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
My Lords, I charge him, as chief governor, with destroying the
institutions of the country, which were designed to be, and ought to
have been, controls upon such a person as Debi Sing.
An officer, called dewan, or steward of the country, had always been
placed as a control on the farmer; but that no such control should in
fact exist, that he, Debi Sing, should be let loose to rapine,
slaughter, and plunder in the country, both offices were conferred on
him. Did Mr. Hastings vest these offices in him? No: but if Mr. Hastings
had kept firm to the duties which the act of Parliament appointed him to
execute, all the revenue appointments must have been made by him; but,
instead of making them himself, he appointed Gunga Govind Sing to make
them; and for that appointment, and for the whole train of subordinate
villany which followed the placing iniquity in the chief seat of
government, Mr. Hastings is answerable. He is answerable, I say, first,
for destroying his own legal capacity, and, next, for destroying the
legal capacity of the Council, not one of whom ever had, or could have,
any true knowledge of the state of the country, from the moment he
buried it in the gulf of mystery and of darkness, under that collected
heap of villany, Gunga Govind Sing. From that moment he destroyed the
power of government, and put everything into his hands: for this he is
answerable.
The Provincial Councils consisted of many members, who, though they
might unite in some small iniquities perhaps, could not possibly have
concealed from the public eye the commission of such acts as these.
Their very numbers, their natural competitions, the contentions that
must have arisen among them, must have put a check, at least, to such a
business. And therefore, Mr. Hastings having destroyed every check and
control above and below, having delivered the whole into the hands of
Gunga Govind Sing, for all the iniquities of Gunga Govind Sing he is
responsible.
But he did not know Debi Sing, whom he employed. I read, yesterday, and
trust it is fresh in your Lordships' remembrance, that Debi Sing was
presented to him by that set of tools, as they call themselves, who
acted, as they themselves tell us they must act, entirely and implicitly
under Gunga Govind Sing,--that is to say, by Gunga Govind Sing himself,
the confidential agent of Mr. Hastings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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