The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

That the Mahrattas having taken no effectual step to oblige Hyder Ali to make good the
conditions for which they had engaged in his behalf, and the war continuing to be carried
on in the Carnatic by Tippoo Sultan, son and successor of Hyder Ali, the Presidency of Fort
St. George undertook, upon their own authority, to open a negotiation with the said Tippoo:
which measure, though indispensably necessary, the said Hastings utterly disapproved and
discountenanced, expressly denying that there was any ground or motive for entering into
any direct or separate treaty with Tippoo, and not consenting to or authorizing any
negotiation for such treaty, until after a cessation of hostilities had been brought about with
him by the Presidency of Fort St. George, in August, 1783, and the ministers of Tippoo had
been received and treated with by that Presidency, and commissioners, in return, actually
sent by the said Presidency to the court of Poonah: which late and reluctant consent and
authority were extorted from him, the said Hastings, in consequence of the
acknowledgment of his agent at the court of Mahdajee Sindia, upon whom the said Warren
Hastings had depended for enforcing the clauses of the Mahratta treaty, of the
precariousness of such dependence, and of the necessity of that direct and separate treaty
with Tippoo, so long and so lately reprobated by the said Warren Hastings, notwithstanding
the information and entreaties of the Presidency of Fort St. George, as well as the known
distresses and critical situation of the Company's affairs. That, though the said Warren
Hastings did at length give instructions for negotiating and making peace with Tippoo,
expressly adding, that those instructions extended to all the points which occurred to him or
them as capable of being agitated or gained upon the occasion,—though the said
instructions were sent after the said commissioners by the Presidency of Fort St. George,
with directions to obey them,—though not only the said instructions were obeyed, but
advantages gained which did not occur to the said Warren Hastings,—though the said peace

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