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
LVIII. That the said Resident Bristow did, in consequence of the renewal
to him of the said instructions as aforesaid, endeavor to limit and put
in order the Nabob's expenses; but he was in that particular traversed
and counteracted, and in the end wholly defeated, by the minister, Hyder
Beg Khan. And though the obstructions aforesaid, agreeably to the
instructions given to Middleton, and to him, the said Bristow, were
represented to the said Warren Hastings by the Resident aforesaid, yet
the said Warren Hastings did give no kind of support to the said
Resident, or take any steps towards enabling him, the said Resident, to
effectuate the said necessary limitation and distribution of expenses,
by himself, the said Hastings, ordered and prescribed; nor, if he
disapproved the proceedings of the said Resident, did he give him any
instruction for the forbearance of the same, or for the exerting his
duty in any other mode; nor did he call for any illustration from him of
anything doubtful in his correspondence, nor state to him any complaint
made privately of his conduct, in order to receive thereon an
explanation; but he did leave him to pursue at his discretion the
extensive powers before described, to effect the reformation which he
was directed to accomplish, under the responsibility denounced to him as
aforesaid, if he should fail therein, as he was supposed to be
substantially invested with all the powers of government.
LIX. That, instead of the said support or instruction, he, the said
Hastings, did countenance, or more probably cause or direct, a
representation to be made to him by the acting minister of the Nabob of
Oude, complaining grievously of the proceedings of the Resident
aforesaid, as usurpations on the Nabob's authority and indignities on
his person. And although he, the said Hastings, did instruct the
Resident, Bristow, to inform the said Hyder Beg Khan that he would not
receive from the Nabob, as _his_, letters directed by the spirit of
opposition, but should consider every such attempt as his, the
minister's, as an insult on our government, yet he did receive as _his_
the Nabob's own letters, and as written from the impressions on his own
mind, and as the suggestions of his own judgment, letters to the same
effect as those written by the minister, although he had declared upon
record that the said "Nabob was a mere cipher in his, the said
minister's, hands," and "that he had dared to use both the Nabob's name,
and even his seal, affixed to letters either directed to the Nabob or
written as from him without his knowledge," and although he did assert
or record as aforesaid, that, in a letter which he had lately received
from the Nabob, the minister had the presumption to make the Nabob
declare that which was _true_ to be _false_, and that "his _making use_
of the Nabob in such a manner did show how thin the veil was by which
_he_ covered _his own acts_, and that such artifices would only tend to
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