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50 their arms; 'at present the risk is almost wholly the Company's, and the fruits entirely the Nabob's.' To Sulivan, one of the Directors, he complains of the troubles brewed within Madras by the Nawáb's Scotch partisans, who 'inflame his jealousy of our government, feed his resentments with every rascally tale that the idle conversation of the settlement can furnish them with, and assist him in his literary polemics, for such his letters of the last two years may be truly called .'

In spite of these manifest grounds for just complaint, Hastings bore himself so discreetly throughout the Nawáb's controversies with Du Pré's Council, that, on the eve of his departure for Calcutta, he received a parting assurance of the Nawáb's good- will, gratitude, and entire satisfaction with 'every part' of Mr. Hastings' conduct in relation to himself. 'This,' wrote Hastings, 'was too honourable a testimony for me to receive with a safe conscience; but I can, with an unblemished one, affirm that I never opposed any interest to his but that of my employers.' It was this high devotion to his masters' service which guided and upheld the future Governor-General of India through the darkest and roughest passages of his stormy career.

While his mild influence lessened the friction of rival interests and authorities around Madras, Hastings busied himself to good effect with the special work assigned to his hands. By right of his place