CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF CHUNAR.
I. That, in consequence of the treaty of Chunar, the Governor-General,
Warren Hastings, did send official instructions respecting the various
articles of the said treaty to the said Resident, Middleton; and that,
in a postscript, the said Hastings did forbid the resumption of the
Nabob Fyzoola Khân's jaghire, "until circumstances may render it more
expedient and easy to be attempted than the present more material
pursuits of government make it appear": thereby intimating a positive
limitation of the indefinite term in the explanatory minute above
recited, and confining the suspension of the article to the pressure of
the war.
II. That, soon after the date of the said instructions, and within two
months of the signature of the treaty of Chunar, the said Hastings did
cause Sir Elijah Impey, Knight, his Majesty's chief-justice at Fort
William, to discredit the justice of the crown of Great Britain by
making him the channel of unwarrantable communication, and did, through
the said Sir Elijah, signify to the Resident, Middleton, his, the said
Hastings's, "approbation of a _subsidy_ from Fyzoola Khân."
III. That the Resident, in answer, represents the proper equivalent for
two thousand horse and one thousand foot (the forces offered to Mr.
Johnson by Fyzoola Khân) to be twelve lacs, or 120,000_l._ sterling and
upwards, each year; which the said Resident supposes is considerably
beyond what he, Fyzoola Khân, _will voluntarily pay_: "however, if it
is your wish that the claim should be made, I am ready to take it up,
and _you may he assured nothing in my power shall be left undone to
carry it through_."
IV. That the reply of the said Hastings doth not appear; but that it
does appear on record that "a negotiation" (Mr. Johnson's) "was begun
for Fyzoola Khân's cavalry to act with General Goddard, and, on his
[Fyzoola Khân's] _evading_ it, _that a sum of money was demanded_."
V. That, in the months of February, March, and April, the Resident,
Middleton, did repeatedly propose the resumption of Fyzoola Khân's
jaghire, agreeably to the treaty of Chunar; and that, driven to
extremity (as the said Hastings supposes) "by the public menaces and
denunciations of the Resident and minister," Hyder Beg Khân, a creature
of the said Hastings, and both the minister and Resident acting
professedly on and under the treaty of Chunar, "the Nabob Fyzoola Khân
made such preparations, and such a disposition of his family and wealth,
as evidently manifested either an intended or an _expected rupture_."
VI. That on the 6th of May the said Hastings did send his confidential
agent and friend, Major Palmer, on a private commission to Lucknow; and
that the said Palmer was charged with secret instructions relative to
Fyzoola Khân, but of what import cannot be ascertained, the said
Hastings in his public instructions having inserted only the name of
Fyzoola Khân, as a mere reference (according to the explanation of the
said Hastings) to what he had verbally communicated to the said Palmer;
and that the said Hastings was thereby guilty of a criminal concealment.
VII. That some time about the month of August an engagement happened
between a body of Fyzoola Khân's cavalry and a part of the Vizier's
army, in which the latter were beaten, and their guns taken; that the
Resident, Middleton, did represent the same but as a slight and
accidental affray; that it was acknowledged the troops of the Vizier
were the aggressors; that it did appear to the board, and to the said
Hastings himself, an affair of more considerable magnitude; and that
they did make the concealment thereof an article of charge against the
Resident, Middleton, though the said Resident did in truth acquaint them
with the same, but in a cursory manner.
VIII. That, immediately after the said "fray" at Daranagur, the Vizier
(who was "but a cipher in the hands" of the minister and the Resident,
both of them directly appointed and supported by the said Hastings) did
make of Fyzoola Khân a new demand, equally contrary to the true intent
and meaning of the treaty as his former requisitions: which new demand
was for the detachment in garrison at Daranagur to be cantoned as a
stationary force at Lucknow, the capital of the Vizier; whereas he, the
Vizier, had only a right to demand an occasional aid to join his army in
the field or in garrison during a war. But the said new demand being
_evaded_, or rather refused, agreeably to the fair construction of the
treaty, by the Nabob Fyzoola Khân, the matter was for the present
dropped.
IX. That in the letter in which the Resident, Middleton, did mention
"what he calls the fray" aforesaid, the said Middleton did again apply
for the resumption of the jaghire of Rampoor; and that, the objections
against the measure being now removed, (by the separate peace with
Sindia,) he desired to know if the board "would give assurances of their
support to the Vizier, in case, _which_" (says the Resident) "_I think
very probable, his_ [the Vizier's] _own strength should be found unequal
to the undertaking_."
X. That, although the said Warren Hastings did make the foregoing
application a new charge against the Resident, Middleton, yet the said
Hastings did only criminate the said Middleton for a proposal tending
"at such a crisis to increase the number of our enemies," and did in no
degree, either in his articles of charge or in his accompanying minutes,
express any disapprobation whatever of the principle; that, in truth,
the whole proceedings of the said Resident were the natural result of
the treaty of Chunar; that the said proceedings were from time to time
communicated to the said Hastings; that, as he nowhere charges any
disobedience of orders on Mr. Middleton with respect to Fyzoola Khân, it
may be justly inferred that the said Hastings did not interfere to check
the proceedings of the said Middleton on that subject; and that by such
criminal neglect the said Hastings did make the guilt of the said
Middleton, whatever it might be, his own.