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
But to proceed.--Sir John D'Oyly says there, that the Nabob is reduced
again to a cipher. Now hear what he afterwards says. "About the month of
June, 1781, Mr. Hastings, being then at Moorshedabad, communicated to me
his intention of performing his promise to the Nabob, by restoring him
to the management of his own affairs,"--that is to say, by restoring
Munny Begum again, and by turning out Mahomed Reza Khân. Your Lordships
see that he communicated privately his intentions to Sir John D'Oyly,
without communicating one word of them to his colleagues in the Supreme
Council, and without entering any minute in the records of the Council,
by which it could be known to the Directors.
Lastly, in order to show you in what manner the Nabob was to be restored
to his power, I refer your Lordships to the order he gave to Sir John
D'Oyly for investigating the Nabob's accounts, and for drawing up
articles of instructions for the Nabob's conduct in the management of
his affairs. You will there see clearly how he was restored: that is to
say, that he was taken out of the hands of the first Mussulman in that
country, the man most capable of administering justice, and whom the
Company had expressly ordered to be invested with that authority, and to
put him into the hands of Sir John D'Oyly. Is Sir John D'Oyly a
Mussulman? Is Sir John D'Oyly fit to be at the head of such a
government? What was there that any person could see about him, that
entitled him to or made him a fit person to be intrusted with this
power, in defiance of the Company's orders? And yet Mahomed Reza Khân,
who was to have the management of the Nabob's affairs, was himself put
under the most complete and perfect subjection to this Sir John D'Oyly.
But, in fact, Munny Begum had the real influence in everything. Sir John
D'Oyly himself was only Mr. Hastings's instrument there to preserve it,
and between them they pillaged the Nabob in the most shocking manner,
and must have done so to the knowledge of Mr. Hastings. A letter written
at this time by Mr. Hastings to the Nabob discovers the secret beyond
all power of evasion.
_Instructions from the Governor-General to the Nabob Mobarek ul
Dowlah, respecting his Conduct in the Management of his Affairs._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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