u," says he, "who are accustomed to view
business in an _official and regular light, they should appear
unprecedented, if not improper_."[47] He just conceives it possible that
in an official money transaction the Directors may expect a proceeding
official and regular. In what other lights than those which are official
and regular matters of public account ought to be regarded by those who
have the charge of them, either in Bengal or in England, does not appear
to your Committee. Any other is certainly "unprecedented and improper,"
and can only serve to cover fraud both in the receipt and in the
expenditure. The acquisition of 58,000 rupees, or near 6000_l._, which
appears in the sort of _unofficial and irregular account_ that he
furnishes of his presents, in his letter of May, 1782,[48] must appear
extraordinary indeed to those who expect from men in office something
official and something regular. "This sum," says he, "I received while I
was on my journey to Benares."[49] He tells it with the same careless
indifference as if things of this kind were found by accident on the
high-road.

Mr. Hastings did not, indeed he could not, doubt that this unprecedented
and improper account would produce much discussion. He says, "Why these
sums were taken by me, why they were (except the second) _quietly_
transferred to the Company's account, 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_."[50]

This matter has appeared, and has furnished, as it ought to do,
something more serious than conjectures. It would in any other case be
supposed that Mr. Hastings, expecting such inquiries, and considering
that the questions are (even as they are imperfectly stated by himself)
far from frivolous, would condescend to give some information upon
them; but the conclusion of a sentence so importantly begun, and which
leads to such expectations, is, "that to these conjectures it would be
of little use to reply." This is all he says to public conjecture.

To the Court of Directors he is very little more complaisant, and not at
all more satisfactory; he states merely as a supposition their inquiry
concerning matters of which he positively knew that they had called for
an explanation. He knew it, because he presumed to censure them for
doing so. To the hypothesis of a further inquiry he gives a conjectural
answer of such a kind as probabl