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 Hastings did transmit a plan, which, notwithstanding the
evils which had happened from the former frequent changes, he did
propose _as a temporary expedient_ for the administration of the
revenues of the said province,--in which no provision was made for the
reduction or remission of revenue as exigences might require, or for the
extraction of the circulating specie from the said province, or for the
supply of the necessary advances for cultivation, nor for the removal or
prevention of any of the grievances by him before complained of, other
than an inspection by the Resident and the chief criminal magistrate of
Benares, and other regulations equally void of effect and
authority,--and which plan Mr. Stables, one of the Supreme Council, did
altogether reject; but the same was approved of _as a temporary
expedient_, with some exceptions, by two other members of the board, Mr.
Wheler and Mr. Macpherson, declaring _the said Warren Hastings
responsible for the temporary expediency of the same_.
That the said Warren Hastings, in the plan aforesaid, having strongly
objected to the appointment of any European collectors, that is to say,
of any European servants of the Company being concerned in the same,
declaring that there had been sufficient experience of the ill effects
of their being so employed in the province of Bengal,--by which the said
Hastings did either in loose and general terms convey a false imputation
upon the conduct of the Company's servants employed in the collection of
the revenues of Bengal, or he was guilty of a criminal neglect of duty
in not bringing to punishment the particular persons whose evil
practices had given rise to such a general imputation on British
subjects and servants of the Company as to render them unfit for service
in other places.
That the said Warren Hastings, having in the course of three years made
three complete revolutions in the state of Benares, by expelling, in the
first instance, the lawful and rightful governor of the same, under
whose care and superintendence a large and certain revenue, suitable to
the abilities of the country, and consistent with its prosperity, was
paid with the greatest punctuality, and by afterwards displacing two
effective governors or administrators of the province, appointed in
succession by himself, and, in consequence of the said appointments and
violent and arbitrary removals, the said province "being left in effect
without a government," except in one city only, and having, after all,
settled no more than a temporary arrangement, is guilty of an high crime
and misdemeanor in the destruction of the country aforesaid.
IV.--PRINCESSES OF OUDE.
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