The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

consequences thereof. That in a letter dated the 20th of January, 1778, the President and
Council of Bombay informed the Governor-General and Council, that, in consequence of
later intelligence received from Poonah, they had immediately resolved that nothing further
could be done, unless Saccaram Baboo, the principal in the late treaty (of Poorunder)
joined in making a formal application to them. That no such application was ever made by
that person. That the said Warren Hastings, finding that all this pretended ground for
engaging in an invasion of the Mahratta government had totally failed, did then pretend to
give credit to, and to be greatly alarmed by, the suggestions of the President and Council of
Bombay, that the Mahrattas were negotiating with the French, and had agreed to give them
the port of Choul, on the Malabar coast, and did affirm that the French had obtained
possession of that port. That all these suggestions and assertions were false, and, if they had
been true, would have furnished no just occasion for attacking either the Mahrattas or the
French, with both of whom the British nation was then at peace. That the said Warren
Hastings did then propose and carry the following resolution in Council, against the protest
of two members thereof, that, "for the purpose of granting you [the Presidency of Bombay]
the most effectual support in our power, we have resolved to assemble a strong military
force near Calpee, the commanding officer of which is to be ordered to march by the most
practicable route to Bombay, or to such other place as future occurrences and your
directions to him may render it expedient"; and with respect to the steps said to be taking by
the French to obtain a settlement on the Malabar coast, the said Warren Hastings did
declare to the Presidency of Bombay, "that it was the opinion of the Governor-General and
Council that no time ought to be lost in forming and carrying into execution such measures
as might most effectually tend to frustrate such dangerous designs." That the said Warren
Hastings, therefore, instead of fixing his attention to the preservation of peace throughout

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