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).
the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, was not averse to the Vizier’s granting large salaries to more than one European gentleman.  And the first instance was to Mr. Thomas, a surgeon, who, exclusive of his pay from the Company, which was 1,440_l._ a year, claimed from the Vizier, with Mr. Hastings’s knowledge, the sum of 9,763_l._ a year, and upwards, making together 11,203_l._ per annum.  The next was Mr. Trevor Wheler, who did receive, upon the same establishment, when he was Fourth Assistant at Oude, 6,000_l._ a year; and which last fact the said Hastings has admitted upon record “that the accusations of Mr. Bristow and Mr. Cowper did oblige and compel him to acknowledge,”—­denying, at the same time, that the allowances of the Residents Middleton and Bristow, except in this single instance, were ever authorized by him; whereas his own agent, Palmer, did, in his letter of the 27th of March, 1785, represent, that the said salaries and allowances (if not more and larger) were by him authorized or confirmed.

XCII.  That the aforesaid Bristow did also produce the following letter in proof that Mr. Hastings knew and approved of large salaries to British subjects upon the revenues of Oude, and which he did declare that nothing but the necessity of self-defence could have induced him to produce.

’DEAR BRISTOW,—­

“Sir Eyre Coote has some field-allowances to receive from the Vizier; they amount to Sicca Rupees 15,554 per month, and he has been paid up by the Vizier to the 20th of August, 1782.  The Governor has directed me to write to you, to request you to receive what is due from the Vizier from the 20th August last, at the rate of Lucknow Sicca Rupees 15,664 per month, and send me a bill for the amount, the receipt of which I will acknowledge in the capacity of Sir Eyre Coote’s attorney; and the Governor desires that you will continue to receive Sir Eyre Coote’s field-allowances at the same rate, and remit the money to me as it comes in.

     (Signed) “CHARLES CROFTES.

  “CALCUTTA, January 25, 1783.”

XCIII.  That Sir Eyre Coote aforesaid was at the time of the said field-allowances not serving in the country of Oude, on which the said allowances were charged, but in the Carnatic.

XCIV.  That, from the declaration of the said Hastings himself, that it was the conviction of Mr. Bristow and Mr. Cowper that could alone oblige and compel him to acknowledge certain of his aforesaid practices, and that nothing but the necessity of self-defence could have induced Mr. Bristow to make public another and much stronger instance of the same, it is to be violently presumed, that, where these two, or either, or both necessities did not exist, many evil and oppressive practices of the said Hastings do remain undiscovered,—­that, if it had not been for the contests between him, the said Hastings, and the Resident Bristow, not only

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