The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
History
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
"It appears incontestably upon the records that the charges preferred by
the Ranny against me proceeded from the office of Mr. Fowke. All the
papers transmitted by her came in their original form written in the
English language,--some with Persian papers, of which they were supposed
to be translations, but all strongly marked with the character and idiom
of the English language. I applied on Saturday last for Persian
originals of some of the papers sent by her, and I was refused: I am
justified in declaring my firm belief that no such originals exist.
"With respect to Nundcomar's accusations, they were delivered by the
hands of Mr. Francis, who has declared that he was called upon by Rajah
Nundcomar, as a duty belonging to his office as a councillor of this
state, to lay the packet which contained them before the board,--that he
conceived that he could not, consistent with his duty, refuse such a
letter at the instance of a person of the Rajah's rank, and did
accordingly receive it, and laid it before the board,--declaring at the
same time that he was unacquainted with the contents of it. I believe
that the Court of Directors, and those to whom those proceedings shall
be made known, will think differently of this action of Mr. Francis:
that Nundcomar was guilty of great insolence and disrespect in the
demand which he made of Mr. Francis; and that it was not a duty
belonging to the office of a councillor of this state to make himself
the carrier of a letter, which would have been much more properly
committed to the hands of a peon or hircarra, or delivered by the writer
of it to the secretary himself.
"Mr. Francis has acknowledged that he apprehended in general that it
contained some charge against me. If the charge was false, it was a
libel. It might have been false for anything that Mr. Francis could know
to the contrary, since he was unacquainted with the contents of it. In
this instance, therefore, he incurred the hazard of presenting a libel
to the board: this was not a duty belonging to his office as a
councillor of this state. I must further inform the board that I have
been long since acquainted with Nundcomar's intentions of making this
attack upon me. Happily, Nundcomar, among whose talents for intrigue
that of secrecy is not the first, has been ever too ready to make the
first publication of his own intentions. I was shown a paper containing
many accusations against me, which I was told was carried by Nundcomar
to Colonel Monson, and that he himself was employed for some hours in
private with Colonel Monson, explaining the nature of those charges.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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