his son and successor Asoph ul Dowlah, the Nabob | following did again write to the said Colonel Fyzoola Khan did remain without disturbance or Champion more explicitly, to join his sanction, molestation that he did all the while imagine" either by attesting the treaty, or acting as his treaty to be under the sanction of the com- guarantee on the part of the company for the pany from Colonel Champion's affixing his signa-"performance of it;" both which letters, though ture thereto as a witness, "which signature, as he they did not arrive until after the actual signature "(Fyzoola Khân) supposed," rendered the com- of the said Colonel Champion, do yet incontropany the arbitrators between the vizier and him- vertibly mark the solemn intention of the said self, in case of disputes; and that being "a man committee, (of which the said Hastings was pre"of sense, but extreme pusillanimity, a good sident,) that the sanction of Colonel Champion's "farmer, fond of wealth, not possessed of the pas- attestation should be regarded as a publick, not a "sion of ambition," he did peaceably apply him- private, sanction; and it was more peculiarly inself to "improve the state of his country; and cumbent on such persons, who had been members "did by his own prudence and attention, encrease of the said committee, so to regard the same. "the revenues thereof beyond the amount speci"fied in Sujah ul Dowlah's grant." II. IV. That the said Warren Hastings was further guilty of much criminal concealment for the space of "twelve months," inasmuch as he did not lay before the board the frequent and urgent solicitations, which he the said Hastings was continually receiving from the Nabob Fyzoola Khân, until the 9th of March 1778: on which day the said Hastings did communicate to the council a publick letter of the aforesaid Middleton, resident at Oude, acquainting the board, that he (the said Middleton) taking occasion from a late application of Fyzoola Khân for the company's guarantee, had deputed Mr. Daniel Octavus Barwell (assistant resident at Benares, but then on a visit to the That in the year 1777, and in the beginning of the year 1778, being "alarmed at the young "vizier's resumption of a number of jaghires "granted by his father to different persons, and "the injustice and oppression of his conduct in general;" and having now learned (from whom does not appear, but probably from some person supposed of competent authority) that Colonel Champion formerly witnessed the treaty as a private person, the Nabob Fyzoola Khân did make frequent and urgent solicitations to Nathaniel Middleton, Esquire, then resident at Oude, and to Warren Hastings aforesaid, then governour-gene-resident Middleton at Lucknow) to proceed with a ral of Bengal," for a renovation of his (the Na"bob Fyzoola Khân's) treaty with the late vizier, "and the guarantee of the company," or for a "separate agreement with the company for his "defence;" considering them (the company) as "the only power, in which he had confidence," "and to which he could look up for protection." III. special commission to Rampore, there to enquire on the spot into the truth of certain reports circulated to the prejudice of Fyzoola Khân, which reports however the said Middleton did afterwards confess himself to have "always" thought “in the highest degree improbable." That the said resident Middleton did " request "to know whether, on proof of Fyzoola Khân's "innocence, the honourable board would be 66 pleased to grant him (the resident) permission "to comply with his (Fyzoola Khân's) request of the company's guarantying his treaty with the "vizier." And the said Middleton, in excuse for having irregularly" availed himself of the abili"ties of Mr. Daniel Barwell," who belonged to another station, and for deputing him with the aforesaid commission to Rampore without the previous knowledge of the board, did urge the plea " of immediate necessity;" and that such plea, if the necessity really existed, was a strong charge and accusation against the said Warren Hastings, from whose criminal neglect and concealment the urgency of such necessity did arise. That the said resident Middleton, and the said governour-general Hastings, did not, as they" were in duty bound to do, endeavour to allay the apprehensions of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân by assuring him of his safety under the sanction of Colonel Champion's attestation aforesaid; but by their criminal neglect, if not by positive expressions, (as there is just ground from their subsequent language and conduct to believe,) they, the said Middleton and the said Hastings, did at least keep alive and confirm (whoever may have originally suggested) the