The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Volume 7Henry G. Bohn, 1857 - Great Britain |
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Common terms and phrases
abuse accusation act of parliament affairs appear appointed arbitrary power authority banyan believe Bengal bonds bribery bribes brought Calcutta called Cawn character charge circumstances committee Company Company's concealment conduct consequence consider corruption Cossim Ally council court of directors covenants crimes criminal Debi Sing declared defence Dinagepore duty endeavoured evidence extortion favour fraud Gentoo give given governor Governor-General guilt Gunga Govin Sing hands Hastings Hastings's Holwell honour House of Commons India inquiry judge justice lacks Larkins letter Lord Clive lords lordships Mahomed Reza Khân Mahomedan manner means ment mind Mogul empire Munny Begum Nabob nature never Nundcomar occasion opinion oppression Patna peculation person pretended prince principles prisoner proceeding proof prosecution prove province punishment Rajah received regard revenue rupees servants Sir John Clavering situation suffer sum of money taken Tamerlane thing tion transaction trust Warren Hastings whole zemindar
Popular passages
Page 231 - 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 he has violated. I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life.
Page 280 - Before the question is put, I declare that I will not suffer Nundcomar to appear before the board as my accuser. I know what belongs to the dignity and character of the first member of this administration. I will not sit at this board in the character of a criminal, nor do I acknowledge the members of this board to be my judges.
Page 230 - My lords, you have that true image of the primitive church in its ancient form, in its ancient ordinances, purified from the superstitions and the vices which a long succession of ages will bring upon the best institutions.
Page 14 - We charge this offender with no crimes that have not arisen from passions which it is criminal to harbor; with no offences that have not their root in avarice, rapacity, pride, insolence, ferocity, treachery, cruelty, malignity of temper; in short, in nothing that does not argue a total extinction of all moral principle, that does not manifest an inveterate blackness of heart, dyed in grain with malice, vitiated, corrupted, gangrened to the very core.
Page 100 - Here he has declared his opinion, that he is a despotic prince, that he is to use arbitrary power, and of course all his acts are covered with that shield. " I know." says he, "the constitution of Asia only from its practice.
Page 188 - Rungpore and Dinagepore, for non-payment, 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...
Page 231 - My Lords, these are the securities which we have in all the constituent parts of the body of this House. We know them, we reckon, we rest upon them, and commit safely the interests of India and of humanity into your hands. Therefore it is with confidence, that, ordered by the Commons, I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanors. 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...
Page 103 - It is a contradiction in terms ; it is blasphemy in religion ; it is wickedness in politicks, to say, that any man can have arbitrary power. In every patent of office the duty is included. For what else does a magistrate exist? To suppose for power is an absurdity in idea. Judges are guided and governed by the eternal laws of justice, to which we are all subject.
Page 15 - ... we have brought before you the first man of India in rank, authority, and station. (We have brought before you the chief of the tribe, the head of the whole body of eastern offenders ; a captain-general of iniquity, under whom all the fraud, all the peculation, all the tyranny, in India, are embodied, disciplined, arrayed, and paid. This is the person, my lords, that we bring before you. We have brought before you such a person, that, if you strike at him with the firm and decided arm of justice,...
Page 228 - I charge him with not having done that bribe service which fidelity even in iniquity requires at the hands of the worst of men. I charge him with having robbed those people of whom he took the bribes. I charge him with having fraudulently alienated the fortunes of widows.