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subsequent act, the least security for the payment of the said pension to those, for whom such pension was ostensibly reserved; and, for the others, not so much as a shew of indemnity ;-to the extreme scandal of the British government, which, valuing itself upon a strict regard to property, did expressly authorize, if it did not command, an attack upon that right, unprecedented in the despotick governments of India.

IX.

That the said Warren Hastings, in order to cover the violent and unjust proceedings aforesaid, did assert a claim of the right in the same nabob to all the possessions of his said mother and grandmother, as belonging to him by the Mahomedan law; and this pretended claim was set up by the said Warren Hastings, after the nabob had, by a regular treaty ratified and guarantied by the said Hastings as governour-general, renounced and released all demands on them. And this false pretence of a legal demand was taken up and acted upon by the said Warren Hastings, without laying the said question on record before the council general, or giving notice to the persons to be affected thereby, to support their rights before any of the principal magistrates and expounders of the Mahomedan law, or taking publickly the opinions of any person conversant therein.

X.

XI.

That the article affecting private property secured by publick 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 na"bob] 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, Esq. 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 favour, which he did not possess before, the confiscation of the jaghires aforesaid was to be considered as a measure 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. 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

That, in order to give further colour to the acts of ill faith and violence aforesaid, the said Warren Hastings did cause to be taken at Lucknow, and other places, before divers persons, and particularly before Sir Elijah Impey, knight, his Majesty's chief justice, acting extra-judicially, and not within the limits of his jurisdiction, several passionate, careless, irrelevant, and irregular affidavits, consisting of matter not fit to be deposed on oath; of reports, conjectures, and hearsays; some of the persons swearing to the said hearsays having declined to declare from whom they heard the accounts at second-hand sworn to; the said affidavits in general tending to support the calumnious charge of the said Warren Hastings, namely, that the aged women before mentioned had formed, or engaged in, a plan for the deposition of" there, in case of a rupture with the nabob, or their son and sovereign, and the utter extirpation of the English nation: and neither the said charge against persons, whose dependence was principally, if not wholly, on the good faith of this nation, and highly affecting the honour, property, and even lives, of women of the highest condition; nor the affidavits intended to support the same, extra-judicially taken ex parte, and without notice, by the said Sir Elijah Impey, and others, were at any time communicated to the parties charged, or to any agent for them; nor were they called upon to answer, nor any explanation demanded of them.

"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

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presence of and with the minister's concurrence, "ordered the necessary perwannahs 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

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"inform you of the effects of the perwannahs, which, in many parts, I am apprehensive it will "be found necessary to enforce with military aid. I am not, however, entirely without hopes, that "the nabob, when he sees the inefficacy of fur"ther opposition, may alter his conduct, and pre"vent the confusion and disagreeable consequences, which would be too likely to result "from the prosecution of a measure of such importance without his concurrence. His Excel

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punctually and implicitly carried into execu"tion; 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 perwannahs until to-morrow morning, when "he would attend me, and afford me satisfaction on this point. As the loss of a few hours in the "dispatch of the perwannahs appeared of little moment, and as it is possible the nabob, seeing that the business will at all events be done, lency talks of going to Fyzabad, for the purpose may make it an act of his own, I have con- "heretofore mentioned, in three or four days; I "sented to indulge him in his request; but, be "wish he may be serious in his intention, and "the result of our interview whatever it may, you may rest assured, I shall spare no pains to nothing shall prevent the orders being issued keep him to it."—And further, in a letter of the "to-morrow, either by him or myself, with the 9th December 1781-"I had the honour to ad66 concurrence of the ministers. Your pleasure "dress you on the 7th instant, informing you of respecting the begums I have learnt from Sir "the conversation which had passed between the "Elijah; and the measure heretofore proposed "nabob and me, on the subject of resuming the "will soon follow the resumption of the jaghires. jaghires, and the step I had taken in conse"From both, or indeed from the former alone, I "quence. His Excellency appeared to be very "have no doubt of the complete liquidation of the "much hurt and incensed at the measure; and "company's balance."-And also in another letter" loudly complains of the treachery of his minisof the 7th December 1781,-" I had the honour to "ters; first, in giving you any hopes, that such "address you yesterday, informing you of the" a measure would be adopted; and, secondly, "steps I had taken in regard to the resumption" in their promising me their whole support in "of the jaghires. This morning the vizier came carrying it through: but, as I apprehend, "to me according to his agreement, but seem- "rather than suffer it to appear, that the point ingly without any intention or desire to yield" had been carried in opposition to his will, he at "me satisfaction on the subject under discussion; length yielded a nominal acquiescence, and has for, after a great deal of conversation, consist- "this day issued his own perwannahs to that "ing, on his part, of trifling evasion, and pue- "effect; declaring, however, at the same time, "rile excuses for withholding his assent to the "both to me and his ministers, that it is an act of "measure, though at the same time professing" compulsion. I hope to be able in a few days, in "the most implicit submission to your wishes, I consequence of this measure, to transmit you an 'found myself without any other resource than "account of the actual value and produce of the "the one of employing that exclusive authority, jaghires, opposed to the nominal amount, at "with which I consider your instructions to vest "which they stand rated on the books of the me: I therefore declared to the nabob, in "sircar." presence of the minister and Mr. Johnson, who "I desired might bear witness of the conversation, "that I construed his rejection of the measure "proposed as a breach of his solemn promise to you, and an unwillingness to yield that assist66 ance, which was evidently in his power, towards liquidating his heavy accumulating debt to the company; and that I must in consequence determine, in my own justification, to issue imme"diately the perwannahs, which had only been "withheld in the sanguine hope, that he would "be prevailed upon to make that his own act, "which nothing but the most urgent necessity "could force me to make mine.-He left me with"out any reply; but afterwards sent for his miInister, and authorized him to give me hopes, "that my requisition would be complied with; "on which I expressed my satisfaction, but de"clared, that I could admit of no further delays; "and unless I received his Excellency's formal "acquiescence before the evening, I should then "most assuredly issue my perwannahs; which I "have accordingly done, not having had any as"surances from his Excellency, that could justify

