That the said Hastings, further to preclude the operation of such discretionary conduct in the administration of this kingdom as circumstances might call for, has informed the Directors that he has gone so far as even to condition the existence of the revenue itself with the exclusion of the Company, his masters, from all interference whatsoever:  for in his letter to Mr. Wheler, dated Benares, 20th September, 1784, are the following words.  “The aumils [collectors] demanded that a clause should be inserted in their engagements, that they were to be in full force for the complete term of their leases, provided that no foreign authority was exercised over them,—­or, in other words, that their engagements were to cease whenever they should be interrupted in their functions by the interference of an English agent.  This requisition was officially notified to me by the acting minister, and referred to me in form by the Nabob Vizier, for my previous consent to it.  I encouraged it, and I gave my consent to it.”  And the said Hastings has been guilty of the high presumption to inform his said masters, that he has taken that course to compel them not to violate the assurances given by him in their name:  “There is one condition” (namely, the above condition) “which essentially connects the confirmation of the settlement itself with the interests of the Company.”

LXXVIII.  That the said Warren Hastings, who did show an indecent distrust of the Company’s faith, did endeavor, before that time, at other times, namely, in his instructions to his secret agent, Major Palmer, dated the 6th of May, 1782, to limit the confidence to be reposed in the British government to the duration of his own power, in the following words in the fifth article.  “It is very much my desire to impress the Nabob with a thorough confidence in the faith and justice of our government,—­that is to say, in my own, while I am at the head of it:  I cannot be answerable for the acts of others independent of me.”

LXXIX.  That the said Warren Hastings did, in his letter, dated Benares, the 1st of October, 1784, to the Court of Directors, write, “that, if they [the Directors] manifested no symptoms of an (1.) intended interference, the objects of his engagements will be obtained; (2.) but if a different policy shall be adopted,—­if new agents are sent into the country, and armed with authority for the purposes of vengeance or corruption (for to no other will they be applied),—­if new demands are made on the Nabob Vizier, (4.) and accounts overcharged on one side, with a wide latitude taken on the other, to swell his debt beyond the means of payment,—­(5.) if political dangers are portended, to ground on them the plea of burdening his country with unnecessary defences and enormous subsidies,—­(6.) or if, even abstaining from direct encroachment on the Nabob’s rights, your government shall show but a degree of personal kindness to the partisans of the late usurpation, or by any constructive indication of partiality and dissatisfaction furnish grounds for the expectation of an approaching change of system,—­I am sorry to say, that all my labors will prove abortive.”