The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

coming, as aforesaid, from a person by himself, the said Hastings, charged with artifice,
falsehood, and duplicity, and with abusing to his own evil purposes the name and seal of his
master without his knowledge, and without any previous inquiry into the facts and
circumstances; and did thereon ground an accusation against the said Resident, Bristow,
before the board at Calcutta, in which he did represent the conduct of the said Bristow, in
attempting to limit the household expenses of the Nabob, as an indignity "which no man
living, however mean his rank in life, or dependent his condition in it, would permit to be
exercised by any other, but with the want or forfeiture of every manly principle." And he
did further accuse the said Bristow for that, in his proceedings in the regulation of the
Nabob's household, "he should receive to himself, or Mr. Cowper for him, or a treasurer for
both, (for the arrangement has never been well defined,) the money assigned for the support
of the Nabob's household,—issue it as he pleased, not to the Nabob, but to the menial
officers of his household,—dispose of his superfluous horses, and other cattle,—determine
how many elephants were necessary to the state of the Vizier of the Empire, the number of
domestics for his attendance, and pry into the kitchen for the purpose of ascertaining the
quantity of victuals which ought to be dressed in it,—control the accounts of these
disbursements,—and appropriate to his own use (for that the consequence was inevitable, if
he chose it) the residue produced by those economical retrenchments."

LXI. That the said charge is malicious and insidious; because the attempt to introduce
proper officers for the management of household expenses so considerable that the said
Hastings has stated the allotment for the same at three hundred thousand pounds sterling
yearly, and that other accounts have carried it to four hundred thousand pounds sterling and
upwards, and to keep proper and regular accounts thereof, was a necessary regulation, and
agreeable to the dignity of the Nabob, and by no means a degradation either of his person or

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