the purpose, by intruding
himself into their place, of secretly carrying on his own transactions.
These volumes of Consultations were written to justify that act.

He next says,--"The submission which my respect would have enjoined me
to pay to the command imposed on me was lost to my recollection, perhaps
from the stronger impression which the first and distant perusal of it
had left on my mind, that it was rather intended as a reprehension for
something which had given offence in my report of the original
transaction than an expression of any want of a further elucidation of
it."

Permit me to make a few remarks upon this extraordinary passage. A
letter is written to him, containing a repetition of the request which
had been made a thousand times before, and with which he had as often
promised to comply. And here he says, "It was lost to my recollection."
Observe his memory: he can forget the command, but he has an obscure
recollection that he thought it a reprehension rather than a demand! Now
a reprehension is a stronger mode of demand. When I say to a servant,
"Why have you not given me the account which I have so often asked for?"
is he to answer, "The reason I have not given it is because I thought
you were railing at and abusing me"?

He goes on:--"I will now endeavor to reply to the different questions
which have been stated to me, in as explicit a manner as I am able. To
such information as I can give the Honorable Court is fully entitled;
and where that shall prove defective, I will point out the only means by
which it may be rendered more complete."

In order that your Lordships may thoroughly enter into the spirit of
this letter, I must request that you will observe how handsomely and
kindly these tools of Directors have expressed themselves to him, and
that even their baseness and subserviency to him were not able to draw
from him anything that could be satisfactory to his enemies: for as to
these his friends, he cares but little about satisfying them, though
they call upon him in consequence of his own promise; and this he calls
a reprehension. They thus express themselves:--"Although it is not our
intention to express any doubt of the integrity of the
Governor-General,--on the contrary, after having received the presents,
we cannot avoid expressing our approbation of his conduct in bringing
them to the credit of the Company,--yet we must confess the statement of
those transactions appears to us in ma