When this paper was delivered, the Governor-General moved that Mr. Goring might be asked how he came by it, and on what account this partial selection was made by him; also, that the Begum should be desired to explain the sum laid to his charge, and that he should ask the Nabob or the Begum their reasons for delivering this separate account.

The substance of the Governor’s proposal was agreed to.

Mr. Goring’s answer to this requisition of the board is as follows.

“In compliance with your orders to explain the delivery of the paper containing an account of three lacs of rupees, I am to inform you, it took its rise from a message sent me by the Begum, requesting I would interest myself with the Nabob to have Akbar Ali Khan released to her for a few hours, having something of importance to communicate to me, on which she wished to consult him.  Thinking the service might be benefited by it, I accordingly desired the Nabob would be pleased to deliver him to my charge, engaging to return him the same night,—­which I did.  I heard no more till next day, when the Begum requested to see his Excellency and myself, desiring Akbar Ali might attend.

“On our first meeting, she entered into a long detail of her administration, endeavoring to represent it in the fairest light; at last she came to the point, and told me, my urgent and repeated remonstrances to her to be informed how the balance arose of which I was to inquire induced her from memory to say what she had herself given,—­then mentioning the sum of a lac and a half to the Governor to feast him whilst he stayed there, and a lac and a half to Mr. Middleton by the hands of Baboo Begum.  As I looked on this no more than a matter of conversation, I arose to depart, but was detained by the Begum’s requesting the Nabob to come to her.  A scene of weeping and complaint then began, which made me still more impatient to be gone, and I repeatedly sent to his Excellency for that purpose:  he at last came out and delivered me the paper I sent you, declaring it was given him by the Begum to be delivered me.”

Munny Begum also wrote a letter to General Clavering, in which she directly asserts the same.  “Mr. Goring has pressed me on the subject of the balances; in answer to which I informed him, that all the particulars, being on record, would in the course of the inquiry appear from the papers.  He accordingly received from the Nabob Mobarek ul Dowlah a list of three lacs of rupees given to the Governor and Mr. Middleton.  I now send you inclosed a list of the dates when it was presented, and through whose means, which you will receive.”

The Governor-General then desired that the following questions might be proposed to the Begum by Mr. Martin, then Resident at the Durbar.

1st.  Was any application made to you for the account which you have delivered, of three lacs of rupees said to have been paid to the Governor and Mr. Middleton, or did you deliver the account of your own free will, and unsolicited?