eng: 
the fame. It is not pretended that fir Robert Barker had 
authority to pledge the company as guarantees of the 
treaty; and that he fhould take upon him to bind the 
government by fo ferious and important an aft, without 
fpecial inftruftion and direction, is an incredible fuppofi- 
tion; and in faft, fir Robert Barker, being interrogated at 
the bar of the houfe of commons, “ Whether he con¬ 
ceived that he had by any aft of his bound the company 
to a guarantee of the treaty by war ?” anfwered pofitively, 
tc I did not.” Alfo, in a letter written even before the 
aftual conclufion of the treaty, he declares, “ That it was 
the furtheft from his intention that the company fhould 
in any refpeft whatever be mentioned in the agreement 
between the vizier and the Rohillas.” 
From the firft fuggeftion of this projeft of conqueft and 
extirpation by the vizier of Chide, it is evident that Mr. 
Haftings urged its profecution with an ardour far fuperior 
to that difcovered by the nabob, whofe ambition was 
counteracted by his avarice, and who on cool reflection 
appears to have thought the prize fcarcely worth the 
purchafe. “ I availed myfelf,_ffays Mr. Haftings,) of 
his eager folicitude for the attainment of this point, to 
engage his ailent to another meafure of much greater 
value to the company ; that is to fay, the increafe of his 
annual payments or fubfidy to the amount of two hundred 
and ten thoufand rupees per month.” But it is fufficiently 
evident, that when this conceflion was once extorted from 
the vizier, his folicitude for the war began to link into 
indifference. 
In a letter written by Mr, Haftings to the vizier, April 
21, 1773, he enlarges on the great advantage which would 
refult to the vizier from the reduction of the Rohilla 
country ; “ becaufe (fays he) by that means the defenfive 
line of your dominions would be completed, by including 
within it all the land lying on that fide of the river 
Ganges.”-—“ The allurement (to adopt the language of 
Mr. Haftings, in his defence,) thus held out to the vizier, 
fucceeded. He propofed, in reply, a meeting with me at 
Benares. I found him (till equally bent on the defign of 
reducing the Rohillas, which I encouraged as I had be¬ 
fore done, by dwelling on the advantages which lie would 
derive from its fuccefs; by objecting with great force the 
orders of the company reftrifting us from fuch remote 
fch ernes of conqueft, to which I therefore could not a (Tent 
without fuch conditions obtained in return for it as might 
obviate their difplcafure, and win their fanftion to fo ha¬ 
zardous and unauthorized a meafure. Having at length 
obtained this point, viz. the increafe of the fubfidy, 1 
eafily yielded my aflent to the Rohilla plan, on the ftipu- 
lation of forty lacks for its accomplifhment. (A lack of 
rupees, at par, amounts to 12,500!. fterling.) As a pre¬ 
caution againft any eft'efts which, were to be apprehended 
from the vizier’s irrefolurion, the conditions originally 
.accepted were dictated to him in the form of a letter, to 
be written by him, in which a claufe was inferted, ‘ that 
whether the country was conquered, or a peace concluded 
between him and the enemy, the ftipulation for the forty 
lacks fhould become equally due.' Thus, at laft, (fays 
Mr. Haftings,) an occafion took place, when, by a flight 
deviation from the defenfive plan, our alliance with the 
vizier might be converted into folid advantages. In ef- 
feft, the fame reafons which before urged us to fhun every 
military expedition, now operated in the contrary direc¬ 
tion, and recommended the employment of our army for 
the purpofe of reducing our expences, and adding to our 
currency.” 
As to the mode in which this war of extirpation was 
condufted, we are aftured that colonel Champion never 
mentioned the fervice on which he was employed without 
the deepeft exprefiions of grief and abhorrence. “ Whilft 
all Alia knows, (fays this commander,) that the Englifh 
gave him, i. e. Sujah, the nabob of Oude, the rod, will 
they not reafonably conclude that the fcourges which the 
agent gives are connived at? will they not fay every Eng- 
Jifh chief is another Sujah ?”—•“ The authority given to 
.AND. 7 55 
the vizier over the army, (fays the colonel, in a letter to 
Mr. Haftings, dated May 10, 1774,) has totally abforbed 
that degree of confequence due to my ftation. My hands 
have been tied up from giving protection to the miferable. 
