stings an exact account of all the
bribes that he had received, and painting to him, in colors as strong at
least as those I use, his bribery, his frauds, and peculations,--and
what does them great honor for that moment, they particularly direct
that the money which was taken from the Nabob of Oude should be carried
to his account. These paragraphs were prepared by the Committee of
Correspondence, and, as I understand, approved by the Court of
Directors, but never were sent out to India. However, something was
sent, but miserably weak and lame of its kind; and Mr. Hastings never
answered it, or gave them any explanation whatever. He now, being
prepared for his departure from Calcutta, and having finished all his
other business, went up to Oude upon a chase in which just now we cannot
follow him. He returned in great disgust to Calcutta, and soon after set
sail for England, without ever giving the Directors one word of the
explanation which he had so often promised, and they had repeatedly
asked.

We have now got Mr. Hastings in England, where you will suppose some
satisfactory account of all these matters would be obtained from him.
One would suppose, that, on his arrival in London, he would have been a
little quickened by a menace, as he expresses it, which had been thrown
out against him in the House of Commons, that an inquiry would be made
into his conduct; and the Directors, apprehensive of the same thing,
thought it good gently to insinuate to him by a letter, written by whom
and how we do not know, that he ought to give some explanation of these
accounts. This produced a letter which I believe in the business of the
whole world cannot be paralleled: not even himself could be his parallel
in this. Never did inventive folly, working upon conscious guilt, and
throwing each other totally in confusion, ever produce such a false,
fraudulent, prevaricating letter as this, which is now to be given to
you.

You have seen him at Patna, at Calcutta, in the country, on the Ganges:
now you see him at the waters at Cheltenham; and you will find his
letter from that place to comprehend the substance of all his former
letters, and to be a digest of all the falsity, fraud, and nonsense
contained in the whole of them. Here it is, and your Lordships will
suffer it to be read. I must beg your patience; I must acknowledge that
it has been the most difficult of all things to explain, but much more
difficult to make pleasant and not