The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12) — John Shaqi
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
"The fourth sum stated in Mr. Hastings's account was the produce of
sundry payments made to me by Sadamund, Cheyt Sing's buckshee, who
either brought or sent the gold mohurs to my house, from whence they
were taken by me to Mr. Croftes, either on the same night or early in
the morning after: they were made at different times, and I well
remember that the same people never came twice. On the 21st June, 1780,
Mr. Hastings sent for me, and desired that I would take charge of a
present that had been offered to him by Cheyt Sing's buckshee, under the
plea of atoning for the opposition which he had made towards the payment
of the extra subsidy for defraying part of the expenses of the war, but
really in the hope of its inducing Mr. Hastings to give up that claim;
with which view the present had first been offered. Mr. Hastings
declared, that, although he would not take this for his own use, he
would apply it to that of the Company, in removing Mr. Francis's
objections to the want of a fund for defraying the extra expenses of
Colonel Camac's detachment. On my return to the office, I wrote down the
substance of what Mr. Hastings had said to me, and requested Mr. James
Miller, my deputy, to seal it up with his own seal, and write upon it,
that he had then done so at my request. He was no further informed of my
motive for this than merely that it contained the substance of a
conversation which had passed between me and another gentleman, which,
in case that conversation should hereafter become the subject of
inquiry, I wished to be able to adduce the memorandum then made of it,
in corroboration of my own testimony; and although that paper has
remained unopened to this hour, and notwithstanding that I kept no
memorandum whatever of the substance thereof, yet, as I have wrote this
representation under the most scrupulous adherence to what I conceived
to be truth, should it ever become necessary to refer to this paper, I
am confident that it will not be found to differ materially from the
substance of this representation."
I forgot to mention, that, besides these two bonds, which Mr. Hastings
declared to be the Company's, and one bond his own, that he slipped into
the place of the bond of his own a much better, namely, a bond of
November, which he never mentioned to the Company till the 22d of May;
and this bond for current rupees 1,74,000, or sicca rupees 1,50,000, was
taken for the payment stated in the paper No. 1 to have been made to Mr.
Croftes on the 11th Aghan, 1187, which corresponds to the 23d of
November, 1780. This is the Nuddea money, and this is all that you know
of it; you know that this money, for which he had taken this other bond
from the Company, was not his own neither, but bribes taken from the
other provinces.
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