de solely upon the resolutions
to which we had come against the violent, intemperate, unjust, and
perfidious acts of this man at your Lordships' bar, and which acts are
now produced before your Lordships as merits.

To show further to your Lordships how necessary this act was, here is a
part of his own correspondence, the last thing I shall beg to read to
your Lordships, and upon which I shall make no other comment than that
you will learn from it how well British faith was kept by this man, and
that it was the violation of British faith which prevented our having
the most advantageous peace, and brought on all the calamities of war.
It is part of a letter from the minister of the Rajah of Berar, a man
called Benaram Pundit, with whom Mr. Hastings was at the time treating
for a peace; and he tells him why he might have had peace at that time,
and why he had it not,--and that the cause of it was his own ridiculous
and even buffoonish perfidiousness, which exposed him to the ridicule of
all the princes of India, and with him the whole British nation.

"But afterwards reflecting that it was not advisable for me to be
in such haste before I had fully understood all the contents of the
papers, I opened them in the presence of the Maha Rajah, when all
the kharetas, letters, copies, and treaties were perused with the
greatest attention and care. First, they convinced us of your great
truth and sincerity, and that you never, from the beginning to this
time, were inclined to the present disputes and hostilities; and
next, that you have not included in the articles of the treaty any
of your wishes or inclinations; and in short, the garden of the
treaty appeared to us, in all its parts, green and flourishing:
but though the fruit of it was excellent yet they appeared
different from those of Colonel Upton's treaty, (the particulars of
which I have frequently written to you,) and, upon tasting them,
proved to be bitter and very different, when compared to the former
articles. How can any of the old and established obligations be
omitted, and new matters agreed to, when it is plain that they will
produce losses and damages? Some points which you have mentioned,
under the plea of the faith and observance of treaties, are of such
a nature that the Poonah ministers can never assent to them. In all
engagements and important transactions, i