360 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



be confounded. All the labour bestowed on the preparation 

 of a balanced account has only had the effect of thoroughly 

 testing the validity of the original book, and that I consider 

 satisfactorily established. That the task of throwing the 

 whole into the form of a balanced ledger, after a rigid 

 scrutiny of all details, has cost time and trouble in 

 unpractised hands, cannot affect its character as a true 

 record. 



13. It was for the correctness of the cash-book that 

 Lieutenant Hodson vouched in his letter to you. No. 43, 

 dated Peshawur, 21st of March 1855, as is clear from the 

 contents of paragraphs five and six of that letter; but I 

 have good reason (not derived from Lieutenant Hodson 

 himself) to believe that the voucher contained in the latter 

 part of paragraph six above alluded to was subsequently 

 supposed to apply to the summary statement of assets, 

 liabilities, and balance for which you called on him, by the 

 Chief Commissioner's directions, in your letter, No. 142, of 

 the 4th of April 1855, and 151, of the 9th idem, and which 

 being hastily compiled by the moonshees, and taken from 

 the result of their work by Lieutenant Hodson, as stated in 

 the second paragraph of his letter (No. 62, dated Peshawar, 

 11th of April 1855) forwarding it, proved in a great measure 

 to be incorrect and useless. Should the above misconcep- 

 tion have occurred, it may well have told most unfavourably 

 for Lieutenant Hodson, as the appearance of the matter 

 would be that he had promised to furnish an account which 

 should stand any test, and subsequently submitted one 

 which was in several points incorrect, and on being 

 addressed by the deputy judge advocate-general on the 

 subject, wrote back declaring that he had never vouched 

 for its correctness. 



14. You will know whether this game of cross-purposes 

 really occurred : the probability of its having done so only 

 became known to Lieutenant Hodson at the same time that 

 it did to myself, as he was not present when the above- 

 mentioned abstract statement was examined by the court of 

 inquiry. 



