The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03 (of 12)

I have little to recommend my opinions but long observation and much impartiality. They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life. They come from one almost the whole of whose public exertion has been a struggle for the liberty of others,—from one in whose breast no anger durable or vehement has ever been kindled but by what he considered as tyranny, and who snatches from his share in the endeavors which are used by good men to discredit opulent oppression the hours he has employed on your affairs, and who in so doing persuades himself he has not departed from his usual office. They come from one who desires honors, distinctions, and emoluments but little, and who expects them not at all,—who has no contempt for fame, and no fear of obloquy,—who shuns contention, though he will hazard an opinion; from one who wishes to preserve consistency, but who would preserve consistency by varying his means to secure the unity of his end,—and, when the equipoise of the vessel in which he sails may be endangered by overloading it upon one side, is desirous of carrying the small weight of his reasons to that which may preserve its equipoise.

FOOTNOTES:

Ver. 27. "So every carpenter and workmaster, that laboreth night and day," &c.

Ver. 33. "They shall not be sought for in public counsel, nor sit high in the congregation: they shall not sit on the judge's seat, nor understand the sentence of judgment: they cannot declare justice and judgment, and they shall not be found where parables are spoken."

Ver. 34. "But they will maintain the state of the world."

I do not determine whether this book be canonical, as the Gallican Church (till lately) has considered it, or apocryphal, as here it is taken. I am sure it contains a great deal of sense and truth.

Extract of M. de Lally Tollendal's Second Letter to a Friend.

"Parlons du parti que j'ai pris; il est bien justifé dans ma conscience.—Ni cette ville coupable, ni cette assemblée plus coupable encore, ne méritoient que je me justifie; mais j'ai à cœur que vous, et les personnes qui pensent comme vous, ne me condamnent pas.—Ma santé, je vous jure, me rendoit mes fonctions impossibles; mais même en les mettant de côté il a été au-dessus de mes forces de supporter plus longtems l'horreur que me causoit ce sang,—ces têtes,—cette reine presque egorgée,—ce roi, amené esclave, entrant à Paris au milieu de ses assassins, et précédé des têtes de ses malheureux gardes,—ces perfides janissaires, ces assassins, ces femmes cannibales,—ce cri de TOUS LES ÉVÊQUES À LA LANTERNE, dans le moment où le roi entre sa capitale avec deux évêques de son conseil dans sa voiture,—un coup de fusil, que j'ai vu tirer dans un des carrosses de la reine,—M. Bailly appellant cela un beau jour,—l'assemblée ayant déclaré froidement le matin, qu'il n'étoit pas de sa dignité d'aller toute entière environner le roi,—M. Mirabeau disant impunément dans cette assemblée, que le vaisseau de l'état, loin d'être arrêté dans sa course, s'élanceroit avec plus de rapidité que jamais vers sa régénération,—M. Barnave, riant avec lui, quand des flots de sang couloient autour de nous,—le vertueux Mounier132 échappant par miracle à vingt assassins, qui avoient voulu faire de sa tête un trophée de plus: Voilà ce qui me fit jurer de ne plus mettre le pied dans cette caverne d'Antropophages [The National Assembly], où je n'avois plus de force d'élever la voix, où depuis six semaines je l'avois élevée en vain.

"Moi, Mounier, et tous les honnêtes gens, ont pensé que le dernier effort à faire pour le bien étoit d'en sortir. Aucune idée de crainte ne s'est approchée de moi. Je rougirois de m'en défendre. J'avois encore reçû sur la route de la part de ce peuple, moins coupable que ceux qui l'ont enivré de fureur, des acclamations, et des applaudissements, dont d'autres auroient été flattés, et qui m'ont fait frémir. C'est à l'indignation, c'est à l'horreur, c'est aux convulsions physiques, que le seul aspect du sang me fait éprouver que j'ai cédé. On brave une seule mort; on la brave plusieurs fois, quand elle peut être utile. Mais aucune puissance sous le ciel, mais aucune opinion publique ou privée n'ont le droit de me condamner à souffrir inutilement mille supplices par minute, et à périr de désespoir, de rage, au milieu des triomphes, du crime que je n'ai pu arrêter. Ils me proscriront, ils confisqueront mes biens. Je labourerai la terre, et je ne les verrai plus. Voilà ma justification. Vous pourrez la lire, la montrer, la laisser copier; tant pis pour ceux qui ne la comprendront pas; ce ne sera alors moi qui auroit eu tort de la leur donner."

This military man had not so good nerves as the peaceable gentlemen of the Old Jewry.—See Mons. Mounier's narrative of these transactions: a man also of honor and virtue and talents, and therefore a fugitive.

END OF VOL. III

1

Right Honorable Henry Dundas.

2

Sir Thomas Rumbold, late Governor of Madras.

