376 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



Murdan, nearly every man mentioned in the transactions 

 of the chest has been present with the regiment, and 

 throughout the inquiry I have found Lieutenant Hodson's 

 statements borne out by the facts of the case, v^'hile in 

 some instances where doubts had been engendered by a 

 want of knowledge of details they were removed by work- 

 ing through the minutiae of the account. At the same 

 time, though the account was faithfully kept, it was not 

 systematically checked ; and you will see that several con- 

 siderable mistakes and miscreditings remain to be corrected. 

 Both Lieutenant Hodson and Dr Lyell have received over- 

 credits in their private accounts which they have to make 

 good, and two sums are found to be due to Major Lumsden 

 and Lieutenant Miller ; an item of error in account is due 

 by Moonshee Nujjuf Allee, and several smaller sums due 

 from Government on account of pay can only be recovered 

 by special audit. 



68. These are the skimmings of an irregular unchecked 

 account of two years' standing. They argue want of system, 

 and are only explicable on the grounds that inquiry broke 

 in while adjustment was in progress ; but, on the other 

 hand, I do not for a moment regard them as suspicious, nor 

 would the members of a court of inquiry view them as 

 such, should one eventually be ordered for the examin- 

 ation of the accounts, when the adoption or amendment of 

 this statement would probably form the basis of their 

 report. 



69. The explanation is, as I have before shown, that 

 Lieutenant Hodson had only just emerged from his chief 

 difficulty — namely, the confused state of the current pay 

 of the regiment — when he became involved in other 

 troubles which prevented his applying himself to a thorough 

 balancing of the whole account, and without that no clear- 

 ance could be effected. But this task would have required 

 even from him a large portion of the labour and application 

 which was eventually found necessary for it, though of 

 course he (Lieutenant Hodson) could have taken large 



