Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/348

340 name and titles, and stamped with ink at the head of the patent. They likewise observed that the seal impressed on the wax which had secured the cover of the letter, appeared by the date to be thirty-three years old, and consequently belonged to a former emperor. These defects naturally gave them many suspicions, which were much confirmed, when, on desiring an explanation from the French deputies, they immediately recalled all their papers, giving for a reason, that they would not submit them to any farther examination before the Nabob's patents were produced. This in reality was no reason at all; they, however, consulted Mr. Dupleix on the objections made to the Mogul's letter, who replied, that the piece he had delivered to them was only a duplicate, to which the writer in the secretary's office at Delhi, might have thought it needless to affix the seal of signature, and that with the same negligence the first seal which came to hand might have been taken up by him to seal the cover; but that the original brought by the Mogul's officer deputed from Delhi, had the seal of signature affixed to it, which was dated in the first year of the reign of the late emperor Hamed Schah; and that the letter itself was dated in the fifth year of his reign, the same in which it was received. It now became necessary to examine the original, and to enquire whether it was the custom in the secretary's office at Delhi to pay so little attention to duplicates; but Mr. Saunders, and the English deputies, thought that what they had already seen and heard was a sufficient proof that the copy was a forgery, and concluded the same of the original, and the rest of the French papers: the French deputies nevertheless persisted to defend the authenticity of them and least the abrupt manner in which they had withdrawn them from farther examination should be interpreted as a proof that they themselves knew their pieces could not stand the test, they now gave another reason for this part of their conduct, alledging that they had recalled them only for fear copies should be taken in order to direct Mahomed-ally in making out those patents he had promised to produce. This blundering apology exposed their cause more than any remarks which their adversaries had hitherto made; for it was a tacit acknowledgment, that they themselves were convinced of the possibility of forging patents with so much dexterity that the artifice