No More Learning

[Mr. Burke here read 24th Geo. III. cap. 25, sect. 34. ]
"And whereas to pursue schemes of conquest and
extension of dominion in India are measures repugnant to the wish, the honor, and policy of this nation, be it therefore further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that it shall not be lawful for the Governor-General and Council of Fort William aforesaid,
without the express command and authority of the
said Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee
of the said Court of Directors, in any case, (except
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -NINTH DAY. 389
where hostilities have actually been commenced, or
preparations actually made for the commencement
of hostilities, against the British nation in India, or
against some of the princes or states dependent
thereon, or whose territories the said United Company shall be at such time engaged by any subsisting
treaty to defend or guaranty,) either to declare war,
or commence hostilities, or enter into any treaty for
making war, against any of the country princes or
states in India, or any treaty for guarantying the pos
sessions of any country princes or states; and that
in such case it shall not be lawful for the said Governor-General and Council to declare war, or commence hostilities, or enter into treaty for making war, against any other prince or state than such as shall
be actually committing hostilities or making preparations as aforesaid, or to make such treaty for guarantying the possessions of any prince or state, but upon the consideration of such prince or state actually engaging to assist the Company against such
hostilities commenced or preparations made as aforesaid; and in all cases where hostilities shall be commenced or treaty made, the said Governor-General and Council shall, by the most expeditious means they
can devise, communicate the same unto the said
Court of Directors, together with a full state of
the information and intelligence upon which they
shall have commenced such hostilities or made such
treaties, and their motives and reasons for the same
at large. "
It is the first act of the kind that ever was made
in this kingdom, the first statute, I believe, that ever
was made by the legislature of any nation, upon the
? ? ? ? 390 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
subject; and it was made solely upon the resolutions
to which we had come against the violent, intemperate, unjust, and perfidious acts of this man at your
Lordships' bar, and which acts are now produced before your Lordships as merits.
To show further to your Lordships how necessary
this act was, here is a part of his own correspondence,
the last thing I shall beg to read to your Lordships,
and upon which I shall make no other comment than
that you will learn from it how well British faith was
kept by this man, and that it was the violation of
British faith which prevented our having the most
advantageous peace, and brought on all the calamities of war. It is part of a letter from the minister
of the. Rajah of Berar, a man called Benaram Pundit,
with whom Mr. Hastings was at the time treating for
a peace; and he tells him why he might have had
peace at that time, and why lie had it not, --and
that the cause of it was his own ridiculous and even
buffoonish perfidiousness, which exposed him to the
ridicule of all the princes of India, and with him the
whole British nation.
"But afterwards reflecting that it was not advisable for me to be in such haste before I had fuilly understood all the contents of the papers, I opened them in the presence of the Maha Rajah, when all the
kharetas, letters, copies, and treaties were perused
with the greatest attention and care. First, they convinced us of your great truth and sincerity, and that
you never, from the beginning to this time, were
inclined to the present disputes and hostilities; and
next, that you have not included in the articles of
the treaty any of your wishes or inclinations; and in
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. - NINTH DAY. 391
short, the garden of the treaty appeared to us, in
all its parts, green and flourishing: but though the
fruit of it was excellent, yet they appeared different
from those of Colonel Upton's treaty, (the particulars
of which I have frequently written to you,) and, upon
tasting them, proved to be bitter and very different,
when compared to the former articles. How can any
of the old and established obligations be omitted,
and new matters agreed to, when it is plain that
they will produce losses and damages? Some points
which you have mentioned, under the plea of the faith
and observance of treaties, are of such a nature that
the Poonah ministers can never assent to them. In all
engagements and important transactions, in which the
words but, and although, and besides, and whereas,
and uwhy, and other such words of doubt, are introduced, it gives an opening to disputes and misunderstandings. A treaty is meant for the entire removal of all differences, not for increase of them. My departure to Poonah has therefore been delayed. "
My Lords, consider to what ironies and insults
this nation was exposed, and how necessary it was
for us to originate that bill which your Lordships
passed into an act of Parliament, with his Majesty's
assent. The words but, although, besides, whereas, and
why, and such like, are introduced to give -an opening, and so on. Then he desires him to send another treaty, fit for him to sign.
