Francis took his passage for England; his fear of misrepresentation
may therefore allude to something which passed in conversation between
him and that gentleman at the time the offer was made.
It was not easy, on the mere face of his offer, to give an ill turn to
it. The act, as it stands on the Minute, is not only disinterested, but
generous and public-spirited. If Mr. Hastings apprehended
misrepresentation from Mr. Francis, or from any other person, your
Committee conceive that he did not employ proper means for defeating the
ill designs of his adversaries. On the contrary, the course he has taken
in his letter to the Court of Directors is calculated to excite doubts
and suspicions in minds the most favorably disposed to him. Some degree
of ostentation is not extremely blamable at a time when a man advances
largely from his private fortune towards the public service. It is human
infirmity at the worst, and only detracts something from the lustre of
an action in itself meritorious. The kind of ostentation which is
criminal, and criminal only because it is fraudulent, is where a person
makes a show of giving when in reality he does not give.
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