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
My Lords, you see again how Mr. Hastings's pretended orders were obeyed.
They were orders addressed to the Nabob, whom he knew to be nothing, and
who could neither control or take the least share in the execution of
them; but he leaves the thing loose as to Manny Begum and her eunuchs,
who he knew could alone carry them into effect. Your Lordships see that
the first use made of the restored authority of the Nabob was, under
various pretences, to leave the salaries of the officers of government
unprovided for, to rob the public treasury, and to give the Company's
money to the eunuchs, who were acting in the manner I have stated to
you.
Information of these proceedings reaches Calcutta; a regular complaint
from a person in the highest situation in the government is made, and
the Governor-General is obliged again to take up the matter; and I
shall now read to your Lordships a letter of the 10th of October, 1778,
which contains a representation so pointed and so very just of the fatal
effects which his interference in the administration of justice had
produced as not to stand in need of any comment from me. It speaks too
plainly to require any.
_The Governor-General's Letter to the Nabob_.
"At your Excellency's request I sent Sudder ul Huk Khân to take on
him the administration of the affairs of the adawlut and foujdarry,
and hoped by that means not only to have given satisfaction to your
Excellency, but that, through his abilities and experience, these
affairs would have been conducted in such manner as to have secured
the peace of the country and the happiness of the people; and it is
with the greatest concern I learn that this measure is so far from
being attended with the expected advantages, that the affairs both
of the foujdarry and adawlut are in the greatest confusion
imaginable, and daily robberies and murders are perpetrated
throughout the country. This is evidently owing to the want of a
proper authority in the person appointed to superintend them. I
therefore addressed your Excellency on the importance and delicacy
of the affairs in question, and of the necessity of lodging full
power in the hands of the person chosen to administer them, in
reply to which your Excellency expressed sentiments coincident with
mine; notwithstanding which, your dependants and people, actuated
by selfish and avaricious views, have by their interference so
impeded the business as to throw the whole country into a state of
confusion, from which nothing can retrieve it but an unlimited
power lodged in the hands of the superintendent. I therefore
request that your Excellency will give the strictest injunctions to
all your dependants not to interfere in any manner with any matter
relative to the affairs of the adawlut and foujdarry, and that you
will yourself relinquish all interference therein, and leave them
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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