XI. That the article affecting private property secured by public acts,
in the said pretended treaty, contains nothing more than a general
permission, given by the said Warren Hastings, for confiscating such
jaghires, or landed estates, with the modifications therein contained,
"as _he_ [the Nabob] may find necessary," but does not directly point
at, or express by name, any of the landed possessions of the Nabob's
mother. But soon after the signing of the said pretended treaty, (that
is, on the 29th November, 1781,) it did appear that a principal object
thereof was to enable the Nabob to seize upon the estates of his female
parents aforesaid, which had been guarantied to them by the East India
Company. And although in the treaty, or pretended treaty, aforesaid,
nothing more is purported than to give a simple permission to the Nabob
to seize upon and confiscate the estates, leaving the execution or
non-execution of the same wholly to his discretion, yet it appears, by
several letters from Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, the Resident at the
Court of Oude, of the 6th, 7th, and 9th of December, 1781, that no such
discretion as expressed in the treaty was left, or intended to be left,
with him, the said Nabob, but that the said article ought practically to
have a construction of a directly contrary tendency: that, instead of
considering the article as originating from the Nabob, and containing a
power provided in his favor which he did not possess before, the
confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure
originating from the English, and to be intended for their benefit, and,
as such, that the execution was to be forced upon him; and the execution
thereof was accordingly forced upon him.
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