Various elements in the Republican party, nevertheless, had stoutly opposed their appointment, so that the President's choice showed that he was prepared to exert his independence of party managers and to insist upon administrative efficiency.
He was one of the most active investigators of the affair, and one of the managers of the impeachment of the five Catholic peers.
Although excluded by a majority of the House from the list of the managers of that impeachment, Francis was none the less its most energetic promoter, supplying his friends Burke and Sheridan with all the materials for their eloquent orations and burning invectives.
Each of these institutions, penal and charitable, has its own superintendent and board of managers, appointed by the governor.
He was a member of every important learned society in Europe; he was a member, and one of the managers, of the Royal Society, and was one of eight foreign members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris.