frightened by Bristow into signing away his right to three-fourths of his lawful property.
Hastings steadily refused his sanction to acts which he was utterly powerless to forbid. Even the Directors demurred at first to the notion that their treaties with Oudh had expired with the death of Shujá-ud-dauldá[1]. But their sense of justice soon gave place to the satisfaction derived from the new improvement in their financial prospects. In December, 1776, they recorded their 'entire approbation' of a bargain which appeared to promise them 'solid and permanent advantages.' Among the first fruits of the treaty thus forced upon the new Wazír was an alarming mutiny of his unpaid soldiers, which could not be quelled without the shedding of much blood.
Meanwhile the Governor-General was trying hard to set himself right with the powers at home. He sent Lord North a copy of all his correspondence with Middleton. To his friends at the India House and among the Proprietors he wrote in a strain of anxious pleading for their support against the malice and the wrong-doing of his foes in India. 'There are many gentlemen in England' — he writes in April, 1775, to his confidential agents, Graham and Macleane — 'who have been eye-witnesses of my conduct. For God's sake, call upon them to draw my true portrait, for the devil is not so black as these fellows have painted me ... If I am not deceived, there is not a man in Calcutta, scarce in Bengal, unconnected with Cla-
- ↑ Mill.
