the said Hastings, of the supposed treasons of Almas Ali Khan, and of his design to abandon the country, when he himself did most laboriously urge the charges against him, and when no attempt appears to have been made against the life of the said Almas Ali Khan except by the said Warren Hastings himself. LXXV. That the sum of fifty thousand pounds sterling, or thereabouts, publicly taken by the said Warren Hastings, as an _advance_ for the use of the Company, if given as a consideration or fine, on account of the renewal for a long term of civil authority and military command, and the collection of the revenues to an immense amount, the same being at least eight hundred thousand pounds sterling yearly, was so totally inadequate to the interest granted, that it may justly be presumed it was not on that, or on any public ground or condition, that the said Hastings did delegate, out of all reach of resumption or correction, a lease of boundless power and enormous profit, for so long a term, to a known oppressor of the country. LXXVI. That Warren Hastings, being at Lucknow in consequence of his deputation aforesaid, did, in his letter from that city, dated 30th of April, 1784, recommend to the Court of Directors, "as his _last and ultimate hope_, that their wisdom would put a _final_ period to _the ruinous and disreputable system_ of interference, whether _avowed or secret_, in the affairs of the Nabob of Oude, and withdraw _forever the influence_ by which it is maintained," and that they ought to confine their views to the sole maintenance of the old brigade stationed in Oude by virtue of the first treaty with the reigning Nabob, expressing himself in the following words to the Court of Directors. "If you transgress that line, you may extend _the distribution of patronage, and add to the fortunes of individuals_, and to the nominal riches of Great Britain; but your _own_ interests will suffer by it; and _the ruin of a great and once flourishing nation will he recorded as the work of your administration, with an everlasting reproach to the British name_. To this reasoning I shall join _the obligations of justice and good faith, which cut off every pretext for your exercising any power or authority in this country, as long as the sovereign of it fulfils the engagements he has articled with you_."