forming your opinion upon many parts of this cause. You see that Mr. Larkins suspected him. Probably in consequence of those suspicions, or from some other cause, he at last told him, upon the 22d of May, 1782, (but why at that time, rather than at any other time, does not appear; and this we shall find very difficult to be accounted for,)--he told him that he had received a bribe from the Nabob of Oude, of 100,000_l._ He informs him of this on the 22d of May, which, when the accounts were making up, he conceals from him. And he communicates to him the rough draught of his letter to the Court of Directors, informing them that this business was not transacted by any known secretary of the Company, nor with the intervention of any interpreter of the Company, nor passed through any official channel whatever, but through a gentleman much in his confidence, his military secretary; and, as if receiving bribes, and receiving letters concerning them, and carrying on correspondence relative to them, was a part of military duty, the rough draught of this letter was in the hands of this military secretary. Upon the communication of the letter, it rushes all at once into the mind of Mr. Larkins, who knows Mr. Hastings's recollection, who knows what does and what does not escape it, and who had a memory ready to explode at Mr. Hastings's desire, "Good God!" says he, "you have promised the Directors an account of this business!"--a promise which Mr. Larkins assures the Directors, upon his word, had entirely escaped Mr. Hastings's recollection. Mr. Hastings, it seems, had totally forgotten the promise relative to the paltry sum of 100,000_l._ which he had made to the Court of Directors in the January before; he never once thought of it, no, not even when he was making up his accounts of that very identical sum, till the 22d of May. So that these persons answer for one another's bad memory: and you will see they have good reason. Mr. Hastings's want of recollection appears in things of some moment. However lightly he may regard the sum of 100,000_l._, which, considering the enormous sums he has received, I dare say he does,--for he totally forgot it, he knew nothing about it,--observe what sort of memory this registrar and accountant of such sums as 100,000_l._ has. In what confusion of millions must it be, that such sums can be lost to Mr. Hastings's recollection! However, at last it was brought to his recollection, and he thought that it was necessary to give some account of it. And who is the accountant whom he produces? His own memory is no accountant. He had dismissed the matter (as he happily expresses it in the Cheltenham letter) from his memory. Major Palmer is not the accountant. One is astonished that a man who had had 100,000_l._ in his hands, and laid it out, as he pretends, in the public service, has not a scrap of paper to show for it. No ordinary or extraordinary account is given of it. Well, what is to be done in such circumstances? He sends