time for which the ensuing settlement should be
made, and the said Committee having declared, that, _with respect to the
period of the lease, in general, it appeared to the Committee that to
limit them to one year would be the best period_, he, the said Warren
Hastings, approved of that limitation, in manifest contradiction to all
his own arguments, professions, and declarations concerning the fatal
consequences of _annual_ leases of the lands; that in so doing the said
Warren Hastings did not hold himself bound or restrained by the orders
of the Court of Directors, but acted upon his own discretion; and that
he has, for partial and interested purposes, exercised that discretion
in particular instances against his own general settlement for one year,
by granting perpetual leases of farms and zemindaries to persons
specially favored by him, and particularly by granting a perpetual lease
of the zemindary of Baharbund to his servant Cantoo Baboo on very low
terms.

That in all the preceding transactions the said Warren Hastings did act
contrary to his duty as Governor of Fort William, contrary to the orders
of his employers, and contrary to his own declared sense of expediency,
consistency, and justice, and thereby did harass and afflict the
inhabitants of the provinces with perpetual changes in the system and
execution of the government placed over them, and with continued
innovations and exactions, against the rights of the said
inhabitants,--thereby destroying all security to private property, and
all confidence in the good faith, principles, and justice of the British
government. And that the said Warren Hastings, having substituted his
own instruments to be the managers and collectors of the public revenue,
in the manner hereinbefore mentioned, did act in manifest breach and
defiance of an act of the 13th of his present Majesty, by which _the
ordering and management and government of all the territorial revenues
in the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa_ were vested in the
Governor-General and Council, without any power of delegating the said
trust and duty to any other persons; and that, by such unlawful
delegation of the powers of the Council to a subordinate board appointed
by himself, he, the said Warren Hastings, did in effect unite and vest
in his own person the ordering, government, and management of all the
said territorial revenues; and that for the said illegal act he, the
said Warren Hastings, is solely