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Letter to the Honourable Charles James Fox, dated October, 1777,
on the American War
Letter to the Marquis of Rockingham, dated January, 1777, on a
proposed Secession from Parliament of Members who had op-
posed the American War.

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XX. MAHRATTA WAR, AND PEACE.

I.

THAT by an act passed in 1773 it was expressly ordered and provided," that it should not be lawful for any president and council at Madras, Bombay, or Bencoolen, for the time being, to make any orders for commencing hostilities, or declaring or making war, against any Indian princes or powers, or for negotiating or concluding any treaty of peace, or other treaty, with any such Indian princes or powers, without the consent and approbation of the governor-general and council first had and obtained, except in such cases of imminent necessity as would render it dangerous to postpone such hostilities or treaties, until the orders from the governor-general and council might arrive."-That nevertheless the president and council of Bombay did, in December, 1774, without the consent and approbation of the governorgeneral and council of Fort William, and in the midst of found peace, commence an unjust and unprovoked war against the Mahratta government; did conclude a treaty with a certain person, a fugitive from that government, and proscribed by it, named Ragonaut Row, or Ragoba; and did, under various base and treacherous pretences, invade and conquer the island of Salsette, belonging to the Mahratta government.

II.

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That Warren Hastings, on the first advices received in Bengal of the above transactions, did condemn the same in the strongest terms; declaring, that "the measures adopted by the presidency of Bombay had a tendency to a very extensive and indefinite scene of troubles; and that their conduct was unseasonable, impolitic, unjust, and unauthorized."

-And the governor-general and council, in order to put a stop to the said unjust hostilities, did appoint an ambassador to the peshwa or chief of the Mahratta state, resident at Poona; and the said ambassador did, after a long negotiation, conclude a definitive treaty of peace with the said peshwa on terms highly honourable and beneficial to the East-India Company, who by the said treaty obtained from the Mah

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