" This extremity he attributes, in a narrative by him
transmitted to the Court of Directors, and printed, not to his own fraud
and prevarication, but to what he calls "an attempt to wrest from him
his authority"; and in the said narrative he pretends that the Rajah of
Benares had deputed an agent with an express commission to his opponent,
Sir John Clavering. This fact, if it had been true, (which is not
proved,) was in no sort criminal or offensive to the Company's
government, but was at first sight nothing more than a proper mark of
duty and respect to the supposed succession of office. Nor is it
possible to conceive in what manner it could offend the said Hastings,
if he did not imagine that the express commission to which in the said
narrative he refers might relate to the discovery to Sir John Clavering
of some practice which he might wish to conceal,--the said Clavering,
whom he styles "_his opponent_," having been engaged, in obedience to
the Company's express orders, in the discovery of sundry peculations and
other evil practices charged upon the said Hastings.
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