confidence in their justice for his future relief. He says,
"Whatever evil may fill the _long interval_ which may precede it." That
interval he has taken care to make long enough; for near eight years are
now elapsed, and he has not yet taken the smallest step towards giving
to the Court of Directors any explanation whatever, much less that full
and liberal explanation which he had so repeatedly and solemnly
promised.

It is to be observed, that, though Mr. Hastings talks in these letters
much of his integrity, and of the purity of his motives, and of full
explanations, he nowhere denies the fact of this corrupt traffic of
office. Though he had adjourned his defence, with so much pain to
himself, to so very long a day, he was not so inattentive to the ease of
Khan Jehan Khan as he has shown himself to his own. He had been accused
of corruptly reserving to himself a part of the emoluments of this man's
office; it was a delicate business to handle, whilst his defence stood
adjourned; yet, in a very short time after a majority came into his
hands, he turned out the person appointed by General Clavering, &c, and
replaced the very man with whom he stood accused of the corrupt bargain;
what was worse, he had been charged with originally turning out
another, to make room for this man. The whole is put in strong terms by
the then majority of the Council, where, after charging him with every
species of peculation, they add, "We believe the proofs of his
appropriating four parts in seven of the salary with which the Company
is charged for the Phousdar of Hoogly are such as, whether sufficient or
not to convict him in a court of justice, will not leave the shadow of a
doubt concerning his guilt in the mind of any unprejudiced person. The
salary is seventy-two thousand rupees a year; the Governor takes
thirty-six thousand, and allows Cantoo Baboo four thousand more for the
trouble he submits to in conducting the negotiation with the Phousdar.
This also is the common subject of conversation and derision through the
whole settlement. It is our firm opinion and belief, that the late
Phousdar of Hoogly, a relation of Mahomed Reza Khan, was turned out of
this office merely because his terms were not so favorable as those
which the Honorable Governor-General has obtained from the present
Phousdar. The Honorable Governor-General is pleased to assert, with a
confidential spirit peculiar to himself, that his measures hitherto
stand unimpeac