The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 11 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
History
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 11 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
Now what does he recommend to the board? That it will be pleased to
confirm the appointment which Mr. Markham made in obedience to his
individual orders, as well as the directions which he had given him to
exact from Baboo Durbege Sing with the utmost rigor every rupee of the
collections, and either to confine him at Benares or send him to Chunar
and imprison him there until the whole of his arrears were paid up.
Here, then, my Lords, you have, what plainly appears in every act of Mr.
Hastings, a feeling of resentment for some personal injury. "I feel
myself," says he, "and may be allowed on such an occasion to acknowledge
it, personally hurt at the ingratitude of this man, and the discredit
which his ill conduct has thrown on my appointment of him. The Rajah
himself, scarcely arrived at the verge of manhood, was in understanding
but little advanced beyond the term of childhood; and it had been the
policy of Cheyt Sing to keep him equally secluded from the world and
from business." This is the character Mr. Hastings gives of a man whom
he appointed to govern the country. He goes on to say of Durbege
Sing,--"As he was allowed a jaghire of a very liberal amount, to enable
him to maintain a state and consequence suitable both to the relation in
which he stood to the Rajah and the high office which had been assigned
to him, and sufficient also to free him from the temptation of little
and mean peculations, it is therefore my opinion, and I recommend, that
Mr. Markham be ordered to divest him of his jaghire, and reunite it to
the _malguzaree_, or the land paying its revenue through the Rajah to
the Company. The opposition made by the Rajah and the old Ranny, both
equally incapable of judging for themselves, do certainly originate from
some secret influence which ought to be checked by a decided and
peremptory declaration of the authority of the board, and a denunciation
of their displeasure at their presumption. If they can be induced to
yield the appearance of a cheerful acquiescence in the new arrangement,
and to adopt it as a measure formed with their participation, it would
be better than that it should be done by a declared act of compulsion;
but at all events it ought to be done." My Lords, it had been already
done: the Naib was dismissed; he was imprisoned; his jaghire was
confiscated: all these things were done by Mr. Hastings's orders. He had
resolved to take the whole upon himself; he had acted upon that
resolution before he addressed this letter to the board.
Thus, my Lords, was this unhappy man punished without any previous
trial, or any charges, except the complaints of Mr. Markham, and some
other private information which Mr. Hastings said he had received.
Before the poor object of these complaints could make up his accounts,
before a single step was taken, judicially or officially, to convict him
of any crime, he was sent to prison, and his private estates
confiscated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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