protect Bombay against a Trench invasion, even that pretence was false,
and used only to cover the real design of the said Hastings, viz., to
engage in projects of war and conquest with the Rajah of Berar. That on
the 11th of October, 1778, he informed the said Rajah "that the
detachment would soon arrive in his territories, and depend on him
[Moodajee Boosla] for its subsequent operations"; that on the 7th of
December, 1778, the said Hastings revoked the powers he had before
given[19] to the Presidency of Bombay over the detachment, declaring
that the event of Colonel Goddard's negotiation with the Rajah of Berar
_was likely to cause a very speedy and essential change in the design
and operations of the detachment_; and that on the 4th of March, 1779,
the said Hastings, immediately after receiving advice of the defeat of
the Bombay army near Poonah, and when Bombay, if at any time,
particularly required to be protected against a French invasion, did
declare in Council that he _wished for the return of the detachment to
Berar, and dreaded to hear of its proceeding to the Malabar coast_: and
therefore, if the said Hastings did not think that Bombay was in danger
of being attacked by the French, he was guilty of repeated falsehoods in
affirming the contrary for the purpose of covering a criminal design;
or, if he thought that Bombay was immediately threatened with that
danger, he then was guilty of treachery in ordering an army necessary on
that supposition to the immediate defence of Bombay to halt in Berar, to
depend on the Rajah of Berar for its subsequent operations, or on _the
event of a negotiation_ with that prince, which, as the said Hastings
declared, _was likely to cause a very speedy and essential change in the
design and operations of the detachment_; and finally, in declaring that
_he dreaded to hear of the said detachment's proceeding to the Malabar
coast_, whither he ought to have ordered it to proceed without delay,
if, as he has solemnly affirmed, it was true that _he had been told by
the highest authority that a powerful armament had been prepared in
France, the first object of which was an attack upon Bombay, and that
he knew with moral certainty that all the powers of the adjacent
continent were ready to join the invasion_.

That through the whole of these transactions the said Warren Hastings
has been guilty of continued falsehood, fraud, contradiction, and
duplicity, highly dishonorable to the charac