mself, but on the ground of a
resignation made by the said Warren Hastings, which resignation the said
Warren Hastings did not admit; and the use of the term _resigned_ on
that occasion was therefore a manifest and wilful misconstruction and
misapplication of the words of the act of his present Majesty. And such
misinterpretation and false extension of the term of resignation was the
more indecent in the said Warren Hastings, as he was at the same moment
disavowing and refusing to give effect to his own clear and express
resignation, according to the true intent and meaning of the word as
used in the said act, made by his agent, duly authorized and instructed
by himself so to do, to an authority competent to receive and accept the
same.

That, although the said Warren Hastings did afterwards recede from the
said illegal measures, in compliance with the opinion and advice of the
judges again interposed, and did thereby avoid the guilt of such further
acts and the blame of such further evils as must have been consequent on
a persistence therein, yet he was nevertheless still guilty of the
illegal acts above described; and the same are great crimes and
misdemeanors.

That, although the judges did decide that the office of
Governor-General, held by the said Warren Hastings, was not _ipso facto_
and _instanter_ vacated by the arrival of the said dispatches and
documents transmitted by the Court of Directors, and did consider the
said consequences of the resignation as awaiting some future act or
event for its complete and effectual operation, yet the said judges did
not declare any opinion on the ultimate invalidity of the said acts of
Lauchlan Macleane, Esquire, as not being binding on his principal,
Warren Hastings, Esquire; nor did they declare any opinion that the
obligation of the said resignation was not from the beginning conclusive
and effectual, although its operation was, from the necessity of the
case, on account of the distance between England and India, to take
place only in future,--or that the said resignation made by Lauchlan
Macleane, Esquire, was only an offer or proposal of a resignation to be
made at some future and indefinite period, or a mere intimation of the
desire of Warren Hastings, Esquire, to resign at some future and
indefinite period, and that the said resignation, notwithstanding the
acceptance thereof by the Court of Directors, and the regular
appointment and confirmation of a successor, was