Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/24

18 the king showed a marked preference for La Fayette. A conversation between the king and the English General, recorded in the Cornwallis Correspondence, is very curious as showing Frederic's view of the political relations of continental states with each other and with England.

In the beginning of 1786, from some cause not clearly explained in Cornwallis's Life and Letters, the offer of India was again made, and with grief of heart, as he puts it, Cornwallis accepted the appointment, sailed in May. and landed in Calcutta in September of the same year. A Bill, on lines which he had himself approved or suggested, enlarging the powers of the Governor-General under the India Bill of 1783, and very properly giving him authority to act on emergencies without the concurrence of his Council; and even in opposition to that body, received the Royal assent after his departure for the East.