in and given to General Clavering and the other
gentlemen were such as fully authorized them in every inquiry that seems
to have been their object ... Europeans."[2]

Now after the supreme authority, to which they were to appeal in all
their disputes, had passed this judgment upon this very inquiry, the
matter no longer depended upon Mr. Hastings's opinion; nor could he be
longer justified in attributing that to evil motives either of malice or
passion in his colleagues. When the judges who were finally to determine
who was malicious, who was passionate, who was or was not justified
either in setting on foot the inquiry or resisting it, had passed that
judgment, then Mr. Hastings was called upon by all the feelings of a
man, and by his duty in Council, to give satisfaction to his masters,
the Directors, who approved of the zeal and diligence shown in that very
inquiry, the passion of which he only reprobated, and upon which he
grounded his justification.

If anything but conscious guilt could have possibly influenced him to
such more than patience under this accusation, let us see what was his
conduct when the scene was changed. General Clavering, fatigued and
broken down by the miseries of his situation, soon afterwards lost a
very able and affectionate colleague, Colonel Monson, (whom Mr. Hastings
states to be one of the bitterest of his accusers,) a man one of the
most loved and honored of his time, a person of your Lordships' noble
blood, and a person who did honor to it, and if he had been of the
family of a commoner, well deserved to be raised to your distinction.
When that man died,--died of a broken heart, to say nothing else,--and
General Clavering felt himself in a manner without help, except what he
derived from the firmness, assiduity, and patience of Mr. Francis,
sinking like himself under the exertion of his own virtues, he was
resolved to resign his employment. The Court of Directors were so
alarmed at this attempt of his to resign his employment, that they wrote
thus: "When you conceived the design of quitting our service, we imagine
you could not have heard of the resignation of Mr. Hastings ... your
zeal and ability."[3]

My Lords, in this struggle, and before he could resign finally, another
kind of resignation, the resignation of Nature, took place, and Sir John
Clavering died. The character that was given Sir John Clavering at that
time is a seal to the whole of his proceedings, and the use that