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
As a rebellion, however, and as a rebellion of the most unprovoked
kind, it was treated by Colonel Hannay; and to one instance of the means
taken for suppressing it, as proved by evidence before your Lordships, I
will just beg leave to call your attention. One hundred and fifty of the
inhabitants had been shut up in one of the mud forts I have mentioned.
The people of the country, in their rage, attacked the fort, and
demanded the prisoners; they called for their brothers, their fathers,
their husbands, who were confined there. It was attacked by the joint
assault of men and women. The man who commanded in the fort immediately
cut off the heads of eighteen of the principal prisoners, and tossed
them over the battlements to the assailants. There happened to be a
prisoner in the fort, a man loved and respected in his country, and who,
whether justly or unjustly, was honored and much esteemed by all the
people. "Give us our Rajah, Mustapha Khan!" (that was the name of the
man confined,) cried out the assailants. We asked the witness at your
bar what he was confined for. He did not know; but he said that Colonel
Hannay had confined him, and added, that he was sentenced to death. We
desired to see the _fetwah_, or decree, of the judge who sentenced him.
No,--no such thing, nor any evidence of its having ever existed, could
be produced. We desired to know whether he could give any account of the
process, any account of the magistrate, any account of the accuser, any
account of the defence,--in short, whether he could give any account
whatever of this man's being condemned to death. He could give no
account of it, but the orders of Colonel Hannay, who seems to have
imprisoned and condemned him by his own arbitrary will. Upon the demand
of Rajah Mustapha by the insurgents being made known to Colonel Hannay,
he sends an order to the commander of the fort, a man already stained
with the blood of all the people who were murdered there, that, if he
had not executed Mustapha Khan, he should execute him immediately. The
man is staggered at the order, and refuses to execute it, as not being
directly addressed to him. Colonel Hannay then sends a Captain Williams,
who has appeared here as an evidence at your bar, and who, together with
Captain Gordon and Major Macdonald, both witnesses also here, were all
sub-farmers and actors under Colonel Hannay. This Captain Williams, I
say, goes there, and, without asking one of those questions which I put
to the witness at your bar, and desiring nothing but Colonel Hannay's
word, orders the man to be beheaded; and accordingly he was beheaded,
agreeably to the orders of Colonel Hannay. Upon this, the rebellion
blazed out with tenfold fury, and the people declared they would be
revenged for the destruction of their zemindar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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