3

Appendix, No. 1.

4

The whole of the net Irish hereditary revenue is, on a medium of the last seven years, about 330,000l. yearly. The revenues of all denominations fall short more than 150,000l. yearly of the charges. On the present produce, if Mr. Pitt's scheme was to take place, he might gain from seven to ten thousand pounds a year.

5

Mr. Smith's Examination before the Select Committee. Appendix, No. 2.

6

Appendix, No. 2.

7

Fourth Report, Mr. Dundas's Committee, p. 4.

8

A witness examined before the Committee of Secrecy says that eighteen per cent was the usual interest, but he had heard that more had been given. The above is the account which Mr. B. received.

9

Mr. Dundas.

10

For the threats of the creditors, and total subversion of the authority of the Company in favor of the Nabob's power and the increase thereby of his evil dispositions, and the great derangement of all public concerns, see Select Committee Fort St. George's letters, 21st November, 1769, and January 31st, 1770; September 11, 1772; and Governor Bourchier's letters to the Nabob of Arcot, 21st November, 1769, and December 9th, 1769.

11

"He [the Nabob] is in a great degree the cause of our present inability, by diverting the revenues of the Carnatic through private channels." "Even this peshcush [the Tanjore tribute], circumstanced as he and we are, he has assigned over to others, who now set themselves in opposition to the Company."—Consultations, October 11, 1769, on the 12th communicated to the Nabob.

12

Nabob's letter to Governor Palk. Papers published by the Directors in 1775; and papers printed by the same authority, 1781.

13

See papers printed by order of a General Court in 1780, pp. 222 and 224; as also Nabob's letter to Governor Dupré, 19th July, 1771: "I have taken up loans by which I have suffered a loss of upwards of a crore of pagodas [four millions sterling] by interest on an heavy interest." Letter 15th January, 1772: "Notwithstanding I have taken much trouble, and have made many payments to my creditors, yet the load of my debt, which became so great by interest and compound interest, is not cleared."

14

The Nabob of Arcot.

15

Appendix, No. 3.

16

See Mr. Dundas's 1st, 2d, and 3d Reports.

17

See further Consultations, 3d February, 1778.

18

Mr. Dundas's 1st Report, pp. 26, 29, and Appendix, No. 2, 10, 18, for the mutinous state and desertion of the Nabob's troops for want of pay. See also Report IV. of the same committee.

19

Memorial from the creditors to the Governor and Council, 22d January, 1770.

20

In the year 1778, Mr. James Call, one of the proprietors of this specific debt, was actually mayor. (Appendix to 2d Report of Mr. Dundas's committee, No. 65.) The only proof which appeared on the inquiry instituted in the General Court of 1781 was an affidavit of the lenders themselves, deposing (what nobody ever denied) that they had engaged and agreed to pay—not that they had paid—the sum of 160,000l. This was two years after the transaction; and the affidavit is made before George Proctor, mayor, an attorney for certain of the old creditors.—Proceedings of the President and Council of Fort St. George, 22d February, 1779.

21

Right Honorable Henry Dundas.

22

Appendix to the 4th Report of Mr. Dundas's committee, No 15.

23

"No sense of the common danger, in case of a war, can prevail on him [the Nabob of Arcot] to furnish the Company with what is absolutely necessary to assemble an army, though it is beyond a doubt that money to a large amount is now hoarded up in his coffers at Chepauk; and tunkaws are granted to individuals, upon some of his most valuable countries, for payment of part of those debts which he has contracted, and which certainly will not bear inspection, as neither debtor nor creditors have ever had the confidence to submit the accounts to our examination, though they expressed a wish to consolidate the debts under the auspices of this government, agreeably to a plan they had formed."—Madras Consultations, 20th July, 1778. Mr. Dundas's Appendix to 2nd Report, 143. See also last Appendix to ditto Report, No. 376, B.

24

Transcriber's note: Footnote missing in original text.

25

Lord Pigot

26

In Sir Thomas Rumbold's letter to the Court of Directors, March 15th, 1778, he represents it as higher, in the following manner:—"How shall I paint to you my astonishment, on my arrival here, when I was informed, that, independent of this four lacs of pagodas [the Cavalry Loan], independent of the Nabob's debt to his old creditors, and the money due to the Company, he had contracted a debt to the enormous amount of sixty-three lacs of pagodas [2,520,000l.]. I mention this circumstance to you with horror; for the creditors being in general servants of the Company renders my task, on the part of the Company, difficult and invidious." "I have freed the sanction of this government from so corrupt a transaction. It is in my mind the most venal of all proceedings to give the Company's protection to debts that cannot bear the light; and though it appears exceedingly alarming, that a country on which you are to depend for resources should be so involved as to be nearly three years' revenue in debt,—in a country, too, where one year's revenue can never be called secure, by men who know anything of the politics of this part of India." "I think it proper to mention to you, that, although the Nabob reports his private debt to amount to upwards of sixty lacs, yet I understand that it is not quite so much." Afterwards Sir Thomas Rumbold recommended this debt to the favorable attention of the Company, but without any sufficient reason for his change of disposition. However, he went no further.

