My Lords, in this struggle, and before he could resign finally, another kind of resignation, the resignation of Nature, took place, and Sir John Clavering died. The character that was given Sir John Clavering at that time is a seal to the whole of his proceedings, and the use that I shall make of it your Lordships will see presently. "The abilities of General Clavering, the comprehensive knowledge he had attained of our affairs ... to the East India Company."[4] And never had it a greater loss. There is the concluding funeral oration made by his masters, upon a strict, though by no means partial, view of his conduct. My Lords, here is the man who is the great accuser of Mr. Hastings, as he says. What is he? a slight man, a man of mean situation, a man of mean talents, a man of mean character? No: of the highest character. Was he a person whose conduct was disapproved by their common superiors? No: it was approved when living, and ratified when dead. This was the man, a man equal to him in every respect, upon the supposed evil motives of whom alone was founded the sole justification of Mr. Hastings. But be it, then, that Sir John Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis were all of them the evil-minded persons that he describes them to be, and that from dislike to them, from a kind of manly resentment, if you please, against such persons, an hatred against malicious proceedings, and a defiance of them, he did not think proper, as he states, to make his defence during that period of time, and while oppressed by that combination,--yet, when he got rid of the two former persons, and when Mr. Francis was nothing, when the whole majority was in his hand, and he was in full power, there was a large, open, full field for inquiry; and he was bound to re-institute that inquiry, and to clear his character before his judges and before his masters. Mr. Hastings says, "No: they have threatened me with a prosecution, and I reserve myself for a court of justice."