The Court of Directors were not wholly inattentive to this business. They condemned his act as it deserved, and they went into the business of his legal right to dissolve the Council. Their opinions seemed against it, and they gave precise orders against the use of any such power in future. On consulting Mr. Sayer, the Company's counsel, he was of a different opinion with regard to the legal right; but he thought, very properly, that the use of a right, and the manner and purposes for which it was used, ought not to have been separated. What he thought on this occasion appears in his opinion transmitted by the Court of Directors to Mr. Hastings and the Council-General. "But it was as great a _crime_ to dissolve the Council upon _base and sinister motives_ as it would be to assume the power of dissolving, if he had it not. I believe he is _the first governor that ever_ dissolved a council inquiring into his behavior, when he was innocent. Before he could summon three councils and dissolve them, he had time fully to consider what would be the result of such conduct, _to convince everybody, beyond a doubt, of his conscious guilt_." It was a matter but of small consolation to Mr. Hastings, during the painful interval he describes, to find that the Company's learned counsel admitted that he had legal powers of which he made an use that raised an universal presumption of his guilt. Other counsel did not think so favorably of the powers themselves. But this matter was of less consequence, because a great difference of opinion may arise concerning the extent of official powers, even among men professionally educated, (as in this case such a difference did arise,) and well-intentioned men may take either part. But the use that was made of it, in systematical contradiction to the Company's orders, has been stated in the Ninth Report, as well as in many of the others made by two of your committees. FOOTNOTES: [14] Appendix B. No. 1. [15] Vide Supplement to the Second Report, page 7. [16] Appendix. B. No. 2. [17] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. [18] Appendix B. No. 7. [19] Appendix B. No. 3 and No. 5. [20] Appendix B. No 6. [21] Vide Larkins's Affidavit, Appendix B. No. 5. [22] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. [23] Vide Appendix B. No. 1. [24] Ibid. [25] Ibid., No. 8. [26] Ibid., No. 1. [27] Ibid., No. 4. [28] Appendix B. No. 8. [29] Ibid. [30] Ibid., No. 9. [31] Appendix B. No. 1. [32] Ibid. [33] Ibid., No. 8. [34] Appendix B. No. 4: The Governor-General's Account of Moneys received, dated 22d May, 1782. Also, Appendix B. No. 9: The Auditor's Account of Bonds granted to the Governor-General. [35] Vide Appendix B. No. 4. [36] Vide Mr. Hastings's Account, in Appendix B. No. 4. [37] Vide Hastings's Account, dated 22d May, 1782, in Appendix B. No. 4. [38] Vide above Appendix, and B. No. 2. [39] Vide above Appendix. [40] Vide Appendix B. No. 4. [41] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. [42] Ibid., No. 7. [43] Vide Appendix B. No. 6. [44] Ibid.