The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

our forces, could not possibly require infantry, and least of all such infantry as Fyzoola
Khân could furnish; and a single horseman included in the aid which Fyzoola Khân might
furnish would prove a literal compliance with the said stipulation. The number, therefore,
of horse implied by it ought at least to be ascertained: we will suppose five thousand, and,
allowing the exigency for their attendance to exist only in the proportion of one year in five,
reduce the demand to one thousand for the computation of the subsidy, which, at the rate of
fifty rupees per man, will amount to fifty thousand per mensem. This may serve for the
basis of this article in the negotiation upon it."

VI. That the said Warren Hastings doth then continue to instruct the said Palmer in the
alternative of a refusal from Fyzoola Khân. "If Fyzoola Khân shall refuse to treat for a
subsidy, and claim the benefit of his original agreement in its literal expression, he
possesses a right which we cannot dispute, and it will in that case remain only to fix the
precise number of horse which he shall furnish, which ought at least to exceed twenty-five
hundred."

VII. That, in the above-recited instruction, the said Warren Hastings doth insinuate (for he
doth not directly assert),—

1st. That we are entitled by treaty to five thousand troops, which he says were undoubtedly
intended to be all cavalry.

2d. That the said Hastings doth then admit that a single horseman, included in the aid
furnished by Fyzoola Khân, would prove a literal compliance.

3d. That the said Hastings doth next resort again to the supposition of our right to the whole

<<   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   >>

More intriguing information