exist between a Governor acting in behalf
of the Company and a contractor making terms with such Governor for the
execution of a public service.

That, before the expiration of the contract hereinbefore mentioned for
supplying the army with draught and carriage bullocks, granted by the
said Warren Hastings to Ernest Alexander Johnson for three years, the
said Warren Hastings did propose and carry it in Council, that a new
contract should be made on a new plan, and that an offer thereof should
be made to Richard Johnson, brother and executor of the said contractor,
without advertising for proposals, for the term of _five years_; that
this offer was _voluntarily accepted_ by the said Richard Johnson, who
at the same time desired and obtained that the new contracts should be
made out in the name of Charles Croftes, the Company's accountant and
sub-treasurer at Fort William; that the said Charles Croftes offered the
said Richard Johnson as one of his securities for the performance of
the said contract, who was accepted as such by the said Warren Hastings;
and that, at the request of the said contractor, the contract for
victualling the Europeans serving at the Presidency was added to and
united with that for furnishing bullocks, and fixed for the same period.
That this extension of the periods of the said contracts was not
compensated by a diminution in the charge to be incurred by the Company
on that account, as it ought to have been, but, on the contrary, the
charge was immoderately increased by the new contracts, insomuch that it
was proved by statements and computations produced at the board, that
the increase on the victualling contract would in five years amount to
40,000_l._, and that the increase on the bullock contract in the same
period would amount to above 400,000_l._ That, when this and many other
weighty objections against the terms of the said contracts were urged in
Council to the said Warren Hastings, he declared that _he should deliver
a reply thereto_; but it does not appear that he did ever deliver such
reply, or ever enter into a justification of any part of his conduct in
this transaction.--That the act of Parliament of 1773, by which the
first Governor-General and Council were appointed, did expressly limit
the duration of their office to the term of five years, which expired in
October, 1779, and that the several contracts hereinbefore mentioned
were granted in September, 1779, and were made to contin