h would have
been the only truth in this transaction? Why did you not indorse them
before? Why not, during the long period of so many years, cancel them?"
No, he kept them to the very day when he was going from Calcutta, and
had made a declaration that they were not his. Never before, upon any
account, had they appeared; and though the Committee of the House of
Commons, in the Eleventh Report, had remarked upon all these scandalous
proceedings and prevarications, yet he was not stimulated, even then, to
give up these bonds. He held them in his hands till the time when he was
preparing for his departure from Calcutta, in spite of the Directors, in
spite of the Parliament, in spite of the cries of his own conscience, in
a matter which was now grown public, and would knock doubly upon his
reputation and conduct. He then declares they are not for his own use,
but for the Company's service. But were they then cancelled? I do not
find a trace of their being cancelled. In this letter of the 17th of
January, 1785, he says with regard to these bonds, "The following sums
were paid into the treasury, and bonds granted for the same in the name
of the Governor-General, in whose possession the bonds remain, with a
declaration upon each, indorsed and signed by him, that he has no claim
on the Company for the amount either of principal or interest, no part
of the latter having been received."

To the account of the 22d of May, of the indorsement, is added the
declaration upon oath. But why any man need to declare upon oath that
the money which he has fraudulently taken and concealed from another
person is not his is the most extraordinary thing in the world. If he
had a mind to have it placed to his credit as his own, then an oath
would be necessary; but in this case any one would believe him upon his
word. He comes, however, and says, "This is indorsed upon oath." Oath!
before what magistrate? In whose possession were the bonds? Were they
given up? There is no trace of that upon the record, and it stands for
him to prove that they were ever given up, and in any hands but Mr.
Larkins's and his own. So here are the bonds, begun in obscurity and
ending in obscurity, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, corruption to
corruption, and fraud to fraud. This is all we see of these bonds, till
Mr. Larkins, to whom he writes some letter concerning them which does
not appear, is called to read a funeral sermon over them.

* * *