man, who a short time before was at the feet of Mr. Hastings,
whom Mr. Hastings declared to be a pageant, and swore in a court of
justice that he was but a pageant, and followed that affidavit with
long declarations in Council that he was a pageant in sovereignty, and
ought in policy ever to be held out as such,--this man he sets up in
opposition to the Company, and refuses to appoint Mahomed Reza Khan to
the office which was guarantied to him by the express faith of the
Company, pledged to his support. Will any man tell me that this
resistance, under such base, though plausible pretences, could spring
from any other cause than a resolution of persisting systematically in
his course of corruption and bribery through Munny Begum?

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 or