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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

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


XVI. That the said Warren Hastings, after he had collected his forces
from all parts, did, with little difficulty or bloodshed, subsequent to
that time, on the part of his troops, and in a few days, entirely reduce
the said province of Benares; and did, after the said short and little
resisted hostility, in cold blood, issue an order for burning a certain
town, in which he accused the people at large of having killed, "upon
what provocation he knows not," certain wounded sepoys, who were
prisoners: which order, being _generally_ given, when it was his duty to
have made some inquiry concerning the particular offenders, but which he
did never make, or cause to be made, was cruel, inhuman, and tended to
the destruction of the revenues of the Company; and that this, and other
acts of devastation, did cause the loss of two months of the
collections.
XVII. That the said Warren Hastings did not only refuse the submissions
of the said Rajah, which were frequently repeated through various
persons after he had left Benares, and even after the defeat of certain
of the Company's forces, but did proscribe and except him from the
pardons which he issued after he had satisfied his vengeance on the
province of Benares.


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