That the East India Company, having on their part violated the
engagements and renounced the conditions on which they received and have
hitherto held and enjoyed the duanne of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa from
the King Shah Allum, have thereby forfeited all right and title to the
said duanne arising from the said grant, and that it is free and open to
the said King to resume such grant, and to transfer it to any other
prince or state;--that, notwithstanding any distress or weakness to
which he may be actually reduced, his lawful authority, as sovereign of
the Mogul Empire, is still acknowledged in India, and that his grant of
the duanne would sufficiently authorize and materially assist any prince
or state that might attempt to dispossess the East India Company
thereof, since it would convey a right which could not be disputed, and
to which nothing but force could be opposed. Nor can these opinions be
more strongly expressed than they have been lately by the said Warren
Hastings himself, who, in a minute recorded the 1st of December, 1784,
has declared, that, "fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the
relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern world; that _its
sovereignty is universally acknowledged_, though the substance of it no
longer exists; and that the Company itself derives its constitutional
dominion from its ostensible bounty.
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