The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

call upon him to produce his instructions to Major Browne; and he did, on the 5th of
October, 1783, and not before, enter on the Consultations a certain paper purporting to be
the instructions which he had given to Major Browne the preceding March, the time of his,
the said Browne's, appointment, in which pretended instructions no direction whatsoever
was given to the effect of his, the said Hastings's, Minute of Consultation propounded: that
is to say, no power was given in the said instructions to make a direct offer of military aid
to the Mogul, or to form the arrangements stated by the said Browne, in his letter to the said
Hastings, as having been made by the express authority of the said Hastings himself; but the
said instructions contained nothing further on that subject but a conditional direction, that,
in case a military force should be required for the Mogul's aid or protection, the Major is to
know the service on which it is to be employed, and the resources from whence it is to be
paid; and the instructions produced as his real instructions by the said Hastings are so
guarded as to caution the said Browne against taking any part in the intrigues of those who
are about the King's person. By which letters, instructions, and transactions, compared with
each other, it appears that the said Warren Hastings, after six months' delay in entering of
(contrary to the Company's order) any instructions to the said Browne, did at last enter a
false paper as the true, or that he did give other secret instructions, totally different from,
and even opposite to, his public ostensible instructions, thereby to deceive the Council, and
to carry on with less obstruction dark and dangerous intrigues, contrary to the orders of the
Court of Directors, to the true policy of this kingdom, and to the safety of the British
possessions in the East.

VII. That the said letter from Major Browne was by the said Warren Hastings transmitted to
the Court of Directors, without being accompanied by any part of the previous
correspondence; by which wilful concealment the said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high

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