"I have therefore kept the treaty with the greatest care and caution in my possession, and, having
taken a copy of it, I have added to each article another, which appeared to me proper and advisable,
and without any loss or disadvantage to the English,
? ? ? ? 392 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
or anything more in favor of the Pundit Purdhaun
than what was contained in the former treaties. This
I have sent to you, and hope that you will prepare
and send a treaty conformable to that, without any besides, or if, or why, or but, and whereas, that, as soon as it arrives, I may depart for Poonah, and, having united with me Row Mahdajee Sindia, and having brought
over the Nabob Nizam ul Dowlah to this business, I
may settle and adjust all matters which are in this
bad situation. As soon as I have received my dismission from thence, I would set off for Calcutta, and represent to you everything which for a long while
I have had on my mind, and by this transaction erect
to the view of all the world the standard of the greatness and goodness of the English and of my master,
and extinguish the flames of war with the waters of
friendship. The compassing all these advantages and
happy prospects depends entirely upon your will and
consent; and the power of bringing them to an issue
is in your hands alone. "
My Lords, you may here see the necessity there
was for passing the act of Parliament which I have
just read to you, in order to prevent in future the
recurrence of that want of faith of which Mr. Hastings had been so notoriously guilty, and by which he
had not only united all India against us, and had
hindered us from making, for a long time, any peace
at all, but had exposed the British character to the
irony, scorn, derision, and insult of the whole people
of that vast continent.
My Lords, in the progress of this impeachment,
you have heard our charges; you have heard the
prisoner's plea of merits; you have heard our obser
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -- NINTH DAY. 393
vations on them. In the progress of this impeachnient, you have seen the condition in which Mr. Hastings received Benares; you have seen the condition in which Mr. Hastings received the country of the Rohillas; you have seen the condition in which
he received the country of Oude; you have seen the
condition in which he received the provinces of
Bengal; you have seen the condition of the country
when the native government was succeeded by that
of Mr. Hastings; you have seen the happiness and
prosperity of all its inhabitants, from those of the
highest to those of the lowest rank. My Lords, you
have seen the very reverse of all this under the government of Mr. Hastings, -- the country itself, all its beauty and glory, ending in a jungle for wild beasts.
You have seen flourishing families reduced to implore
that pity which the poorest man and the meanest
situation might very well call for. You have seen
whole nations in the mass reduced to a condition of
the same distress. These things in his government
at home. Abroad, scorn, contempt, and derision cast
upon and covering the British name, war stirred up,
and dishonorable treaties of peace made, by the total
prostitution of British faith. Now take, my Lords,
together, all the multiplied delinquencies which we
have proved, from the highest degree of tyranny to
the lowest degree of sharping and cheating, and then
judge, mny Lords, whether the House of Commons
could rest for one moment, without bringing these
matters, which have baffled all legislation at various times, before you, to try at last what judgment will do. Judgment is what gives force, effect, and
vigor to laws; laws without judgment are contemptible and ridiculous; we had better have no laws than
? ? ? ? 394 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
laws not enforced by judgments and suitable penalties upon delinquents. Revert, my Lords,. to all the sentences which have heretofore been passed by this
high court; look at the sentence passed upon Lord
Bacon, look at the sentence passed upon Lord
Macclesfield; and then compare the sentences which
your ancestors have given with the delinquencies
which were then before them, and you have the measure to be taken in your sentence upon the delinquent now before you. Your sentence, I say, will be measured according to that rule which ought to direct the judgment of all courts in like cases, lessening it for
a lesser offence, and aggravating it for a greater, until
the measure of justice is completely full.
My Lords, I have done; the part of the Commons
is concluded. With a trembling solicitude we consign
this product of our long, long labors to your charge.
Take it! - take it! It is a sacred trust. Never before was a cause of such magnitude submitted to any
human tribunal.
