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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12)"

" Here was a new mode of reasoning found out by Mr. Barwell,
which might subject all inquiry into peculation to the discretion of
the very persons charged with it. By that reasoning all orders of his
superiors were at his mercy; and he actually undertook to set aside
those commands which by an express act of Parliament he was bound to
obey, on his opinion of what would or would not conduce to the good of
government. On his principles, he either totally annihilates the
authority of the act of Parliament, or he entertains so extravagant a
supposition as that the Court of Directors possessed a more absolute
authority, when their orders were not intended for the public good, than
when they were.
General Clavering was of a different opinion. He thought "he should be
wanting to the legislature, and to the Court of Directors, if he was not
to receive the complaints of the inhabitants, when properly
authenticated, and to prefer them to the board for investigation, as the
only means by which these grievances can be redressed, and the Company
informed of the conduct of their servants.


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