The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 12 (of 12)Burke, Edmund
History
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 12 (of 12)
Burke, Edmund
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820; Political science -- Early works to 1800
And here I must again remind your Lordships, that at the time of the
treaty of Chunar the jaghires were held in the following manner. Of the
285,000_l._ a year which was to be confiscated, the old grants of Sujah
Dowlah, [and?] the grandfather of the Nabob, amounted to near two thirds
of the whole, as you will find in the paper to which we refer you. By
this confiscation, therefore, the Nabob was authorized to _resume_
grants of which he had not been the grantor.
[_Mr. Burke here read the list of the jaghires._]
Now, my Lords, you see that all these estates, except 25,782_l._ a year,
were either jaghires for the Nabob's own immediate family, settled by
his father upon his mother, and by his father's father upon his
grandmother, and upon Salar Jung, his uncle, or were the property of the
most considerable nobility, to the gross amount of 285,000_l._ Mr.
Hastings confesses that the Nabob reluctantly made the confiscation to
the extent proposed. Why? "Because," says he, "the orderlies, namely,
certain persons so called, subservient to his debaucheries, were persons
whom he wished to spare." Now I am to show you that this man, whatever
faults he may have in his private morals, (with which we have nothing at
all to do,) has been slandered throughout by Mr. Hastings. Take his own
account of the matter. "The Nabob," says he, "would have confiscated all
the rest, except his orderlies, whom he would have spared; but I,
finding where his partiality lay, compelled him to sacrifice the whole;
for otherwise he would have sacrificed the good to save the bad:
whereas," says Mr. Hastings, "in effect my principle was to sacrifice
the good, and at the same time to punish the bad." Now compare the
account he gives of the proceedings of Asoph ul Dowlah with his own.
Asoph ul Dowlah, to save some unworthy persons who had jaghires, would,
if left to his own discretion, have confiscated those only of the
deserving; while Mr. Hastings, to effect the inclusion of the worthless
in the confiscation, confiscates the jaghires of the innocent and the
virtuous men of high rank, and of those who had all the ties of Nature
to plead for the Nabob's forbearance, and reduced them to a state of
dependency and degradation.
Now, supposing these two villanous plans, neither of which your
Lordships can bear to hear the sound of, to stand equal in point of
morality, let us see how they stand in point of calculation. The
unexceptionable part of the 285,000_l._ amounted to 260,000_l._ a year;
whereas, supposing every part of the new grants had been made to the
most unworthy persons, it only amounted to 25,000_l._ a year. Therefore,
by his own account, given to you and to the Company, upon this occasion
he has confiscated 260,000_l._ a year, the property of innocent, if not
of meritorious individuals, in order to punish by confiscation those who
had 25,000_l._ a year only. This is the account he gives you himself of
his honor, his justice, and his policy in these proceedings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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