The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X | Page 5

inherent in the duty of their office,--next,
the positive injunctions of the legislature of the country,--and lastly, a
man's own private, particular, voluntary act and covenant. These three,
the great and only obligations that bind mankind, all united in the focus
of this single point,--that they should take no presents.
I am to mark to your Lordships, that this law and this covenant did
consider indirect ways of taking presents--taking them by others, and
such like--directly in the very same light as they considered taking

them by themselves. It is perhaps a much more dangerous way; because
it adds to the crime a false, prevaricating mode of concealing it, and
makes it much more mischievous by admitting others into the
participation of it. Mr. Hastings has said, (and it is one of the general
complaints of Mr. Hastings,) that he is made answerable for the acts of
other men. It is a thing inherent in the nature of his situation. All those
who enjoy a great superintending trust, which is to regulate the whole
affairs of an empire, are responsible for the acts and conduct of other
men, so far as they had anything to do with appointing them, or holding
them in their places, or having any sort of inspection into their conduct.
But when a Governor presumes to remove from their situations those
persons whom the public authority and sanction of the Company have
appointed, and obtrudes upon them by violence other persons,
superseding the orders of his masters, he becomes doubly responsible
for their conduct. If the persons he names should be of notorious evil
character and evil principles, and if this should be perfectly known to
himself, and of public notoriety to the rest of the world, then another
strong responsibility attaches on him for the acts of those persons.
Governors, we know very well, cannot with their own hands be
continually receiving bribes,--for then they must have as many hands as
one of the idols in an Indian temple, in order to receive all the bribes
which a Governor-General may receive,--but they have them
vicariously. As there are many offices, so he has had various officers
for receiving and distributing his bribes; he has a great many, some
white and some black agents. The white men are loose and licentious;
they are apt to have resentments, and to be bold in revenging them. The
black men are very secret and mysterious; they are not apt to have very
quick resentments, they have not the same liberty and boldness of
language which characterize Europeans; and they have fears, too, for
themselves, which makes it more likely that they will conceal anything
committed to them by Europeans. Therefore Mr. Hastings had his black
agents, not one, two, three, but many, disseminated through the country:
no two of them, hardly, appear to be in the secret of any one bribe. He
has had likewise his white agents,--they were necessary,--a Mr. Larkins
and a Mr. Croftes. Mr. Croftes was sub-treasurer, and Mr. Larkins
accountant-general. These were the last persons of all others that should

have had anything to do with bribes; yet these were some of his agents
in bribery. There are few instances, in comparison of the whole number
of bribes, but there are some, where two men are in the secret of the
same bribe. Nay, it appears that there was one bribe divided into
different payments at different times,--that one part was committed to
one black secretary, another part to another black secretary. So that it is
almost impossible to make up a complete body of all his bribery: you
may find the scattered limbs, some here and others there; and while you
are employed in picking them up, he may escape entirely in a
prosecution for the whole.
The first act of his government in Bengal was the most bold and
extraordinary that I believe ever entered into the head of any man,--I
will say, of any tyrant. It was no more or less than a general, almost
exceptless confiscation, in time of profound peace, of all the landed
property in Bengal, upon most extraordinary pretences. Strange as this
may appear, he did so confiscate it; he put it up to a pretended public,
in reality to a private corrupt auction; and such favored landholders as
came to it were obliged to consider themselves as not any longer
proprietors of the estates, but to recognize themselves as farmers under
government: and even those few that were permitted to remain on their
estates had their payments raised at his arbitrary discretion; and the rest
of the lands were given to farmers-general, appointed by him and his
committee, at a price fixed by the same arbitrary discretion.
It is necessary to inform your Lordships that the revenues of Bengal