pany, if given as a consideration or fine, on account of the
renewal for a long term of civil authority and military command, and the
collection of the revenues to an immense amount, the same being at least
eight hundred thousand pounds sterling yearly, was so totally inadequate
to the interest granted, that it may justly be presumed it was not on
that, or on any public ground or condition, that the said Hastings did
delegate, out of all reach of resumption or correction, a lease of
boundless power and enormous profit, for so long a term, to a known
oppressor of the country.

LXXVI. That Warren Hastings, being at Lucknow in consequence of his
deputation aforesaid, did, in his letter from that city, dated 30th of
April, 1784, recommend to the Court of Directors, "as his _last and
ultimate hope_, that their wisdom would put a _final_ period to _the
ruinous and disreputable system_ of interference, whether _avowed or
secret_, in the affairs of the Nabob of Oude, and withdraw _forever the
influence_ by which it is maintained," and that they ought to confine
their views to the sole maintenance of the old brigade stationed in Oude
by virtue of the first treaty with the reigning Nabob, expressing
himself in the following words to the Court of Directors. "If you
transgress that line, you may extend _the distribution of patronage, and
add to the fortunes of individuals_, and to the nominal riches of Great
Britain; but your _own_ interests will suffer by it; and _the ruin of a
great and once flourishing nation will he recorded as the work of your
administration, with an everlasting reproach to the British name_. To
this reasoning I shall join _the obligations of justice and good faith,
which cut off every pretext for your exercising any power or authority
in this country, as long as the sovereign of it fulfils the engagements
he has articled with you_."

LXXVII. That it appears by the extraordinary recommendation aforesaid,
asserted by him, the said Hastings, to be enforced by the
"_obligations of justice and good faith_," that the said Warren
Hastings, at the time of writing the said letter, had made an
agreement to withdraw the British interference, represented by him as
a "ruinous and disreputable system," out of the dominions of the Nabob
of Oude. But the instrument itself, in which the said agreement is
made, (if at all existing,) does not appear; nor hath the said
Hastings transmitted any documents relative to the said tre