358 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



7. An attempt to complete a Miata or balanced account 

 from Peer Buksh's day-book failed, and that the main 

 object of the original effort was unsuccessful is best evi- 

 denced by the fact of its not having been yet accomplished ; 

 and after Lieutenant Hodson, Lieutenant Godby, and my- 

 self have sat in voluntary committee on the accounts for 

 some months, we are unable to give the details of a large 

 portion of the balance of the chest at the close of 1854, 

 or say whether the money belongs to the former com- 

 mandant, Major Lumsden, or to Government. The pre- 

 sumption is that to a great extent the former is the case, 

 as that officer is known to have taken less than his due 

 on many occasions. It amounts to this, that Lieutenant 

 Hawes, on making over the accounts to Lieutenant Turner, 

 took his receipt for an actual cash balance of about 4500 

 rupees, but did not or was unable to furnish him with any 

 detail of it ; and you will see that a similar sum remains in 

 the chest as an undetailed balance after a general clearance 

 of the accounts. 



8. This was the nature of the account to which Lieu- 

 tenant Hodson succeeded — everything 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 that 

 had been caused in its payment by a long period of 

 ubiquitous service, during which its numerous] detachments 

 had been paid by the various officers to whom they had 

 been temporarily attached, causing a constant and most 

 troublesome system of adjustment from the headquarters, 

 which latter were also usually on the move, and the com- 

 manding officer obliged to take frequent advances from 

 political or civil treasuries. He knew, from the character 

 of the men that had been connected with the regiment, 

 that everything, as I have said above, must be in the main 

 sound and correct ; and having just attained the chief 

 object of his ambition, he felt no inclination to make objec- 



