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
been heaped upon him" (meaning, by the said Court of Directors) "in this
long service"; and he did insolently attribute to an unusual strain of
zeal for their service, that he "_persevered_ in the VIOLENT MAINTENANCE
OF HIS OFFICE."
X. That, in order further to excite the spirit of disobedience in the
Company's servants to the lawful authority set over them, he, the said
Warren Hastings, did treat contemptuously and ironically the supposed
disposition of the Company's servants to obey the orders of the Court of
Directors, in the words following. "The recall of Mr. Markham, who was
known to be the public agent of my own nomination at Benares, and the
reappointment of Mr. Francis Fowke by your order, contained in the same
letter, would place it [the restoration of Cheyt Sing] beyond a doubt.
_This order has been obeyed; and whenever you shall be pleased to order
the restoration of Cheyt Sing, I will venture to promise the same ready
and exact submission in the other members of the Council._" And he did,
in the postscript of the said letter, and as on recollection, endeavor
to make a reparation of honor to his said colleagues, as if his
expressions aforesaid had arisen from animosity to them, as follows.
"Upon a careful revisal of what I have written, I fear that an
expression which I have used, respecting the probable conduct of the
board in the event of orders being received for the restoration of Cheyt
Sing, may be construed as intimating a sense of dissatisfaction applied
to transactions already past.--It is not my intention to complain of any
one."
XI. That the said Hastings, in the acts of injury aforesaid to the Rajah
of Benares, did assume and arrogate to himself an illegal authority
therein, and did maintain that the acts done in consequence of that
measure were not revocable by any subsequent authority, in the following
words. "If you should proceed to order the restoration of Cheyt Sing to
the zemindary, from which, _by the powers which I legally possessed_,
and conceive myself legally _bound to assert_ against any _subsequent
authority to the contrary_ derived from _the same common source_, he was
dispossessed for crimes of the greatest enormity, and your Council shall
resolve to execute the order, I will instantly give up my station and
the service."
XII. That the said Warren Hastings did attempt to justify his
publication of the said libellous letter to and against the Court of
Directors by asserting therein that these resolutions (meaning the
resolutions of the Court of Directors relative to the Rajah of Benares)
"were _either_ published or _intended_ for publication": evidently
proving that he did take this unwarrantable course without any
sufficient assurance that the ground and motive by him assigned had any
existence.
XX.--MAHRATTA WAR AND PEACE.
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