The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

(though I believe one of them was one of the honestest men that ever served the Company, I
mean Governor Verelst) had not weight enough to poise the system of the service, and
consequently many abuses and grievances again prevailed. Supervisors were appointed to
every district, as a check on the native collectors, and to report every abuse as it should
arise. But they who were appointed to redress grievances were themselves accused of being
guilty of them. However, the disorders were not of that violent kind which preceded Mr.
Hastings's departure, nor such as followed his return: no mercenary wars, no mercenary
revolutions, no extirpation of nations, no violent convulsions in the revenue, no subversion
of ancient houses, no general sales of any descriptions of men,—none of these, but certainly
such grievances as made it necessary for the Company to send out another commission in
1769, with instructions pointing out the chief abuses. It was composed of Mr. Vansittart,
Mr. Ford, and Mr. Scrafton. The unfortunate end of that commission is known to all the
world; but I mention it in order to state that the receipt of presents was considered as one of
the grievances which then prevailed in India, and that the supervisors under that
commission were ordered upon no account whatever to take presents. Upon the unfortunate
catastrophe which happened, the Company was preparing to send out another for the
rectification of these grievances, when Parliament thought it necessary to supersede that
commission, to take the matter into their own hands, and to appoint another commission in
a Parliamentary way (of which Mr. Hastings was one) for the better government of that
country. Mr. Hastings, as I must mention to your Lordships, soon after the deposition and
restoration of Jaffier Ali Khân, and before Lord Clive arrived, quitted for a while the scene
in which he had been so mischievously employed, and returned to England to strengthen
himself by those cabals which again sent him out with new authority to pursue the courses
which were the natural sequel to his former proceedings. He returned to India with great

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