That it afterwards appeared, in a minute of the said Hastings in Council
at Fort William, on the 22d of September, 1783, that he promised, at the
instance of a member of the Council, to write to Lieutenant James
Anderson in favor of the Ranna of Gohud, and lay his letter before the
board.

That, nevertheless, the said Hastings, professing _not to recollect_ his
said promise, _did neglect to write a formal letter to Lieutenant
Anderson in favor of the said Ranna of Gohud_, and that the private
letter, the extract of which the said Hastings did lay before the board
on the 21st of October, 1783, so far from directing any effectual
interference in favor of the said Ranna, or commanding his agent, the
said James Anderson, to interpose the mediation of the British
government to procure "_honorable terms_" for the said Ranna, or even
"_safety to his person and family_," contains the bitterest invectives
against him, and is expressive of the satisfaction which the said
Hastings acknowledges himself to have enjoyed in the distresses of the
said Ranna, the ally of the Company.

That the measures therein recommended appear rather to have been
designed to satisfy Mahdajee Sindia, and to justify the conduct of the
British government in not having taken a more active and a more hostile
part against the said Ranna, than an intercession on his behalf.

That, though no consideration of good faith or observance of treaties
could induce the said Hastings to incur the hazard of any hostile
exertion of the British force for the defence or the relief of the
allies of the Company, yet in the said private letter he directed,
that, in case his mediation should be accepted, it should be made _a
specific condition_, that, _if the said Ranna should take advantage of