in the country of Oude, both "_secret and
avowed_," but also sending some of them, in defiance to the orders of
that very Court of Directors, to whom, in his said letter of the 1st of
October, 1784, he assigns "vengeance and corruption" as the only motives
that can produce such appointments. Thirdly, that he, the said Warren
Hastings, did instruct one of the said agents, and did charge him upon
pain of "_a dreadful responsibility_," to perform sundry acts of
violence against persons of the highest distinction and nearest relation
to the prince; which acts were justly liable to the imputation of
"_vengeance_" in the execution, and which he, in his reply to the
defence of Middleton to one of his charges, did declare to be liable to
the suspicion of "_corruption_ in the relaxation." Fourthly, that he did
raise new demands on the Vizier, "and overcharge accounts on one side
and take a wide latitude on the other," by sending up a new and before
unheard-of overcharge of four hundred thousand pounds and upwards, not
made by the Resident or admitted by the Vizier, and, by adding the same,
did swell his debt "beyond the means of payment"; and did even insert,
as the ninth article of his charge against Middleton, "his omitting to
take any notice of the additional balance of Rupees 26,48,571, stated by
the Accountant-General to be due from the Vizier on the 30th of April,
1780," to which he did add fourteen lac more, making together the above
sum. Fifthly, that he, the said Warren Hastings, did assign "political
dangers," in his minute of the 13th December, 1779, for burdening the
said Nabob of Oude "with unnecessary defences and enormous subsidies,"
with regard to which he then declared, that "it was _our_ part, not
_his_ [the Nabob's], to judge and to determine." And, sixthly, that he
did not only show the _design_, but the _fact_, of personal kindness to
the partisans of what he here calls, as well as in another letter, and
in one Minute of Consultation, a "late usurpation,"--he having rewarded
the principal and most obnoxious of the instruments of the said late
usurpation, (if such it was,) Richard Johnson, Esquire, with an
honorable and profitable embassy to the court of the Nizam.

LXXXI. That the said Warren Hastings, therefore,--by assuming an
authority which he himself did consider as an _usurpation_, and by acts
in virtue of that usurped authority, done in his own proper person and
by agents appointed by himself, and pro