the head or heart which fitted him for that office, though there was no dispute concerning his right to succeed”; and some years afterwards, when his accounts must have been rendered more certain, he did, in his Minute of Consultation of the 15th of December, 1779, (regularly transmitted to the Court of Directors,) upon a discussion for withdrawing certain troops kept up in the Nabob’s country without his consent, by him, the said Warren Hastings, strongly urge as follows,—­“the necessity of maintaining the influence and force which we possess in the country; that the disorders of his state [the Nabob of Oude’s state] and dissipation of his revenues are the effects of his own conduct, which has failed, not so much from the usual effects of incapacity as from the detestable choice he has made of the ministers of his power and the participation of his confidence.  I forbear to expatiate further on his character; it is sufficient that I am understood by the members of this board, who must know the truth of my allusions.  Mr. Francis” (a member of the board) “surely was not aware of the injury he did me [Warren Hastings] by attributing to the spirit of party the character I gave Asoph ul Dowlah [the Nabob of Oude]; he himself knows it to be true; and it is one of those notorieties which supersede the necessity of any evidence.  I was forced to the allusion I made by the imputation cast on this government, as having caused the evils which prevail in the government of the Nabob of Oude, which I could only answer by ascribing them to their true cause, the character and conduct of the Nabob of Oude." And the Resident (appointed by the said Hastings, against the orders of the Court of Directors, as his particular confidential representative, one whom the said Nabob did himself request might be continued with him by an engagement in writing forever) did some time before, that is, on the 3d of January, 1779, assure the said Hastings and the Council-General, that “such is his Excellency’s [the Nabob of Oude’s] disposition, and so entirely has he lost the confidence and affections of his subjects, that, unless some restraint is imposed on him which would effectually secure those who live under the protection of his government from violence and oppression, I am but too well convinced that no man of reputation or property will long continue in these provinces”; and that the said Resident proceeds to an instance of oppression and rapine, “out of many of the Nabob’s, which has caused a total disaffection and want of confidence among his subjects:  he hoped the board would take it into their humane consideration, and interpose their influence, and prevent an act which would inevitably bring disgrace upon himself, and a proportionable degree of discredit on the national character of the English, which I consider to be more or less concerned in every act of his administration.”