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
This letter, my Lords, was received upon the 23d of August; and your
Lordships may observe two things in it: first, that, some way or other,
this Nabob had been (as the fact was) made to express his desire of
being released from his subjection to the Munny Begum, but that now he
has got new lights, all the mists are gone, and he now finds that Munny
Begum is not only the fittest person to govern him, but the whole
country. This young man, whose incapacity is stated, and never denied,
by Mr. Hastings, and by Lord Cornwallis, and by all the rest of the
world who know him, begins to be charmed with the excellency of the
policy of Munny Begum. Such is his violent impatience, such the
impossibility of his existing an hour but under the government of Munny
Begum, that he writes again on the 25th of August, (he had really the
impatience of a lover,) and within five days afterwards writes
again,--so impatient, so anxious and jealous is this young man to be put
under the government of an old dancing-woman. He is afraid lest Mr.
Hastings should imagine that some sinister influence had prevailed upon
him in so natural and proper a request. He says, "Knowing it for my
interest and advantage that the administration of the affairs of the
nizamut should be restored to her Highness the Munny Begum, I have
already troubled you with my request, that, regarding my situation with
an eye of favor, you will approve of this measure. I am credibly
informed that some one of my enemies, from selfish views, has, for the
purpose of oversetting this measure, written you that the said Begum
procured from me by artifice the letter I wrote you on this subject.
This causes me the greatest astonishment. Please to consider, that
artifice and delusion are confined to cheats and impostors, and can
never proceed from a person of such exalted rank, who is the head and
patron of all the family of the deceased Nabob, my father,--and that to
be deluded, being a proof of weakness and folly, can have no relation to
me, except the inventor of this report considers me as void of
understanding, and has represented me to the gentlemen as a blockhead
and an idiot. God knows how harshly such expressions appear to me; but,
as the truth or falsehood has not yet been fully ascertained, I have
therefore suspended my demand of satisfaction. Should it be true, be so
kind as to inform me of it, that the person may be made to answer for
it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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