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
Mr. Markham himself, as I have just said, administered the revenues
alone, without the smallest authority for so doing, without the least
knowledge of the Council, till Jagher Deo Seo was appointed Naib. Did he
then give up his authority? No such thing. All the measures of Jagher
Deo Seo's government were taken with the concurrence and joint
management of Mr. Markham. He conducted the whole; the settlements were
made, the leases and agreements with farmers all regulated by him. I
need not tell you, I believe, that Jagher Deo Seo was not a person of
very much authority in the case: your Lordships would laugh at me, if I
said he was. The revenue arrangements were, I firmly believe, regulated
and made by Mr. Markham. But whether they were or were not, it comes to
the same thing. If they were improperly made and improperly conducted,
Mr. Hastings is responsible for the whole of the mismanagement; for he
gave the entire control to a person who had little experience, who was
young in the world (and this is the excuse I wish to make for a
gentleman of that age). He appointed him, and gave him at large a
discretionary authority to name whom he pleased to be the ostensible
Naib; but we know that he took the principal part himself in all his
settlements and in all his proceedings.
Soon after the Naib had been thus appointed and instructed by Mr.
Markham, he settled, under his directions, the administration of the
country. Mr. Markham then desires leave from Mr. Hastings to go down to
Calcutta. I imagine he never returned to Benares; he comes to Europe;
and here end the acts of this viceroy and delegate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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