My Lords, at this awful close, in the name of the
Commons, and surrounded by them, I attest the retiring, I attest the advancing generations, between which, as a link in the great chain of eternal order,
we stand. We call this nation, we call the world to
witness, that the Commons have shrunk from no
labor, that we have been guilty of no prevarication,
that we have made no compromise with crime, that
we have not feared any odium whatsoever, in the long
warfare which we have carried on with the crimes,
with the vices, with the exorbitant wealth, with the
enormous and overpowering influence of Eastern
corruption. This war, my Lords, we have waged for
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. -NINTH DAY. 395
twenty-two years, and the conflict has been fought
at your Lordships' bar for the last seven years. My
Lords, twenty-two years is a great space in the scale
of the life of man; it is no inconsiderable space in
the history of a great nation. A business which has
so long occupied the councils and the tribunals of
Great Britain cannot possibly be huddled over in the
course of vulgar, trite, and transitory events. Nothing
but some of those great revolutions that break the
traditionary chain of human memory, and alter the
very face of Nature itself, call possibly obscure it.
My Lords, we are all elevated to a degree of importance by it; the meanest of us will, by means of it, more or less become the concern of posterity, - if we
are yet to hope for such a thing, in the present state
of the world, as a recording, retrospective, civilized
posterity: but this is in the hands of the great
Disposer of events; it is not ours to settle how it shall
be.
My Lords, your House yet stands, -it stands as
a great edifice; but let me say, that it stands in the
midst of ruins, -- in the midst of the ruins that have
been made by the greatest moral earthquake that ever convulsed and shattered this globe of ours. My Lords, it has pleased Providence to place us in such
a state that we appear every moment to be upon the
verge of some great mutations. There is one thing,
and one thing only, which defies all mutation, - that
which existed before the world, and will survive the
fabric of the world itself: I mean justice, --that
justice which, emanating from the Divinity, has a
place in the breast of every one of us, given us for
our guide with regard to ourselves and with regard
to others, and which will stand, after this globe is
? ? ? ? 396 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
burned to ashes, our advocate or our accuser before
the great Judge, when He comes to call upon us for
the tenor of a well-spent life.
My Lords, the Commons will share in every fate
with your Lordships; there is nothing sinister which
can happen to you, in which we shall not be involved:
and if it should so happen that we shall be subjected to some of those frightful clhanges which we have seen, --if it should happen that your Lordships,
stripped of all the decorous distinctions of human
society, should, by hands at once base and cruel, be
led to those scaffolds and machines of murder upon
which great kings and glorious queens have shed their
blood, amidst the prelates, amidst the nobles, amidst
the magistrates who supported their thrones, may you
in those moments feel that consolation which I am
persuaded they felt in the critical moments of their
dreadful agony!
My Lords, there is a consolation, and a great
consolation it is, which often happens to oppressed
virtue and fallen dignity. It often happens that the
very oppressors and persecutors themselves are forced
to bear testimony in its favor. I do not like to go for
instances a great way back into antiquity. I know
very well that length of time operates so as to give an
air of the fabulous to remote events, which lessens
the interest and weakens the application of examples.
I wish to come nearer to the present time. Your
Lordships know and have heard (for which of us has
not known and heard? ) of the Parliament of Paris.
