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

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

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Edmund
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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
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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 tôn Platônos kai Aristotelous
zêlôtên dogmatôn; ara perioran anthrôpous athlious tois kleptais
ekdidomenous, ê kata dunamin antois amunein, oimai, ôs êdê to
kukneion exadousi dia to themises ergastêrion tôn toioutôn; Emoi men
oun aischrhon eivai dokei tous men chiliarchous, otan leipôsi tên taxin,
katadikazein ... tên de hyper athliôn anthrôpôn hapoleipein taxin, otan
deê pros kleptas agônizesthai toioutous kai tauta tou thiou
summachountos hêmin, ôster 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