f sums received on the account of
the Honorable Company by the Governor-General, or paid to their Treasury
by his order, and applied to their service, were received for Mr.
Hastings, and paid to the Sub-Treasurer."_

The letter from Mr. Larkins consisted of two parts: first, what was so
much wanted, an account; next, what was wanted most of all to such an
account as he sent, a comment and explanation. The account consisted of
two members: one gave an account of several detached bribes that Mr.
Hastings had received within the course of about a year and a half; and
the other, of a great bribe which he had received in one gross sum of
one hundred thousand pounds from the Nabob of Oude. It appeared to us,
upon looking into these accounts, that there was some geography, a
little bad chronology, but nothing else in the first: neither the
persons who took the money, nor the persons from whom it was taken, nor
the ends for which it was given, nor any other circumstances are
mentioned.

The first thing we saw was _Dinagepore_. I believe you know this piece
of geography,--that it is one of the provinces of the kingdom of Bengal.
We then have a long series of months, with a number of sums added to
them; and in the end it is said, that on the 18th and 19th of Asin,
(meaning part of September and part of October,) were paid to Mr.
Croftes two lac of rupees; and then remains one lac, which was taken
from a sum of three lac six thousand nine hundred and seventy-three
rupees. After we had waited for Mr. Hastings's own account, after it had
been pursued through a series of correspondence in vain, after his
agents had come to England to explain it, this is the explanation that
your Lordships have got of this first article, Dinagepore. Not the
person paid to, not the person paying, are mentioned, nor any other
circumstance, except the signature, _G.G.S._: this might serve for
_George Gilbert Sanders_, or any other name you please; and seeing
_Croftes_ above it, you might imagine it was an Englishman. And this,
which I call a geographical and a chronological account, is the only
account we have. Mr. Larkins, upon the mere face of the account, sadly
disappoints us; and I will venture to say that in matters of account
Bengal book-keeping is as remote from good book-keeping as the Bengal
_painches_ are remote from all the rules of good composition. We have,
however, got some light: namely, that one G.G.S. has paid some money to
Mr. Croftes