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 the Mahrattas having taken no effectual step to oblige Hyder Ali to
make good the conditions for which they had engaged in his behalf, and
the war continuing to be carried on in the Carnatic by Tippoo Sultan,
son and successor of Hyder Ali, the Presidency of Fort St. George
undertook, upon their own authority, to open a negotiation with the said
Tippoo: which measure, though indispensably necessary, the said Hastings
utterly disapproved and discountenanced, expressly denying that there
was any ground or motive for entering into any direct or separate treaty
with Tippoo, and not consenting to or authorizing any negotiation for
such treaty, until after a cessation of hostilities had been brought
about with him by the Presidency of Fort St. George, in August, 1783,
and the ministers of Tippoo had been received and treated with by that
Presidency, and commissioners, in return, actually sent by the said
Presidency to the court of Poonah: which late and reluctant consent and
authority were extorted from him, the said Hastings, in consequence of
the acknowledgment of his agent at the court of Mahdajee Sindia, upon
whom the said Warren Hastings had depended for enforcing the clauses of
the Mahratta treaty, of the precariousness of such dependence, and of
the necessity of that direct and separate treaty with Tippoo, so long
and so lately reprobated by the said Warren Hastings, notwithstanding
the information and entreaties of the Presidency of Fort St. George, as
well as the known distresses and critical situation of the Company's
affairs. That, though the said Warren Hastings did at length give
instructions for negotiating and making peace with Tippoo, expressly
adding, that those instructions extended to _all_ the points which
occurred to _him or them_ as capable of being agitated or gained upon
the occasion,--though the said instructions were sent after the said
commissioners by the Presidency of Fort St. George, with directions to
obey them,--though not only the said instructions were obeyed, but
advantages gained which did not occur to the said Warren
Hastings,--though the said peace formed a contrast with the Mahratta
peace, in neither ceding any territory possessed by the Company before
the war, or delivering up any dependant or ally to the vengeance of his
adversaries, but providing for the restoration of all the countries that
had been taken from the Company and their allies,--though the Supreme
Council of Calcutta, forming the legal government of Bengal in the
absence of the said Warren Hastings, ratified the said treaty,--yet the
said Warren Hastings, then absent from the seat of government, and out
of the province of Bengal, and forming no legal or integral part of the
government during such absence, did, after such ratification, usurp the
power of acting as a part of such government (as if actually sitting in
Council with the other members of the same) in the consideration and
unqualified censure of the terms of the said peace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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