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
X. That the aforesaid member of the Council did further disapprove
altogether of the guaranty, "as unnecessary"; and that another member of
Council, Richard Barwell, Esquire, the near relation of Daniel Octavus
Barwell, hereinbefore named, did declare, (but after the said guaranty
had taken place,) that "this government [of Calcutta] was in fact
engaged by Colonel Champion's signature being to the treaty with Fyzoola
Khan." That the said unnecessary guaranty did not only subject to an
heavy expense a prince whom we were bound to protect, but did further
produce in his mind the following obvious and natural conclusion,
namely, "_that the signature of any person, in whatever public capacity
he at present appears, will not be valid and of effect, as soon as some
other shall fill his station_": a conclusion, however, immediately
tending to the total discredit of all powers delegated from the board to
any individual servant of the Company, and consequently to clog,
perplex, and embarrass in future all transactions carried on at a
distance from the seat of government, and to disturb the security of
all persons possessing instruments already so ratified,--yet the only
conclusion left to Fyzoola Khan which did not involve some affront
either to the private honor of the Company's servants or to the public
honor of the Company itself; and that the suspicions which originated
from the said idea in the breast of Fyzoola Khan to the prejudice of the
Resident Middleton's authority did compel the Governor-General, Warren
Hastings, to obviate the bad effects of his first motion for the
guaranty by a second motion, namely, "That a letter be written to
Fyzoola Khan from myself, _confirming the obligations of the Company as
guaranties_ to the treaty formed between him and the Vizier,--which will
be equivalent in its effect, though not in form, to an engagement sent
him with the Company's seal affixed to it."
XII.[23] That, whether the guaranty aforesaid was or was not necessary,
whether it created a new obligation or but more fully recognized an
obligation previously existing, the Governor-General, Warren Hastings,
by the said guaranty, did, in the most explicit manner, pledge and
commit the public faith of the Company and the nation; and that by the
subsequent letter of the said Hastings (which he at his own motion
wrote, confirming to Fyzoola Khan the aforesaid guaranty) the said
Hastings did again pledge and commit the public faith of the Company and
the nation, in a manner (as the said Hastings himself remarked)
"equivalent to an engagement with the Company's seal affixed to it," and
more particularly binding the said Hastings personally to exact a due
observance of the guarantied treaty, especially to protect the Nabob
Fyzoola Khan against any arbitrary construction or unwarranted
requisition of the Vizier.
PART IV.
THANKS OF THE BOARD TO FYZOOLA KHAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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