The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

wealth, that I believe such a scene of nefarious tyranny, destroying and cutting up the root
of public credit in that country, was scarce ever known. In the mean time Cossim was
extending his tyranny over all who were obnoxious to him; and the persons he first sought
were those traitors who had been friends to the English. Several of the principal of these he
murdered. There was in the province of Bahar a man named Ramarain; he had got the most
positive assurances of English faith; but Mr. Macguire, a member of the Council, on the
receipt of five thousand gold mohurs, or something more than 8,000l. sterling, delivered
him up to be first imprisoned, then tortured, then robbed in consequence of the torture, and
finally murdered, by Cossim Ali Khân. In this way Cossim Ali Khân acted, while our
government looked on. I hardly choose to mention to you the fate of a certain native in
consequence of a dispute with Mr. Mott, a friend of Mr. Hastings, which is in the
Company's records,—records which are almost buried by their own magnitude from the
knowledge of this country. In a contest with this native for his house and property, some
scuffle having happened between the parties, the one attempting to seize and the other to
defend, the latter made a complaint to the Nabob, who was in an entire subjection at that
time to the English, and who ordered this unfortunate man, on account of this very scuffle,
arising from defending his property, to be blown off from the mouth of a cannon. In short, I
am not able to tell your Lordships of all the nefarious transactions of this man, whom the
intrigues of Mr. Holwell and Mr. Hastings had set upon the throne of Bengal. But there is a
circumstance in this business that comes across here, and will tend to show another
grievance that vexed that country, which vexed it long, and is one of the causes of its chief
disasters, and which, I fear, is not so perfectly extirpated but that some part of its roots may
remain in the ground at this moment.

Commerce, which enriches every other country in the world, was bringing Bengal to total

<<   355   356   357   358   359   360   361   >>

More intriguing information