wearisome, falsity and fraud pursued
through all its artifices; and therefore, as it has been the most
painful work to us to unravel fraud and prevarication, so there is
nothing that more calls for the attention, the patience, the vigilance,
and the scrutiny of an exact court of justice. But as you have already
had almost the whole of the man, do not think it too much to hear the
rest in this letter from Cheltenham. It is dated, Cheltenham, 11th of
July, 1785, addressed to William Devaynes, Esquire;[8] and it begins
thus:--

"Sir,--The Honorable Court of Directors, in their general letter to
Bengal by the 'Surprise,' dated the 16th of March, 1784, were pleased to
express their desire that I should inform them of the periods when each
sum of the presents mentioned in my address of the 22d May, 1782, was
received,--what were my motives for withholding the several receipts
from the knowledge of the Council, or of the Court of Directors,--and
what were my reasons for taking bonds for part of these sums, and for
paying other sums into the treasury as deposits, on my own account."

I wish your Lordships to pause a moment. Here is a letter written in
July, 1785. You see that from the 29th of December [November?], 1780,
till that time, during which interval, though convinced in his own
conscience and though he had declared his own opinion of the necessity
of giving a full explanation of these money transactions, he had been
imposing upon the Directors false and prevaricating accounts of them,
they were never able to obtain a full disclosure from him.

He goes on:--"I have been kindly apprised that the information required
as above is yet expected from me. I hope that the circumstances of my
past situation, when considered, will plead my excuse for having thus
long withheld it. The fact is, that I was not at the Presidency when the
'Surprise' arrived; and when I returned to it, my time and attention
were so entirely engrossed, to the day of my final departure from it, by
a variety of other more important occupations, of which, Sir, I may
safely appeal to your testimony, grounded on the large portion
contributed by myself of the volumes which compose our Consultations of
that period,"--

These Consultations, my Lords, to which he appeals, form matter of one
of the charges that the Commons have brought against Mr.
Hastings,--namely, a fraudulent attempt to ruin certain persons employed
in subordinate situations under him, for