The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

Councils." That on the 18th of January, 1776, the said Warren Hastings did transmit to the
Court of Directors a plan for the better administration of justice, that in this plan the
establishment of the said Provincial Councils was specially provided for and confirmed,
and that Warren Hastings did recommend it to the Directors to obtain the sanction of
Parliament for a confirmation of the said plan. That on the 30th of April, 1776, the said
Warren Hastings did transmit to the Court of Directors the draft or scheme of an act of
Parliament for the better administration of justice in the provinces, in which the said
establishment of Provincial Councils is again specially included, and special jurisdiction
assigned to the said Councils. That the Court of Directors, in a letter dated 5th of February,
1777, did give the following instruction to the Governor-General and Council, a majority of
whom, viz., Sir John Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, had disapproved of the
plan of Provincial Councils: "If you are fully convinced that the establishment of Provincial
Councils has not answered nor is not capable of answering the purposes intended by such
institutions, we hereby direct you to form a new plan for the collection of the revenues, and
to transmit the same to us for our consideration."—That the said Warren Hastings, in
contradiction to his own sentiments repeatedly declared, and to his own advice repeatedly
and deliberately given, and in defiance of the orders of the Directors, to whom he
transmitted no previous communication whatever of his intention to abolish the said
Provincial Councils, did, in the beginning of the year 1781, again change the whole system
of the collections of the public revenue of Bengal, as also the administration of civil and
criminal justice throughout the provinces. That the said Warren Hastings, in a letter dated
5th of May, 1781, advising the Court of Directors of the said changes, has falsely affirmed,
"that the plan of superintending and collecting the public revenue of the provinces through
the agency of Provincial Councils had been instituted for the temporary and declared

<<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   >>

More intriguing information