mand from the official military of ficer, who was invefted with that authority by the orders of the directors, might have been productive of confequences extremely pre judicial to the fervice: if the commander in chief had afferted the right invested in himself, a contention for executive power might poffibly have been the confequence, and the army, which in India is fo peculiarly conftituted, as to require not only exact difcipline, but the moft perfect fubordination, in order to infure obedience, must have ultimately decided where that obedience was due."

I dare not examine a doctrine affirmed to be of fo facred an authority; yet I may humbly fuggeft that it never was, nor could have been intended to be applied to the actual commander in chief, whofe command was originally conftituted by the governor-general and council themfelves, and therefore could not be rendered fuperior to, and independent of the powers vefted in the governor-general and council, by an act of parliament paffed before its existence; nor included in any inftructions of the court of directors, alfo framed at a more an cient period, if even at a later; and a fenfe of national duty fuperior to every confideration of perfonal fafety, or the reverence which is due to high office, impels me to denounce, and to date the fall of the British empire in India from the inftant that it fhall be decidedly declared, or understood, that any commander in chief of the army, be his title or rank what it will, is, or may be, by any constructive power, independent of the government under which the wifdom of parliament hath hitherto placed the army forming in thefe provinces, and

every member of it, in an impli cit, and abfolute fubjection to its authority.

God forbid, that any future Pizarros, and Almagros, fhould difgrace the annals of your dominion, or mark the traces of its decline with the blood of your fervants and foldiers; ut the contest will probably be of fhort duration; and happy will it be for the interests of humanity, if fuch fhall be the iffue, though dreadful to our own, whatever period of time may close it.

Let me add, nor let my words be uttered in vain, that whenever the fatal blow shall be struck, or from whatever hand it shall proceed, its effect will be, not a gradual decay, but instantaneous ruin; for your existence hangs on the thread of opinion, which the touch of chance may break, and even that fource, which ought to flow with the principles of its duration, will, if productive of the fame deleterious ftreams, which have been lately feen to iffue from it, prove the caufe of its diffolution.

I am not myself apprehenfive of any evil confequence, from the partial and limited command which I poffefs over your army, in its tending to provoke a competition; for in the first place I will never put it to the iffue of a trial; and in the fecond, were the board to permit the commander in chief to come into this quarter, which is not likely, I confidently hope, that before he could arrive, this province will have been fo regulated as not to require any foreign aid for its internal protection, nor, of course, any exercife of the powers which I poffefs, and which he might deem himfelf warranted to refift.

I proceed to repeat the effects which have been produced to this

may prove a future advantage to your interefts, in the reduction of the hoondyan, or exchange, from fixteen per cent. to five and a half, at which it is my determination to fix it.

I have recommended to the board to appropriate the whole of this article as a fund for the payment of the intereft on your bonds, which had fuffered fomething in their credit and current value, from the fufpenfion of the payment of interest, fome months before I left Calcutta. The first article is the balance of the fum duc from Fyzoola Cawn, by the treaty made between him and the nabob vizier, through the agency of major Palmer, on the 16th of February, 1783. Two lacks of this amount are now in regular courfe of payment; the remaining three are not due by ftipulation till the next feafon called Knereef, which is a period included between the middle of September and the middle of February. Some days after my arrival, I intimated to his vackeel, my wifh to have both payments immediately concluded, and his mafter gave immediate orders

for it.

To this inftance of refpect for your government, he has added another, in the deputation of his fon to Lucknow, to confirm the affurance of his attachment to the company and British `nation.

What farther fums may be cleared in the course of this year, of which the most productive part is already paft, I cannot fay; but it is my hope, that a confiderable part of the nabob's debt will be liquidated, and the difcharge of the remainder enfured by the engagements of creditable bankers, fo that it may be wholly cleared within the courfe of the enfuing year.

