The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
History
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
VI. That a considerable time before the production and circulation of
Major Browne's letter, the said Hastings did enter a Minute of
Consultation containing a proposition similar in the general intent to
that in the said letter contained for assisting the Mogul with a
military force; but the other members of the board did disagree thereto,
and, being alarmed at the disposition so strongly shown by the said
Hastings to engage in new wars and dangerous foreign connections, and
possibly having intelligence of the proceedings of his agent, did call
upon him to produce his instructions to Major Browne; and he did, on the
5th of October, 1783, and not before, enter on the Consultations a
certain paper purporting to be the instructions which he had given to
Major Browne the preceding March, the time of his, the said Browne's,
appointment, in which pretended instructions no direction whatsoever was
given to the effect of his, the said Hastings's, Minute of Consultation
propounded: that is to say, no power was given in the said instructions
to make a direct offer of military aid to the Mogul, or to form the
arrangements stated by the said Browne, in his letter to the said
Hastings, as having been made by the express authority of the said
Hastings himself; but the said instructions contained nothing further on
that subject but a conditional direction, that, in case a military force
should be required for the Mogul's aid or protection, the Major is to
know the service on which it is to be employed, and the resources from
whence it is to be paid; and the instructions produced as his real
instructions by the said Hastings are so guarded as to caution the said
Browne against _taking any part in the intrigues of those who are about
the King's person_. By which letters, instructions, and transactions,
compared with each other, it appears that the said Warren Hastings,
after six months' delay in entering of (contrary to the Company's order)
any instructions to the said Browne, did at last enter a false paper as
the true, or that he did give other secret instructions, totally
different from, and even opposite to, his public ostensible
instructions, thereby to deceive the Council, and to carry on with less
obstruction dark and dangerous intrigues, contrary to the orders of the
Court of Directors, to the true policy of this kingdom, and to the
safety of the British possessions in the East.
VII. That the said letter from Major Browne was by the said Warren
Hastings transmitted to the Court of Directors, without being
accompanied by any part of the previous correspondence; by which wilful
concealment the said Warren Hastings is guilty of an high and criminal
disrespect to the Court of Directors, and of a most flagrant breach and
violation of their orders, which he was bound by an act of Parliament to
obey.
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