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
another payment of half a lac of rupees. Still the terms of the bond
were insisted on, although Mr. Hastings had allowed that these terms
were extravagant, and only one lac and a half of the money which had
been actually received remained unpaid. One would think that common
charity, that common decency, that common regard to the decorum of life
would, under such circumstances, have hindered Mr. Hastings from
imprisoning him again. But, my Lords, he was imprisoned again; he
continued in prison till Mr. Hastings quitted the country; and there he
soon after died,--a victim to the enormous oppression which has been
detailed to your Lordships.
It appears that in the mean time the Residents had been using other
means for recovering the balance due to the Company. The family of the
Rajah had not been paid one shilling of the 60,000_l._, allowed for
their maintenance. They were obliged to mortgage their own hereditary
estates for their support, while the Residents confiscated all the
property of Durbege Sing. Of the money thus obtained what account has
been given? None, my Lords, none. It must therefore have been disposed
of in some abominably corrupt way or other, while this miserable victim
of Mr. Hastings was left to perish in a prison, after he had been
elevated to the highest rank in the country.
But, without doubt, they found abundance of effects after his death? No,
my Lords, they did not find anything. They ransacked his house; they
examined all his accounts, every paper that he had, in and out of
prison. They searched and scrutinized everything. They had every penny
of his fortune, and I believe, though I cannot with certainty know, that
the man died insolvent; and it was not pretended that he had ever
applied to his own use any part of the Company's money.
Thus Durbege Sing is gone; this tragedy is finished; a second Rajah of
Benares has been destroyed. I do not speak of that miserable puppet who
was said by Mr. Hastings to be in a state of childhood when arrived at
manhood, but of the person who represented the dignity of the family. He
is gone; he is swept away; and in his name, in the name of this devoted
Durbege Sing, in the name of his afflicted family, in the name of the
people of the country thus oppressed by an usurped authority, in the
name of all these, respecting whom justice has been thus outraged, we
call upon your Lordships for justice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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