An Indian government has only to let it be understood that it wishes a particular man to be ruined; and, in twenty-four hours, it will be furnished with grave charges, supported by depositions so full and circumstantial that any person unaccustomed to Asiatic mendacity would regard them as decisive.  It is well if the signature of the destined victim is not counterfeited at the foot of some illegal compact, and if some treasonable paper is not slipped into a hiding-place in his house.  Hastings was now regarded as helpless.  The power to make or mar the fortune of every man in Bengal had passed, as it seemed, into the hands of the new Councillors.  Immediately charges against the Governor-General began to pour in.  They were eagerly welcomed by the majority, who, to do them justice, were men of too much honour knowingly to countenance false accusations, but who were not sufficiently acquainted with the East to be aware that, in that part of the world, a very little encouragement from power will call forth, in a week, more Oateses, and Bedloes, and Dangerfields, than Westminster Hall sees in a century.

It would have been strange indeed if, at such a juncture, Nuncomar had remained quiet.  That bad man was stimulated at once by malignity, by avarice, and by ambition.  Now was the time to be avenged on his old enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years, to establish himself in the favour of the majority of the Council, to become the greatest native in Bengal.  From the time of the arrival of the new Councillors he had paid the most marked court to them, and had in consequence been excluded, with all indignity, from the Government-house.  He now put into the hands of Francis with great ceremony, a paper, containing several charges of the most serious description.  By this document Hastings was accused of putting offices up to sale, and of receiving bribes for suffering offenders to escape.  In particular, it was alleged that Mahommed Reza Khan had been dismissed with impunity, in consideration of a great sum paid to the Governor-General.

Francis read the paper in Council.  A violent altercation followed.  Hastings complained in bitter terms of the way in which he was treated, spoke with contempt of Nuncomar and of Nuncomar’s accusation, and denied the right of the Council to sit in judgment on the Governor.  At the next meeting of the Board, another communication from Nuncomar was produced.  He requested that he might be permitted to attend the Council, and that he might be heard in support of his assertions.  Another tempestuous debate took place.  The Governor-General maintained that the council-room was not a proper place for such an investigation; that from persons who were heated by daily conflict with him he could not expect the fairness of judges; and that he could not, without betraying the dignity of his post, submit to be confronted with such a man as Nuncomar.  The majority, however, resolved to go into the charges.  Hastings rose,