27

Nabob's proposals, November 25th, 1778; and memorial of the creditors, March 1st, 1779.

28

Nabob's proposals to his new consolidated creditors, November 25th, 1778.

29

Paper signed by the Nabob, 6th January, 1780.

30

Kistbundi to July 31, 1780.

31

Governor's letter to the Nabob, 25th July, 1779.

32

Report of the Select Committee, Madras Consultations, January 7, 1771. See also papers published by the order of the Court of Directors in 1776; and Lord Macartney's correspondence with Mr. Hastings and the Nabob of Arcot. See also Mr. Dundas's Appendix, No 376, B. Nabob's propositions through Mr. Sulivan and Assam Khân, Art. 6, and indeed the whole.

33

"The principal object of the expedition is, to get money from Tanjore to pay the Nabob's debt: if a surplus, to be applied in discharge of the Nabob's debts to his private creditors." (Consultations, March 20, 1771; and for further lights, Consultations, 12th June, 1771.) "We are alarmed lest this debt to individuals should have been the real motive for the aggrandizement of Mahomed Ali [the Nabob of Arcot], and that we are plunged into a war to put him in possession of the Mysore revenues for the discharge of the debt."—Letter from the Directors, March 17, 1769.

34

Letter from the Nabob, May 1st, 1768; and ditto, 24th April, 1770, 1st October; ditto, 16th September, 1772, 16th March, 1773.

35

Letter from the Presidency at Madras to the Court of Directors, 27th June, 1769.

36

Mr. Dundas's committee. Report L, Appendix, No. 29.

37

Appendix, No. 4. Report of the Committee of Assigned Revenue.

38

Mr. Barnard's map of the Jaghire

39

See Report IV., Mr. Dundas's committee, p. 46.

40

Interest is rated in India by the month.

41

Mr. Dundas's committee. Rep. I. p. 9, and ditto, Rep. IV. 69, where the revenue of 1777 stated only at 22 lacs,—30 lacs stated as the revenue, "supposing the Carnatic to be properly managed."

42

See Appendix, No. 4. statement in the Report of the Committee of Assigned Revenue.

43

The province of Tinnevelly.

44

Appendix, No. 5.

45

See extract of their letter in the Appendix, No. 9.

46

"It is certain that the incursion of a few of Hyder's horse into the Jaghire, in 1767, cost the Company upwards of pagodas 27,000, in allowances for damages."—Consultations, February 11th, 1771.

47

Proceeding at Madras, 11th February, 1769, and throughout the correspondence on this subject; particularly Consultations, October 4th, 1769, and the creditors' memorial, 20th January, 1770.

48

Appendix, No. 7.

49

For some part of these usurious transactions, see Consultation, 28th January, 1781; and for the Nabob's excusing his oppressions on account of these debts, Consultation, 26th November, 1770. "Still I undertook, first, the payment of the money belonging to the Company, who are my kind friends, and by borrowing, and mortgaging my jewels, &c., by taking from every one of my servants, in proportion to their circumstances, by fresh severities also on my country, notwithstanding its distressed state, as you know."—The Board's remark is as follows: after controverting some of the facts, they say, "That his countries are oppressed is most certain, but not from real necessity; his debts, indeed, have afforded him a constant pretence for using severities and cruel oppressions."

50

See Consultation, 28th January, 1781, where it is asserted, and not denied, that the Nabob's farmers of revenue seldom continue for three months together. From this the state of the country may be easily judged of.

51

In Mr. Fox's speech.

52

The amended letter, Appendix, No. 9.

53

Appendix, No. 8.

54

Mr. Petrie's evidence before the Select Committee, Appendix, No. 7.

55

Appendix, No. 7.

56

Mr. Dundas.

57

See Report IV., Committee of Secrecy, pp. 73 and 74; and Appendix, in sundry places.

58

Mr. Smith's protest.

59

Madras correspondence on this subject.

60

Appendix, No 6.

61

Right Honorable William Pitt.

62

Appendix, No. 10.

63

Dated 13th October. For further illustration of the style in which these letters were written, and the principles on which they proceed, see letters from the Nabob to the Court of Directors, dated August 16th and September 7th, 1783, delivered by Mr. James Macpherson, minister to the Nabob, January 14, 1784. Appendix, No. 10.

64

Appendix, No. 6.

65

Second Report of Select (General Smith's) Committee.

66

Mr. Dundas.

67

Six Reports of the Committee of Secrecy.

