But there is another circumstance that puts this in a stronger light.  He opposes the Nabob’s mock authority to the authority of the Company, and leaves Mahomed Reza Khan unemployed, because, as he says, he cannot in justice execute orders from the Company (though they are his undoubted masters) contrary to the rights of the Nabob.  You see what the rights of the Nabob were:  the rights of the Nabob were, to be governed by Munny Begum and her scandalous ministers.  But, however, we now see him exalted to be an independent sovereign; he defies the Company at the head of their armies and their treasury; that name that makes all India shake was defied by one of its pensioners.  My Lords, human greatness is an unstable thing.  This man, so suddenly exalted, was as soon depressed; and the manner of his depression is as curious as that of his exaltation by Mr. Hastings, and will tend to show you the man most clearly.

Mr. Francis, whose conduct all along was directed by no other principles than those which were in conformity with the plan adopted by himself and his virtuous colleagues, namely, an entire obedience to the laws of his country, and who constantly had opposed Mr. Hastings, upon principles of honor, and principles of obedience to the authority of the Company under which he acted, had never contended for any one thing, in any way, or in any instance, but obedience to them, and had constantly asserted that Mahomed Reza Khan ought to be put into employment.  Mr. Hastings as constantly opposed him; and the reason he gave for it was, that it was against the direct rights of the Nabob, and that they were rights so sacred that they could not be infringed even by the sovereign authority of the Company ordering him to do it.  He had so great an aversion to the least subtraction of the Nabob’s right, that, though expressly commanded by the Court of Directors, he would not suffer Mahomed Reza Khan to be invested with his office under the Company’s authority.  The Nabob was too sovereign, too supreme, for him to do it.  But such is the fate of human grandeur, that a whimsical event reduced the Nabob to his state of pageant again, and made him the mere subject of—­you will see whom.  Mr. Hastings found he was so embarrassed by his disobedience to the spirit of the orders of the Company, and by the various wild projects he had formed, as to make it necessary for him, even though he had a majority in the Council, to gain over at any price Mr. Francis.  Mr. Francis, frightened by the same miserable situation of affairs, (for this happened at a most dangerous period,—­the height of the Mahratta war,) was willing likewise to give up his opposition to Mr. Hastings, to suspend the execution of many rightful things, and to concede them to the public necessity.  Accordingly he agreed to terms with Mr. Hastings.  But what was the price of that concession?  Any base purpose, any desertion of public duty?  No:  all that he desired of Mr. Hastings was, that he should obey the orders of the Company; and among other acts of the obedience required was this, that Mahomed Reza Khan should be put into his office.