the said
Warren Hastings that all transactions with the country powers should be
faithfully entered, as well as to take care that all instruments
transmitted to them on the faith of the Company should be honestly,
candidly, and fairly executed, according to the true intent and meaning
of the engagements entered into on the part of the Company,--giving by
the said complicated, artificial, and fraudulent management, as well as
by his said omitting to record the said material document, strong reason
to presume that he did even then meditate to make some evil use of the
deeds which he thus withheld from the Company, and which he did
afterwards in reality make, when he found means and opportunity to
effect his evil purpose.

PART II.

DESIGNS OF MR. HASTINGS TO RUIN THE RAJAH OF BENARES.

I. That the tribute transferred to the Company by the treaty with the
Nabob of Oude, being 250,000_l._ a year sterling, and upwards, without
any deductions whatsoever, was paid monthly, with such punctual
exactness as had no parallel in the Company's dealings with any of the
native princes or with any subject zemindar, being the only one who
never was in arrears; and according to all appearance, a perfect
harmony did prevail between the Supreme Council at Calcutta and the
Rajah. But though the Rajah of Benares furnished no occasion of
displeasure to the board, yet it since appears that the said Warren
Hastings did, at some time in the year 1777, conceive displeasure
against him. In that year, he, the said Warren Hastings, retracted his
own act of resignation of his office, made to the Court of Directors
through his agent, Mr. Macleane, and, calling in the aid of the military
to support him in his authority, brought the divisions of the
government, according to his own expression, "to an extremity bordering
on civil violence." This extremity he attributes, in a narrative by him
transmitted to the Court of Directors, and printed, not to his own fraud
and prevarication, but to what he calls "an attempt to wrest from him
his authority"; and in the said narrative he pretends that the Rajah of
Benares had deputed an agent with an express commission to his opponent,
Sir John Clavering. This fact, if it had been true, (which is not
proved,) was in no sort criminal or offensive to the Company's
government, but was at first sight nothing more than a proper mark of
duty and respect to the supposed succession of office. Nor is it
possible to conc