and in which all the most eminent statesmen and orators of the age took active part on one or the other side.'
Soon after Middleton's recall, his place was permanently filled by Bristow, the nominee of the dominant majority in Council. Champion was ordered to withdraw his brigade forthwith from Rohilkhand, and to enforce speedy payment of all moneys due from the Wazír, under a threat of removing the British troops from Oudh itself. The very men who had just been denouncing the Treaty of Benares and inveighing against the wickedness of the Rohillá War, saw no inconsistency in reaping the solid fruits of a policy which stank in their fine nostrils. In vain did Hastings bring all the weight of his reasoning and his skilled experience to bear against measures which tended to upset his best-laid schemes, to destroy his influence with neighbouring princes, and to dishonour him in the eyes of his own subjects[1]. His opponents, with the reins in their own hands, seemed wholly incapable of behaving with common fairness, or even with common decency. At the customary meetings of Council, Hastings and Barwell might plead never so earnestly for delay, for further enquiry, for the deference due to official experts; they might record their weighty protests against the acts of colleagues whose ignorant rashness equalled their self-conceit. But Clavering, Monson, and Francis gave little heed to arguments and appeals which commanded only two votes in a Council of five. Mercy and modesty were
- ↑ Forrest.
