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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

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


That, supposing the sum of money in question to have been strictly due
to the said Nabob by virtue of any engagement between him and the
Rohilla chiefs, the East India Company, or their representatives, were
not parties to that engagement, or guaranties thereof, nor bound by any
obligation whatever to enforce the execution of it.
That, previous to the said Warren Hastings's entering into the agreement
or bargain aforesaid to extirpate the said nation, he did not make, or
cause to be made, a due inquiry into the validity of the sole pretext
used by the said Nabob; nor did he give notice of the said claims of
debt to the nation of the Rohillas, in order to receive an explanation
on their part of the matter in litigation; nor did he offer any
mediation, nor propose, nor afford an opportunity of proposing, an
agreement or submission by which the calamities of war might be avoided,
as, by the high state in which the East India Company stood as a
sovereign power in the East, and the honor and character it ought to
maintain, as well as by the principles of equity and humanity, and by
the true and obvious policy of uniting the power of the Mahometan
princes against the Mahrattas, he was bound to do.


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