The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

XIII.—APPOINTMENT OF R.J. SULIVAN.

That in the month of February, 1781, Mr. Richard Joseph Sulivan, Secretary to the Select
Committee at Fort St. George, applied to them for leave to proceed to Calcutta on his
private affairs. That, being the confidential secretary to the Select Committee at Fort St.
George, and consequently possessed of all the views and secrets of the Company, as far as
they related to that government, he went privately into the service of the Nabob of Arcot,
and, under the pretence of proceeding to Calcutta on his private business, undertook a
commission from the said Nabob to the Governor-General and Council, to negotiate with
them in favor of certain projects of the said Nabob which had been reprobated by the
Company.

That the said Sulivan was soon after appointed back again by the said Warren Hastings to
the office of Resident at the Durbar of the said Nabob of Arcot. That it was a high crime
and misdemeanor in the said Hastings to encourage so dangerous an example in the
Company's service, and to interfere unnecessarily with the government of Madras in the
discharge of the duties peculiarly ascribed to them by the practice and orders of the
Company, for the purpose of appointing to a great and confidential situation a man who had
so recently committed a breach of trust to his employers.

That the Court of Directors, in their letter to Bengal, dated the 12th of July, 1782, and
received there on the 18th of February, 1783, did condemn and revoke the said
appointment. That the said Directors, in theirs to Fort St. George, dated the 28th of August,
1782, and received there the 31st of January, 1783, did highly condemn the conduct of the
said Sulivan, and, in order to deter their servants from practices of the same kind, did

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