ght of their objections chiefly
lay to Nundcomar's political character; his moral character was not
discussed in that proceeding. Mr. Hastings says,--

"The President does not take upon him to vindicate the moral character
of Nundcomar; his sentiments of this man's former political conduct are
not unknown to the Court of Directors, who, he is persuaded, will be
more inclined to attribute his present countenance of him to motives of
zeal and fidelity to the service, in repugnance perhaps to his own
inclinations, than to any predilection in his favor. He is very well
acquainted with most of the facts alluded to in the minute of the
majority, having been a principal instrument in detecting them:
nevertheless he thinks it but justice to make a distinction between the
violation of a trust and an offence committed against our government by
a man who owed it no allegiance, nor was indebted to it for protection,
but, on the contrary, was the minister and actual servant of a master
whose interest naturally suggested that kind of policy which sought, by
foreign aids, and the diminution of the power of the Company, to raise
his own consequence, and to reestablish his authority. He has never been
charged with any instance of infidelity to the Nabob Mir Jaffier, the
constant tenor of whose politics, from his first accession to the
nizamut till his death, corresponded in all points so exactly with the
artifices which were detected in his minister that they may be as fairly
ascribed to the one as to the other: their immediate object was beyond
question the aggrandizement of the former, though the latter had
ultimately an equal interest in their success. The opinion which the
Nabob himself entertained of the services and of the fidelity of
Nundcomar evidently appeared in the distinguished marks which he
continued to show him of his favor and confidence to the latest hour of
his life.

"His conduct in the succeeding administration appears not only to have
been dictated by the same principles, but, if we may be allowed to speak
favorably of any measures which opposed the views of our own government
and aimed at the support of an adverse interest, surely it was not only
not culpable, but even praiseworthy. He endeavored, as appears by the
abstracts before us, to give consequence to his master, and to pave the
way to his independence, by obtaining a firman from the king for his
appointment to the subahship; and he opposed the promotion of