As Barwell had not yet returned to Calcutta, the Council adjourned for business until the 24th, when Barwell took his seat at the Board. On this occasion, Hastings laid before his colleagues a clear and concise review of his past administration. The first part of the Minute was received without any sign of dissent. But his account of the Treaty of Benares and the Rohillá War at once brought out the latent hostility of the Francis faction. Then burst forth on Hastings' head a storm which was destined to rage against him long after his first assailants had died or returned home. Monson called on the Governor-General to produce all the letters which had passed between him and his agent at Lucknow. Hastings declared that no power on earth could authorise him to give up letters written in the strictest confidence, however willingly he would furnish all extracts bearing on matters of public interest. Barwell loyally stood by his old chief in refusing obedience to an ex post facto law thus suddenly sprung upon them[1].
But the new Councillors, eager for the fray, and confident in the goodness of their cause, would take no denial, nor stoop to any compromise, however fair. Striking at Hastings through his agent, they promptly voted the recall of Middleton from Lucknow, appointing Champion to act in his stead[2]. This was the first blow dealt by Lord North's emissaries against their nominal chief, in a quarrel which, as Macaulay puts it, 'after distracting British India, was renewed in England,
