of Delhi, on
the protection of the Mahrattas, whom the said Warren Hastings then
called _the natural enemies_ of the Company, and the growth of whose
power he then alleged to be highly dangerous to the interests of this
kingdom in India.

IV. That, after having concurred, in the manner before mentioned, in a
design of the Mahrattas against the Mogul, and notwithstanding he, the
said Warren Hastings, had formerly declared, "that with him [the Mogul]
our connection had been a long time suspended, and _he wished never to
see it renewed_, as it had proved a fatal drain to the wealth of Bengal
and the treasury of the Company, without yielding one advantage or
possible resource, even of remote benefits, in return," the said Warren
Hastings did nevertheless, on or about the month of March, 1783, with
the privity and consent of the members of the board, but by no
authoritative act, dispatch, as agents of him, the Governor-General
only, and not as agents of the Governor-General and Council, as they
ought to have been, certain persons, among whom were Major Browne and
Major Davy, to the court of the king at Delhi, and did there enter into
certain engagements with the said king by the means of those agents, and
did carry on certain private and dangerous intrigues for various
purposes, particularly for making war in favor of the said king against
some powers or princes not precisely described, but which, as may be
inferred from a subsequent correspondence, were certain Mahomedan
princes in the neighborhood of Delhi in amity with the Company, and some
of them at that time in the actual service and in the apparent
confidence and favor of the said Mogul; and he did order Major Browne to
offer to the Mogul king to provide for the _entire_ expense of _any_
troops the Shah [the said king] might require; and the proposal was
accordingly accepted, with the conditions annexed: by which proposal and
acceptance thereof the East India Company was placed in a situation of
great and perplexing difficulty; since either they were to engage, at an
unlimited _expense_, in new wars, contrary to their orders, contrary to
their general declared policy, and contrary to the published resolutions
of the House of Commons, and wholly incompatible with the state of their
finances, or, to preserve peace, they must risk the imputation of a new
violation of faith, by departing from an agreement made on the voluntary
proposal of their own government,--the agent