interest, which bonds were demanded and received by him, and, for aught
that yet appears, have never been given up or cancelled. That for
another considerable part of the above-mentioned sum he has taken credit
to himself, as for a deposit of his own property, and therefore
demandable by him out of the Company's treasury at his discretion. That
all sums so lent or deposited are not alienated from the person who
lends or deposits the same; consequently, that the declaration made by
the said Warren Hastings, that he had converted the whole of these sums
to the Company's property, was not true. Nor would such a transfer, if
it had really been made, have justified the said Warren Hastings in
originally receiving the money, which, being in the first instance
contrary to law, could not be rendered legal by any subsequent
disposition or application thereof; much less would it have justified
the said Warren Hastings in delaying to make a discovery of these
transactions to the Court of Directors until he had heard of the
inquiries then begun and proceeding in Parliament, in finally making a
discovery, such as it is, in terms the most intricate, obscure, and
contradictory. That, instead of that full and clear explanation of his
conduct which the Court of Directors demanded, and which the said Warren
Hastings was bound to give them, he has contented himself with telling
the said Directors, that, "if this matter was to be exposed to the view
of the public, his reasons for acting as he had done might furnish a
variety of conjectures to which it would be of little use to reply; that
he either chose to conceal the first receipts from public curiosity by
receiving bonds for the amount, or possibly acted without any studied
design which his memory could at that distance of time verify; and that
he _could_ have concealed them from their eye and that of the public
forever." That the discovery, as far as it goes, establishes the guilt
of the said Warren Hastings in taking money against law, but does not
warrant a conclusion that he has discovered _all_ that he may have