That the said compact for offensive alliance in favor of a great prince
against a considerable nation was not carried on by projects and
counter-projects in writing; nor were the articles and conditions
thereof formed into any regular written instrument, signed and sealed
by the parties; but the whole (both the negotiation and the compact of
offensive alliance against the Rohillas) was a mere verbal engagement,
the purport and conventions whereof nowhere appeared, except in
subsequent correspondence, in which certain of the articles, as they
were stated by the several parties, did materially differ: a proceeding
new and unprecedented, and directly leading to mutual misconstruction,
evasion, and ill faith, and tending to encourage and protect every
species of corrupt, clandestine practice. That, at the time when this
private verbal agreement was made by the said Warren Hastings with the
Nabob of Oude, a public ostensible treaty was concluded by him with the
said Nabob, in which there is no mention whatever of such agreement, or
reference whatever to it: in defence of which omission, it is asserted
by the said Warren Hastings, that _the multiplication of treaties
weakens their efficacy, and therefore they should be reserved only for
very important and permanent obligations_; notwithstanding he had
previously declared to the said Nabob, "that the points which he had
proposed required much consideration, and the previous ratification of a
formal agreement, before he could consent to them.
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