The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III

줺The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund
Burke, Vol. III. (of 12), by Edmund Burke This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III. (of 12)
Author: Edmund Burke
Release Date: April 22, 2005 [EBook #15679]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURKE VOL III ***

Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr

THE WORKS
OF
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
EDMUND BURKE
IN TWELVE VOLUMES
VOLUME THE THIRD
[Illustration: Burke Coat of Arms.]
LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO 14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C. MDCCCLXXXVII

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.
SPEECH ON THE NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS, February 28, 1785; with an Appendix 1
SUBSTANCE OF SPEECH ON THE ARMY ESTIMATES, February 9, 1790 211
REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE 231

SPEECH
ON THE
MOTION MADE FOR PAPERS
RELATIVE TO THE
DIRECTIONS FOR CHARGING THE NABOB OF ARCOT'S PRIVATE DEBTS TO EUROPEANS ON THE REVENUES OF THE CARNATIC,
FEBRUARY 28, 1785.
WITH AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING SEVERAL DOCUMENTS.
[Greek: Entautha ti prattein hechrên andra t?n Plat?nos kai Aristotelous zêl?tên dogmat?n; ara perioran anthr?pous athlious tois kleptais ekdidomenous, ê kata dunamin antois amunein, oimai, ?s êdê to kukneion exadousi dia to themises ergastêrion t?n toiout?n; Emoi men oun aischrhon eivai dokei tous men chiliarchous, otan leip?si tên taxin, katadikazein ... tên de hyper athli?n anthr?p?n hapoleipein taxin, otan deê pros kleptas ag?nizesthai toioutous kai tauta tou thiou summachountos hêmin, ?ster oun etaxen.]
JULIANI Epist. 17.

ADVERTISEMENT.
That the least informed reader of this speech may be enabled to enter fully into the spirit of the transaction on occasion of which it was delivered, it may be proper to acquaint him, that, among the princes dependent on this nation in the southern part of India, the most considerable at present is commonly known by the title of the Nabob of Arcot.
This prince owed the establishment of his government, against the claims of his elder brother, as well as those of other competitors, to the arms and influence of the British East India Company. Being thus established in a considerable part of the dominions he now possesses, he began, about the year 1765, to form, at the instigation (as he asserts) of the servants of the East India Company, a variety of designs for the further extension of his territories. Some years after, he carried his views to certain objects of interior arrangement, of a very pernicious nature. None of these designs could be compassed without the aid of the Company's arms; nor could those arms be employed consistently with an obedience to the Company's orders. He was therefore advised to form a more secret, but an equally powerful, interest among the servants of that Company, and among others both at home and abroad. By engaging them in his interests, the use of the Company's power might be obtained without their ostensible authority; the power might even be employed in defiance of the authority, if the case should require, as in truth it often did require, a proceeding of that degree of boldness.
The Company had put him into possession of several great cities and magnificent castles. The good order of his affairs, his sense of personal dignity, his ideas of Oriental splendor, and the habits of an Asiatic life, (to which, being a native of India, and a Mahometan, he had from his infancy been inured,) would naturally have led him to fix the seat of his government within his own dominions. Instead of this, he totally sequestered himself from his country, and, abandoning all appearance of state, he took up his residence in an ordinary house, which he purchased in the suburbs of the Company's factory at Madras. In that place he has lived, without removing one day from thence, for several years past. He has there continued a constant cabal with the Company's servants, from the highest to the lowest,--creating, out of the ruins of the country, brilliant fortunes for those who will, and entirely destroying those who will not, be subservient to his purposes.
An opinion prevailed, strongly confirmed by several passages in his own letters, as well as by a combination of circumstances forming a body of evidence which cannot be resisted, that very great sums have been by him distributed, through a long course of years, to some of the Company's servants. Besides these presumed payments in ready money, (of which, from the nature of the thing, the direct proof is very difficult,) debts have at several periods been acknowledged to those gentlemen, to an immense amount,--that is,