The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

state, he is still much respected and considered, and the custody of his person is eagerly
sought by many of the princes in India, on account of the use to be made of his title and
authority; and it was for the interest of the East India Company, that, while on one hand no
wars shall be entered into in support of his pretensions, on the other no steps should be
taken which may tend to deliver him into the hands of any of the powerful states of that
country, but that he should be treated with friendship, good faith, and respectful attention.

II. That Warren Hastings, in contradiction to this safe, just, and honorable policy, strongly
prescribed and enforced by the orders of the Court of Directors, did, at a time when he was
engaged in a negotiation the declared purpose of which was to give peace to India, concur
with the captain-general of the Mahratta state, called Mahdajee Sindia, in hostile designs
against the few remaining territories of that same Mogul emperor, by virtue of whose grant
the Company actually possess the government and enjoy the revenues of great provinces,
and also against the possessions of a Mahomedan chief called Nudjif Khân, a person of
much merit with the East India Company, in acknowledgment of which they had granted
him a pension, included in the tribute due to the king, and, together with that tribute, taken
from him by the said Warren Hastings, though expressly guarantied to him by the
Company. With both these powers the Company had been in friendship, and were actually
at peace at the time of the said clandestine concurrence in a design against them; and the
said Hastings hath since declared, that the right of one of them, namely, "the right of the
Mogul emperor, to our assistance, has been constantly acknowledged."

III. That the said Warren Hastings, at the time of his treacherous concurrence in a design
against a power which he was himself of opinion we were bound to assist, and against
whom there was no doubt he was bound neither to form nor to concur in any hostile

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