The Parliament of Paris had an origin very, very
similar to that of the great court before which I
stand; the Parliament of Paris continued to have a
great resemblance to it in its constitution, even to its
? ? ? ? SPEECH IN REPLY. NINTH DAY. 397
fall: the Parliament of Parls, my Lords, WAS; it is
gone! It has passed away; it has vanished like a
dream! It fell, pierced by the sword of the Comte
de Mirabeau. Anid yet I will say, that that man, at
the time of his inflicting the death-wound of that
Parliament, produced at once the shortest and the
grandest funeral oration that ever was or could be
made upon the departure of a great court of magistracy. Though lie had himself smarted under its
lash, as every one knows who knows his history, (and
he was elevated to dreadful notoriety in history,) yet,
when he pronounced the death sentence upon that
Parliament, and inflicted the mortal wound, he
declared that his motives for doing it were merely
political, and that their hands were as pure as those
of justice itself, which they administered. A great
and glorious exit, my Lords, of a great and glorious
body! And never was a eulogy pronounced upon a
body more deserved. They were persons, in nobility
of rank, in amplitude of fortune, in weight of authority, in depth of learning, inferior to few of those that hear me. My Lords, it was but the other day that
they submitted their necks to the axe; but their
honor was unwounded. Their enemies, the persons
who sentenced them to death, were lawyers full of
subtlety, they were enemies full of malice; yet
lawyers full of subtlety, and enemies full of malice,
as they were, they did not dare to reproach them with
having supported the wealthy, the great, and powerful, and of having oppressed the weak and feeble, in any of their judgments, or of having perverted justice,
in any one instance whatever, through favor, through
interest, or cabal.
My Lords, if you must fall, may you so fall! But
? ? ? ? 398 IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.
if you stand, -and stand I trust you will, together
with the fortune of this ancient monarchy, together with the ancient laws and liberties of this great and illustrious kingdom, - may you stand as unimpeached in honor as in power! May you stand, not as a substitute for virtue, but as an ornament of virtue, as a security for virtue! May you stand long, and long stand,the terror of tyrants! May you stand the
refuge of afflicted nations! May you stand a sacred temple, for the perpetual residence of an inviolable justice!
? ? ? ? GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS, AND
INDEX.
? ? ? ? GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. 1.
PAGE
Advertisement to the Reader, Prefixed to the First Octavo Edition v Advertisement to the Second,Octavo Edition. . vii
A Vindication of Natural Society: or, A View of the Miseries and
Evils arising to Mankind from every Species of Artificial Society 1
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime
and Beautiful; with an Introductory Discourse concerning Taste 67
A Short Account of a late Short Administration. 263
Observations on a late Publication, intituled, "The Present State of
the Nation". . . 269
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. . . 433
VOL. II.
Speech on American Taxation, April 19, 1774. . 1
Speeches on Arrival at Bristol and at the Conclusion of the Poll,
October 13 and November 3, 1774 81
Speech on moving Resolutions for Conciliation with America, March
22, 1775. 99
Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the Affairs of America, April 3,
1777. . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Two Letters to Gentlemen of Bristol, on the Bills depending in Parliament relative to the Trade of Ireland, April 23 and May 2, 1778. . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Speech on presenting to the House of Commons a Plan for the Better
Security of the Independence of Parliament, and the Economical Reformation of the Civil and other Establishments, February 11, 1780. . . . . . . . . . .
265
Speech at Bristol previous to the Election, September 6, 1780 365
Speech at Bristol on declining the Poll, September 9, 1780. 425
Speech on Mr. Fox's East India Bill, December 1, 1783. 431
A Representation to his Majesty, moved in the House of Commons,
June 14, 1784. . 537
VOL. XII. 26
? ? ? ? 402 GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. III.
Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts, February 28, 1785; with an
Appendix.
Substance of Speech on the Army Estimates, February 9, 1790. 211
Reflections on the Revolution in France. . . 231
VOL. IV.
Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, in Answer to some
Objections to his Book on French Affairs. . . 1
Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.
Letter to a Peer of Ireland on the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics 217
Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, on the Subject of the Roman
Catholics of Ireland. 241
Hints for a Memorial to be delivered to Monsieur de M. M. 307
Thoughts on French Affairs. . 313
Heads for Consideration on the Present State of Affairs. 379
Remarks on the Policy of the Allies with respect to France: with
an Appendix. 403
VOL. V.