said apprehension; and that such neglect alone was the more highly culpable in the said Hastings, inasmuch as he the said Hastings, in conjunction with other members of the select committee of the then presidency of Bengal, did, on the 17th of September 1774, write to Colonel Champion aforesaid, publickly authorizing him the said Colonel Champion to join his sanction to the accommodations agreed on (between the Vizier Sujah ul Dowlah, and the Nabob Fyzoola Khân) to add to their validity; and on the 6th of October V. That the governour-general, Warren Hastings aforesaid, did immediately move," that the board "approve the deputation of Mr. Daniel Barwell, "and that the resident (Middleton) be autho"rized to offer the company's guarantee for the VOL. II. IX. "observance of the treaty subsisting between the "occasion observed) we should participate," and "vizier and Fyzoola Khân, provided it meets on whom we at that time had an accumulating "with the vizier's concurrence; " and that the demand. governour-general's proposition was resolved in the affirmative; the usual majority of council then consisting of Richard Barwell, Esquire, a near relation of Daniel Octavus Barwell aforesaid, and the governour-general Warren Hastings, who, in case of an equality, had the casting voice. 66 VI. That on receiving from Mr. Daniel Barwell full and early assurance of Fyzoola Khân's "having "preserved every article of his treaty inviolate," the resident Middleton applied for the vizier's concurrence, which was readily obtained; the vizier however premising, that he gave his consent, taking it for granted, that on Fyzoola Khân's receiving the treaty, and khelaut, (or robe of honour,) he was to make him a return of the complimentary presents usually offered on such "occasions, and of such an amount as should be a manifestation of Fyzoola Khan's due sense "of his friendship, and suitable to his Excellency's "rank to receive;" and that the resident Middleton" did make himself in some measure reIsponsible for the said presents being obtained," and did write to Mr. Daniel Barwell accordingly. 66 66 66 VII. That, agreeably to the resolution of council herein before recited, the solicited guarantee, under the seal of the resident Middleton, thus duly authorized on behalf of the company, was transmitted, together with the renewed treaty, to Mr. Daniel Barwell aforesaid at Rampore; and that they were both by him, the said Barwell, presented to the Nabob Fyzoola Khân with a solemnity not often paralleled, "in the presence of the greatest part of the nabob's subjects, who were "assembled, that the ceremony might create "full belief in the breasts of all his people, that "the company would protect him as long as he strictly adhered to the letter of his treaty." 66 VIII. a That in the conclusion of the said ceremony the Nabob Fyzoola Khân did deliver to the said Barwell, for the use of the vizier, a nuzzer (or present) of elephants, horses, &c. and did add thereto a lack of rupees, or £.10,000, and upwards; which sum the said Barwell," not being "authorized to accept any pecuniary considera“tion, did at first refuse; but upon Fyzoola Khân's urging, that on such occasions it was the invariable "custom of Hindostan, and that it must on the present be expected, as it had been "formerly the case" (but when, does not appear); he the said Barwell did accept the " said "lack in the name of the vizier," our ally, "in "whose wealth (as Warren Hastings on another some acknowledgment of the obligation he re"ceived: that although such acknowledgment was "not pretended to be the invariable custom of "Hindostan on such occasions, however it might 66 on the present be expected," Mr. Daniel Barwell aforesaid (knowing probably the disposition and views of the then actual government at Calcutta) did not, even at first, decline the said offer, but, as he was not empowered to accept it, did immediately propose taking a bond for the amount, until the pleasure of the board should be known. That the offer was accordingly communicated by the said Barwell to the resident Middleton, to be by him the resident referred to the board; and that it was so referred; that in reply to the said reference of the resident Middleton, the governourgeneral (Warren Hastings) did move and carry a vote of council, " authorizing Mr. Middleton to accept the offer made by Fyzoola Khân to the company of one lack of rupees," without assigning any reason whatever in support of the said motion, notwithstanding it was objected by a member of the board, "that, if the measure was 66 66 66 right, it became us to adopt it without such a "consideration;" and that "our accepting of the "lack of rupees as a recompence for our