To complete the business, most of the wretched remnants of this revenue are mortgaged, and delivered into the hands of the usurers at Benares (for there alone are to be found some lingering remains of the ancient wealth of these regions) at an interest of near thirty per cent per annum.
Edmund Burke: “To complete the business, most of the wretched remnants of this revenue are mortgaged, and delivered into the hands of…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke critiques the exploitation of local resources and the usurious practices that further impoverish the population.
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The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.





