The latter, whose affairs were in great disorder, had borrowed large sums of money at high interest from the East India Company's officials at Madras.

Hard pressed by his creditors, he entrusted Macpherson with a secret mission to Britain, with the object of making representations on his behalf to the home government.

He had several interviews with the prime minister, Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, who eventually despatched Sir John Lindsay, as king's envoy extraordinary, to effect a settlement of the Nawab's claims.

From April 1779 to May 1782 he sat in the House of Commons for Cricklade, and was one of six members suspected of being in receipt of a salary from the nabob of Arcot in return for pressing the latter's claims on the legislature.

In January 1781, however, before he could return to Madras, he was appointed by Lord North, whose government he had supported, to the seat on the Supreme Council of Bengal vacated by Richard Barwell.

The appointment was severely criticised in public; and in 1782 a committee of the House of Commons declared that Macpherson's past conduct in supporting the pretensions of the nabob had tended to endanger the peace of India.

Strenuous reductions were made in the public expenditure, the utmost care was exercised over the collections, and in twelve months' time enough cash had been accumulated to pay off the whole of the new paper debt, besides meeting the ordinary expenses of government.

Macpherson moreover did nothing to stop the gross corruption indulged in by the company's officials, and Lord Cornwallis, an impartial critic, denounces his government as 'a system of the dirtiest jobbery'.

[3] Shortly after Macpherson's accession to the supreme power, the Mahratta chief, Maharaja Mahdoji Sindia, having obtained possession of Shah Alum, titular emperor of India, demanded from the English a sum of £4,000,000 (£1.2 billion in 2009).

The claim, for which there was no foundation, was disregarded, and Macpherson now endeavoured to obtain from Dundas a promise of the succession to Lord Cornwallis, or at any rate a return to his old place on the Bengal council.

Macpherson's sole object in harassing the government with these demands was to obtain some heavy pecuniary compensation, and when his chances of office became quite hopeless, he applied to the court of directors for a pension of £2,000 (£0.6 million in 2009).

[3] In 1788 Macpherson was again elected to the House of Commons for Cricklade, but was unseated for bribery on the petition of his opponent, Samuel Petrie, and cast in penalties to the amount of 3,000 pounds.

Macpherson's tall figure, handsome face, and courtly manners made him a great favourite in society; and his wide knowledge and linguistic talents won him the respect of scholars.

He stated that in 1777 he had, through his intimacy with the nabob, obtained knowledge of secret overtures made to that prince by France, the exposure of which had been of great service to the British government.