which he carried, in direct opposition to the Ministers, by a majority of sixteen.
These circumstances were not forgotten by Mr. Pitt, who, on the 11th December of the same year, when the managers were about to be appointed to conduct the im peachment of Mr. Hastings, employed two of his dependants to move that the name of Mr. Francis should be omitted, which, after an eloquent eulogium on that gentleman by Mr. Fox, and a discussion, in which Messrs. Pitt, Sheridan, and Dundas, and Mr. Francis himself took part, was carried by a majority of one hundred and twenty-two to sixty-two. The slur, however, which was thus attempted to be cast upon him, was completely effaced by the following gratifying testimony, addressed to Mr. Francis by the managers on that occasion:—
"Sir,
"There is nothing in the orders of the House which prevents us from resorting to your assistance; and we should shew very little regard to our honour, to our duty, or to the effectual execution of our trust, if we omitted any means, that are left in our power, to obtain the most beneficial use of it.
"An exact local knowledge of the affairs of Bengal is requisite in every step of our proceedings; and it is necessary that our information should come from sources not only competent but unsuspected. We have perused, as our duty has often led us to do, with great attention, the records of the Company, during the time in which you executed the important office committed to you by parliament; and our good opinion of you has grown in exact proportion to the minuteness and accuracy of our researches. We have found that, as far as in you lay, you fully answered the ends of your arduous allegation. An exact obedience to the authority placed over you by the laws of your country, wise and steady principles of government, an inflexible integrity in yourself, and a firm resistance to all corrupt practice in others, crowned by an uniform benevolent attention to the rights, properties, and welfare of the natives (the grand leading object in your appointment), appear eminently throughout those records. Such a conduct, so tried, acknowledged, and recorded, demands our fullest confidence.
"These, Sir, are the qualities, and this is the conduct on your part, on which we ground our wishes for your assistance. On what we are to ground our right to make any demand upon you, we are more at a loss to suggest. Our sole titles, we are sensible, are to be found in the public exigencies, and in your public spirit. Permit us, Sir, to call for this further service