ordered that the contract for elephants should be annulled: and the said
Directors further declared, that, "if the contractor should recover
damages of the Company for breach of engagement, they were determined,
in such case, to institute a suit at law against those members of the
board who had presumed, in direct breach of their orders, to prefer the
interest of an individual to that of the Company."--That the said Warren
Hastings did, in the year 1777, conclude with ---- Forde a contract for
an armed vessel for the pilotage of the Chittagong river, and for the
defence of the coast and river against the incursions of robbers, for
the term of five years, in further disobedience of the Company's orders
respecting the mode and duration of contracts, and with a considerable
increase of expense to the Company. That the farming out the defence of
a country to a contractor, being wholly unprecedented, and evidently
absurd, could have no real object but to enrich the contractor at the
Company's expense: since either the service was not dangerous, and then
the establishment was totally unnecessary, or, if it was a dangerous
service, it was evidently the interest of the contractor to avoid such
danger, and not to hazard the loss of his ship or men, which must be
replaced at his own expense, and therefore that an active and faithful
discharge of the contractor's duty was incompatible with his
interest.--That the said Warren Hastings, in further defiance of the
Company's orders, and in breach of the established rule of their
service, did, in the year 1777, conclude a contract with the master and
deputy master attendant of the Company's marine or pilot service, for
supplying the said marine with naval stores, and executing the said
service for the term of two years, and without advertising for
proposals. That the use and expenditure of such stores and the direction
of the pilot vessels are under the management and at the disposition of
the master attendant by virtue of his office; that he is officially the
proper and regular check upon the person who furnishes the stores, and