egular mode; but
they could obtain no information of the persons from whom it was taken,
nor of the occasion or pretence of taking this large sum; nor does any
Minute of Council appear for its application to any service. The whole
of the transaction, whatever it was, relative to this bond, is covered
with the thickest obscurity.

Mr. Hastings, to palliate the blame of his conduct, declares that he
has not received any interest on these bonds,--and that he has indorsed
them as not belonging to himself, but to the Company.[36] As to the
first part of this allegation, whether he received the interest or let
it remain in arrear is a matter of indifference, as he entitled himself
to it; and so far as the legal security he has taken goes, he may,
whenever he pleases, dispose both of principal and interest. What he has
indorsed on the bonds, or when he made the indorsement, or whether in
fact he has made it at all, are matters known only to himself; for the
bonds must be in his possession, and are nowhere by him stated to be
given up or cancelled,--which is a thing very remarkable, when he
confesses that he had no right to receive them.

These bonds make but a part of the account of private receipts of money
by Mr. Hastings, formerly paid into the Treasury as his own property,
and now allowed not to be so. This account brings into view other very
remarkable matters of a similar nature and description.[37]

In the public records, a sum of not less than 23,871_l._ is set to his
credit as a _deposit_ for his private account, paid in by him into the
Treasury in gold, and coined at the Company's mint.[38] This appears in
the account furnished to the Directors, under the date of May, 1782, not
to be lawfully his money, and he therefore transfers it to the Company's
credit: it still remains as a deposit.[39]

That the House may be apprised of the nature of this article of
deposit, it may not be improper to state that the Company receive into
their treasury the cash of private persons, placed there as in a bank.
On this no interest is paid, and the party depositing has a right to
receive it upon demand. Under this head of account no public money is
ever entered. Mr. Hastings, neither at making the deposit as his own,
nor at the time of his disclosure of the real proprietor, (which he
makes to be the Company,) has given any information of the persons from
whom this money had been received. Mr. Scott was applied to by your
Committee