but though I should have felt as I ought for the motive, I should have regretted that you had yielded to it. Such a proceeding would have been construed into a transgression of the line of public duty, and have defeated its own purpose, by inducing a suspicion that the testimonials were extorted by the influence of authority. Considering the subject in its relation to your Lordship, I applaud the nice discretion with which you tempered a conduct impelled by a desire to promote the redress of an injured character. Regarding it merely as it affected myself, I am thankful for what you did, and for stopping precisely where you did stop.'
In January of the same year (1788) Cornwallis had written to Lord Sydney: 'Without entering into the merits of the case, I am very sorry that things have gone so much against poor Hastings, for he certainly has many amiable qualities;' and the writer follows this up by some uncomplimentary remarks about Impey. This may be a surprise to readers drawing their notions of Hastings from Macaulay, who thought 'his heart was somewhat hard.' The real truth is that Hastings, confronted with some spiteful adversaries, was a man of strong affections, and had a circle of many devoted and high-minded friends. His character and conduct have been recently placed in a very different light by Sir Fitzjames Stephen and Sir Alfred Lyall, and the time is possibly coming when men of the present generation may regret to think
