hat in
the Regulating Act passed in the year 1773, which appointed the said
Warren Hastings, Esquire, Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal, a
salary of twenty-five thousand pounds a year was established for him, to
which the Court of Directors added, "that he should enjoy their
principal houses, with the plate and furniture, both in town and
country, _rent-free_." That the same law which created the office and
provided the salary of the said Warren Hastings did expressly, and in
the clearest and most comprehensive terms that could be devised,
prohibit him from receiving any present, gift, or donation, in any
manner or on any account whatsoever; and that the said Warren Hastings
perfectly understood the meaning, and acknowledged the binding force of
this prohibition, before he accepted of the office to which it was
annexed: he knew, and had declared, that _the prohibition was positive
and decisive; that it admitted neither of refinement or misconstruction;
and that in his opinion an opposition would be to incur the penalty_.

That, notwithstanding the covenants and engagements above mentioned, it
appears in the recorded proceedings of the Governor-General and Council
of Fort William, that sundry charges have been brought against the said
Warren Hastings for gifts or presents corruptly taken by him before the
promulgation of the act of 1773 in India, and that these charges were
produced at the Council Board in the presence of the said Warren
Hastings. That, in March, 1775, the late Rajah Nundcomar, a native
Hindoo, of the highest caste in his religion, and of the highest rank in
society, by the offices which he had held under the country government,
did lay before the Council an account of various sums of money paid by
him to the said Warren Hastings, amounting to forty thousand pounds and
upwards, for offices and employments corruptly disposed of by the said
Warren Hastings, and did offer and engage to prove and establish the
same by sufficient evidence. That this account is stated with a minute
particularity and precision; the date of each payment, down to that of
small sums, is specified; the various coins in which such payments were
severally made are distinguished; and the different persons through
whose hands the money passed into those of the said Warren Hastings are
named. That such particularity on the face of such a charge, supposing
it false, is favorable to the party wrongfully accused, and exposes the
a