s did attempt to justify his
publication of the said libellous letter to and against the Court of
Directors by asserting therein that these resolutions (meaning the
resolutions of the Court of Directors relative to the Rajah of Benares)
"were _either_ published or _intended_ for publication": evidently
proving that he did take this unwarrantable course without any
sufficient assurance that the ground and motive by him assigned had any
existence.

XX.--MAHRATTA WAR AND PEACE.

I. That by an act passed in 1773 it was expressly ordered and provided,
"that it should not be lawful for any President and Council of Madras,
Bombay, or Bencoolen, for the time being, to make any orders for
commencing hostilities, or declaring or making war, against any Indian
princes or powers, or for negotiating or concluding any treaty of peace,
or other treaty, with any such Indian princes or powers, without the
consent and approbation of the Governor-General and Council first had
and obtained, except in such cases of _imminent necessity_ as would
render it dangerous to postpone such hostilities or treaties until the
orders from the Governor-General and Council might arrive." That,
nevertheless, the President and Council of Bombay did, in December,
1774, without the consent and approbation of the Governor-General and
Council of Fort William, and in the midst of profound peace, commence an
unjust and unprovoked war against the Mahratta government, did conclude
a treaty with a certain person, a fugitive from that government, and
proscribed by it, named Ragonaut Row, or Ragoba, and did, under various
base and treacherous pretences, invade and conquer the island of
Salsette, belonging to the Mahratta government.

II. That Warren Hastings, on the first advices received in Bengal of the
above transactions, did condemn the same in the strongest
terms,--declaring that "the measures adopted by the Presidency of Bombay
had a tendency to a very extensive and indefinite scene of troubles, and
that their conduct was unseasonable, impolitic, unjust, and
unauthorized." And the Governor-General and Council, in order to put a
stop to the said unjust hostilities, did appoint an ambassador to the
Peshwa, or chief of the Mahratta state, resident at Poonah; and the said
ambassador did, after a long negotiation, conclude a definitive treaty
of peace with the said Peshwa on terms highly honorable and beneficial
to the East India Company, who by the said t