interposi"tion is beneath the dignity of this government, "(of Calcutta,) and will discredit us in the eyes of "the Indian powers." That the acceptance of the said sum, in this circumstance, was beneath the dignity of the said government, and did tend so to discredit us; and that the motion of the said Hastings for such acceptance was therefore highly derogatory to the honour of this nation. That the aforesaid member of the council did further disapprove altogether of the guarantee, as unnecessary;" and that another member of council, Richard Barwell, Esquire, the near relation of Daniel Octavus Barwell, herein before named, did declare, (but after the said guarantee had taken place,) that "this government (of Cal"cutta) was in fact engaged, by Colonel Cham'pion's signature being to the treaty with Fyzoola "Khân," that the said unnecessary guarantee did not only subject to an heavy expense a prince, whom we were bound to protect, but did further produce in his mind the following obvious and natural conclusion; namely, "that the signature of any person, in whatever publick capacity he "at present appears, will not be valid and of effect, as soon as some other shall fill his 66 66 "station;" a conclusion, however, immediately | 66 XII. That whether the guarantee aforesaid was or was not necessary; whether it created a new obligation, or but more fully recognised an obligation previously existing; the governour-general, Warren Hastings, by the said guarantee, did, in the most explicit manner, pledge and commit the publick faith of the company, and the nation; and that by the subsequent letter of the said Hastings, (which he at his own motion wrote, confirming to Fyzoola Khân the aforesaid guarantee,) the said Hastings did again pledge and commit the publick faith of the company and the nation, in a manner (as the said Hastings himself remarked) " equiva"lent to an engagement with the company's seal "affixed to it ;" and more particularly binding the said Hastings personally to exact a due observance of the guarantied treaty, especially to protect the Nabob Fyzoola Khân against any arbitrary construction, or unwarranted requisition of the vizier. THANKS OF THE BOARD TO FYZOOLA KHÂN. That the Nabob Fyzoola Khân did even "ticipate the wishes of the board;" and that on an application made to him by Lieutenant"Colonel Muir," the Nabob Fyzoola Khân did, "without hesitation or delay," furnish him (the said Muir) with 500 of his best cavalry. That the said conduct of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân was communicated by the company's servants, both to each other, and to their employers, with expressions of "pleasure" and "particular satisfaction," as an event "even surpassing their expectations" that the governour - general, Warren Hastings, was officially requested to convey "the thanks of the board;" and that, not satisfied with the bare discharge of his duty under the said request, he the said Hastings did, on the 8th of January 1779, write to Fyzoola, "that in "his own name," as well as "that of the board, "he (the said Hastings) returned him the warmest "thanks for this instance of his faithful attach"ment to the company and the English nation." IV. That, by the strong expressions above recited, the said Warren Hastings did deliberately and emphatically add his own particular confirmation to the general testimony of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân's meritorious fidelity, and of his consequent claim on the generosity, no less than the justice, of the British government. DEMAND OF FIVE THOUSAND HORSE. I. THAT notwithstanding his own private honour thus deeply engaged, notwithstanding the publick justice and generosity of the company and the nation thus solemnly committed, disregarding the plain import and positive terms of the guarantied treaty, the governour-general, Warren Hastings aforesaid, in November 1780, (while a body of THAT Soon after the completion of the gua- Fyzoola Khân's cavalry, voluntarily granted, were rantee, in the same year 1778, intelligence was still serving under a British officer,) did recommend received in India of a war between England and to the vizier "to require from Fyzoola Khân the France; that on the first intimation thereof the" quota of troops stipulated by treaty to be furNabob Fyzoola Khân, "being indirectly sounded," did shew much " promptness to render the company any assistance within the bounds of his "finances and ability;" and that by the suggestion of the resident Middleton, herein before named, he (the Nabob Fyzoola Khân) in a letter to the governour-general and council did make a "nished by the latter for his (the vizier's) service, "being FIVE THOUSAND