The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

That, even after his application for that purpose to the Mahrattas, whose testimony was
much to be suspected, because it was their interest to accuse and their determined object to
destroy the said Ranna, no satisfactory proof was obtained of his defection from the
engagements he had entered into with the Company.

That, moreover, if all the charges which have been pretended against the Ranna, and have
been alleged by the said Hastings in justification of his conduct, had been well founded and
proved to be true, the subject-matter of those accusations and the proofs by which they
wore to be supported were known to Colonel Muir before the conclusion of the treaty he
entered into with Mahdajee Sindia; and therefore, whatever suspicions may have been
entertained or whatever degree of criminality may have been proved against the said Ranna
previous to the said treaty, from the time he was so provided for and included in the said
treaty he was fully and justly entitled to the security stipulated for him by the Company,
and had a right to demand and receive the protection of the British government.

That these considerations were urged by Mr. Anderson to the said Warren Hastings, in his
letter of the 24th of June, 1781, and were enforced by this additional argument,—"that, in
point of policy, I believe, it ought not to be our wish that the Mahrattas should ever recover
the fortress of Gualior. It forms an important barrier to our own possessions. In the hands of
the Ranna it can be of no prejudice to us; and notwithstanding the present prospect of a
permanent peace betwixt us and the Mahrattas, it seems highly expedient that there should
always remain some strong barrier to separate us, on this side of India, from that warlike
and powerful nation."

That the said Warren Hastings was highly culpable in abandoning the said Ranna to the
fury of his enemies, thereby forfeiting the honor and injuring the credit of the British nation

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