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That the said Warren Hastings, instead of expressing any disapprobation of the proceedings aforesaid in violation of the rights secured by treaty with the mother and grandmother of the reigning prince of Oude, and not less in violation of the sovereign rights of the nabob himself, did by frequent messages stimulate the said Middleton to a perseverance in, and to a rigorous execution of, the same; and in his letter from Benares of the 25th December 1781, did "express doubts of his "firmness and activity, and above all, of his re"collection of his instructions, and their importance; and that, if he could not rely on his own [power] and the means he possessed for per"forming those services, he would free him [the "said Middleton] from the charges, and would 'proceed himself to Lucknow, and would him"self undertake them."

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a further suspension. I shall, as soon as possible, letters written by the said Middleton to the said

Warren Hastings, when they answer the purposes, which the said Warren Hastings had evidently in view, the said Middleton having written to him in the following manner from Lucknow, 30th December 1781.

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"I have this day answered your publick letter "in the form you seem to expect. I hope there "is nothing in it, that may appear to you too pointed. If you wish the matter to be other"wise understood than I have taken up and " stated it, I need not say I shall be ready to conform to whatever you may prescribe, and to “take upon myself any share of the blame of the (hitherto) non-performance of the stipulations "made on behalf of the nabob. Though I do 66 assure you, I myself represented to his Excellency and the ministers, conceiving it to be your "desire, that the apparent assumption of the "reins of his government (for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at the first view) as 'specified in the agreement executed by him, was not meant to be fully and literally en“forced, but that it was necessary you should "have something to shew on your side, as the company were deprived of a benefit without a requital; and upon the faith of this assurance "alone, I believe I may safely affirm his Excel"lency's objections to signing the treaty were given up. If I have understood the matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it; however, it is not too late to cor"rect the errour; and I am ready to undertake, "and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on receipt of my publick letter, tell me is your final resolve.

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XV.

That it appears, but on his the said Middleton's sole authority, in a letter from the said Middleton, dated Lucknow, 2nd December 1781, that the nabob of Oude, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the jaghires aforesaid, did send a message to him, purporting, "that if the measure proposed was intended to procure the payment "of the balance due to the company, he could "better, and more expeditiously, effect that object by taking from his mother the treasures of his "father, which he did assert to be in her hands, "and to which he did claim a right; and that it "would be sufficient, that he the said Hastings "would hint his opinion upon it, without giving a "formal sanction to the measure proposed; and

that whatever his resolution upon the subject "should be, it would be expedient to keep it "secret;" adding," the resumption of the jaghires "it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer "to this letter."

XVI.

That it does not appear, that the said Hastings did write any letter in answer to the proposal of the said Middleton, but he, the said Hastings, did communicate his pleasure thereon to Sir Elijah Impey, being then at Lucknow, for his the said Middleton's information; and it does appear, that the seizing of the treasures of the mother of the nabob, said to have been proposed as an alternative by the said nabob to prevent the resumption of the jaghires, was determined upon and ordered by the said Hastings; and that the resumption of the said jaghires, for the ransom of which the seizing of the treasures was proposed, was also directed; not one only, but both sides of the alternative being enforced upon the female parents of the nabob aforesaid, although both the one and the other had been secured to them by a treaty with the East India company.

