The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

Poonah, and when Bombay, if at any time, particularly required to be protected against a
French invasion, did declare in Council that he wished for the return of the detachment to
Berar, and dreaded to hear of its proceeding to the Malabar coast: and therefore, if the said
Hastings did not think that Bombay was in danger of being attacked by the French, he was
guilty of repeated falsehoods in affirming the contrary for the purpose of covering a
criminal design; or, if he thought that Bombay was immediately threatened with that
danger, he then was guilty of treachery in ordering an army necessary on that supposition to
the immediate defence of Bombay to halt in Berar, to depend on the Rajah of Berar for its
subsequent operations, or on the event of a negotiation with that prince, which, as the said
Hastings declared, was likely to cause a very speedy and essential change in the design and
operations of the detachment; and finally, in declaring that he dreaded to hear of the said
detachment's proceeding to the Malabar coast, whither he ought to have ordered it to
proceed without delay, if, as he has solemnly affirmed, it was true that he had been told by
the highest authority that a powerful armament had been prepared in France, the first
object of which was an attack upon Bombay, and that he knew with moral certainty that all
the powers of the adjacent continent were ready to join the invasion.

That through the whole of these transactions the said Warren Hastings has been guilty of
continued falsehood, fraud, contradiction, and duplicity, highly dishonorable to the
character of the British nation; that, in consequence of the unjust and ill-concerted schemes
of the said Hastings, the British arms, heretofore respected in India, have suffered repeated
disgraces, and great calamities have been thereby brought upon India; and that the said
Warren Hastings, as well in exciting and promoting the late unprovoked and unjustifiable
war against the Mahrattas, as in the conduct thereof, has been guilty of sundry high crimes
and misdemeanors.

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