of future oppression." That the oppression to which such apprehension, if real, must allude,
could only consist in and arise out of the obedience which he feared a future government
might pay to the orders of the Court of Directors, by making all contracts annual, and
advertising for proposals publicly and indifferently from all persons whatever, by which it
might happen that such beneficial contracts would not be constantly held by men connected
with him, the said Warren Hastings. That this declaration, made by the said Warren
Hastings, combined with all the circumstances belonging to these transactions, leaves no
room to doubt, that, in disobeying the Company's orders, and betraying the trust reposed in
him as guardian of the Company's property, his object was to purchase the attachment of a
number of individuals, and to form a party capable of supporting and protecting him in
return.
That, with the same view, and on the same principles, it appears that excessive salaries and
emoluments, at the East India Company's charge and expense, have been lavished by the
said Warren Hastings to sundry individuals, contrary to the general principles of his duty,
and in direct contradiction to the positive orders of the Court of Directors: particularly, that,
whereas by a resolution of the Court of Proprietors of the East India Company, and by an
instruction of the Court of Directors, it was provided and expressly ordered that there
should be paid to the late Sir John Clavering "the sum of six thousand pounds sterling per
annum in full for his services as commander-in-chief, in lieu of travelling charges and of all
other advantages and emoluments whatever," and whereas the Court of Directors positively
ordered that the late "Sir Eyre Coote should receive the same pay as commander-in-chief of
their forces in India as was received by Lieutenant-General Sir John Clavering," the said
Warren Hastings, nevertheless, within a very short time after Sir Eyre Coote's arrival in
Bengal, did propose and carry it in Council, that a new establishment should be created for