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
"9th. These I make the conditions of the compliance which the
Governor-General and Council have yielded to your late requisition.
It is but just that you should possess what is your acknowledged
right; but their intention would be defeated, and you would be in a
worse situation, if you were to be left a prey, without a guide,
until you have acquired experience, (which, to the strength and
goodness of your understanding, will be the work but of a short
period,) to the rapacity, frauds, and artifices of mankind. You
have offered to give up the sum of four lacs of rupees to be
allowed the free use of the remainder of your stipend. This we have
refused, because it would be contrary to justice. You should
consider this as a proof of the sincerity of the above
arrangements which have been recommended to you, and of their
expediency to your real interests; and your attention to them will
be a means of reconciling the Company to the resolution which we
have taken, and which will be reported to them in a light very
hurtful both to you and to us, if an improper effect should attend
it. These I have ordered Sir John D'Oyly to read in your presence,
and to explain them to you, that no part of them may escape your
notice; and he has my positive orders to remonstrate to you against
every departure from them. Upon all these occasions, I hope and
expect that you will give him a particular and cordial attention,
and regard what he shall say as if said by myself; for I know him
to be a person of the strictest honor and integrity. I have a
perfect reliance on him; and you cannot have a more attached or
more disinterested counsellor. Although I desire to receive your
letters frequently, yet, as many matters will occur which cannot so
easily be explained by letter as by conversation, I desire that you
will on such occasions give your orders to him respecting such
points as you may desire to have imparted to me; and I, postponing
every other concern, will give you an immediate and the most
satisfactory reply concerning them."
My Lords, here is a man who is to administer his own affairs, who has
arrived at sufficient age to supersede the counsel and advice of the
great Mahometan doctors and the great nobility of the country, and he is
put under the most absolute guardianship of Sir John D'Oyly. But Mr.
Hastings has given Sir John D'Oyly a great character. I cannot confirm
it, because I can confirm the character of none of Mr. Hastings's
instruments. They must stand forth here, and defend their own character
before you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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