labyrinth of this practical painche, or screw, that, if, for instance, you were endeavoring to trace backwards some transaction through Major Palmer, you would be stopped there, and must go back again; for it had begun with Cantoo Baboo.  If in another you were to penetrate into the dark recess of the black breast of Cantoo Baboo, you could not go further; for it began with Gunga Govind Sing.  If you pierce the breast of Gunga Govind Sing, you are again stopped; a Persian moonshee was the confidential agent.  If you get beyond this, you find Mr. Larkins knew something which the others did not; and at last you find Mr. Hastings did not put entire confidence in any of them.  You will see, by this letter, that he kept his accounts in all colors, black, white, and mezzotinto; that he kept them in all languages,—­in Persian, in Bengalee, and in a language which, I believe, is neither Persian nor Bengalee, nor any other known in the world, but a language in which Mr. Hastings found it proper to keep his accounts and to transact his business.  The persons carrying on the accounts are Mr. Larkins, an Englishman, Cantoo Baboo, a Gentoo, and a Persian moonshee, probably a Mahometan.  So all languages, all religions, all descriptions of men are to keep the account of these bribes, and to make out this valuable account which Mr. Larkins gave you!

Let us now see how far the memory, observation, and knowledge of the persons referred to can supply the want of them in Mr. Hastings.  These accounts come at last, though late, from Mr. Larkins, who, I will venture to say, let the banians boast what they will, has skill perhaps equal to the best of them:  he begins by explaining to you something concerning the present of the ten lac.  I wish your Lordships always to take Mr. Hastings’s word, where it can be had,—­or Mr. Larkins’s, who was the representative of and memory-keeper to Mr. Hastings; and then I may perhaps take the liberty of making some observations upon it.

Extract of a Letter from William Larkins, Accountant-General of Bengal, to the Chairman of the East India Company, dated 5th August, 1786.

“Mr. Hastings returned from Benares to Calcutta on the 5th February, 1782.  At that time I was wholly ignorant of the letter which on the 20th January he wrote from Patna to the Secret Committee of the Honorable the Court of Directors.  The rough draught of this letter, in the handwriting of Major Palmer, is now in my possession.  Soon after his arrival at the Presidency, he requested me to form the account of his receipts and disbursements, which you will find journalized in the 280th, &c., and 307th pages of the Honorable Company’s general books of the year 1781-2.  My official situation as accountant-general had previously convinced me that Mr. Hastings could not have made the issues which were acknowledged as received from him by some of the paymasters of the army, unless he had obtained some such supply as that which he afterwards, viz., on the 22d May, 1782, made known to me, when I immediately suggested to him the necessity of his transmitting that account which accompanied his letter of that date, till when the promise contained in his letter of 20th January had entirely escaped his recollection.”