The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, Volume 10Little, Brown,, 1867 - Great Britain |
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Common terms and phrases
accusation act of Parliament affairs agent appear appointed authority banian believe Bengal bonds bribery Calcutta called Cantoo Baboo character charge circumstances Clavering Committee Company Company's concealment conduct consequence consider corruption Council Court of Directors covenants crimes Debi Sing declared defence dewan Dinagepore discovery duty endeavored evidence evil extortion favor forgery fraud give given Governor Governor-General guilt Gunga Govind Sing hands Hastings's honor House of Commons India ings inquiry judge knew lac of rupees Larkins letter Lords Mahomed Reza Khân manner means ment mind Munny Begum Nabob nature never Nundcomar occasion opinion oppression paid Patna peculation person presumption pretended principle proceedings proof prosecution prove province Rajah receiving bribes regard revenue sent servants Sir John Clavering situation suffer sum of money taken tell thing thought tion transactions trust ul Dowlah Warren Hastings whole zemindary
Popular passages
Page 140 - Do you want a criminal, my lords ? When was there so much iniquity ever laid to the charge of any one ? No, my lords, you must not look to punish any other such delinquent from India. Warren Hastings has not left substance enough in India to nourish such another delinquent. My lords, is it a prosecutor you want...
Page 142 - I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons' House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed.
Page 138 - I charge him with having formed a committee to be mere instruments and tools, at the enormous expense of 62,000Z. per annum. I charge him with having appointed a person their dewan to whom these Englishmen were to be subservient tools, — whose name, to his own knowledge, was, by the general voice of India, by the general recorded voice of the Company, by recorded...
Page 143 - I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose property he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate. I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed in both sexes.
Page 83 - ... disabled hands will act with resistless power. What is it that they will not pull down, when they are lifted to heaven against their oppressors ? Then what can withstand such hands ? Can the power that crushed and destroyed them ? Powerful in prayer, let us at least deprecate and thus endeavor to secure ourselves from the vengeance which these mashed and disabled hands may pull down upon us. My Lords, it is an awful consideration: let us think of it.
Page 89 - ... demands, exacted with such tortures, threw the whole province into despair. They abandoned their crops on the ground. The people, In a body, would have fled out of its confines; but bands of soldiers invested the avenues of the province, and, making a line of circumvallation, drove back those wretches, who sought exile as a relief, into the prison of their native soil.
Page 30 - ... he never dines with comfort but where he is sure to create a famine. He never robs from the loose superfluity of standing greatness he devours the fallen the indigent the necessitous. His extortion is not like the generous rapacity of the princely eagle who snatches away the living struggling prey he is a vulture who feeds upon the prostrate the dying and the dead. As his cruelty is more shocking than his corruption so his hypocrisy has something more frightful than his cruelty. For whilst his...
Page 82 - Rungpore and Dinagepore, for nonpayment, were in many instances of such a nature, that I would rather wish to draw a veil over them, than shock your feelings by the detail. But that, however disagreeable the task may be to myself, it is absolutely necessary for the sake of justice, humanity, and the honour of government, that they should be exposed, to be prevented in future.
Page 322 - Indies, shall accept, receive, or take directly or indirectly, by himself, or any other person or persons on his behalf, or for his use or benefit, of and from any of the Indian princes or powers, or their ministers or agents (or any of the natives of Asia), any present, gift, donation, gratuity, or reward...
Page 142 - I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has betrayed. " I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national character he has dishonoured. " I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted; whose properties he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate. " I impeach him in the name, and by virtue of those eternal laws of justice, which...