“As to the manner in which these sums have been expended, the reference which I have made of it in the accompanying account, to the several accounts in which they are credited, renders any other specification of it unnecessary,—­besides that these accounts either have or will have received a much stronger authentication than any that I could give to mine.”

I wish your Lordships to attend to the next paragraph, which is meant by him to explain why he took bribes at all,—­why he took bonds for some of them, as moneys of his own, and not moneys of the Company,—­why he entered some upon the Company’s accounts, and why of the others he renders no account at all.  Light, however, will beam upon you as we proceed.

“Why these sums were taken by me,—­why they were, except the second, quietly transferred to the Company’s use,—­why bonds were taken for the first, and not for the rest,—­might, were this matter exposed to the view of the public, furnish a variety of conjectures, to which it would be of little use to reply.  Were your Honorable Court to question me on these points, I would answer, that the sums were taken for the Company’s benefit, at times when the Company very much needed them,—­that I either chose to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly acted without any studied design which my memory could at this distance of time verify, and that I did not think it worth my care to observe the same means with the rest.  I trust, Honorable Sirs, to your breasts for a candid interpretation of my actions,—­and assume the freedom to add, that I think myself, on such a subject, on such an occasion, entitled to it.”

Lofty, my Lords!  You see, that, after the Directors had expected an explanation for so long a time, he says, “Why these sums were taken by me, and, except the second, quietly transferred to the Company’s use, I cannot tell; why bonds were taken for the first, and not for the rest, I cannot tell:  if this matter were exposed to view, it would furnish a variety of conjectures.”  Here is an account which is to explain the most obscure, the most mysterious, the most evidently fraudulent transactions.  When asked how he came to take these bonds, how he came to use these frauds, he tells you he really does not know,—­that he might have this motive for it, that he might have another motive for it,—­that he wished to conceal it from public curiosity,—­but, which is the most extraordinary, he is not quite sure that he had any motive for it at all, which his memory can trace.  The whole of this is a period of a year and a half; and here is a man who keeps his account upon principles of whim and vagary.  One would imagine he was guessing at some motive of a stranger.  Why he came to take bonds for money not due to him, and why he enters some and not others,—­he knows nothing of these things:  he begs them not to ask about it, because it will be of no use.  “You foolish Court of Directors may conjecture and conjecture on.  You are asking me why I took bonds to myself for money of yours, why I have cheated you, why I have falsified my account in such a manner.  I will not tell you.”