Nabob of Farruckabad and his nearest relations, the state of the country and its capital, prevented from all relief by the said Warren Hastings, is described, in the following words, by the resident Willes :

"Almas Ali has taken the pergunnah of Marara at a very inadequate rent, and his aumils have seized many adjacent villages; the pergunnahs of Cocutmow and Souje are constantly plundered by his people. The collection of the gauts near Futty Ghur has been seized by the vizier's cutwal, and the zemindars in four pergunnahs are so refractory as to have fortified themselves in their gurries, and to refuse all payments of revenue. This is the state of the pergunnahs; and Farruckabad, which was once the seat of great opulence and trade, is now daily deserted by its inhabitants; its walls mouldering away, without police, without protection; exposed to the depredations of a banditti of two or three hundred robbers, who, night after night, enter it for plunder, murdering all who oppose them. The ruin that has overtaken this country, is not to be wondered at, when it is considered, that there has been no stable government for many years. There has been the Nabob vizier's authority, his ministers, the residents at Lucknow, the sezawalls, the camp authority, the Nabob Muzuffer Jung's, and that of twenty dewans or advisers. No authority sufficiently predominant to establish any regulations for the benefit of the country, whilst each authority has been exerted, as opportunity offered, for temporary purposes."

"Such being the present deplorable state of Farruckabad and its districts, in the ensuing year it will be in vain to look for revenue, if some regulations equal to the exigency be not adopted. The whole country will be divided between the neighbouring powerful aumils, the refractory zemindars, and banditti of robbers; and the Patans, who might be made useful subjects, will fly from the scene of anarchy. The crisis appears now come, that either some plan of government should be resolved on, so as to form faithful subjects on the frontier, or the country be given up to its fate; and if it be abandoned, there can be little doubt but that the Mahrattas will gladly seize on a station so favourable to incursions into the vizier's dominions; will attach to their interests the Hindoo zemindars, and possess themselves of

VOL. IV.

2 A

forts, which, with little expense made formidable, would give employment perhaps to the whole of our force, should it be ever necessary to recover them."

That the council at Calcutta, on the representation aforesaid made by the resident at Farruckabad, did propose and record a plan for the better government of the said country, but did delay the execution of the same, until the arrange ments made by the said Hastings with the Nabob vizier should be known; but the said Hastings, as far as in him lay, did entirely set aside any plan, that could be formed for that purpose upon the basis of a British resident at Farruckabad, by engaging with the said Nabob vizier, that no British influence shall be employed within his dominions, and he has engaged to that prince not to abandon him to any other mode of relation; and he has informed the court of directors, that the territories of the Nabob of Oude will be ruined, if residents are sent into them, observing, that "residents never will be sent for any other purposes than those of vengeance and corruption.'

That the said Warren Hastings did declare to the court of directors, that in his opinion the mode of relief most ef fectual, and most lenient with regard to Farruckabad, would be to nominate one of the family of the prince to superintend his affairs, and to secure the payments; but this plan, which appears to be most connected with the rights of the ruling family, whilst it provides against the imbecility of the natural lord, and is free from his objection to a resident, is the only one, which the said Hastings never has executed, or even proposed to execute.

That the said Hastings, by the agreements aforesaid, has left the Company in such an alternative, that they can nei ther relieve the said prince of Farruckabad from oppression without a breach of the engagements entered into by hun, the said Hastings, with the Nabob vizier in the name of the Company, nor suffer him to remain under the said op pression without violating all faith, and all the rules of jus tice with regard to him. And the said Hastings hath directly made or authorized no less than six revolutions in less than five years in the aforesaid harassed province; by which fre quent and rapid changes of government, all of them made in contradiction to all his own declared motives and reasons for

the several acts successively done and undone in this transaction, the distresses of the country, and the disorders in its administration, have been highly aggravated; and in the said irregular proceedings, and in the gross and complicated violations of faith with all parties, the said Hastings is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours.

VI. DESTRUCTION OF THE RAJAH OF

SAHLONE.

I.

