378 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



greatly into employment in making out the account. A 

 monthly balancing of the transaction of the cash-book 

 would have kept all clear. 



72. I should mention that where I have alluded to what 

 occurred before the court of inquiry I have drawn my 

 information from Lieutenant Hodson's transcript of the 

 proceedings, which, I believe, he wrote down from the 

 dictation of the deputy judge advocate - general. Any 

 allusion of mine that appears incorrect can be immediately 

 set right by reference to the original papers. 



73. This statement has run to a great length; a short 

 one would scarcely have matched the rest of the pro- 

 ceedings in the case. I am aware that I have in one 

 instance noticed a matter (that of the horse purchased 

 from Feroze Khan) which must have been fully examined 

 and reported on by the court of inquiry. As the case, 

 however, involved four entries in the books, the credibility 

 of which it was the main part of my duty to ascertain and 

 report upon, I do not think that there can be impropriety 

 in my noticing it : I am quite unaware of the opinion given 

 by the court on the subject, and therefore I cannot be 

 supposed to be anxious to oppose or amend it. I merely 

 give my own opinion on what has come under my notice, 

 and if I have entered into more details than was actually 

 necessary, I am sure that the fact of Lieutenant Hodson's 

 honesty and honour having been assailed with regard to 

 this regimental account, and my examination of the case 

 having convinced me that there was nothing whatever in 

 the accounts to afford grounds for the imputation, and, 

 moreover, that he had had most unusual difficulties to 

 contend with, will sufficiently account for my doing my 

 best to show that I have demonstrable grounds for the 

 opinion I have formed, 



74. Lieutenant Godby, who assisted me throughout the 

 laborious examination of the accounts with a wish to 

 understand them himself and do Lieutenant Hodson every 

 justice, appends a certificate to this statement to the effect 



