epended on him, to
engage the British nation in a most unjust and utterly unprovoked war
against the said Nizam, between whom and the East India Company a treaty
of peace and friendship did then subsist, unviolated on his
part,--notwithstanding the said Hastings well knew that it made part of
the East India Company's fundamental policy to support that prince
against the Mahrattas, and _to consider him as one of the few remaining
chiefs who were yet capable of coping with the Mahrattas_, and that it
was the Company's _true interest to preserve a good understanding with
him_. That, by holding out such offers to the Rajah of Berar, the said
Hastings professed to hope that the Rajah _would ardently catch at the
objects presented to his ambition_: and although the said Hastings did
about this time lay it down as a maxim that _there is always a greater
advantage in receiving solicitations than in making advances_, he
nevertheless declared to the said Rajah that _in the whole of his
conduct he had departed from the common line of policy, and had made
advances where others in his situation would have waited for
solicitation_. That the said unjust and dangerous projects did not take
effect, because the Rajah of Berar refused to join or be concerned
therein; yet so earnest was the said Hastings for the execution of those
projects, that in a subsequent letter he daringly and treacherously
assured the Rajah, "that, if he had accepted of the terms offered him by
Colonel Goddard, and concluded a treaty with the government of Bengal
upon them, he should have held the obligation of it superior to that of
any engagement formed by the government of Bombay, and should have
thought it his duty to maintain it, &c., against every consideration
_even of the most valuable interests and safety of the English
possessions intrusted to his charge_." That all the offers of the said
Hastings were rejected with slight and contempt by the Rajah of Berar;
but the same being discovered, and generally known throughout India, did
fill the chief of the princes and states of India with a general
suspicion and distrust of the ambitious designs and treacherous
principles of the British government, and with an universal hatred of
the British nation. That the said princes and states were thereby so
thoroughly convinced of the necessity of uniting amongst themselves to
oppose a power which kept no faith with any of them, and equally
threatened them all, that, ren