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
I charge him with having removed the natural guardians of a minor Rajah,
and with having given that trust to a stranger, Debi Sing, whose
wickedness was known to himself and all the world, and by whom the
Rajah, his family, and dependants were cruelly oppressed.
I charge him with having committed to the management of Debi Sing three
great provinces; and thereby with having wasted the country, ruined the
landed interest, cruelly harassed the peasants, burnt their houses,
seized their crops, tortured and degraded their persons, and destroyed
the honor of the whole female race of that country.
In the name of the Commons of England, I charge all this villany upon
Warren Hastings, in this last moment of my application to you.
My Lords, what is it that we want here to a great act of national
justice? Do we want a cause, my Lords? You have the cause of oppressed
princes, of undone women of the first rank, of desolated provinces, and
of wasted kingdoms.
Do you want a criminal, my Lords? When was there so much iniquity ever
laid to the charge of any one? No, my Lords, you must not look to punish
any other such delinquent from India. Warren Hastings has not left
substance enough in India to nourish such another delinquent.
My Lords, is it a prosecutor you want? You have before you the Commons
of Great Britain as prosecutors; and I believe, my Lords, that the sun,
in his beneficent progress round the world, does not behold a more
glorious sight than that of men, separated from a remote people by the
material bounds and barriers of Nature, united by the bond of a social
and moral community,--all the Commons of England resenting, as their
own, the indignities and cruelties that are offered to all the people of
India.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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