the conference lasted off and on for about a fortnight. So private were the interviews, that Sir R. Barker made a special grievance of his exclusion therefrom[1]. By a covenant signed on the 7th September, the districts of Kora and Allahábád were made over to the Wazír for a sum of fifty lakhs — then worth more than half a million — payable, part down, the rest within two years. The services, whenever needful, of a British brigade were hired out to Shujá at a fixed monthly charge, with a promise of forty lakhs for the Company at the close of the projected campaign[2].
Hastings' fear of the Maráthás, who would certainly renew their raids on the first opportunity, his deep distrust of Sháh Alam, his belief in Shujá's usefulness to British interests, and his zeal for recruiting the Company's finances, all conspired to lead him in the direction pointed out by his able but unscrupulous ally. In the middle of September he set off again for Calcutta, with the Treaty of Benares in his pocket. Of the twelve members of Council Sir R. Barker alone found any fault with the treaty. When he argued that the Emperor could transfer to other hands the powers which in 1765 he had bestowed upon the Company, Hastings boldly declared that the Company's rule rested on no Sanads issued by the Mughal. 'The sword which gave us the dominion of Bengal must be the instrument of its preservation; and if (which God forbid) it shall ever cease to be ours, the
