t to an
indefinite term," with an intent that it might in truth be never
executed at all,--but that "our government might always interpose,"
without right, by means of an indirect and undue influence, to prevent
the ill effects following from a collusive surrender of a clear and
authorized right to interpose; and the said Hastings doth thereby
declare himself to have introduced a principle of duplicity, deceit, and
double-dealing into a public engagement, which ought in its essence to
be clear, open, and explicit; that such a declaration tends to shake and
overthrow the confidence of all in the most solemn instruments of any
person so declaring, and is therefore an high crime and misdemeanor in
the first executive member of government, by whom all treaties and other
engagements of the state are principally to be conducted.

V. That, by the explanatory minute aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings
doth further, in the most direct manner, contradict his own assertions
in the very letter which inclosed the said minute to his colleagues; for
that one of the articles to which he there gave "_an instant and
unqualified assent, as no less to our interest than to the Vizier's_" he
doth here declare unequivocally to be _neither to our interests nor the
Vizier's_; and the "_unqualified_ assent" given to the said article is
now so _qualified_ as wholly to defeat itself. That by such
irreconcilable contradictions the said Hastings doth incur the suspicion
of much criminal misrepresentation in other like cases of unwitnessed
conferences; and in the present instance (as far as it extends) the said
Hastings doth prove himself to have given an account both of his actions
and motives by his own confession untrue, for the purpose of deceiving
his employers, which is an high crime and misdemeanor in a servant of so
great trust.

VI. That the said third article of the treaty of Chunar, as it thus
stands explained by the said Hastings himself, doth on the whole appear
designed to hold the protection of the Company in suspense; that it
acknowledges all right of interference to cease, but leaves it to our
discretion to determine when it will suit our conveniency to give the
Vizier the liberty of acting on the principles by us already admitted;
that it is dexterously constructed to balance the desires of one man,
rapacious and profuse, against the fears of another, described as "of
extreme pusillanimity and wealthy," but that, whatever may have