Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/183

 and preserved his papers in the most businesslike method (, ii. 3, 24).

His quarrel with Hastings was soon embittered by the part which Francis took in the famous case of Nuncomar. On 11 March 1774 Francis received a visit from Nuncomar, who brought him a letter. Francis laid this before the council, declaring himself to be ignorant of its contents. It charged Hastings with corruption. In the interval between the committal and the execution of Nuncomar, Francis and his colleagues had some conflicts with the supreme court on questions arising out of the proceedings. On 31 July Nuncomar wrote a letter to Francis, entreating him to intercede for a respite. On 1 Aug. Nuncomar's counsel, Farrer, proposed to Francis that the council should send to the court a letter covering a petition from Nuncomar and supporting his prayer for a respite. Francis approved, but as Clavering and Monson declined, the matter dropped, and Nuncomar's last chance disappeared. He was hanged 5 Aug. On the 14th Clavering presented to the council a petition received from Nuncomar on the 4th. This petition suggested that he was judicially murdered on account of his attack upon Hastings. Hastings proposed that the letter should be sent to the judges, upon whose character it reflected. Francis, however, stated that he considered it as ‘libellous’ and ‘wholly unsupported,’ and carried a motion that it should be burnt by the common hangman and the copy of it expunged from the proceedings of the council. He tried upon the impeachment of Impey to explain his conduct in suppressing this document as libellous, although he and his colleagues made similar insinuations both before and after the event in the minutes of the council. He asserted that if he had acted weakly it was from a desire to save Clavering from the vengeance of Hastings; while it has been argued (, Nuncomar and Impey, ii. 108) that his real motive was to keep the charge against Hastings secret until it could be used to more effect. Francis's letters at the time seem to imply a very cautious reticence (, ii. 35). The question is discussed in two pamphlets published in 1788, ‘Answer of Philip Francis to the charge brought … by Sir E. Impey’ (by Francis), and ‘A Refutation of … the Answer’ (by Impey). Francis had before long quarrelled with Clavering. His position became uncomfortable, and upon the death of Monson (25 Sept. 1776) he was reduced to impotence, Hastings having the casting vote. He had meanwhile won 20,000l. at whist from Barwell, a sum reduced to 12,000l. by subsequent losses. He then gave up play and invested his winnings. Although powerless in the council, he had hopes that Hastings would be superseded, and that he would be appointed to the vacant place. In June 1777 these hopes were dispelled upon Hastings's repudiation of his previous resignation and the decision of the supreme court in his favour. Clavering died 30 Aug. 1777. In the next month Francis wrote an elaborate letter to Lord North upon Indian affairs, separately printed in 1793. Wheler, sent out to succeed Hastings, arrived in Calcutta in November 1777, and generally acted with Francis as a member of council. They agreed in the following February to oppose ‘the pernicious measures’ of Hastings.

In 1778 Francis had an intrigue with the lovely wife, aged 16, of a Swiss officer in the East India Company's service, named Grand. In November Grand surprised Francis, who had entered Mme. Grand's room. An action was brought by Grand against Francis, who was sentenced to pay fifty thousand rupees damages by Impey (6 March 1779). Mme. Grand afterwards threw herself upon Francis's protection. She left India before him, and afterwards became the mistress, and in 1801 the wife, of Talleyrand.

In March 1779 Sir Eyre Coote succeeded Clavering as member of council and in command of the forces. Francis afterwards accused Hastings of buying Coote's support by large allowances, and says of Coote in November, in language suggesting Junius upon Barrington, ‘I never heard of so abandoned a scoundrel.’ The military difficulties now led to a truce with Hastings, in which Major Scott acted as negotiator. The political differences were compromised. Two of Francis's protégés were to be restored to the posts from which Hastings had removed them, and Francis undertook not to oppose Hastings in the management of the Mahratta war. Francis also joined with Hastings in opposing the pretensions of the supreme court under Impey. Francis and his new colleague Wheler were still on bad terms with Hastings. At last, in July 1780, Hastings accused Francis of breaking their agreement, and stated in an official minute that he had found Francis's private conduct to be ‘void of truth and honour.’ Francis's account was that his agreement referred only to the operations already begun and not to new movements intended by Hastings. A duel followed (17 Aug. 1780), in which Francis was severely wounded. He recovered in a few days, but took little active part in business afterwards, finding that Wheler was not hearty in supporting him. He left India at the end of 1780, and, after a long delay at St. Helena, reached