This apparent gross contradiction is to be reconciled but by
one way,--which is, that confidence with Mr. Hastings comes and goes
with his opposition to legal authority. Where that authority recommends
any person, his confidence in him vanishes; but to show that it is the
authority, and not the person, he opposes, when that is out of sight,
there is no rule so sacred which is not to be violated to manifest his
real esteem and perfect trust in the person whom he has rejected.
However, by overturning general principles to compliment Mr. Fowke's
integrity, he does all in his power to corrupt it; at the same time he
establishes an example that must either subject all future dealings to
the same pernicious clause, or which, being omitted, must become a
strong implied charge on the integrity of those who shall hereafter be
excluded from a trust so constituted.
It is not foreign to the object of your Committee, in this part of their
observations, which relates to the obedience to orders, to remark upon
the manner in which the orders of the Court of Directors with regard to
this kind of dealing in contracts are observed.
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