264 THE GOVERNTOR-GENERALSHIP OF HASTINGS

malities of a seven years' trial before the House of Lords. Upon such a career, upon the value of the serv- ices rendered by Hastings to his country and the in- justice with which he was requited, the English people must by this time have formed a judgment too broadly based to be much affected by any fresh scrutiny of the reckless calumnies flung at him while he stood at bay against false and vindictive accusers like Nuncomar and Francis, or fought at great odds against Hyder All and the Maratha league. It may be added, as a curious proof of the reputa- tion acquired by Hastings in Europe, that in 1785, when he was just leaving Bengal, the French ambassador in London seriously proposed to his government a plan of secretly encouraging Hastings to make himself an independent ruler in India by means of his native army and of French support. The ambassador, having evi- dently in his mind the success with which France had abetted the revolt of the American colonists, argued confidently that a man who held " almost a royal position " in India, who had been recalled with indig- nity and threatened with impeachment, would be found easily accessible to such overtures; and the peremptory refusal of the French minister to entertain his ingenious plot was a bitter disappointment to him.