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
There was an ostensible man, named Sudder ul Huk Khân, placed there at
the head of the administration of justice, with a salary of seven
thousand pounds a year of the Company's money. This man, in a letter to
the Governor-General and Council, received the 1st of September, 1778,
says,--"His Highness himself [the Nabob] is not deficient in regard for
me, but certain bad men have gained an ascendency over his temper, by
whose instigation he acts." You will see, my Lords, how this poor man
was crippled in the execution of his duty, and dishonored by the
corruption of this woman and her eunuchs, to whom Mr. Hastings had given
the supreme government, and with it an uncontrolled influence over all
the dependent parts. After thus complaining of the slights he receives
from the Nabob, he adds,--"Thus they cause the Nabob to treat me,
sometimes with indignity, at others with kindness, just as they think
proper to advise him: their view is, that, by compelling me to
displeasure at such unworthy treatment, they may force me either to
relinquish my station, or to join with them and act with their advice,
and appoint creatures of their recommendation to the different offices,
from which they might draw profit to themselves." In a subsequent letter
to the Governor, Sudder ul Huk Khân says,--"The Begum's ministers,
before my arrival, with the advice of their counsellors, caused the
Nabob to sign a receipt, in consequence of which they received, at two
different times, near fifty thousand rupees, in the name of the officers
of the adawlut, foujdarry, &c., from the Company's sircar; and having
drawn up an account current in the manner they wished, they got the
Nabob to sign it, and then sent it to me." In the same letter he asserts
that these people have the Nabob entirely in their power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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