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

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 475 pages of information about The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12).

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

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 475 pages of information about The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12).
act against the rules of natural justice, which requires that a convenient time should be given to answer, proportioned to the greatness of the offence alleged, and the heavy penalties which attend it; and when he did arrogate to himself a right both to charge and to judge in his own person, he ought to have allowed the Rajah full opportunity for conferring with his ministers, his doctors of law, and his accountants, on the facts charged, and on the criminality inferred in the said accusation of disloyalty and disaffection, or offences of that quality.

VII.  That the said Rajah did, under the pressure of the disadvantages aforesaid, deliver in, upon the very evening of the day of the charge, a full, complete, and specific answer to the two articles therein specified; and did allege and offer proof that the whole of the extraordinary demands of the said Hastings had been actually long before paid and discharged; and did state a proper defence, with regard to the cavalry, even supposing him bound (when he was not bound) to furnish any.  And the said Rajah did make a direct denial of the truth, of the two general articles, and did explain himself on the same in as satisfactory a manner and as fully as their nature could permit, offering to enter into immediate trial of the points in issue between him and the said Hastings, in the remarkable words following.  “My enemies, with a view to my ruin, have made false representations to you.  Now that, happily for me, you have yourself arrived at this place, you will be able to ascertain all the circumstances:  first, relative to the horse; secondly, to my people going to Calcutta; and thirdly, the dates of the receipts of the particular sums above mentioned.  You will then know whether I have amused you with a false representation, or made a just report to you.”  And in the said answer the said Rajah complained, but in the most modest terms, of an injury to him of the most dangerous and criminal nature in transactions of such moment, namely, his not receiving any answer to his letters and petitions, and concluded in the following words.  “I have never swerved in the smallest degree from my duty to you.  It remains with you to decide on all these matters.  I am in every case your slave.  What is just I have represented to you.  May your prosperity increase!”

VIII.  That the said Warren Hastings was bound by the essential principles of natural justice to attend to the claim made by the Rajah to a fair and impartial trial and inquiry into the matter of accusation brought against him by the said Hastings, at a time and place which furnished all proper materials and the presence of all necessary witnesses; but the said Hastings, instead of instituting the said inquiry and granting trial, did receive an humble request for justice from a great prince as a fresh offence, and as a personal insult to himself, and did conceive a violent passion of anger and a strong resentment thereat, declaring that he did consider the said answer

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The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.