The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

in defiance of the aforesaid good rules, orders, and late precedent in conformity to the same,
did not only withhold any order for the purpose, but, in order to carry on the business of the
said durbar in a clandestine manner for his own purposes, did, as aforesaid, exclude all
English from an intercourse with the Nabob, who might carry complaints or representations
to the board, or the Court of Directors, of his condition, or the conduct of the Resident,—
and did further, to defeat all possible publicity, insinuate to him to give the preference to
verbal communication above letters, in the words following, of the ninth article of his
instructions to the Nabob: "Although I desire to receive your letters frequently, yet, as many
matters will occur which cannot be so easily explained by letters as by conversation, I
desire that you will on such occasions give your orders to him respecting such points as you
may desire to have imparted to me; and I, postponing every other concern, will give an
immediate and the most satisfactory reply concerning them." Accordingly, no relation
whatsoever has been received by the Court of Directors of the said Nabob's affairs, nor any
account of the money monthly paid, except from public fame, which reports that his affairs
are in groat disorder, his servants unpaid, and many of them dismissed, and all the
Mussulmen dependent on his family in a state of indigence.

XVIII.—THE MOGUL DELIVERED UP TO THE
MAHRATTAS.

I. That Shah Allum, the prince commonly called the Great Mogul, or, by eminence, The
King, is, or lately was, in the possession of the ancient capital of Hindostan, and though
without any considerable territory, and without a revenue sufficient to maintain a moderate

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