THAT the late Nabob of Oude, Suja ul Dowla, did (on what reasons of policy, or pretences of justice, is unknown) dispossess a certain native person of distinction, or eminent Rajah, residing in the country of Sahlone," the lineal descendant of the most powerful Hindoo family in that part of Hindostan," of his patrimonial estate; and conferred the same, or part of the same, on his (the Nabob's) mother, as a jaghire [or estate] for the term of her life: and the mother of the Nabob, in order to quiet the country, and to satisfy, in some measure, the principal and other inhabitants, did allow and pay a certain pension to the said Rajah; which pension, on the general confiscation of jaghires, (made at the instigation of the said Warren Hastings,) and by the letting the lands so confiscated to farmers at rack-rents, was discontinued, and refused to be paid; and the discontinuance of the said pension "on account of the personal respect borne to the Rajah, (as connexions with him are sought for, and thought to confer honour,)" did cause an universal discontent, and violent commotions, in the district of Sahlone, and other parts of the province of Oude, with great consequent effusion of blood, and interruption, if not total discontinuance, to the collection of the revenues in those parts, other than as the same was irregularly, and with great damage to the country, enforced by British troops.

II.

That Mr. Lumsdaine, the officer employed to reduce those disordered parts of the province to submission, after several advantages gained over the Rajah and his adherents, and

expelling him from the country, did represent the utter impossibility of bringing it to a permanent settlement merely by forcible methods; as in any of his (the Rajah's) incursions it would not be necessary to bring even a force with him, as the zemindars [landed proprietors and freeholders] are much attached to the Rajah, whom they consider as their hereditary prince, and never fail to assist him; and that his rebellion against government is not looked on as a crime:" and Mr. Lumsdaine declared it " as his clear opinion, that the allowing the said Rajah a pension, suitable to his rank and influence in the country, would be the most certain mode of obtaining a permanent peace; " alleging among other cogent reasons, "that the expense of the force necessary to be employed to subdue the country might be spared, and employed elsewhere: and that the people would return to their villages with their cattle and effects, and of course government have some se curity for the revenue, whereas at present they have none: and the representation containing that prudent and tem perate counsel, given by a military man of undoubted information, and perfect experience in the local circumstances of the country, was transmitted by the resident Bristow to the said Warren Hastings, who did wilfully and criminally omit to order any relief to the said Rajah in conformity to the general sense and wishes of the inhabitants; a compliance with whose so reasonable an expectation his duty in restor ing the tranquillity of the country, and in retrieving the honour of the English government, did absolutely require But, instead of making such provision, a price was set upor his head; and several bodies of British troops being em ployed to pursue him, after many skirmishes and much blood shed, and mutual waste of the country, the said Rajak honoured and respected by the natives, was hunted down, an at length killed in a thicket.

VII. CONTRACTS.

THAT the court of directors of the East-India Compan had laid down the following fundamental rules for the co duct of such of the Company's business in Bengal as cou

be performed by contract; and had repeatedly and strictly ordered the governor and council of Fort William to observe those rules; viz. that all contracts should be publicly advertised, and the most reasonable proposals accepted; that the contracts of provisions, and for furnishing draught and carriage bullocks for the army, should be annual; and that they should not fail to advertise for and receive proposals for those contracts every year.

That the said Warren Hastings, in direct disobedience to the said positive orders, and, as the directors themselves say, by a most deliberate breach of his duty, did, in September, 1777, accept of proposals offered by Ernest Alexander Johnson for providing draught and carriage bullocks, and for victualling the Europeans, without advertising for proposals, as he was expressly commanded to do, and extended the contract for three years, which was positively ordered to be annual: and, notwithstanding that extension of the period, which ought at least to have been compensated by some advantage to the Company in the conditions, did conclude the said contract upon terms less advantageous than the preceding contract, and therefore not on the lowest terms procurable :— that the said Warren Hastings, in defiance of the judgment and lawful orders of his superiors, which in this case left him no option, declared that he disapproved of publishing for proposals, and that the contract was reduced too low already; thereby avowing himself the advocate of the contractor, against whom, as representative of the Company, and guardian of their interests, he properly was party, and preferring the advantage of the contractor to those of his own constituents and employers :-that the court of directors of the East-India Company, having carefully considered the circumstances and tendency of this transaction, condemned it in the strongest terms, declaring, that they would not permit the contract to be continued, and that, "if the contractor should think himself aggrieved, and take measures in consequence, by which the Company became involved in loss or damage, they should certainly hold the majority of the council responsible for such loss or damage, and proceed against them accordingly."-That the said Warren Hastings, in defiance of orders, which, the directors say, were plain and unequi