola Khân the quota of troops stipulated by treaty to be fur"nished by the latter for his (the vizier's) service, 66 being FIVE THOUSAND HORSE;" though, as the vizier did not march in person, he was not, under any construction of the treaty, entitled by stipulation to more than "two or three thousand troops," horse and foot, "according to the ability of Fy"zoola Khân;" and that, whereas the said Warren Hastings would have been guilty of very criminal | the period of the original demand, "to be five perfidy, if he had simply neglected to interfere as a guarantee against a demand thus plainly contrary to the faith of treaty, so he aggravated the guilt of his perfidy, in the most atrocious degree, by being himself the first mover and instigator of that injustice, which he was bound by so many ties on himself, the company, and the nation, not only not to promote, but by every exertion of authority, influence, and power, to controul, to divert, or to resist. II. That the answer of Fyzoola Khân to the vizier did represent, with many expressions of deference, duty, and allegiance, that The whole force allowed him was but "five "thousand men," and that "these consisted of two "thousand horse, and three thousand foot; which (he adds) in consequence of our intimate con"nexion are equally yours and the company's;" though he does subsequently intimate, that "the "three thousand foot are for the management of "the concerns of his jaghire, and without them "the collections can never be made in time." That on the communication of the said answer to the governour-general, Warren Hastings, he the said Hastings (who as the council now consisted only of himself and Edward Wheler, Esquire, "united in his own person all the powers of govern"ment") was not induced to relax from his unjust purpose, but did proceed with new violence to record, that 66 "The Nabob Fyzoola Khân had evaded the "performance of his part of the treaty be"tween the late Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah and "him, to which the honourable company were guarantees, and upon which he was lately sum"moned to furnish the stipulated number of troops, which he is obliged to furnish on the "condition, by which he holds the jaghire grant"ed to him." That by the vague and indefinite term of evasion, the said Warren Hastings did introduce a loose and arbitrary principle of interpreting formal engagements, which ought to be regarded, more especially by guarantees, in a sense the most literally scrupulous and precise. That he charged with such evasion a moderate, humble, and submissive representation on a point, which would have warranted a peremptory refusal, and a positive remonstrance; and that in consequence of the said imputed evasion he indicated a disposition to attach such a forfeiture as in justice could only have followed from a gross breach of treaty; though the said Hastings did not then pretend any actual infringement even of the least among the conditions, to which, in the name of the company, he the said Hastings was the executive guarantee. III. That however "the number of troops stipu"lated by treaty may have been understood," at "thousand horse," yet the said Warren Hastings, at the time when he recorded the supposed evasion of Fyzoola Khân's answer to the said demand, could not be unacquainted with the express words of the stipulation, as a letter of the vizier, inserted in the same consultation, refers the governour-general to enclosed copies "of all "engagements entered into by the late vizier "and by himself (the reigning vizier) with Fy"zoola 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 assur- Observations 66 edly does not contain a syllable on Mr. Bris"to justify his conduct; but by the tow's defence. unexampled latitude, which he assumes in his "constructions, he may, if he pleases, extort this or any other meaning from any part of it." 66 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) no where mentions the treaty as the ground of his demand, except where he is recapitulating to the governourgeneral, 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 any thing of the tenour 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 any thing 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, as a breach of treaty, could only be answered by charging a prior breach of treaty on Fyzoola Khan, 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 honour depends, require it, Fyzoola Khân will not lend his as"sistance, what USE is there to continue the country to him?" 66 That the vizier actually did make his application to Fyzoola Khân for the 5,000 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 encrease to their friendship, and satisfaction to the nabob governour," (meaning the said Hastings,) whose directions he represents as the motive" of his call 66 "for the 5,000 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 colour 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 no where 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 3,000 cavalry; and if he should evade, or refuse com'pliance, 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 governour-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. 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 "favourable 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 enquiry whatever, from a single glance of his eye in passing, did take upon himself to pronounce" the Rohilla soldiers, in the "district of Rampore alone, to be not less than 20,000," 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. 66 "That he would in compliance with the de"mand, and in conformity to the treaty, which specified no definitive number of cavalry or in'fantry, only expressing troops, furnish 3,000 men; viz. he would, in addition to the 1,000 cavalry already granted, give 1,000 more, when and wheresoever required, and 1,000 foot ;" together with one year's pay in advance, and funds for the regular payment of them in future. 66 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. That, when the said Hastings ordered the said demand for 3,000 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 governourgeneral'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." 