The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
History
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
That the said Nabob of Oude did, in consequence of the said agreement,
and with the assistance of British troops, which were ordered to march
and subjected to his disposal by the said Warren Hastings and the
Council, unjustly enter into and invade the country of the Rohillas, and
did there make war in a barbarous and inhuman manner, "by an abuse of
victory," "by the unnecessary destruction of the country," "by a wanton
display of violence and oppression, of inhumanity and cruelty," and "by
the sudden expulsion and casting down of an whole race of people, to
whom the slightest benevolence was denied." When prayer was made not to
dishonor the Begum (a princess of great rank, whose husband had been
killed in battle) and other women, by _dragging them about the country,
to be loaded with the scoffs of the Nabob's rabble, and otherwise still
worse used_, the Nabob refused to listen to the entreaties of a British
commander-in-chief in their favor; and the said women of high rank were
exposed not only to the vilest personal indignities, but even to
absolute want: and these transactions being by Colonel Champion
communicated to the said Warren Hastings, instead of commendations for
his intelligence, and orders to redress the said evils, and to prevent
the like in future, by means which were suggested, and which appear to
have been proper and feasible, he received a reprimand from the said
Warren Hastings, who declared that we had no authority to control the
conduct of the Vizier in the treatment of his subjects; and that Colonel
Champion desisted from making further representations on this subject to
the said Warren Hastings, being apprehensive of having already run some
risk of displeasing by perhaps a too free communication of sentiments.
That, in consequence of the said proceedings, not only the eminent
families of the chiefs of the Rohilla nation were either cut off or
banished, and their wives and offspring reduced to utter ruin, but the
country itself, heretofore distinguished above all others for the extent
of its cultivation as a _garden_, not having _one spot_ in it of
_uncultivated_ ground, and from being _in the most flourishing state
that a country could be_, was by the inhuman mode of carrying on the
war, and the ill government during the consequent usurpation, reduced to
a state of great decay and depopulation, in which it still remains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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