68

For the ground of this "great reliance," see the papers in this Appendix, No. 5. as also the Nabob's letters to the Court of Directors in this Appendix, No. 10.

69

For the full proof of this necessity, Lord Macartney's whole correspondence on the subject may be referred to. Without the act here condemned, not one of the acts commended in the preceding paragraph could be performed. By referring to the Nabob's letters in this Appendix it will be seen what sort of task a governor has on his hands, who is to use, according to the direction of this letter, "acts of address, civility, and conciliation," and to pay, upon all occasions, the highest attention, to persons who at the very time are falsely, and in the grossest terms, accusing him of peculation, corruption, treason, and every species of malversation in office. The recommendation, under menaces of such behavior, and under such circumstances, conveys a lesson the tendency of which cannot be misunderstood.

70

The delicacy here recommended, in the expressions concerning conduct "with which the safety of our settlements is essentially connected," is a lesson of the same nature with the former. Dangerous designs, if truly such, ought to be expressed according to their nature and qualities. And as for the secrecy recommended concerning the designs here alluded to, nothing can be more absurd; as they appear very fully and directly in the papers published by the authority of the Court of Directors in 1775, and may be easily discerned from the propositions for the Bengal treaty, published in the Reports of the Committee of Secrecy, and in the Reports of the Select Committee. The keeping of such secrets too long has been one cause of the Carnatic war, and of the ruin of our affairs in India.

71

See Tellinga letter, at the end of this correspondence.

72

The above-recited practices, or practices similar to them, have prevailed in almost every part of the miserable countries on the coast of Coromandel for near twenty years past. That they prevailed as strongly and generally as they could prevail, under the administration of the Nabob, there can be no question, notwithstanding the assertion in the beginning of the above petition; nor will it ever be otherwise, whilst affairs are conducted upon the principles which influence the present system. Whether the particulars here asserted are true or false neither the Court of Directors nor their ministry have thought proper to inquire. If they are true, in order to bring them to affect Lord Macartney, it ought to be proved that the complaint was made to him, and that he had refused redress. Instead of this fair course, the complaint is carried to the Court of Directors.—The above is one of the documents transmitted by the Nabob, in proof of his charge of corruption against Lord Macartney. If genuine, it is conclusive, at least against Lord Macartney's principal agent and manager. If it be a forgery, (as in all likelihood it is,) it is conclusive against the Nabob and his evil counsellors, and folly demonstrates, if anything further were necessary to demonstrate, the necessity of the clause in Mr. Fox's bill prohibiting the residence of the native princes in the Company's principal settlements,—which clause was, for obvious reasons, not admitted into Mr. Pitt's. It shows, too, the absolute necessity of a severe and exemplary punishment on certain of his English evil counsellors and creditors, by whom such practices are carried on.

73

Mr. Burke probably had in his mind the remainder of the passage, and was filled with some congenial apprehensions:—

Hæc finis Priami fatorum; hic exitus illumSorte tulit, Trojam incensam et prolapsa videntemPergama, tot quondam populis terrisque superbumRegnatorem Asiæ. Jacet ingens littore truncus,Avolsumque humeris caput, et sine nomine corpus.At me tum primum sævus circumstetit horror.Obstupui: subiit chari genitoris imago.

74

They are Sworn to obey the king, the nation, and the law.

75

Ps. cxlix.

76

Discourse on the Love of our Country, Nov. 4, 1789, by Dr. Richard Price, 3d edition, p. 17 and 18.

77

"Those who dislike that mode of worship which is prescribed by public authority ought, if they can find no worship out of the Church which they approve, to set up a separate worship for themselves; and by doing this, and giving an example of a rational and manly worship, men of weight from their rank and literature may do the greatest service to society and the world."—P. 18, Dr. Price's Sermon.

78

P. 34, Discourse on the Love of our Country, by Dr. Price.

79

1st Mary, sess. 3, ch. 1.

80

"That King James the Second, having endeavored to subvert the Constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, hath abdicated the government, and the throne is thereby vacant."

81

P. 23, 23, 24.

82

See Blackstone's Magna Charta, printed at Oxford, 1759.

83

1 W. and M.

84

Ecclesiasticus, chap, xxxviii. ver. 24, 25. "The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure: and he that hath little business shall become wise. How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad; that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labors, and whose talk is of bullocks?"

85

Discourse on the Love of our Country, 3rd edit p. 39.

86

Another of these reverend gentlemen, who was witness to some of the spectacles which Paris has lately exhibited, expresses himself thus:—"A king dragged in submissive triumph by his conquering subjects is one of those appearances of grandeur which seldom rise in the prospect of human affairs, and which, during the remainder of my life, I shall think of with wonder and gratification." These gentlemen agree marvellously in their feelings.