Upon the departure of Mr. Hastings from Bengal, Mr. Macpherson succeeded, as senior in council, to the power and dignity of Chief Governor of the British establishments in India. Certain peculiarities marked the history of this gentleman in the service of the Company. He sailed to Madras in 1766, purser of an India ship; and having obtained the means of an introduction to the son succeeds Nabob of Arcot, insinuated himself quickly into his inmost confidence. As the Nabob had, from the first moment of his deliverance from the terror of the French, been in a state of perpetual struggle with the servants of the Company for a larger share of power, Mr. Macpherson appears to have flattered him with the hopes of advantage from an application to the British minister; and to have prevailed upon the Nabob to make use of himself as the organ of the attempt. The project was, to persuade the minister, that the Nabob was suffering under a load of oppression by the Company's servants. Mr. Macpherson arrived in England, in execution of this commission, towards the end of the year 1768. Upon his return to Madras he was, during the administration of Governor Dupré, admitted into the civil service of the Company, and employed by that Governor in the most confidential transactions; particularly, in writing his dispatches, to which the superior skill of Mr. Macpherson in the art of composition afforded a recommendation.