"
That, in the private verbal agreement aforesaid for offensive war, the
said Warren Hastings did transgress the bounds of the authority given
him by his instructions from the Council of Fort William, which had
limited his powers to such compacts "as were consistent with the spirit
of the Company's orders"; which Council he afterwards persuaded, and
with difficulty drew into an acquiescence in what he had done.
That the agreement to the effect aforesaid was settled in the said
secret conferences before the 10th of September, 1773; but the said
Warren Hastings, concealing from the Court of Directors a matter of
which it was his duty to afford them the earliest and fullest
information, did, on the said 10th of September, 1773, write to the
Directors, and dispatched his letter over land, giving them an account
of the public treaty, but taking not the least notice of his agreement
for a mercenary war against the nation of the Rohillas.
That, in order to conceal the true purport of the said clandestine
agreement the more effectually, and until he should find means of
gaining over the rest of the Council to a concurrence in his
disobedience of orders, he entered a minute in the Council books, giving
a false account of the transaction; in which minute he represented that
the Nabob had indeed _proposed_ the design aforesaid, and that he, the
said Warren Hastings, _was pleased that he urged the scheme of this
expedition no further_, when in reality and truth he had absolutely
consented to the said enterprise, and had engaged to assist him in it,
which he afterwards admitted, and confessed that he did act in
consequence of the same.
Pages:
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464