“As the friendship of the English is, at all events, the first and most necessary consideration, I will therefore exert myself in establishing peace:  for the power of making peace with all is the best object; to this all other measures are subservient, and will certainly be done by them, the English.  You write, that, after having laid the foundation of peace with the Pundit Purdhaun, it is requisite that some troops should be sent with General Goddard against Hyder Naig, and take possession of his country, when all those engagements and proposals may be assented to.  My reason is confounded in discussing this suggestion, at a time when Hyder Naig is in every respect in alliance with the Peshwa, and has assisted with his soul and life to repel the English.  For us to unite our troops with those of the enemy and extirpate him, would not this fix the stamp of infamy upon us forever?  Would any prince, for generations to come, ever after assist us, or unite with the Peshwa?  Be yourself the judge, and say whether such a conduct would become a prince or not.  Why, then, do you mention it? why do you write it?

“The case is as follows.—­At first there was the utmost enmity between Hyder Naig and the Pundit Purdhaun, and there was the fullest intention of sending troops into Hyder Naig’s country; and after the conclusion of the war with Bombay and the capture of Ragonaut Row, it was firmly resolved to send troops into that quarter; and a reliance was placed in the treaty which was entered into by the gentlemen of Bombay before the war.  But when Ragonaut again went to them, and General Goddard was ready to commence hostilities,—­when no regard was paid to the friendly proposals made by us and the Pundit Peshwa,—­when they desisted from coming to Poonah, agreeable to their promise, and a categorical answer was given to the deputies from Poonah,—­the ministers of Poonah then consulted among themselves, and, having advised with the Nabob Nizam ul Dowlah, they considered that as enemies were appearing on both sides, and it would be difficult to cope with both, what was to be done?  Peace must be made with one of them, and war must be carried on with the other.  They wished above all things, in their hearts, to make peace with the English gentlemen, and to unite with them to punish Hyder Naig; but these gentlemen had plainly refused to enter into any terms of reconciliation.  It was therefore advisable to accommodate matters with Hyder Naig, although he had been long an enemy.  What else could be done?  Having nothing left for it, they were compelled to enter into an union with Hyder.”

My Lords, this declaration, made to Mr. Hastings himself, was never answered by him.  Indeed, answered it could not be; because the thing was manifest, that all the desolation of the Carnatic by Hyder Ali, all these difficulties upon which he has insisted, the whole of that union by which he was pressed, and against which, as he says, he bore up with such fortitude, was his own work, the consequences of his bad faith, and his not listening to any reasonable terms of peace.