The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

XIX.—LIBEL ON THE COURT OF DIRECTORS.

I. That Warren Hastings, Esquire, was, during the whole of the year 1783, a servant of the
East India Company, and was bound by the duties of that relation not only to yield
obedience to the orders of the Court of Directors, but to give to the whole of their service an
example of submission, reverence, and respect to their authority; and that, if they should in
the course of their duty call in question any part of his conduct, he was bound to conduct
his defence with temper and decency; and while his conduct was under their consideration,
it was not allowable to print and publish any of his letters to them without their consent first
had and obtained; and he was bound by the same principles of duty, enforced by still more
cogent reasons, to observe, in a paper intended for publication, great modesty and
moderation, and to treat the said Court of Directors, his lawful masters, with respect.

II. That the said Warren Hastings did print and publish, or cause to be printed and
published, at Calcutta in Bengal, the narrative of his transactions at Benares, in a letter
written at that place, without leave had of the Court of Directors, in order to preoccupy the
judgment of the servants in that settlement, and to gain from them a factious countenance
and support, previous to the judgment and opinion of the Court of Directors, his lawful
superiors.

III. That the Court of Directors, having come to certain resolutions of fact relative to the
engagements subsisting between them and the Rajah of Benares, and the manner in which
the same had been fulfilled on the part of the Rajah, did, in the fifth resolution, which was
partly a resolution of opinion, declare as follows: "That it appears to this Court that the
conduct of the Governor-General towards the Rajah, whilst he was at Benares, was

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