Prev | Current Page 653 | Next

Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

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

But if the said Warren Hastings did mean thereby indirectly to
insinuate that oppressions had been actually exercised under the British
authority, he was bound to inquire into these oppressions, and to
animadvert on the person guilty of the same, if proof thereof could be
had,--and the more, as the authority was given by _himself_, and the
person exercising it was by himself also named. And the said Warren
Hastings did on another occasion assert that "whether they were well or
ill-founded he never had an opportunity to ascertain." But it is not
true that the said Hastings did or could want such opportunity: the fact
being, that the said Warren Hastings did never cause any inquiry to be
made into any supposed abuses during the said Residency, but did give a
pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year to the said late Resident as a
compensation to him for an injury received, and did afterwards promote
the Resident, as a faithful servant of the Company, (and nothing appears
to show him otherwise,) to a judicial office of high trust,--thereby
taking away all credit from any grounds asserted or insinuated by the
said Hastings for delivering the said Nabob of Furruckabad to the hand
of a known enemy and oppressor, who had already, contrary to repeated
treaties, deprived him of a large part of his territories.


Pages:
641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665