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That Sir Elijah Impey, knight, His Majesty's chief justice at Fort William, did undertake a journey of nine hundred miles, from Calcutta to Lucknow, on pretence of health and pleasure; but was in reality in the secret of these and other irregular transactions, and employed as a channel of confidential communication therein. And the said Warren Hastings, by presuming to employ the said chief justice, a person particularly unfit for an agent, in the transaction of affairs, primá facie at least unjust, violent, and oppressive, contrary to publick faith, and to the sentiments and law of nature, and which he the said Hastings was sensible "could not fail to draw obloquy on him"self by his participation," did disgrace the king's commission, and render odious to the natives of Hindostan the justice of the crown of Great Britain.

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of the nabob, he was not, nor did he pretend to be, ignorant of his, the nabob's, reluctance to proceed in the said measures; but did admit his knowledge of the nabob's reluctance to their full execution, and yet did justify the same as follows:

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XX.

"I desire, that you will inform him (the nabob) "that in these and the other measures, which were "either proposed by him, or received his concurrence in the agreement passed between us at "Chunar, I neither had nor could have any object "but his relief, and the strengthening of his con"nexion with the company; and that I should "not on any other ground have exposed myself to "the personal obloquy, which they could not fail to draw upon me by my participation in them, "but left him to regulate, by his own discretion, "and by his own means, the economy of his own "finances, and, with much more cause, the asser"tion of his domestick right. In these he had no regular claim to my interference; nor had I, "in my publick character, any claim upon him, but "for the payment of the debt then due from him "to the company, although I was under the "strongest obligations to require it for the relief of "the pressing exigencies of their affairs.-He will "well remember the manner, in which, at a visit to "him in his own tent, I declared my acquiescence freely, and without hesitation, to each proposi"tion, which afterwards formed the substance of a "written agreement, as he severally made them; "and he can want no other evidence of my motives "for so cheerful a consent, nor for the requests, "which I added as the means of fulfilling his purposes in them. Had he not made these measures "his own option, I should not have proposed "them; but having once adopted them, and made "them the conditions of a formal and sacred agreement, I had no longer an option to dispense with them, but was bound to the complete performance and execution of them, as points of publick duty, and of national faith, for which "I was responsible to my king, and the company my immediate superiours; and this was the reason for my insisting on their performance "and execution, when I was told, that the nabob himself had relaxed from his original purpose, "and expressed a reluctance to proceed in it."

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XXI.

dispensing with the whole, or any part thereof, as much in his option after the treaty, as it was before; the declared intent of the article being only to remove the restraint of the company's guarantee forbidding such resumption, but furnishing nothing, which could authorize putting that resumption into the hands and power of the company, to be enforced at their discretion. And with regard to the other part of the spoil made by order of the said Hastings, and by him, in the letter aforesaid, stated to be made equally against the will of the nabob, namely that, which was committed on the personal and moveable property of the female parents of the nabob, nothing whatsoever in relation to the same is stipulated in the said pretended treaty.

XXII.

That the said Hastings, in asserting that he was bound to the acts aforesaid by publick duty, and even by national faith, in the very instance in which that national faith was by him grossly violated; and in justifying himself by alleging, that he was bound to the complete execution by a responsibility to the company, which he immediately served; and by asserting, that these violent. and rapacious proceedings, subjecting all persons concerned in them to obloquy, would be the means of strengthening the connexion of the nabob with the British united company of merchants trading to the East Indies; did disgrace the authority, under which he immediately acted. And that the said Hastings, in justifying his obligations to the said acts by a responsibility to the king, namely, to the king of Great Britain, did endeavour to throw upon His Majesty, his lawful sovereign, (whose name and character he was bound to respect, and to preserve in estimation with all persons, and particularly with the sovereign princes, the allies of his government,) the disgrace and odium of the aforesaid acts, in which a sovereign prince was by him, the said Hastings, made an instrument of perfidy, wrong, and outrage to two mothers and wives of sovereign princes; and in which he did exhibit to all Asia (a country remarkable for the utmost devotion to parental authority) the spectacle of a christian governour, representing a christian sovereign, compelling a son to become the instrument of such violence and extortion against his own mother.

