of a
Governor-General.--The opposition of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Barwell proved
as ineffectual in this stage as the former; and a day was named by the
majority for the attendance of the party.

The day following this deliberation, on the assembling of the Council,
the Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, said, "he would not sit to be
confronted by such accusers, nor to _suffer_ a judicial inquiry into his
conduct at the board of which he is the president." As on the former
occasions, he declares the board dissolved. As on the former occasions,
the majority did not admit his claim to this power; they proceeded in
his absence to examine the accuser and witnesses. Their proceedings are
in Appendix K.

It is remarkable, that, during this transaction, Khan Jehan Khan, the
party with whom the corrupt agreement was made, declined an attendance
under excuses which the majority thought pretences for delay, though
they used no compulsory methods towards his appearance. At length,
however, he did appear, and then a step was taken by Mr. Hastings of a
very extraordinary nature, after the steps which he had taken before,
and the declarations with which those steps had been accompanied. Mr.
Hastings, who had absolutely refused to be present in the foregoing part
of the proceeding, appeared with Khan Jehan Khan. And now the affair
took another turn; other obstructions were raised. General Clavering
said that the informations hitherto taken had proceeded upon oath. Khan
Jehan Khan had previously declared to General Clavering his readiness to
be so examined; but when called upon by the board, he changed his mind,
and alleged a delicacy, relative to his rank, with regard to the oath.
In this scruple he was strongly supported by Mr. Hastings. He and Mr.
Barwell went further: they contended that the Council had no right to
administer an oath. They must have been very clear in that opinion, when
they resisted the examination on oath of the very person who, if he
could safely swear to Mr. Hastings's innocence, owed it as a debt to his
patron not to refuse it; and of the payment of this debt it was
extraordinary in the patron not only to enforce, but to support, the
absolute refusal.

Although the majority did not acquiesce in this doctrine, they appeared
to have doubts of the prudence of enforcing it by violent means; but,
construing his refusal into a disposition to screen the peculations of
the Governor-General, they treated him as guilty of