to any other
prince or state;--that, notwithstanding any distress or weakness to
which he may be actually reduced, his lawful authority, as sovereign of
the Mogul Empire, is still acknowledged in India, and that his grant of
the duanne would sufficiently authorize and materially assist any prince
or state that might attempt to dispossess the East India Company
thereof, since it would convey a right which could not be disputed, and
to which nothing but force could be opposed. Nor can these opinions be
more strongly expressed than they have been lately by the said Warren
Hastings himself, who, in a minute recorded the 1st of December, 1784,
has declared, that, "fallen as the House of Timur is, it is yet the
relic of the most illustrious line of the Eastern world; that _its
sovereignty is universally acknowledged_, though the substance of it no
longer exists; and that the Company itself derives its constitutional
dominion from its ostensible bounty."

That the said Warren Hastings by this declaration has renounced and
condemned the principle on which he avowedly acted towards the Mogul in
the year 1773, when he denied that the sunnuds or grants of the Mogul,
if they were in the hands of another nation, would avail them
anything,--and when he declared "that the sword which gave us the
dominion of Bengal must be the instrument of its preservation, and that,
if it should ever cease to be ours, the next proprietor would derive his
_right_ and possession from the same _natural charter_." That the said
Warren Hastings, to answer any immediate purpose, adopts any principle
of policy, however false or dangerous, without any regard to former
declarations made, or to principles avowed on other occasions by
himself; and particularly, that in his conduct to Shah Allum he first
maintained that the grants of that prince were of no avail,--that we
held the dominion of Bengal by the sword, which he has falsely declared
the source of _right_, and the _natural charter_ of dominion,--whereas
at a later period he has declared that the sovereignty of the family of
Shah Allum is universally acknowledged, and that the Company itself
derives its constitutional dominion from their ostensible bounty.

III.--BENARES.

PART I.

RIGHTS AND TITLES OF THE RAJAH OF BENARES.

I. That the territory of Benares is a fruitful, and has been, not long
since, an orderly, well-cultivated, and improved province, of great
extent; and its capital city, as W