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
That through the whole of these transactions the said Warren Hastings
has been guilty of continued falsehood, fraud, contradiction, and
duplicity, highly dishonorable to the character of the British nation;
that, in consequence of the unjust and ill-concerted schemes of the said
Hastings, the British arms, heretofore respected in India, have suffered
repeated disgraces, and great calamities have been thereby brought upon
India; and that the said Warren Hastings, as well in exciting and
promoting the late unprovoked and unjustifiable war against the
Mahrattas, as in the conduct thereof, has been guilty of sundry high
crimes and misdemeanors.
That, by the definitive treaty of peace concluded with the Mahrattas at
Poorunder, on the 1st of March, 1776, the Mahrattas gave up all right
and title to the island of Salsette, unjustly taken from them by the
Presidency of Bombay; did also give up to the English Company forever
all right and title to their entire shares of the city and purgunnah of
Baroach; did also give forever to the English Company a country of three
lacs of rupees revenue, near to Baroach; and did also agree to pay to
the Company twelve lacs of rupees, in part of the expenses of the
English army: and that the terms of the said treaty _were honorable and
advantageous to the India Company_.[20]
That Warren Hastings, having broken the said treaty, and forced the
Mahrattas into another war by a repeated invasion of their country, and
having conducted that war in the manner hereinbefore described, did, on
the 17th of May, 1782, by the agency of Mr. David Anderson, conclude
another treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance with the Mahrattas,
by which the said Hastings agreed to deliver up to them all the
countries, places, cities, and forts, particularly the island of
Bassein, (taken from the Peshwa during the war,) and to relinquish all
claim to the country of three lacs of rupees ceded to the Company by the
treaty of Poorunder; that the said Warren Hastings did also at the said
time, by a private and separate agreement, deliver up to Mahdajee Sindia
the whole of the city of Baroach,--that is, not only the share in the
said city which the India Company acquired by the treaty of Poorunder,
but the other share thereof which the India Company possessed for
several years before that treaty; and that among the reasons assigned by
Mr. David Anderson for totally stripping the Presidency of Bombay of all
their possessions on the Malabar coast, he has declared, "that, from the
general tenor of the _rest_ of the treaty, the settlement of Bombay
would be in future put on such a footing that it might well become a
question whether the possession of an inconsiderable territory without
forts would not be attended with more loss than advantage, as it must
necessarily occasion considerable expense, must require troops for its
defence, and might probably in the end lead, as Sindia apprehended, to a
renewal of war."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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