APPENDIX A. 359 



tion and clamour about a state of things which he knew 

 to be, to a great extent, unavoidable, and to which his mind 

 was accustomed. 



9. I have tried to describe simply my own idea of the 

 state of feeling under which Lieutenant Hodson omitted to 

 do what was certainly his natural and obvious duty on the 

 occasion of taking command. The omission, of course, 

 rendered him materially responsible for all clear and ascer- 

 tained claims that might arise; and the result was injurious 

 to him, as it led to sums of money being spoken of as due 

 by the chest, concerning which, from his vague and ill- 

 defined knowledge of the balance for which he was really 

 answerable, he was unable to feel certain of his own 

 liability until the whole accounts, from beginning to end, 

 had been examined and balanced. 



10. "When Lieutenant Hodson did turn his attention to 

 the accounts, he made considerable efforts to understand and 

 make a clearance of them. I do not say but that these 

 efforts might have been more determined and sustained, 

 but the task was not an easy one, and Lieutenant Hodson 

 believed that he would have leisure for its completion. 



11. His own accounts meantime continued to be written 

 in one general cash-book, which has proved to have been 

 a correct record of all transactions ; but unfortunately this 

 was never balanced periodically, and hence the time and 

 trouble occupied in finally adjusting his account. 



12. And here I must remark that Lieutenant Hodson 

 must be considered to have furnished a correct statement of 

 all transactions during the period of his command, when he 

 gave in an English translation of his cash-book in April last. 

 He subsequently prepared a balanced account of the whole 

 period from this cash-book, which was submitted to the 

 Chief Commissioner, and finally sent to me for examination 

 and verification. I caused its dissection, and examined the 

 minutest details of every item, and found some errors and 

 some necessity for rearrangement of the various heads of 

 credit and debit ; but this did not in the least affect the 

 correctness of the original day-book, and the two must not 



