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
XXIX. That, notwithstanding his, the said Warren Hastings's, receipt of
the present of one hundred thousand pounds, as aforesaid, he did violate
every one of the stipulations in the said treaty contained, and
particularly he did continue in the country, and in the service of the
Nabob of Oude, those troops which he had so recently stipulated to
withdraw from his country and to take from his establishment: for, upon
the 24th of December following, he did order the temporary brigade,
making ten battalions of five hundred men each, to be again put on the
Vizier's list,--although he had recently informed the Court of
Directors, through Edward Wheler, Esquire, that any benefit to be
derived from the Nabob's paying that brigade was _a fallacy and a
deception_, and that the same was _a charge_ upon the Company, and not
_an alleviation of its distresses_, as well as _an insupportable burden_
to the Nabob: thus having, within a short space of time, twice
contradicted himself, both in declaration and in conduct.
XXX. That this measure, in direct violation of a treaty of not three
months' duration, was so injudicious, that, in the opinion of the
Assistant Resident, Johnson, "nothing less than blows could effect it":
he, the said Resident, further adding, "that the Nabob was not even able
to pay off the arrears still due to it [the new brigade]; and that the
troops being _all_ in arrears, and no possibility of present payment,
so large a body assembled here [viz., at Lucknow] without any means to
check and control them, nothing but disorder could follow. As one proof
that the Nabob is as badly off for funds as we are, I may inform you
that his cavalry rose this day upon him, and went all armed to the
palace, to demand from thirteen to eighteen months' arrears, and were
with great difficulty persuaded to retire, which was probably more
effected by a body of troops getting under arms to go against them than
any other consideration." But the letter of Warren Hastings, Esquire, of
the 24th of December, giving the above orders for the infraction of the
treaty, and to which the letter from whence the foregoing extracts are
taken is an answer, doth not appear, any otherwise than as the same is
recited in the said answer.
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