HORSE;" though, as the vizier did not march in person, he was not, under any construction of the treaty, entitled by stipulation to more than "two or three thousand troops," horse and foot," according to the ability of Fy"zoola Khân;" and that, whereas the said Warren "thousand horse," yet the said Warren Hast- Hastings would have been guilty of very criminal | the period of the original demand, "to be five perfidy, if he had simply neglected to interfere as a guarantee against a demand thus plainly contrary to the faith of treaty, so he aggravated the guilt of his perfidy, in the most atrocious degree, by being himself the first mover and instigator of that injustice, which he was bound by so many ties on himself, the company, and the nation, not only not to promote, but by every exertion of authority, influence, and power, to controul, to divert, or to resist. II. That the answer of Fyzoola Khân to the vizier did represent, with many expressions of deference, duty, and allegiance, that The whole force allowed him was but "five "thousand men,” and that “ these consisted of two "thousand horse, and three thousand foot; which 66 (he adds) in consequence of our intimate con"nexion are equally yours and the company's;" though he does subsequently intimate, that "the "three thousand foot are for the management of "the concerns of his jaghire, and without them "the collections can never be made in time." That on the communication of the said answer to the governour-general, Warren Hastings, he the said Hastings (who as the council now consisted only of himself and Edward Wheler, Esquire, "united in his own person all the powers of government") was not induced to relax from his unjust purpose, but did proceed with new violence to record, that 66 "The Nabob Fyzoola Khân had evaded the performance of his part of the treaty be"tween the late Nabob Sujah ul Dowlah and "him, to which the honourable company were guarantees, and upon which he was lately sum"moned to furnish the stipulated number of troops, which he is obliged to furnish on the "condition, by which he holds the jaghire grant"ed to him." That by the vague and indefinite term of evasion, the said Warren Hastings did introduce a loose and arbitrary principle of interpreting formal engagements, which ought to be regarded, more especially by guarantees, in a sense the most literally scrupulous and precise. That he charged with such evasion a moderate, humble, and submissive representation on a point, which would have warranted a peremptory refusal, and a positive remonstrance; and that in consequence of the said imputed evasion he indicated a disposition to attach such a forfeiture as in justice could only have followed from a gross breach of treaty; though the said Hastings did not then pretend any actual infringement even of the least among the conditions, to which, in the name of the company, he the said Hastings was the executive guarantee. III. That however the number of troops stipu"lated by treaty may have been understood," at engagements entered into by the late vizier "and by himself (the reigning vizier) with Fy"zoola Khân;" and that the treaty itself therefore was at the very moment before the said Warren Hastings; which treaty (as the said Hastings observed with respect to another treaty, in the case of another person) "most assur- Observations edly does not contain a syllable on Mr. Bris"to justify his conduct; but by the unexampled latitude, which he assumes in his constructions, he may, if he pleases, extort this or any other meaning from any part of it." 66 66 IV. tow's defence. That the vizier himself appears by no means to have been persuaded of his own right to five thousand horse under the treaty; since in his correspondence on the subject he (the vizier) no where mentions the treaty as the ground of his demand, except where he is recapitulating to the governourgeneral, Warren Hastings, the substance of his (the said Hastings's) own letters; on the contrary, the vizier hints his apprehensions lest Fyzoola Khân should appeal to the treaty against the demand, as a breach thereof, in which case he (the vizier) informs the said Hastings of the projected reply: "Should Fyzoola Khân (says the vizier) "mention any thing of the tenour of the treaty, "the first breach of it has been committed by "him, in keeping up more men than allowed of by the treaty: I have accordingly sent a person "to settle that point also. In case he should "mention to me any thing respecting the treaty, "I will then reproach him with having kept up "too many troops, and will oblige him to send the "five thousand horse;" thereby clearly intimating, that as a remonstrance against the demand, as a breach of