The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

LXXXI. That the said Warren Hastings, therefore,—by assuming an authority which he
himself did consider as an usurpation, and by acts in virtue of that usurped authority, done
in his own proper person and by agents appointed by himself, and proceeding (though with
some mitigation, for which one of them was by him censured and accused) under his own
express and positive orders and instructions, and thereby establishing, as he himself
observed, "a system of interference, disreputable and ruinous, which could only be
subservient to promote patronage, private interest, private embezzlement, corruption, and
vengeance," to the public detriment of the Company, "and to the ruin of a once flourishing
nation, and eternally reproachful to the British name," and for the evil effects of which
system, "as his sole and ultimate hope" and remedy, he recommends an entire abdication,
forever, not only of all power and authority, but even of the interference and influence of
Great Britain,—is guilty of an high crime and misdemeanor.

LXXXII. That the said Warren Hastings, in his letter from Chunar of the 29th of November,
1781, has represented that very influence and interference, which in three public papers he
denominates "a late usurpation" as being authorized by a regular treaty and agreement,
voluntarily made with the Nabob himself, at a place called Chunar, on the 19th of
September, 1781, a copy of which hath been transmitted to the Court of Directors,—and
that three persons were present at the execution of the same, two whereof were Middleton
and Johnson, his agents and Residents at Oude, the third the minister of the Nabob. And he
did, in his paper written to the Council-General, and transmitted to the Court of Directors,
not only declare that the said interference was agreed to by the said Nabob, and sealed with
his seal, but would be highly beneficial to him: assuring the said Council, "that, if the
Resident performed his duty in the execution of his [the said Hastings's] instructions, the
Nabob's part of the engagement will prove of still greater benefit to him than to our

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