full power and authority to form _such_ arrangements _with_ the
Rajah of Benares for the _better_ government and management of his
zemindary, and to perform such acts for the improvement of the interest
which the Company possesses in it, as he shall think _fit and consonant
to the mutual engagements subsisting between the Company and the
Rajah_"; and for this and other purposes he did invest himself with the
whole power of the Council, giving to himself an authority as if his
acts had been the acts of the Council itself: which, though a power of a
dangerous, unwarrantable, and illegal extent, yet does plainly imply the
following limits, namely, that the acts done should be _arranged with_
the Rajah, that is, _with his consent_; and, secondly, that they should
be consonant to the actual engagements between the parties; and nothing
appears in the minute conferring the said power, which did express or
imply any authority for depriving the Rajah of his government, or
selling the sovereignty thereof to his hereditary enemy, or for the
plunder of his fort-treasures.

III. That the said Warren Hastings, having formed the plans aforesaid
for the ruin of the Rajah, did set out on a journey to the city of
Benares with a great train, but with a very small force, not much
exceeding six companies of regular black soldiers, to perpetrate some of
the unjust and violent acts by him meditated and resolved on; and the
said Hastings was met, according to the usage of distinguished persons
in that country, by the Rajah of Benares with a very great attendance,
both in boats and on shore, which attendance he did apparently intend as
a mark of honor and observance to the place and person of the said
Hastings, but which the said Hastings did afterwards groundlessly and
maliciously represent as an indication of a design upon his life; and
the said Rajah came into the pinnace in which the said Hastings was
carried, and in a lowly and suppliant manner, alone, and without any
guard or attendance whatsoever, entreated his favor; and being received
with great sternness and arrogance, he did put his turban in the lap of
the said Hastings, thereby signifying that he abandoned his life and
fortune to his disposal, and then departed, the said Hastings not
apprehending, nor having any reason to apprehend, any violence
whatsoever to his person.

IV. That the said Hastings, in the utmost security and freedom from
apprehension, did pursue his journey, and