ich
then for the first time appeared, he discovers no small solicitude to
clear himself from the imputation of having these discoveries drawn from
him by the terrors of the Parliamentary inquiries then on foot. To
remove all suspicion of such a motive for making these discoveries, Mr.
Larkins swears, in an affidavit made before Mr. Justice Hyde, bearing
even date with the letter which accompanies the account, that is, of the
16th of December, 1782, that this letter had been written by him on the
22d of May, several months before it was dispatched.[21] It appears that
Mr. Larkins, who makes this voluntary affidavit, is neither secretary to
the board, nor Mr. Hastings's private secretary, but an officer of the
Treasury of Bengal.

Mr. Hastings was conscious that a question would inevitably arise, how
he came to delay the sending intelligence of so very interesting a
nature from May to December. He therefore thinks it necessary to account
for so suspicious a circumstance. He tells the Directors, "that the
dispatch of the 'Lively' having been protracted from time to time, the
accompanying address, which was originally designed and prepared for
that dispatch, _and no other since occurring_, has of course been thus
long delayed."

The Governor-General's letter is dated the 22d May, and the "Resolution"
was the last ship of the season dispatched for Europe. The public
letters to the Directors are dated the 9th May; but it appears by the
letter of the commander of the ship that he did not receive his
dispatches from Mr. Lloyd, then at Kedgeree, until the 26th May, and
also that the pilot was not discharged from the ship until the 11th
June. Some of these presents (now for the first time acknowledged) had
been received eighteen months preceding the date of this letter,--none
less than four months; so that, in fact, he might have sent this account
by all the ships of that season; but the Governor-General chose to write
this letter thirteen days after the determination in Council for the
dispatch of the last ship.

It does not appear that he has given any communication whatsoever to his
colleagues in office of those extraordinary transactions. Nothing
appears on the records of the Council of the receipt of the presents;
nor is the transmission of this account mentioned in the general letter
to the Court of Directors, but in a letter from himself to their Secret
Committee, consisting generally of two persons, but at most of thre