complained to the said Hastings of the "injury and irregularity in the management of the provinces bordering on Rampore, arising from Fyzoola Khân having the uncontrolled dominion of that district."

TREATY OF CHUNAR.

I.

THAT the governor-general, Warren Hastings, being vested with the illegal powers before recited, did, on the 12th of September, 1781, enter into a treaty with the vizier at Chunar; which treaty (as the said Hastings relates) was drawn up "from a series of requisitions presented to him (the said Hastings) by the vizier," and by him received "with an instant and unqualified assent to each article ;" and that the said Hastings assigns his reasons for such ready assent in the following words: "I considered the subjects of his (the vizier's) requests as essential to the reputation of our government, and no less to our interest than his."

II.

That in the said treaty of Chunar the third article is as follows:

"That as Fyzoola Khân has by his breach of treaty forfeited the protection of the English government, and causes by his continuance in his present independent state great alarm and detriment to the Nabob vizier, he be permitted, when time shall suit, to resume his lands, and pay him in money, through the resident, the amount stipulated by treaty, after deducting the amount and charges of the troops he stands engaged to furnish by treaty; which amount shall be passed to the account of the Company during the continuance of the present war.”

III.

That for the better elucidation of his policy in the several articles of the treaty above mentioned, the said Hastings did send to the council of Calcutta (now consisting of Edward

Wheler and John Macpherson, Esquires) two different copies of the said treaty, with explanatory minutes opposed to each article; and that the minute opposed to the third article is thus expressed:

"The conduct of Fyzoola Khân, in refusing the aid demanded, though 1 not an absolute breach of treaty, was evasive and uncandid. 2 The demand was made for 5000 cavalry. 3 The engagement in the treaty is literally for 5000 horse and foot. Fyzoola Khân could not be ignorant, that we had no occasion for any succours of infantry from him, and that cavalry would be of the most essential service. So scrupulous an attention to literal expression, when a more liberal interpretation would have been highly useful and acceptable to us, strongly marks his unfriendly disposition, though it may not impeach his fidelity, and leaves him little claim to any exertions from us for the continuance of his jaghires. But 5 I am of opinion, that neither the vizier's nor the Company's interests would be promoted by depriving Fyzoola Khan of his independency, and I have 6 therefore reserved the execution of this agreement to an indefinite term; and our government may always interpose to prevent any ill effects from it.”

IV.

That in his aforesaid authentic evidence of his own purposes, motives, and principles, in the third article of the treaty of Chunar, the said Hastings hath established divers matters of weighty and serious crimination against himself.

1st, That the said Hastings doth acknowledge therein, that he did, in a public instrument, solemnly recognise, “as a breach of treaty," and as such did subject to the consequent penalties, an act, which he the said Hastings did at the same time think, and did immediately declare, to be

66

Explanatory

minute.

no breach of treaty ;" and by so falsely and unjustly proceeding against a person under the Company's guarantee, the said Hastings, on his own confession, did himself break the faith of the said guarantee.

2ndly, That in justifying this breach of the Company's faith, the said Hastings doth wholly abandon his second peremptory demand for the 3000 horse, and the protest consequent thereon; and the said Hastings doth thereby himself condemn the violence and injustice of the same.

3rdly, That in recurring to the original demand of five thousand horse as the ground of his justification, the said Hastings doth falsely assert "the engagement in the treaty to be literally FIVE thousand horse and foot," whereas it is in fact for Two or THREE thousand men; and the said Hastings doth thereby wilfully attempt to deceive and mislead his employers, which is a high crime and misdemeanour in a servant of so great trust.

4thly, That with a view to his further justification, the said Hastings doth advance a principle, that "a scrupulous attention to the literal expression" of a guaranteed treaty "leaves" to the person so observing the same "but little claim to the exertions" of a guarantee on his behalf; that such a principle is utterly subversive of all faith of guarantees, and is therefore highly criminal in the first executive member of a government, that must necessarily stand in that mutual relation to many.

5thly, That the said Hastings doth profess his opinion of an article, to which he gave an "instant and unqualified assent," that it was a measure, "by which neither the vizier's nor the Company's interests would be promoted," but from which, without some interposition, "ill effects must be expected;" and that the said Hastings doth thereby charge himself with a high breach of trust towards his employers.

6thly, That the said Hastings having thus confessed, that consciously and wilfully (from what motives he hath not chosen to confess) he did give his formal sanction to a measure both of injustice and impolicy, he the said Hastings doth urge in his defence, that he did at the same time insert words "reserving the execution of the said agreement 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 doubledealing, 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 there

fore a high crime and misdemeanour 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 enclosed 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 a high crime and misdemeanour in a servant of so great trust.

VI.

That the said third article of the treaty of Chunar, as it hus stands explained by the said Hastings himself, doth on he whole appear designed to hold the protection of the Comany in suspense; that it acknowledges all right of interfer

nce to cease, but leaves it to our discretion to determine hen it will suit our conveniency to give the vizier the berty of acting on the principles by us already admitted: at it is dexterously constructed to balance the desires of ne man, rapacious and profuse, against the fears of another, escribed as 66 of extreme pusillanimity, and wealthy:" but at, whatever may have been the secret objects of the artice and intrigue confessed to form its very essence, it must the very face of it necessarily implicate the Company in a each of faith, whichever might be the event, as they must ually break their faith, either by withdrawing their guantee unjustly, or by continuing that guarantee in contraction to this treaty of Chunar; that it thus tends to hold

out to India, and to the whole world, that the public principle of the English government is a deliberate system of injustice, joined with falsehood; of impolicy, of bad faith and treachery; and that the said article is therefore in the highest degree derogatory to the honour, and injurious to the interests, of this nation.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF CHUNAR.

I.

THAT in consequence of the treaty of Chunar, the govern or-general, Warren Hastings, did send official instructions, respecting the various articles of the said treaty, to the said resident Middleton; and that, in a postscript, the said Hastings did forbid the resumption of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân's jaghire, "until circumstances may render it more expedient, and easy to be attempted, than the present more material pursuits of government make it appear;" thereby intimating a positive limitation of the indefinite term in the explanatory minute above recited; and confining the suspension of the article to the pressure of war.

II.

That soon after the date of the said instructions, and within two months of the signature of the treaty of Chunar, the said Hastings did cause Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief justice at Fort William, to discredit the justice of the crown of Great Britain by making him the channel of unwarrantable communication; and did, through the said Sir Elijah, signify to the resident Middleton his (the said Hastings's) "approbation of a subsidy from Fyzoola Khân."

III.

That the resident, in answer, represents the proper equivalent for 2000 horse, and 1000 foot, (the forces offered to Mr. Johnson by Fyzoola Khân,) to be twelve lacks, or £120,000 sterling, and upwards, each year; which the said resident supposes is considerably beyond what he (Fyzoola Khân) will voluntarily pay "however, if it is your wish that the