r, 1773; but the said
Warren Hastings, concealing from the Court of Directors a matter of
which it was his duty to afford them the earliest and fullest
information, did, on the said 10th of September, 1773, write to the
Directors, and dispatched his letter over land, giving them an account
of the public treaty, but taking not the least notice of his agreement
for a mercenary war against the nation of the Rohillas.

That, in order to conceal the true purport of the said clandestine
agreement the more effectually, and until he should find means of
gaining over the rest of the Council to a concurrence in his
disobedience of orders, he entered a minute in the Council books, giving
a false account of the transaction; in which minute he represented that
the Nabob had indeed _proposed_ the design aforesaid, and that he, the
said Warren Hastings, _was pleased that he urged the scheme of this
expedition no further_, when in reality and truth he had absolutely
consented to the said enterprise, and had engaged to assist him in it,
which he afterwards admitted, and confessed that he did act in
consequence of the same.

That the said Warren Hastings and his Council were sensible of the true
nature of the enterprise in which they had engaged the Company's arms,
and of the heavy responsibility to which it would subject himself and
the Council,--"the personal hazard they, the Council, run, in
undertaking so _uncommon_ a measure without _positive_ instructions, at
their own risk, with the eyes of the whole nation on the affairs of the
Company, and the passions and prejudices of almost every man in England
inflamed against the conduct of the Company and the character of its
servants"; yet they engaged in the very practice which had brought such
odium on the Company, and on the character of its servants, though they
further say that they had continually before _their eyes the dread of
forfeiting the favor of their employers_, and becoming the "objects of
_popular_ invectives." The said Warren Hastings himself says, at the
very time when he proposed the measure, "I must confess I entertain some
doubts as to its expediency at this time, from the circumstances of the
_Company_ at home, exposed to _popular_ clamor, and all its measures
liable to be canvassed in _Parliament_, their charter drawing to a
close, and his Majesty's ministers unquestionably ready to take
advantage of every unfavorable circumstance in the negotiations of its
renewa