XX. That the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, in exciting the hopes of
the military by declaring them _well entitled to the plunder_ of the
fortress aforesaid, the residence of the mother and other women of the
Rajah of Benares, and by wishing the troops to secure the same for their
own benefit, did advise and act in direct contradiction to the orders of
the Court of Directors, and to his own opinion of his public duty, as
well as to the truth and reality thereof,--he having some years before
entered in writing the declaration which follows.
"The very idea of _prize-money_ suggests to my remembrance _the former
disorders which arose in our army from this source, and had almost
proved fatal to it_. Of this circumstance you must be sufficiently
apprised, and of the necessity for discouraging every expectation of
this kind amongst the troops. _It is to be avoided like poison._ The bad
effects of a similar measure were but too plainly felt in a former
period, and our honorable masters did not fail on that occasion to
reprobate with their censure, in the most severe terms, a practice which
they regarded as the source of infinite evils, and which, if
established, would in their judgment necessarily bring corruption and
ruin on their army.
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