of the Company; you have seen his
defiance of all decency; you see his open protection of prostitutes and
robbers of every kind ravaging Bengal; you have seen this defiance of
the authority of the Court of Directors flatly, directly, and
peremptorily persisted in to the last. Order after order was reiterated,
but his disobedience arose with an elastic spring in proportion to the
pressure that was upon it.

My Lords, here there was a pause. The Directors had been disobeyed; and
you might suppose that he would have been satisfied with this act of
disobedience. My Lords, he was resolved to let the native governments of
the country know that he despised the orders of the Court of Directors,
and that, whenever he pretended to obey them, in reality he was resolved
upon the most actual disobedience. An event now happened, the
particulars of which we are not to repeat here. Disputes, conducted, on
Mr. Francis's side, upon no other principle, that we can discover, but a
desire to obey the Company's orders, and to execute his duty with
fidelity and disinterestedness, had arisen between him and Mr. Hastings.
Mr. Francis, about the time we have been speaking of, finding resistance
was vain, reconciles himself to him,--but on the most honorable terms as
a public man, namely, that he should continue to follow and obey the
laws, and to respect the authority of the Court of Directors. Upon this
reconciliation, it was agreed that Mahomed Reza Khan should be restored
to his office. For this purpose Mr. Hastings enters a minute, and writes
to the Nabob an ostensible letter. But your Lordships will here see an
instance of what I said respecting a double current in all Mr.
Hastings's proceedings. Even when he obeys or pretends to obey the
Company's orders, there is always a private channel through which he
defeats them all.

_Letter from Mr. Hastings to the Nabob Mobarek ul Dowlah, written
the 10th of February, 1780._

"The Company, whose orders are peremptory, have directed that
Mahomed Reza Khan shall be restored to the offices he held in
January, 1778. It is my duty to represent this to your Excellency,
and to recommend your compliance with their request, that Mahomed
Reza Khan may be invested with the offices assigned to him under
the nizamut by the Company."

Your Lordships see here that Mr. Hastings informs the Nabob, that,
having received peremptory orders from the Company, he restores an