consistent with his conduct, he writes in the
said libel as follows: For "were it otherwise, they were not to be made
the rules of my conduct; and God forbid that every expression dictated
by the impulse of present emergency, and unpremeditatedly uttered in the
heat of party contention, should impose upon me the obligation of a
fixed principle, and be applied to every variable occasion!"

VIII. That the said Hastings, in order to draw the lawful dependence of
the servants of the Company from the Court of Directors to a factious
dependence on himself, did, in the libel aforesaid, treat the acts and
appointments of their undoubted authority, when exercised in opposition
to his arbitrary will, as ruinous to their affairs, in the following
terms. "It is as well known to the Indian world as to the Court of
English Proprietors, that the first declaratory instruments of the
dissolution of my influence, in the year 1774, were Mr. John Bristow and
Mr. Francis Fowke. By your ancient and known constitution the Governor
has been ever held forth and understood to possess the ostensible
powers of government; all the correspondence with foreign princes is
conducted in his name; and every person resident with them for the
management of your political concerns is understood to be _more
especially his_ representative, and of _his_ choice: and such ought to
be the rule; for how otherwise can they trust an agent nominated against
the will of _his_ principal? When the state of this administration was
such as seemed to _admit of_ the appointment of Mr. Bristow to the
Residency of Lucknow without _much_ diminution of _my own_ influence, I
gladly seized the occasion to show my readiness to submit to your
commands; I proposed his nomination; he was nominated, and declared to
_be the agent of my own choice_. Even this effect of my caution _is
defeated by your absolute command for his reappointment independent of
me, and with the supposition that I should be adverse to it_.--I am now
wholly deprived of my official powers, both in the province of Oude, and
in the zemindary of Benares."

IX. That, further to emancipate others and himself from due obedience to
the Court of Directors, he did, in the libel aforesaid, enhance his
services, which, without specification or proof, he did suppose in the
said libel to be important and valuable, by representing them as done
under their displeasure, and doth attribute his not having done more to
their oppos