I have been obliged to lend a deaf ear to the lamentable 
cries of the widow and the fatherlefs, and fhut my eyes 
againft a wanton difplay of violence and oppreflion, of 
inhumanity and cruelty. The company’s intereft con- 
ftrained me in public to ftifle the workings of my feelings, 
but I mu ft give way to them in private ; it would affeft 
your fenfibility too much, were I to defeend to particu¬ 
lars. The family of Hafiz, the Begums included, have 
been driven to the necefllty of making fupplications for a 
little rice and water; and of the prifoners, many have 
died for want of fuftenance, I wifh to leave feenes which 
none but the mercilefs Sujah can bear without heart¬ 
bleeding pain : relieve me, therefore, as foon as poftible.’* 
In a moving reprefentation to the colonel from the fons of 
Hafiz, of their manifold diftreftes, they fay of the vizier, 
“ He has deprived us of our country, our riches, and evert 
of our honour; and not fatisfied with that, he is going to 
fend us prifoners to Fyzabad. We defire no country, no 
riches, no palaces ; but at Bifloulee are the tombs of our 
noble anceftors: near them, under fome (hade, we beg 
permiffion to fpend the remainder of our days as faquiers.” 1 
Thefe things the colonel fays he is compelled to ftate, al¬ 
though the ungracious reception of his former reprefen- 
tations gave him but little encouragement to plead tho 
caufe of the unfortunate. 
In afubfequent letter, dated June 15, 1774, the colonel" 
defires that lie may be empowered to withdraw the Eng¬ 
lifh troops, in cafe the vizier will not otherwife be pre¬ 
vailed upon to defift from his enormities : but this Mr. 
Haftings, in his reply, declares to be “ obvioufly inad- 
miftible. Where, (faid he,) is our authority to judge or 
controul the conduft of the vizier, further than refpefts 
his engagements with us ? Even granting we had an au¬ 
thority to controul the vizier’s conduft in the manner 
you propofe, we nmft have demonftration of the infalli¬ 
bility of the perfon we entrufted with fuch an authority, 
before we could be vindicated in the delegation of it. 
All the country fubdued becomes abfolutely the vizier’s. 
On the terms you propofe, the Englifh commander would 
fuperfede his authority in the government of his new pof- 
fellions.” In lieu, therefore, of the expedient fuggefted 
by the humanity of colonel Champion, the governor-ge¬ 
neral ordered hisrelident, Mr. Middleton, to remonftrate 
and expoftulate with the vizier concerning his conduft 
towards the Rohillas, £i in order to exculpate the Englifh 
government from the imputation of affenting to fuch a 
procedure.” But fo little did the vizier regard thefe 
feeble and formal renionftrances, that the family of Hafiz, 
after fuffering the molt dreadful and fhocking indignities, 
were carried in captivity to Fyzabad. 
In a fubfequent letter from the nabob Mahub Ulla 
Khan, el deft fon of Hafiz, he molt earneftly fiipplicates, 
in the name of God and Chrifr, the interpofition of the 
Englifh commander for their releafe. “ Q my guardian! 
(fays he,) turn your face to the bufinefs of a (lave, and 
have us enlarged, and it will not go unrewarded.” As 
to the plea fet up in defence of this unprovoked invafion, 
“ That the Rohillas were not a nation, but a body of 
foreign adventurers, who poflefted the country by a pre- 
feription of only fixty years;” it is fufficient to know, 
that the inhabitants of Rohilcund, under their civil go¬ 
vernment, enjoyed peace and profperity ; that thefe people 
were able to bring an army of fifty or fixty thoufand men 
into the field; and that it might with infinitely more force 
be retorted on the Englifh themfelves, that they were a 
body of “ foreign adventurers,” who had been at this 
time fcarcely feven fummers in poffeflion of the country 
they occupied. With equal feeling and animation it has 
been faid in relation to the general infamy of the Rohilla 
war, “ There is no power in this world that can annihi¬ 
late fuch a queftion-—though it were dead, yet ftiali it live. 
1 The 