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 3,000 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 whole three thousand must have been demonstrably necessary: and that the Nabob Fyzoola Khân, by declining to avail himself of a plea so fair, so well founded, and so consonant to the indulgence expressly acknowledged in the treaty, and by thus meeting the specifick demand of the vizier as fully as, according to his own military establishment, he could, did for the said offer deserve rather the thanks of the said vizier and the company, than the protest, which the aforesaid Johnson, under the orders of Warren Hastings, did deliver. XI. That the report of the said protest, as well as the former letter of the said Johnson, were by the resident Middleton transmitted to the board, together with a letter from the vizier, founded on the said report and letter of the said Johnson, and proposing in consequence "to resume the grant, "and to leave Fyzoola Khân to join his other "faithless brethren, who were sent across the "Ganges." That the said papers were read in council on the 4th of June 1781, when the governour general, Warren Hastings, did move and carry a vote to suspend a final resolution on the same; and the said Hastings did not express any disapprobation of the proceedings of the said Johnson; neither did the said Hastings assign any reasons for his motion of suspension, which passed without debate. That in truth the said Hastings had then projected a journey up the country to meet the vizier, for the settlement of articles relative to the regulation of Oude and its dependencies, among which was included the jaghire of Fyzoola Khân; and the said Hastings, for the aforesaid purposes, did, on the 3d of July, by his own casting vote, grant to himself, and did prevail on his colleague, Edward Wheler, Esquire, to grant a certain illegal delegation of the whole powers of the governour-general and council; and on the seventh of the same month did proceed on his way to join the vizier at a place called Chunar on the borders of Benares; and that the aforesaid vote of suspending a final resolution on the transactions with Fyzoola Khán was therefore in substance and effect a reference thereof by the said Hastings, from himself in council with his colleague Wheler, to himself in conference and negociation with the vizier, who from the first demand of the 5,000 horse had taken every occasion of shewing his inclination to dispossess Fyzoola Khan, and who before the said demand (in a letter, which does not appear, but which the vizier himself quotes as antecedent to the said demand) had complained to the said Hastings of the injury and irregularity in the "from a THAT the governour-general, Warren Hastings, being vested with the illegal powers before recited, did, on the 12th of September 1781, enter into a treaty with the vizier at Chunar; which treaty (as the said Hastings relates) was drawn up "series of requisitions presented to him (the said "Hastings) by the vizier," and by him received "with an instant and unqualified assent to each "article ;" and that the said Hastings assigns his reasons for such ready assent in the following words: "I considered the subjects of his (the "vizier's) requests as essential to the reputation of our government, and no less to our interest "than his." 66 66 1st. That the said Hastings doth acknowledge therein, that he did, in a publick instrument, solemnly recognise, as a breach of treaty," and as such did subject to the consequent penalties, an act, which he the said Hastings did at the same time think, and did immediately declare, to be Explanatory no breach of treaty ;" and by so minute. falsely and unjustly proceeding against a person under the company's guarantee, the said Hastings, on his own confession, did himself break the faith of the said guarantee. Hastings doth thereby charge himself with a high breach of trust towards his employers. 6thly. That the said Hastings having thus confessed, that consciously and wilfully (from what motives he hath not chosen to confess) he did give his formal sanction to a measure both of injustice and impolicy, he the said Hastings doth urge in his defence, that he did at the same time insert words "reserving the execution of the said agree"ment to an indefinite term;" with an intent, that it might in truth be never executed at all; but "that our government might always interpose," without right, by means of an indirect and undue influence, to prevent the ill effects following from a collusive surrender of a clear and authorized right to interpose; and the said Hastings doth thereby declare himself to have introduced a principle of duplicity, deceit, and double-dealing, into a publick engagement, which ought in its essence to be clear, open, and explicit; that such a declaration tends to shake and overthrow the confidence of all in the most solemn instruments of any person so declaring, and is therefore an high crime and misdemeanour in the first executive member of government, by whom all treaties and other engagements of the state are principally to be conducted. V. That by the explanatory minute aforesaid the said Warren Hastings doth further, in the most direct manner, contradict his own assertions in the very letter which enclosed the said minute to his colleagues; for that one of the articles, to which he there gave an instant and unqualified assent, 66 as no less to our interest than to the vizier's," he doth here declare unequivocally to be neither to our interests nor the vizier's; and the " unqualified assent" given to the said article is now so qualified, as wholly to defeat itself. That by such irreconcilable contradictions the said Hastings doth incur the suspicion of such criminal misrepresentation in other like cases of unwitnessed conferences; and in the present instance (as far as it extends) the said Hastings doth prove himself to have given an account both of his actions and motives, by his own confession untrue, for the purpose of deceiving his employers, which is an high crime and misdemeanour in a servant of so great trust. VI. That the said third article of the treaty of Chunar, as it thus stands explained by the said Hastings himself, doth on the whole appear designed to hold the protection of the company in suspense; that it acknowledges all right of interference to cease, but leaves it to our discretion to determine when it will suit our conveniency to give the vizier the liberty of acting on the principles by us already admitted: that it is dexterously constructed to balance the desires of one man, rapacious and profuse, against the fears of another, described as "of extreme pusillanimity, and |