for other men's shortcomings. The vote for recall which had passed the Board on the 22nd October was therefore rescinded on the 31st. The Court of Proprietors plainly taxed the Directors with throwing upon Hastings all the blame for measures arising mainly out of their own commands. They declared that Hastings was doing his best to bring about a general peace, that his conduct of the war against Haidar and the French merited the warmest approbation, and that his recall at so critical a moment would be 'evidently injurious to the interest of the Company and the nation[1].'
Early in 1783 Impey received the order for his recall as voted by the Commons in the previous May. This was another shaft from Francis' quiver. To the strictures of the India House upon his own conduct Hastings replied in language of indignant yet lofty scorn. He had been arraigned before the people of England for 'acts of such complicated aggravation that, if they were true, no punishment short of death could atone for the injury which the interest and credit of the public has sustained in them.' To every statement made on behalf of Chait Singh he offered a flat denial. 'The man whom you have thus ranked among the princes of India will be astonished when he hears of it — at an elevation so unlooked for.' He taunted the Directors with becoming the Rájá's advocates against their own interests. In spite of the difficulties which, thanks to the home powers, had so
- ↑ Auber, Gleig.
