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136 England were opened and read in the Council Chamber, Hastings learned what his private letters had already told him, that the offer of his resignation had been accepted, that Sir John Clavering was empowered to succeed him as Governor-General, and that Wheler had been appointed to the vacant seat in Council. Little as he relished the result of his agents' blundering, Hastings was not prepared to disavow their act. 'I held myself bound by it,' he wrote to Lord North, 'and was resolved to ratify it.' But Clavering's rash violence defeated its own object. Instead of allowing the Governor-General to choose his own time for resigning his post, he summoned a Council next morning in his own name, took the oaths as Governor-General, called on Hastings to yield up the keys of the Fort and Treasuries, and commanded the troops in Fort William and the neighbouring stations to obey no orders except his own. Francis of course abetted his colleague and tool in these acts of lawless usurpation, although a few days later, when defeat was certain, he asked for 'the honour and happiness of assuming the character of mediator.'

Two days before the despatches were opened, Hastings had notified his intention to resign. But now he made up his mind to stand his ground rather than surrender to lawless violence the powers he would else have laid down in a regular way. Both in the army and the civil service he could still count upon many devoted friends. By virtue of his office the Governor-General could also act as