The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 486 pages of information about The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12).

The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 486 pages of information about The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12).

That, besides the sums charged to have been paid to the said Warren Hastings by the said Nundcomar and Munny Begum and Khan Jehan Khan, and besides the sum of one hundred and ten thousand pounds already mentioned to have been accepted without hesitation by him, as a present on the part of the Nabob of Oude and that of his ministers, the circumstances of which have been particularly reported to the House of Commons, it appears by the confession of the said Warren Hastings, that he has at different times since the promulgation of the act of 1773, received various other sums, contrary to the express prohibition of the said act, and his own declared sense of the evident intent and obligation thereof.—­That in the month of June, 1780, the said Warren Hastings made to the Council what he called “a very unusual tender, by offering to exonerate the Company from the expense of a particular measure, and to take it upon himself; declaring that he had already deposited two lacs of rupees [or twenty-three thousand pounds] in the hands of the Company’s sub-treasurer for that service.”  That in a subsequent letter, dated the 29th of November, 1780, he informed the Court of Directors, that “this money, by whatever means it came into their possession, was not his own”; but he did not then, nor has he at any time since, made known to the Court of Directors from whom or on what account he received that money, as it was his duty to have done in the first instance, and notwithstanding the said Directors signified to him their expectation that he should communicate to them “immediate information of the channel by which this money came into his possession, with a complete illustration of the cause or causes of so extraordinary an event.”  But, from evidence examined in England, it has been discovered that this money was received by the said Warren Hastings from Cheyt Sing, the Rajah of Benares, who was soon after dispossessed of all his property and driven from his country and government by the said Warren Hastings.  That, notwithstanding the declaration made by the said Warren Hastings, that he had actually deposited the sum above mentioned in the hands of the Company’s sub-treasurer for their service, it does not appear that “any entry whatsoever of that or any other payment by the Governor-General was made in the Treasury accounts at or about the time,” nor is there any trace in the Company’s books of its being actually paid into their treasury.  It appears, then, by the confession of the said Warren Hastings, that this money was received by him; but it does not appear that he has converted it to the property and use of the Company.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.