VII.--CONTRACTS.


That the Court of Directors of the East India Company had laid down the
following fundamental rules for the conduct of such of the Company's
business in Bengal as could be performed by contract, and had repeatedly
and strictly ordered the Governor and Council of Port William to observe
those rules, viz.: That all contracts should be publicly advertised, and
the most reasonable proposals accepted; that the contracts of
provisions, and for furnishing draught and carriage bullocks for the
army, should be _annual_; and that they should not fail to advertise for
and receive proposals for those contracts _every year_.

That the said Warren Hastings, in direct disobedience to the said
positive orders, and, as the Directors themselves say, _by a most
deliberate breach of his duty_, did, in September, 1777, accept of
proposals offered by Ernest Alexander Johnson for providing draught and
carriage bullocks, and for victualling the Europeans, without
advertising for proposals, as he was expressly commanded to do, and
extended the contract for _three years_, which was positively ordered to
be _annual_,--and, notwithstanding that extension of the period, which
ought at least to have been compensated by some advantage to the Company
in the conditions, did conclude the said contract _upon terms less
advantageous than the preceding contract, and therefore not on the
lowest terms procurable_. That the said Warren Hastings, in defiance of
the judgment and lawful orders of his superiors, which in this case left