treaty, could only be answered by charging a prior breach of treaty on Fyzoola Khân, so, by annulling the whole treaty, to reduce the question to a mere question of force, and thus 66 oblige Fyzoola Khân to send the five thousand "horse:" "for (continues the vizier) if, when the company's affairs, on which my honour depends, require it, Fyzoola Khân will not lend his assistance, what USE is there to continue the country to him?" 66 66 66 That the vizier actually did make his application to Fyzoola Khân for the 5,000 horse, not as for an aid, to which he had a just claim, but as for something over and above the obligations of the treaty, something "that would give encrease to their friendship, and satisfaction to the nabob_governour," (meaning the said Hastings,) whose directions he represents as the motive" of his call 66 "for the 5,000 horse to be employed" not in his (the vizier's) but in the "company's service." And, that the aforesaid Warren Hastings did therefore, in recording the answer of Fyzoola Khân as an evasion of treaty, act in notorious contradiction not only to that, which ought to have been the fair construction of the said treaty, but to that, which he the said Hastings must have known to be the vizier's own interpretation of the same, disposed as the vizier was "to reproach Fyzoola "Khân with breach of treaty," and to "send up "persons who should settle points with him." V. That the said Warren Hastings, not thinking himself justified, on the mere plea of an evasion, to push forward his proceedings to that extremity, which he seems already to have made his scope and object, and seeking some better colour for his unjust and violent purposes, did further move, that commissioners should be sent from the vizier and the company to Fyzoola Khân, to insist on a clause of a treaty, which no where appears, being essentially different from the treaty of Lall-Dang, though not in the part, on which the requisition is founded: and the said Hastings did then, in a style unusually imperative, proceed as follows: "Demand immediate delivery of 3,000 ca"valry; and if he should evade, or refuse com"pliance, that the deputies shall deliver him a formal protest against him for breach of treaty, "and return, making this report to the vizier, "which Mr. Middleton is to transmit to the "board." VI. That the said motion of the governour-general Hastings was ordered accordingly, the council, as already has been herein related, consisting but of two members, and the said Hastings consequently "uniting in his own person all the powers of "government." VII. That, when the said Hastings ordered the said demand for 3,000 cavalry, he the said Hastings well knew, that a compliance therewith, on the part of the Nabob Fyzoola Khân, was utterly impossible; for he, the said Hastings, had at the very moment before him a letter of Fyzoola Khân, stating, that he, Fyzoola Khân, had "but two "thousand cavalry" altogether; which letter is entered on the records of the company, in the same consultation, immediately preceding the governourgeneral's minute. That the said Hastings therefore knew, that the only possible consequence of the aforesaid demand necessarily and inevitably must be a protest for a breach of treaty; and the court of directors did not hesitate to declare, that the said demand "carried the appearance of a "determination to create a pretext for depriving "him (Fyzoola Khân) of his jaghire entirely, or "to leave him at the mercy of the vizier." VIII. That Richard Johnson, Esquire, assistant resident at Oude, was, agreeably to the afore-mentioned order of council, deputed commissioner from Mr. Middleton and the vizier to Fyzoola Khân; but that he did early give the most indecent proofs of glaring partiality, to the prejudice of the said Fyzoola Khân; for that the very next day (as it seems) after his arrival, he the said Johnson, from opinions imbibed in his journey, did state himself to be " unwilling to draw any "favourable or flattering inferences relatively to "the object of his mission ;" and did studiously seek to find new breaches of treaty; and without any form of regular enquiry whatever, from a single glance of his eye in passing, did take upon himself to pronounce" the Rohilla soldiers, in the "district of Rampore alone, to be not less than 20,000," and the grant of course to be forfeited. And that such a gross and palpable display of a predetermination to discover guilt did argue in the said Johnson a knowledge, a strong presumption, or a belief, that such representations would be agreeable to the secret wishes and views of the said Hastings, under whose orders he the said Johnson acted, and to whom all his reports were to be referred. 66 |