That the said Warren Hastings, in the report which he made of his
interview and negotiations with Sujah ul Dowlah, dated the 4th of
October, 1773, declared, "that the administration would have been
culpable in the highest degree in retaining possession of Corah and
Allahabad _for any other purpose than that of making an advantage by the
disposal of them_," and therefore he had ceded them to the Vizier for
fifty lac of rupees: a measure for which he had no authority whatever
from the King Shah Allum, and in the execution of which no reserve
whatever was made in favor of the rights of that prince, nor any care
taken of his interests.
That the sale of these provinces to Sujah Dowlah involved the East India
Company in a triple breach of justice; since by the same act they
violated a treaty, they sold the property of another, and they alienated
a deposit committed to their friendship and good faith, and as such
accepted by them. That a measure of this nature is not to be defended on
motives of policy and convenience, supposing such motives to have
existed, without a total loss of public honor, and shaking all security
in the faith of treaties; but that in reality the pretences urged by the
said Warren Hastings for selling the King's country to Sujah Dowlah were
false and invalid.
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