What reason can be given for not taking bribes also from Burdwan, from Bissunpore, in short, from all the sixty-eight collections which comprise the revenues of Bengal, and for selecting only three?
Burke questions the selective nature of bribery in colonial governance.
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More from Edmund Burke
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
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