erately, 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 Sujah Dowlah, resolved to withhold, and actually withheld,
the payment of the said tribute, of which the King Shah 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 impolitic and unsafe to answer the drafts of the King,
until they were satisfied of his amicable intentions, 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 impolitic, 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 duanne of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa from
the King Shah Allum, have thereby forfeited all right and title to the
said duanne arising from the said grant, and that it is free and open to
the said King to resume such grant, and to transfer it