The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

ought at least to have been compensated by some advantage to the Company in the
conditions, did conclude the said contract upon terms less advantageous than the preceding
contract, and therefore not on the lowest terms procurable. That the said Warren Hastings,
in defiance of the judgment and lawful orders of his superiors, which in this case left him
no option, declared, that he disapproved of publishing for proposals, and that the contract
was reduced too low already: thereby avowing himself the advocate of the contractor,
against whom, as representative of the Company, and guardian of their interests, he
properly was party, and preferring the advantage of the contractor to those of his own
constituents and employers. That the Court of Directors of the East India Company, having
carefully considered the circumstances and tendency of this transaction, condemned it in
the strongest terms, declaring, that they would not permit the contract to be continued, and
that, "if the contractor should think himself aggrieved, and take measures in consequence
by which the Company became involved in loss or damage, they should certainly hold the
majority of the Council responsible for such loss or damage, and proceed against them
accordingly."—That the said Warren Hastings, in defiance of orders, which the Directors
say were plain and unequivocal, did, in January, 1777, receive from George Templer a
proposal essentially different from the advertisement published by the Governor-General
and Council for receiving proposals for feeding the Company's elephants, and did accept
thereof, not only without having recourse to the proper means for ascertaining whether the
said proposal was the lowest that would be offered, but with another actually before the
board nearly thirty per cent lower than that made by the said George Templer, to whom the
said Warren Hastings granted a contract, in the terms proposed by the said Templer, for
three years, and did afterwards extend the same to five years, with new and distinct
conditions, accepted by the said Warren Hastings, without advertising for fresh proposals,

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