The
attentions which he practises and disdains can in this case be of no
service to himself, his employers, or the public; the only attention at
all effectual towards extenuating, or in some degree atoning for, the
guilt of having taken money from individuals illegally was to be full
and fair in his confession of all the particulars of his offence. This
might not obtain that confidence which at no time he has enjoyed, but
still the Company and the nation might derive essential benefit from it;
the Directors might be able to afford redress to the sufferers; and by
his laying open the concealed channels of abuse, means might be
furnished for the better discovery, and possibly for the prevention, or
at least for the restraint, of a practice of the most dangerous
nature,--a practice of which the mere prohibition, without the means of
detection, must ever prove, as hitherto it had proved, altogether
frivolous.
Your Committee, considering that so long a time had elapsed without any
of that information which the Directors expected, and perceiving that
this receipt of sums of money under color of gift seemed a growing evil,
ordered the attendance of Mr.
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