Your Committee observe on this part of the transaction of Mr. Hastings, that as long as the question stood upon his obedience to his lawful superiors, so long he considered the restoration of these persons as a gross indignity, the submitting to which would destroy all his credit and influence in the country; but when it was to accommodate his own occasions in a treaty with a fellow-servant, all these difficulties instantly vanish, and he finds it perfectly consistent with his dignity, credit, and influence, to do for Mr. Francis what he had refused to the strict and reiterated injunctions of the Court of Directors.  Tranquillity was, however, for a time restored by this measure, though it did not continue long.  In about three months an occasion occurred in which Mr. Francis gave some opposition to a measure proposed by Mr. Hastings, which brought on a duel, upon the mischievous effects of which your Committee have already made their observations.

The departure of Mr. Francis soon after for Europe opened a new scene, and gave rise to a third revolution.  Lest the arrangement with the servants of the Company should have the least appearance of being mistaken for obedience to their superiors, Mr. Francis was little more than a month gone, when Mr. Fowke was again recalled from Benares, and Mr. Bristow soon after from Oude.  In these measures Mr. Hastings has combined the principles of disobedience which he had used in all the cases hitherto stated.  In his Minute of Consultation on this recall he refers to his former Minutes; and he adds, that he has “a recent motive in the necessity of removing any circumstance which may contribute to lessen his influence in the effect of any negotiations in which he may be engaged in the prosecution of his intended visit to Lucknow.”  He here reverts to his old plea of preserving his influence; not content with this, as in the case of Mahomed Reza Khan he had called in the aid of the Nabob of Bengal, he here calls in the aid of the Nabob of Oude, who, on reasons exactly tallying with those given by Mr. Hastings, desires that Mr. Bristow may be removed.  The true weight of these requisitions will appear, if not sufficiently apparent from the known situation of the parties, by the following extract of a letter from this Nabob of Oude to his agent at Calcutta, desiring him to acquaint Mr. Hastings, that, “if it is proper, I will write to the king [of Great Britain], and the vizier [one of his Majesty’s ministers], and the chief of the Company, in such a manner as he shall direct, and in the words that he shall order, that Mr. Bristow’s views may be thwarted there.”  There is no doubt of the entire cooeperation of the Nabob Asoph ul Dowlah in all the designs of Mr. Hastings, and in thwarting the views of any persons who place their reliance on the authority of this kingdom.