I was desirous to remove the only
objection which has been or could be ostensibly made to the measure,
which I had very much at heart, as may be easily conceived from the
means which I took to effect it. For the reasons at large which induced
me to propose that diversion, it will be sufficient to refer to my
minute recommending it, and to the letters received from General Goddard
near the same period of time. The subject is now become obsolete, and
all the fair hopes which I had built upon the prosecution of the
Mahratta war, of its termination in a speedy, honorable, and
advantageous peace, have been blasted by the dreadful calamities which
have befallen your arms in the dependencies of your Presidency of Fort
St. George, and changed the object of our pursuit from the
aggrandizement of your power to its preservation. My present reason for
reverting to my own conduct on the occasion which I have mentioned is to
obviate the false conclusions or purposed misrepresentations which may
be made of it, either as an artifice of ostentation or as the effect of
corrupt influence, by assuring you that the money, _by whatever means it
came into your possession_, was not my own,--that I had myself no right
to it, nor would or could have received it, but for the occasion which
prompted me to avail myself of the accidental means which were at that
instant afforded me of accepting and converting it to the property and
use of the Company; and with this brief apology I shall dismiss the
subject.
Pages:
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435