Hastings's letter of the 29th of November,
1780.[31] It is written between the time of the expenditure of the money
for the Company's use and the taking of the bonds. Here, for the first
time, a very material difference appears; and the difference is the more
striking, because Mr. Hastings claimed the _whole_ money as his own, and
took bonds for it as such, _after_ this representation. The letter to
the Company discovers that part of the money (the whole of which he had
declared on record to be his own, and for which he had taken bonds) was
not his, but the property of his masters, from whom he had taken the
security. It is no less remarkable that the letter which represents the
money as belonging to the Company was written about six weeks before the
Minute of Council in which he claims that money as his own. It is this
letter on which your Committee is to remark.
Mr. Hastings, after giving his reasons for the application of the three
lacs of rupees, and for his having for some time concealed the fact,
says, "Two thirds of that sum I have raised _by my own credit_, and
shall charge it in my official account; _the other third_ I have
supplied from the cash in my hands belonging to the Honorable
Company.
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