166 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



in company with Lieutenant Godby, and with con- 

 siderable labour, gone through the whole, item by 

 item, and am quite satisfied that all is correct, . . . 

 and all will be set right without difficulty." 



In the course of November Taylor sat down to 

 write a full and detailed report on the case which 

 he had so patiently investigated. This careful and 

 conscientious piece of work, a copy of which will be 

 found in the Appendix,^ was completed on February 

 13, 1856, and forwiirded at once to the Chief Com- 

 missioner. He began by declaring that the result 

 of his examination of Lieutenant Hodson's accounts 

 had been " quite satisfactory." After detailing 

 through many pages a clear and impartial state- 

 ment of the facts disclosed by his researches — of 

 the manner in which the accounts had been kept 

 before Hodson assumed command ; the difficulties 

 with which a commandant of the Guides had to 

 contend, owing to his multifarious duties and the 

 many services demanded of his troops, — he pointed 

 out the further complications arising from the 

 delays and irregularities of the accounts depart- 

 ment, and the efforts made by Hodson to deal 

 with all these complications to the best of his 

 power. 



Speaking of the accounts when Hodson entered 

 on his command, Taylor shows that " everything 

 was known to be in the main correct, but the whole 

 unbalanced and undetailed, and it must be recorded 

 that he did not, on first obtaining command of the 

 Guides, formally examine and take charge of the 

 accounts. He had long been connected with the 

 regiment, and knew all the difficulty and confusion 



* See Appendix A, p. 356. 



