by not adopting the policy which he had, _on the conception of better grounds_, rejected; nor did he begin the reduction of the interest debt" at the time stated, nor at any time; but the whole (he well knowing the state of the country from whence the resources aforesaid were by him promised) was a premeditated deceit and imposition on the Board of Council, his colleagues, and on the Court of Directors, his masters. LXIX. That no traces of regulation appear to have been adopted by the said Warren Hastings during his residence at Lucknow, in conformity to the spirit and intentions of the treaty of Chunar, or of his instructions to Middleton and Bristow, or of the proposed objects of his own commission. But he did, in lieu thereof, pretend to free the Nabob's government from the interference of the Company's servants, and the usurpation (as he called it) of a Resident, and thereby to restore it to its proper tone and energy; whereas the measures he took were such as to leave no useful or responsible superintendence in the British, and no freedom in the Nabob's government: for he did confirm the sole, unparticipated, and entire administration, with all the powers annexed to the government, on the minister, Hyder Beg Khan, to whom he _prevailed_ on the Nabob Vizier to commit the entire charge of his revenues, although he knew that his master was a cipher in his hands,--that he "had affixed his seal to letters written without his knowledge, and such as evidently tended to promote Hyder Beg Khan's influence and interest,"--that his said master did not consider him as a minister of his choice, but as an instrument of his degradation,--that "he exists as a minister by his dependence on the Calcutta government, and that the Nabob himself had no other opinion of him,--that it is by its _declared_ and most _obvious_ support _alone_ that he could maintain his authority and influence." And in his instructions to his secret agent, Major Palmer, dated 6th of May, 1782, to ease his mind and remove his jealousy with regard to British interference, he did instruct him, "that much delicacy and caution will be required in your declarations on this subject, lest they should be construed to extend to an immediate change in the administration of his affairs, or the instruments of it. Their persons must be considered as _sacred, while_ they act with the _participation of our influence_. This distinction the Nabob _understands_; nor will it be either necessary or proper to allude to it, unless he himself should first introduce the subject." And the said Hastings did assume, as to a dependant of the lowest order, to prescribe to him the conditions on which he is to hold his place,--to threaten him with scrutinies into his conduct, with dismission, with punishment,--that he was guilty of falsehood and duplicity, and that he had made his master assert what was true to be false,--that he suspected he had withheld from his master what he ought to have paid to him,--that