ouncing all former enmities against each
other, they united in a common confederacy against the English, viz.:
the Peshwa, as representative of the Mahratta state, and Moodajee
Boosla, the Rajah of Berar, that is, the principal Hindoo powers of
India, on one side; and Hyder Ali, and the Nizam of the Deccan, that is,
the principal Mahomedan powers of India, on the other: and that in
consequence of this confederacy Hyder Ali invaded, overran, and ruined
the Carnatic; and that Moodajee Boosla, instead of _ardently catching at
the objects presented to his ambition_ by the said Hastings, sent an
army to the frontiers of Bengal,--which army the said Warren Hastings
was at length forced to buy off with twenty-six lacs of rupees, or
300,000_l._ sterling, after a series of negotiations with the Mahratta
chiefs who commanded that army, founded and conducted on principles so
dishonorable to the British name and character, that the Secret
Committee of the House of Commons, by whom the rest of the proceedings
in that business were reported to the House, _have upon due
consideration thought it proper to leave out the letter of instructions
to Mr. Anderson_, viz., those given by the said Warren Hastings to the
representative of the British government, and concerning which the said
committee have reported in the following terms: "The schemes of policy
by which the Governor-General seems to have dictated the instructions he
gave to Mr. Anderson" (the gentleman deputed) "will also appear in this
document, as well respecting the particular succession to the _rauje_,
as also the mode of accommodating the demand of _chout_, the
establishment of which was apparently the great aim of Moodajee's
political manoeuvres, while the Governor-General's wish to defeat it was
avowedly more intent on the removal of a nominal disgrace than on the
anxiety or resolution to be freed from an expensive, if an unavoidable
incumbrance."

That, while the said Warren Hastings was endeavoring to persuade the
Rajah of Berar to engage with him in a scheme to place the said Rajah at
the head of the Mahratta empire, the Presidency of Bombay, by virtue of
the powers specially vested in them for that purpose by the said
Hastings, did really engage with Ragonaut Row, the other competitor for
the same object, and sent a great part of their military force,
established for the defence of Bombay, on an expedition with Ragonaut
Row, to invade the dominions of the Peshwa, and