he stood, in the Bengal Government, the opponent of those measures, which were recommended by Mr. Hastings. The French and Hyder Ali had attacked our possessions in the Carnatic. Mr. Hastings thought, that every effort of the British Empire in India should be employed to resist them. Mr. Francis was of a different opinion. He scrupulously examined every exertion that was proposed. He viewed it in all its bearings; and raised every objection, which his abilities and his wellinformed mind enabled him to bring forward. My mind had been accustomed to meditate on the misfortunes brought on us by the American War. At the commencement of that war, in 1775, the American Colonies formed the Western branch, and our possessions in India the Eastern branch of our Empire. In the course of that war the American branch was torn from us. What must have been our situation if we had experienced similar misfortunes in India? How should we have treated with France, Spain, Holland, and the United States of America, at the commencement

of the year 1783, if the British Empire in India had been conquered by our enemies? It was preserved to us; and, as I think, its preservation was the result of the energies of that able statesman, Warren Hastings. I had lived in habits of acquaintance with Mr. Edmund Burke. I had no prejudices against him; for he had not at that time involved my country in the crusade against French principles. Before he brought forward the charges against Mr. Hastings, he conversed with me very fully on the subject. I put this question to him: "Can you prove, that Mr. Hastings ever derived any advantage to himself from that misconduct, which you impute to him?" He acknowledged, "that he could not;" but added, "that his whole government of India had been one continued violation of the great principles of justice." Before the charges were laid on the table, I had a second conversation with Mr. Burke on the subject. When he found that I persevered in my opinion, he told me, "that in that case I must relinquish the friendship of the Duke of Portland.” I replied, "that that

would give me pain; but that I would rather relinquish the Duke of Portland's friendship than support an impeachment which I did not approve." We parted, and our intercourse was terminated.

CHAP. XIV.

On Mr. Edmund Burke.

I MAY perhaps be thought to have spoken in some places with too much severity of Mr. Edmund Burke. My acquaintance with this gentleman began about the year 1780. My intercourse with him impressed me with the highest idea of his political erudition. I say nothing of his abilities: my opinion of him on that head is the same as is generally entertained, viz. that he had great powers, with very little judgment. I never had any personal difference with him: at the commencement of our intercourse my admiration of him was great; it gradually diminished into disapprobation of his measures, and disapprobation gradually increased into disesteem. In the autumn, 1781, when it was visible, that the nation was every day becoming more tired of the American War, and that Lord North

would be obliged to relinquish it, I was very anxious to see union established between the friends of the Marquis of Rockingham and those of the Earl of Shelburne. The friends of the Earl of Shelburne professed to wish it, and I firmly believe that they were sincere. This union was prevented by Mr. Burke; the consequences of the continuance of disunion sufficiently appeared on the formation of the Cabinet of Eleven in the ensuing spring. During the three months that Lord Rockingham was minister, in 1782, I saw much in Mr. Burke's conduct which I disapproved; on the death of that noble Marquis, the separation between Mr. Fox and the Earl of Shelburne was effected solely by the efforts of Mr. Burke. Mr. Fox was a man of kindness: malice seemed to me not to enter into his composition; and I am very certain that he had no ill will to the Earl of Shelburne, even down to the hour of the Marquis of Rockingham's death.

When the separation between the friends of the deceased Marquis and the