where the same was
held); in which conversation, after reciting the allegations of the said
Hastings relative to several particulars of the delay and backwardness
of the Rajah in paying the aforesaid extra demand, and his resolution to
exact from the Rajah "a considerable sum of money to the relief of the
Company's exigencies," he proceeds in the following words: "That, if he
[the Rajah] consented, you [the said Warren Hastings] were desirous of
_establishing his possessions on the most permanent and eligible
footing_; but if he refused, you had it in your power to _raise a large
sum_ for the Company by accepting an offer which had been made for his
districts by the Vizier." And the said Anderson, in the declaration
aforesaid, made at the request of the said Hastings, and addressed to
him, expressed himself as follows: "That you told me you had
communicated our designs to Mr. Wheler [his only remaining colleague];
and I believe, but I do not positively recollect, you said he concurred
in them." But no trace of any such communication or concurrence did, at
the time referred to, or at any time ever after, appear on the
Consultations, as it ought to have done; and the said Hastings is
criminal for having omitted to enter and record the proceeding. That the
said Wheler did also declare, but a considerable time after the date of
the conversations aforesaid, that, "on the eve of the Governor-General's
departure, the said Hastings had told him that the Rajah's offences (not
stating what offences, he having paid up all the demands, ordinary and
extraordinary) _were declared_ to require early punishment; and as _his
wealth was great, and the Company's exigencies pressing_, it was thought
a measure of policy and of justice to exact from him a large pecuniary
mulct for their relief. The sum to which the Governor declared his
resolution to extend the fine was forty _or_ fifty lacs; his ability to
pay it was stated as a fact that could not admit of a doubt; and the two
alternatives on which the Governor declared himself to have resolved
were, to the best of my recollection, either a removal from his
zemindary entirely, or, by taking immediate possession of all his
forts, to obtain out of the treasure deposited in them the above sum for
the Company."

XV. That in the declaration of the said Wheler the time of the
conversation aforesaid is stated to be on the eve of the Governor's
departure, and then said to be confidential; nor is it