and that, at the request of the said contractor, the contract for
victualling the Europeans serving at the Presidency was added to and
united with that for furnishing bullocks, and fixed for the same period.
That this extension of the periods of the said contracts was not
compensated by a diminution in the charge to be incurred by the Company
on that account, as it ought to have been, but, on the contrary, the
charge was immoderately increased by the new contracts, insomuch that it
was proved by statements and computations produced at the board, that
the increase on the victualling contract would in five years amount to
40,000_l._, and that the increase on the bullock contract in the same
period would amount to above 400,000_l._ That, when this and many other
weighty objections against the terms of the said contracts were urged in
Council to the said Warren Hastings, he declared that _he should deliver
a reply thereto_; but it does not appear that he did ever deliver such
reply, or ever enter into a justification of any part of his conduct in
this transaction.--That the act of Parliament of 1773, by which the
first Governor-General and Council were appointed, did expressly limit
the duration of their office to the term of five years, which expired in
October, 1779, and that the several contracts hereinbefore mentioned
were granted in September, 1779, and were made to continue _five_ years
after the expiration of the government by which they were granted. That
by this anticipation the discretion and judgment of the succeeding
government respecting the subject-matter of such contracts was taken
away, and any correction or improvement therein rendered impracticable.
That the said Warren Hastings might have been justified by the rules and
practice or by the necessity of the public service in binding the
government by engagements to endure one year after the expiration of his
own office; but on no principles could he be justified in extending such
engagements beyond the term of one year, much less on the principles he
has avowed, namely, "that it was only an act of common justice in him to