Volume VIII Part 17 (1/2)

There does not appear to have been any interest paid on the above bonds to 31st May, 1782, the last accounts received. In the Interest Books, 1780-81, the last received, the Governor-General has credit for interest on the first six to April, 1781, to the amount of CRs. 21,964 12 8.

(Errors excepted.)

JOHN ANNIS, _Auditor of Indian Accounts._ EAST INDIA HOUSE, 5th June, 1783.

FOOTNOTES:

[57] As the Appendixes originally printed with the foregoing Reports, and which consist chiefly of official doc.u.ments, would have swelled this volume to an enormous size, it has been thought proper to omit them, with the exception of the first nine numbers of the Appendix B. to the Eleventh Report, the insertion of which has been judged necessary for the elucidation of the subject-matter of that Report.

[58] {Received 19th May, {Cancelled 30th July, 1774.

ARTICLES OF CHARGE

OF

HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

AGAINST

WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE

LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL:

PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

IN APRIL AND MAY, 1786.

ARTICLES I.-VI.

ARTICLES OF CHARGE

AGAINST

WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ.,

LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF BENGAL.

I.--ROHILLA WAR.

That the Court of Directors of the East India Company, from a just sense of the danger and odium incident to the extension of their conquests in the East Indies, and from an experience of the disorders and corrupt practices which intrigues and negotiations to bring about revolutions among the country powers had produced, did positively and repeatedly direct their servants in Bengal not to engage in any offensive war whatsoever. That the said Court laid it down as _an invariable maxim, which ought ever to be maintained, that they were to avoid taking part in the political schemes of any of the country princes_,--and did, in particular, order and direct that they should not engage with a certain prince called Sujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, and Vizier of the Empire, in any operations beyond certain limits in the said orders specially described.

That Warren Hastings, Esquire, then Governor of Fort William in Bengal, did, with other members of the Council, declare his clear understanding of the true intent and meaning of the said positive and repeated orders and injunctions,--did express to the Court of Directors his approbation of the policy thereof,--did declare that he adopted the same _with sincerity and satisfaction_, and that he was _too well aware of the ruinous tendency of all schemes of conquest ever to adopt them, or ever to depart from the absolute line of self-defence, unless impelled to it by the most obvious necessity_,--did signify to the Nabob of Oude the said orders, and his obligation to yield punctual obedience thereto,--and did solemnly engage and promise to the Court of Directors, with the _unanimous concurrence_ of the whole Council, ”that no object or consideration should either tempt or compel him to pa.s.s the political line which they [the Directors] had laid down for his operations with the Vizier,” a.s.suring the Court of Directors that he ”scarce saw a possible advantage which could compensate the hazard and expense to be incurred by a contrary conduct,”--that he did frequently repeat the same declarations, or declarations to the same effect, particularly in a letter to the Nabob himself, of the 22d of November, 1773, in the following words: ”The commands of my superiors are, as I have repeatedly informed you, peremptory, that I shall not suffer their arms to be carried beyond the line of their own boundaries, and those of your Excellency, their ally.”

That the said Warren Hastings, in direct contradiction to the said orders, and to his own sense of their propriety and coercive authority, and in breach of his express promises and engagements, did, in September, 1773, enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of Oude, who was the special object of the prohibition, to furnish him, for a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the East India Company, with a body of troops for the declared purpose of ”thoroughly extirpating the nation of the Rohillas”: a nation from whom the Company had never received, or pretended to receive or apprehend, any injury whatsoever; whose country, in the month of February, 1773, by an unanimous resolution of the said Warren Hastings and his Council, was included in the line of defence against the Mahrattas; and from whom the Nabob never complained of an aggression or act of hostility, nor pretended a distinct cause of quarrel, other than the non-payment of a sum of money in dispute between him and that people.