380 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



4. This he certainly did not do, as I have described in 

 my report ; and though you may be correct in your memory 

 and belief, you must not quarrel with me if, as I have in 

 the course of this inquiry encountered a good deal of inade- 

 quate appreciation of the difficulty of working up arrears 

 of long-unchecked accounts, I still retain an opinion that 

 the task of clear and rapid comprehension might have 

 proved more difficult than you suppose. 



5. But all that I wish to point out is, that the task of 

 detailing the large balance of the chest was never accom- 

 plished. I have conversed with all the officers concerned, 

 and none of them wished, or pretended to say, that it 

 had been ; still this would not have so much signified if 

 Lieutenant Hodson had made strenuous efforts at once, 

 on taking charge, to ascertain the exact amount of this 

 balance, and had set it aside as a distinct item due by him. 

 This he did not do, seeing no urgent necessity for it, and 

 the money came and went as it was paid in or properly 

 called for ; and in the end he positively did not know the 

 real sum he was liable for. It is not my intention to 

 defend this, though perhaps carried away by my subject, 

 and thinking of the far worse things that were laid to his 

 charge, I have written warmly in my report as if there was 

 nothing to be quarrelled with. I only contend that all was 

 natural and explicable, and in a great measure brought on 

 by circumstances. 



6. There are many things, I am aware, that appear in 

 Lieutenant Hodson's final balance-sheet which are utterly 

 indefensible as matters of regular regimental account, and 

 I have not wished to defend them. At the same time, I do 

 not think it would be right or generous to condemn him 

 for them under the circumstances of the case, considering 

 the efforts he had made to clear the pay accounts, and the 

 way in which he was brought to a sudden stop, after which 

 the adjustment of any items would have been improper 

 and suspicious. The fact of mistakes being worked out in 

 an account by labour and careful examination is satisfactory 



