The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

unnecessary guaranty did not only subject to an heavy expense a prince whom we were
bound to protect, but did further produce in his mind the following obvious and natural
conclusion, namely, "that the signature of any person, in whatever public capacity he at
present appears, will not be valid and of effect, as soon as some other shall fill his station":
a conclusion, however, immediately tending to the total discredit of all powers delegated
from the board to any individual servant of the Company, and consequently to clog,
perplex, and embarrass in future all transactions carried on at a distance from the seat of
government, and to disturb the security of all persons possessing instruments already so
ratified,—yet the only conclusion left to Fyzoola Khân which did not involve some affront
either to the private honor of the Company's servants or to the public honor of the Company
itself; and that the suspicions which originated from the said idea in the breast of Fyzoola
Khân to the prejudice of the Resident Middleton's authority did compel the Governor-
General, Warren Hastings, to obviate the bad effects of his first motion for the guaranty by
a second motion, namely, "That a letter be written to Fyzoola Khân from myself,
confirming the obligations of the Company as guaranties to the treaty formed between him
and the Vizier,—which will be equivalent in its effect, though not in form, to an
engagement sent him with the Company's seal affixed to it."

XII.[23] That, whether the guaranty aforesaid was or was not necessary, whether it created a
new obligation or but more fully recognized an obligation previously existing, the
Governor-General, Warren Hastings, by the said guaranty, did, in the most explicit manner,
pledge and commit the public faith of the Company and the nation; and that by the
subsequent letter of the said Hastings (which he at his own motion wrote, confirming to
Fyzoola Khân the aforesaid guaranty) the said Hastings did again pledge and commit the

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