misconceived your design, I am truly sorry for it. However, it is
not too late to correct the error; and I am ready to undertake,
and, God willing, to carry through, whatever you may, on the
receipt of my public letter, tell me is your final resolve.

"If you determine, at all events, that the measures of reducing the
Nabob's army, &c., shall be immediately undertaken, I shall take it
as a particular favor, if you will indulge me with a line at
Fyzabad, that I may make the necessary previous arrangements with
respect to the disposal of my family, which I would not wish to
retain here, in the event either of a rupture with the Nabob, or
the necessity of employing our forces on the reduction of his
aumils and troops. This done, I can begin the work in three days
after my return from Fyzabad."

Besides this letter, which I think is sufficiently clear upon the
subject, there is also another much more clear upon your Lordships'
minutes, much more distinct and much more pointed, expressive of his
being resolved to make such representations of every matter as the
Governor-General may wish. Now a man who is master of the manner in
which facts are represented, and whose subsequent conduct is to be
justified by such representations, is not simply accountable for his
conduct; he is accountable for culpably attempting to form, on false
premises, the judgment of others upon that conduct. This species of
delinquency must therefore be added to the rest; and I wish your
Lordships to carry generally in your minds, that there is not one single
syllable of representation made by any of those parties, except where
truth may happen to break out in spite of all the means of concealment,
which is not to be considered as the representation of Mr. Hastings
himself in justification of his own conduct.