The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

practicable in the present instance, would be completely useless, since the said Warren
Hastings, without waiting for the consent of the Directors, did resolve to reimburse himself.
That the conduct of the said Warren Hastings, in withholding these accounts for twelve
years together, and then resolving to reimburse himself without the consent of his
employers, has been fraudulent in the first instance, and in the second amounts to a denial
and mockery of the authority placed over him by law; and that he has thereby set a
dangerous example to his successors, and to every man in trust or office under him.—That
the mode in which he has reimbursed himself is a crime of a much higher order, and greatly
aggravates whatever was already criminal in the other parts of this transaction. That the said
Warren Hastings, in declaring that he should reimburse himself by crediting the Company
by a sum privately received, has acknowledged himself guilty of an illegal act in receiving
money privately. That he has suppressed or withheld every particular which could throw
any light on a conduct so suspicious in a Governor as the private receipt of money. That the
general confession of the private receipt of a large sum in gross, in which no circumstance
of time, place, occasion, or person, nor even the amount, is specified, tends to cover or
protect any act of the same nature (as far as a general confession can protect such acts)
which may be detected hereafter, and which in fact may not make part of the gross sum so
confessed, and that it tends to perplex and defeat all inquiry into such practices.—That the
said Warren Hastings, in stating to the Directors that he has resolved to reimburse himself
in a mode the most suitable to the situation of their affairs, viz., by receiving money
privately against law, has stated a presumption highly injurious to the integrity of the said
Directors, viz., that they will not object to, or even inquire into, any extraordinary expenses
incurred and charged by their Governors in India, provided such expenses are reimbursed
by money privately and illegally received. That he has not explained what that situation of
their affairs was or could be to which so dangerous and corrupt a principle was or might be

<<   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   >>

More intriguing information