And the Resident, Middleton, on
the Nabob's refusal to act in contradiction to his sworn engagement
guarantied by the East India Company, and in the undutiful and unnatural
manner required, did totally supersede his authority in his own
dominions, considering himself as empowered so to act by the
instructions of the said Hastings, although he had reason to apprehend a
general insurrection in consequence thereof, and that he found it
necessary to remove his family, "which he did not wish to retain there,
in case of a rupture with the Nabob, or the necessity of employing the
British forces in the reduction of _his_ aumils and troops"; and he did
accordingly, as sovereign, issue his own edicts and warrants, in
defiance of the resistance of the Nabob, in the manner by him described
in the letters aforesaid,--in a letter of 6th December, 1781, that is to
say: "_Finding the Nabob wavering in his determination about the
resumption of the jaghires_, I this day, in presence of and with the
minister's concurrence, ordered the necessary purwannahs to be written
to the several aumils for that purpose; and it was my firm resolution to
have dispatched them this evening, with proper people to see them
punctually and implicitly carried into execution; but before they were
all transcribed, I received a message from the Nabob, who had been
informed by the minister of the resolution I had taken, entreating that
I would withhold the purwannahs until to-morrow morning, when he would
attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point.
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