XIII.  That very doubtful credit is to be given to any letters written by the said Middleton to the said Warren Hastings, when they answer the purposes which the said Warren Hastings had evidently in view:  the said Middleton having written to him in the following manner from Lucknow, 30th December, 1781.

XIV.  “MY DEAR SIR,—­I have this day answered your public letter in the form you seem to expect.  I hope there is nothing in it that may appear to you too pointed. If you wish the matter to be otherwise understood than I have taken up and stated it, I need not say I shall be ready to conform to whatever you may prescribe, and to take upon myself any share of the blame of the (hitherto) non-performance of the stipulations made on behalf of the Nabob:  though I do assure you I myself represented to his Excellency and the ministers, (conceiving it to be your desire,) that the apparent assumption of the reins of his government, (for in that light he undoubtedly considered it at the first view,) as specified in the agreement executed by him, was not meant to be fully and literally enforced, but that it was necessary you should have something to show on your side, as the Company were deprived of a benefit without a requital; and upon the faith of this assurance alone, I believe I may safely affirm, his Excellency’s objections to signing the treaty were given up.  If I have understood the matter wrong, or misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it:  however, it is not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to undertake, and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final resolve.”

XV.  That it appears, but on his, the said Middleton’s, sole authority, in a letter from the said Middleton, dated Lucknow, 2d December, 1781, that the Nabob of Oude, wishing to evade the measure of resuming the jaghires aforesaid, did send a message to him, purporting, “that, if the measure proposed was intended to procure the payment of the balance due to the Company, he could better and more expeditiously effect that object by taking from his mother the treasures of his father, which he did assert to be in her hands, and to which he did claim a right; and that it would be sufficient that he, the said Hastings, would hint his opinion upon it, without giving a formal sanction to the measure proposed; and that, whatever his resolution upon the subject should be, it would be expedient to keep it secret”:  adding, “The resumption of the jaghires it is necessary to suspend till I have your answer to this letter.”