Kumár addressed to him on the last day of July[1]. A petition from the convict was handed to Clavering on the 4th August, but he took care to know nothing of its contents until after the sentence had been carried out. And when the petition came to be laid before the Council, it was Francis who first demanded that the paper should be burnt by the common hangman, as containing a manifest libel on the judges[2].
On the morning of the 5th August, 1775, Nanda-Kumár was hanged on the Maidan outside Calcutta. He underwent his doom with a quiet courage and dignity not uncommon at such moments among his countrymen. A detailed account of the execution, written at the time by Macrabie, the Sheriff of Calcutta, a brother-in-law and a faithful follower of Philip Francis, was afterwards to furnish Burke and Elliot with a theme for much furious invective, and to become the groundwork for some splendid passages in Macaulay's well-known essay. Burke was never weary of proclaiming that Hastings had murdered Nanda-Kumár by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey. Macaulay, with far less excuse for his evil-speaking, brands Impey with the foul fame of Jeffreys, and declares that none but idiots and biographers can doubt that Hastings was 'the real mover in the business,' even while he doubts whether Nanda-Kumár's death can justly be reckoned among Hastings' crimes. A recent writer, Mr. Beveridge, tries in vain to show