Observations on the Conduct of the Minority, particularly in the
last Session of Parliament, 1793. . . . . . . 1
Preface to the Address of M. Brissot to his Constituents: with an
Appendix. 65
Letter to William Elliot, Esq. , occasioned by a Speech made in the
House of Lords by the **** of ~**~*~, in the Debate concerning Lord Fitzwilliam, 1795. 107 Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. 131
Letter to a Noble Lord on the Attacks made upon Mr. Burke and his
Pension, in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and
the Earl of Lauderdale, 1796. 171
Three Letters to a Member of Parliament on the Proposals for Peace
with the Regicide Directory of France.
Letter I. On the Overtures of Peace. 233
Letter II. On the Genius and Character of the French Revolution as it regards other Nations. . . . . 342
Letter III. On the Rupture of the Negotiation; the Terms of
Peace proposed; and the Resources of the Country for
the Continuance of the War. . . . . 384
57
? ? ? ? GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 403
VOL. VI.
Preface to the Second Posthumous Volume, in a Letter to the Right
Hon. William Elliot.
Fourth Letter on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France: with the Preliminary Correspondence. . 1 Letter to the Empress of Russia, November 1, 1791. . 113
Letter to Sir Charles Bingham, Bart. , on the Irish Absentee Tax,.
October 30, 1773. 121
Letter to the Hon. Charles James Fox, on the American War, October 8, 1777. . . 135
Letter to the Marquis of Rockingham, with Addresses to the King,
and the British Colonists in North America, in Relation to the
Measures of Government in the American Contest, and a Proposed Secession of the OppoSition from Parliament, January, 1777. . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Letter to the Right Hon. Edmund S. Pery, in relation to a Bill for
the Relief of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, July 18, 1778. 197
Two Letters to Thomas Burgh, Esq. , and John Merlott, Esq. , in Vindication of his Parliamentary Conduct relative to the Affairs of Ireland, 1780. . . . . . . . . 207
Letters and Reflections on the Executions of the Rioters in 1780. 239
Letter to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas: with the Sketch of a Negro
Code, 1792. . 255
Letter to the Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Meeting, held at
Aylesbury, April 13, 1780, on the Subject of Parliamentary
Reform. . 291
Fragments of a Tract relative to the Laws against Popery in Ireland 299
Letter to William Smith, Esq. , on the Subject of Catholic Emancipation, January 29, 1795. 361
Second Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, on the Catholic Question,
May 26, 1795. . . . . . . . . . 375
Letter to Richard Burke, Esq. , on Protestant Ascendency in Ireland, 1793. . . . . . . . . . . 385
Letter on the Affairs of Ireland, 1797. 413
VOL. VII.
Fragments and Notes of Speeches in Parliament.
Speech on the Acts of Uniformity, February 6, 1772. . 3
Speech on a Bill for the Relief of Protestant Dissenters, March
17, 1773. . . . . . . . . 21
Speech on a Motion for Leave to bring in a Bill to repeal and
alter certain Acts respecting Religious Opinions, upon the
Occasion of a Petition of the Unitarian Society, May 11,
1792. . . . . . . . . . . 39
? ? ? ? 404 GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Speech relative to the Middlesex Election, February 7, 1771. 69
Speech on a Bill for shortening the Duration of Parliaments,
May 8, 1780. 69
Speech on a Motion for a Committee to inquire into the State of
the Representation of the Commons in Parliament, May 7,
1782. . . . . . . . . . . 89
Speech on a Motion for Leave to bring in a Bill for explaining
the Powers of Juries in Prosecutions for Libels, March 7,
1771. Together with a Letter in Vindication of that Measure, and a Copy of the proposed Bill. 105
Speech on a Bill for the Repeal of the Marriage Act, June 15, 1781 129
Speech on a Motion for Leave to bring in a Bill to quiet the Possessions of the Subject against Dormant Claims of the Church, February 17, 1772. 137
Hints for an Essay on the Drama. . 143
An Essay towards an Abridgment of the English History. In Three
Books.
Book I. To the Fall of the Roman Power in Britain. 159
Book II. To the Norman Invasion. 227
Book III. Through the Reign of John. 327
Fragment. - An Essay towards an History of the
Laws of England. 475
VOL. VIII.
Ninth Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on
the Affairs of India, June 25, 1783.