The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

Sir Eyre Coote, by which an increase of expense would be incurred by the India Company
to the amount of eighteen thousand pounds a year and upwards, exclusive of and in addition
to his salary of ten thousand pounds a year, provided for him by act of Parliament as a
member of the Supreme Council, and exclusive of and in addition to his salary of six
thousand pounds a year as commander-in-chief, appointed for him by the Company, and
expressly fixed to that amount.

That the disobedience and breach of trust of which the said Warren Hastings was guilty in
this transaction is highly aggravated by the following circumstances connected with it. That
from the death of Sir John Clavering to the arrival of Sir Eyre Coote in Bengal the
provisional command of the army had devolved to and been vested in Brigadier-General
Giles Stibbert, the eldest officer on that establishment. That in this capacity, and, as the said
Warren Hastings has declared, "standing no way distinguished from the other officers in the
army, but by his accidental succession to the first place on the list," he, the said Giles
Stibbert, had, by the recommendation and procurement of the said Warren Hastings,
received and enjoyed a salary, and other allowances, to the amount of 13,854l. 12s. per
annum. That Sir Eyre Coote, soon after his arrival, represented to the board that a
considerable part of those allowances, amounting to 8,220l. 10s. per annum, ought to
devolve to himself, as commander-in-chief of the Company's forces in India, and, stating
that the said Giles Stibbert could no longer be considered as commander-in-chief under the
Presidency of Fort William, made a formal demand of the same. That the said Warren
Hastings, instead of reducing the allowances of the said Giles Stibbert to the establishment
at which they stood during General Clavering's command, and for the continuance of which
after Sir Eyre Coote's arrival there could be no pretence, continued the allowances of
13,854l. 12s. per annum to the said Giles Stibbert, and at the same time, in order to appease

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