The account, No, 2, is an efti

mate formed on the actual expence ; but will be confiderably reduced, if my future profpects and objects fhall be anfwerable to my prefent expectations. To these I proceed.

First. My first wifh is to realize the amount of your demands on the nabob of Owde to the end of the next fuffelee year, and to obtain ample fecurities for it before I depart from him.

Second. My next care will be to induce the nabob's ministers to appoint bodies of regular troops, for the fupport of his collections, and the internal defence of his country. This will preclude the neceffity of calling for the aid of our troops, and I hope may prove the means of releafing him from the extraordinary and undefined fubfidy which he now pays for the great detachment employed under the command of fir John Cumming in Rohilcund, and the regiments which have been occafionally demanded, and remain fcattered over other parts of his dominions; and of confining our defence, and the nabob vizier's payments, to the brigade ftationed at Cawnpore, and to the fubfidy paid by treaty, for its expence.

Third. My laft and ultimate hope is, that when thefe objects are attained, your wisdom will put a final period to the ruinous and disreputable fyftem of interference, whether avowed or fecret, in the affairs of the nabob of Owde, and withdraw for ever the influence by which it was maintained.

This country has no inlets of trade by which it can fupply the ifflues which are made from it; for, excepting the factory at Tonda, which fubfifts by a contract, making part of your investment, and the produce of opium and faltpetre, which is not confiderable, I do nor

know

know any other articles of commerce from which it could derive any returns. Therefore, every rupee which is drawn from its circulation into your treasury, muft accelerate the period at which its ability must ceafe to pay even the stipulated fublidy. By the continuance of this fund, you maintain an acceffion of more than one half to the military cftablishment required for the defence of your own dominions, without any charge on your own income; and you oppofe a wide and. powerful frontier to your eventual

enemies.

That force will continue to be an effectual fafeguard to the country, which will fuffer nothing by its maintenance, becaufe the fpecie thus applied will, of courfe, flow back into its circulation; and it is a tribute which it ought gladly to pay; for its whole wealth would not in any other way yield an adequate mode of protection.

Few are the advocates of the national interefts, and their voice will be faintly heard amid the numerous and loud exclamations of private rapacity; but I humbly affume to rank myself with the former, and to affure you, that if you feek for a permanent and profitable fyftem of connection with this country, you must confine your claims upon it to the line I have recommended. If you tranfgrefs it, you may extend the diftribution of patronage, and add to the fortunes of individuals, and the nominal riches of Great Britain; but your own interefts will fuffer by it, and the ruin of a great and once flourishing nation will be recorded as the work of your administration, with an everlating reproach on the British

naine.

To this reafoning I fhall join the obligations of justice and good faith,

which cut off every pretext for your exercifing any power or authority in this country, while the fovereign of it fulfils the engage ments which he contracted with you.

I have the honour to be,
With the most profound respect,
Honourable Sirs,

Your most obedient
and most faithful fervant,

WARREN HASTINGS.

P. S. May 13, 1784. This let. ter, though purpofely and declaredly written for inftant difpatch, has been detained by the fudden appearance of an uncommon phoenomenon, which though in itself fimple and unimportant, derived a magnitude (like the lefs ordinary events of the phyfical world, viewed through the medium of fuperftition) from its operation on the opinions of mankind. On the night of the 11th of laft month, the prince Jewan Bukht, who has long held the principal and moft active part in the little that remained of the adminiftration of the king, Shah Allum, and is his eldest son, being about thirty-fix years of age, fled from the capital, attended only by his mother's brother and another perfon; and rapidly paffing the bounds of his father's dominions, efcaped far beyond the reach of purfuit, before his abfence was dif covered; nor was the first direction of his flight known for fome days. The king fent circular orders to every quarter, that he might be apprehended and fent back to the prefence. The nabob vizier and mnyfelf received phirmauns, or letters to that effect, and in the same terms. We waited three days to learn the course of his route, and as foon as it appeared probable that it lay towards this place, we addreffed the