lf to the cause and fortunes
of the Mahrattas, who, he, the said Hastings, well knew, did keep up
claims upon several parts of the dominions of Oude, and had with
difficulty been persuaded to include the Nabob in the treaty of peace,
he, having suffered him first to languish at home in poverty, and then
to fly abroad for subsistence, and afterwards taking no step and
countenancing no negotiations for his return from his dangerous place of
refuge, at the same time that several of his, the said Hastings's,
creatures had each of them allowances much more considerable than would
have sufficed for the satisfaction and comfort of him, the said fugitive
prince, was guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor.
LI. That the indigent condition before related of the other brothers of
the Nabob was also duly transmitted to the said Warren Hastings; but he
did never order or direct any steps whatsoever to be taken towards the
relief of the family of a reigning prince, who were daily in danger of
perishing by famine through the effect of his measures, and those of a
person whom he supported in power against the will and inclinations of
the said prince and his family.
LII. That the foregoing instances of the penury, distress, dispersion,
and exile of the reigning family, as well as the general disorder in all
the affairs of Oude, did strongly enforce the necessity of a proper use
of the British influence (the only real government then existing) in the
province aforesaid for a regulation of the economy of the Vizier's
court, as well as for the proper administration of the public concerns,
civil and military, which were in the greatest disorder; and the said
Warren Hastings was under obligation to provide for the same, and did
himself understand it to be his duty so to do, and that he was therein
warranted by the spirit of the treaty of Chunar, as well as by other
universal powers of control, and even of supersession, supposed by him
to exist in the relation between the British government and that of
Oude; and accordingly he did, in his instructions to the Resident
Middleton, to which he required his most implicit obedience, direct him
to an interference in and control upon all the affairs concerning the
revenues, the military arrangements, and all the other branches of the
Nabob's government.
LIII. That, upon his recall of the said Middleton, he, in his
instructions to the Resident Bristow, dated 23d of October, 1781
[1782?], did at l
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