On this point your Committee will only add, that, in all the controversy
between Mr. Hastings and the majority of the Council, he _nowhere denies
the receipt of this money_. In his letter to the Court of Directors of
the 31st of July, 1775, he says that the Begum was compelled by the ill
treatment of one of her servants, which he calls _a species of torture_,
to deliver the paper to Mr. Goring; but he nowhere affirms that the
contents of the paper were false.
On this conduct the majority remark, "We confess it appears very
extraordinary that Mr. Hastings should employ so much time and labor to
show that the discoveries against him have been obtained by improper
means, but that he should take no step whatsoever _to invalidate the
truth of them_. He does not deny the receipt of the money: the Begum's
answers to the questions put to her at his own desire make it impossible
that he should deny it. It seems, he has formed some plan of defence
against this and similar charges, which he thinks will avail him in a
court of justice, and which it would be imprudent in him to anticipate
at this time.
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