Why these sums were taken by me; why they were, except the second, quietly transferred to the Company's use why bonds were taken for the first, and not for the rest; might, were this matter to be exposed to the view of the public, furnish a variety of conjectures, to which it would be of little use to reply. Were your honourable court to question me upon these points, I would answer, that the sums were taken for the Company's benefit at times in which the Company very much needed them; that I either chose to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by receiving bonds for the amount; or possibly acted without any studied design, which my memory could at this distance of time verify; and that I did not think it worth my care to observe the same means with the rest. I trust, honourable Sirs, to your breasts for a candid interpretation of my actions, and assume the freedom to add, that I think myself, on such a subject, and on such an occasion, entitled to it. I have the honour to be, Your most faithful, most obedient, and most humble servant, WARREN HASTINGS. APPENDIX B. No. 4. AN ACCOUNT of Sums received on the Account of the Honourable Company by the Governor-General, or paid to their Treasury by his order, and applied to their service. 1780. October. The following sums were paid into the treasury, and bonds granted for the same, in the name of the governor-general, in whose possession the bonds remain, with a declaration upon each endorsed, and signed by him, that he has no claim on the Company for the amount either of principal or interest, no part of the latter having been received: November. Paid into the treasury, and carried to the governor-general's credit in the 12th page of the deposites journal of 1780-81, mohurs of sorts, which had been coined in the mint, and produced, as per 358 and 359 pages of the Company's general journal of 1780-81, Gold mohurs or Calcutta siccas Batta 16 per cent. 1781. 12,861 12 11 2,05,788 14 9 32,926 3 6 30 April. Paid into the treasury, and credited in the 637th page of the Company's general journal, as money received from the governor-general, on account of durbar Sicca rupees 2,00,000 August. Received in cash, and employed in defraying my public disbursements, and credited in the governor-general's account of durbar charges for April, 1782 Produce of the sum mentioned in the governorgeneral's letter to the honourable secret committee, dated 20th January, 1782, and credited in the governor-general's account of durbar charges for April, 1782. 4,06,000 2,38,715 2 3 2,32,000 58,000 10,30,275 1 3 I, WILLIAM LARKINS, do make oath, and say, that the letter and account, to which this affidavit is affixed, were writ ten by me, at the request of the Honourable Warren Hastings, Esquire, on the 22nd May, 1782, from rough draughts written by himself in my presence; that the cover of the letter was sealed up by him in my presence, and was then intended to be transmitted to England by the Lively, when that vessel was first ordered for despatch; and that it has remained closed until this day, when it was opened for the express purpose of being accompanied by this affidavit. Calcutta, 16th December, 1782. So help me God, Sworn this 16th day of December, 1782, before me, J. HYDE. APPENDIX B. No. 6. To the Honourable the Secret Committee of the Honourable Court of Directors. HONOURABLE SIRS, Fort William, 16 December, 1782. The despatch of the Lively having been protracted by various causes from time to time, the accompanying address, which was originally designed and prepared for that despatch, (no other conveyance since occurring,) has of course been thus long detained. The delay is of no public consequence; but it has produced a situation, which, with respect to myself, I regard as unfortunate, because it exposes me to the meanest imputation from the occasion, which the late parliamentary inquiries have since furnished, but which were unknown when my letter was written, and written in the necessary consequence of a promise, made to that effect in a former letter to your honourable committee, dated 20th January last. However, to preclude the possibility of such reflections from affecting me, I have desired Mr. Larkins, who was privy to the whole transaction, to affix to the letter his affidavit of the date in which it was written. I own I feel most sensibly the mortification of being reduced to the necessity of using such precautions to guard my reputation from dishonour.-If I had, at any time, possessed that degree of confidence from my immediate employers, which they never withheld from the meanest of my predecessors, I should have disdained to use these attentions: how I have drawn on me a different treatment I know not; it is sufficient, that I have not merited it: and in the course of a service of thirty-two years, and ten of these employed in maintaining the powers, and discharging the duties, of the first office of the British government in India, that honourable court ought to know whether I possess the integrity and honour, which are the first requisites of such a station. If I wanted these, they have afforded me but too powerful incentives to suppress the information, which I now convey to them through you; and to appropriate to my own use the sums, which I have already passed to their credit, by the unworthy, and, pardon me if I add, dangerous reflections, which they have passed upon me for the first communication of this kind; and your own experience will suggest to you, that there are persons who would profit by such a warning. Upon the whole of these transactions, which to you, who are accustomed to view business in an official and regular light, may appear unprecedented, if not improper, I have but a few short remarks to suggest to your consideration. If I appear in any unfavourable light by these transactions, I resign the common and legal security of those, who commit crimes or errors. I am ready to answer every particular question, that may be put against myself, upon honour, or upon oath. The sources, from which these reliefs to the public service have come, would never have yielded them to the Company publicly; and the exigencies of your service (exigencies created by the exposition of your affairs, and faction in your councils) required those supplies. I could have concealed them, had I had a wrong motive, from yours and the public eye for ever; and I know, that the difficulties, to which a spirit of injustice may subject me for my candour and avowal, are greater than any possible inconvenience that could have attended the concealment, except the dissatisfaction of my own mind. These difficulties are but a few of those which I have suffered in your service. The applause of my own breast is my surest reward, and was the support of my mind in meeting them: your applause, and that of my country, are my next wish in life. I have the honour to be, Honourable Sirs, and most humble servant, WARREN HASTINGS. APPENDIX B. No. 7. EXTRACT of the Company's General Letter to Bengal; dated the 25th of January, 1782. Par. 127. We have received a letter from our governorgeneral, dated the 29th of November, 1780, relative to an unusual tender and advance of money, made by him to the council, as entered on your consultation of the 26th of June, for the purpose of indemnifying the Company from the extraordinary charge, which might be incurred by supplying the detachment under the command of Major Camac, in the invasion of the Mahratta dominions, which lay beyond the district of Gohud; and thereby drawing the attention of Mhadjee Scindia (to whom the country appertained) from General Goddard, while the General was employed in the reduction of Bassein, and in securing the conquests made in the Guzerat country; and also respecting the sum of three lacks of rupees advanced by the governor-general for the use of the army under the command of Chimnajee Boosla without the authority or knowledge of the council; with the reasons for taking these extraordinary steps, under the circumstances stated in his letter. 128. In regard to the first of these transactions, we readily conceive, that in the then state of the council the governorgeneral might be induced to temporary secrecy respecting the members of the board, not only because he might be apprehensive of opposition to the proposed application of the money, but perhaps, because doubts might have arisen concerning the propriety of appropriating it to the Company's use, on any account; but it does not appear to us that there could be any real necessity for delaying to communicate to us immediate information of the channel by which the money |