That the said Warren Hastings, by repeated messages and injunctions, and under menaces of "a dreadful responsibility," did urge the resident That the said Warren Hastings does admit, that to a completion of this barbarous act; and well the nabob had originally no regular claim upon knowing, that such an act would probably be him for his interference, or he any claim on the resisted, did order him the said resident to use the nabob, which might entitle him to interfere in British troops under his direction for that purpose; the nabob's domestick concerns; yet, in order to and did offer the assistance of further forces, urging justify his so invidious an interference, he did, in the execution in the following peremptory terms: the letter aforesaid, give a false account of the said "you yourself must be personally treaty, which (as before mentioned) did nothing "present; you must not allow any more than give a permission to the nabob to resume "negociation or forbearance; but must prosecute the jaghires, if HE should judge the same to be" both services, until the begums (princesses) are necessary; and did therefore leave the right of "at the entire mercy of the nabob."

1781.

13th Jan. 1782.

XXIII.

That in conformity to the said peremptory orders a party of British and other troops, with the nabob in the ostensible, and the British resident in the real, command, were drawn towards the city of Fyzabad, in the castle of which city the mother and grandmother of the nabob had their residence; and after expending two days in negociation, (the particulars of which do not appear,) the resident not receiving the satisfaction he looked for, the town was first stormed, and afterwards the castle; and little or no resistance being made, and no blood being shed on either side, the British troops occupied all the outer enclosure of the palace of one of the princesses, and blocked up the other.

XXIV.

That this violent assault, and forcible occupation of their houses, and the further extremities they had to apprehend, did not prevail on the female parents of the nabob to consent to any submission, until the resident sent in unto them a letter from the said Warren Hastings, 18th Jan. 1782. (no copy of which appears,) declaring himself no longer bound by the guarantee, and containing such other matter as tended to remove all their hopes, which seemed to be centred in British faith.

XXV.

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XXVII.

That the nabob continuing still under the pressure of a further pretended debt to the company for his balance of the year 1780-81, the resident, not satisfied with the seizure of the estates and treasures of his parents aforesaid, although he the said resident did confess, that the princess mother "had declared, with apparent truth, that she had "delivered up the whole of the property in her "hands, excepting goods, which from the expe"rience, which he the resident had, of the small produce of the sales of a former payment made by her in that mode, he did refuse, and that in "his opinion it certainly would have amounted to "little or nothing;" did proceed to extort another great sum of money, that is to say, the sum of £120,000 sterling, on account of the last pretended balance aforesaid. In order therefore to compel the said ministers and treasurers either to distress their principals by extorting whatever valuable substance might, by any possibility, remain concealed, or to furnish the said sum from their own estates, or from their credit with their friends, he, the resident, did order their imprisonment to be aggravated with circumstances of great cruelty, giving an order to Lieutenant Francis Rutledge, dated 20th January 1782, in the following words:

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"Sir,

XXVIII.

"When this note is delivered to you by Hoolas Roy, I have to desire, that you order the two prisoners to be put in irons, keeping them from "all food, &c. agreeable to my instructions of yesterday.

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(Signed) "Nath. Middleton."

XXIX.

That the chief officers of their household, who were their treasurers and confidential agents, the eunuchs Jewar Ali Khân and Behar Ali Khân, persons of great eminence, rank, and distinction, who had been in high trust and favour with the late nabob, were ignominiously put into confinement under an inferiour officer, in order to extort the discovery of the treasures and effects committed to their care and fidelity. And the said Middleton did soon after, that is to say, on the 12th of January 1782, deliver them over for the same That by the said unjust and rigorous proceeding purpose into the custody of Captain Neal Stuart, the said eunuchs were compelled to give their encommanding the 8th regiment, by his order givengagement for the payment of £.120,000 sterling in the following words: " to be kept in close and "secure confinement, admitting of no intercourse "with them, excepting by their four menial ser"vants, who are authorized to attend them until "further orders. You will allow them to have "any necessary and convenience, which may be "consistent with a strict guard over them."

XXVI.

That in consequence of these severities upon herself, and on those whom she most regarded and trusted, the mother of the said nabob did at length consent to the delivering up of her treasures, and the same were paid to the resident, to the amount of the bond given by the nabob to the company for his balance of the year 1779-80, and

aforesaid, to be completed within the period of
one month; but after they had entered into the
said compulsory engagement, they were still kept
in close imprisonment, and the mother and grand-
mother of the nabob were themselves held under
a strict guard; although, at the same time, the
confiscated estates were actually in the company's
possession, and found to exceed the amount of
what they were rated at in the general list of con-
fiscated estates; and although the Letter from Mr.
assistant resident Johnson did confess, Middleton 2d
"that the object of distressing the
"Bhow Begum was merely to obtain a ready-
money, instead of a dilatory, payment, and
"that this ready-money payment, if not paid, was
"recoverable in the course of a few months upon
"the jaghires in his possession; and that there.

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Feb. 1782.

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