Hastings must have pledged a tacit faith for some degree of indulgence towards the donor: if it was a free gift, gratitude, if it was a bargain, justice obliged him to do it.
Edmund Burke: “Hastings must have pledged a tacit faith for some degree of indulgence towards the donor: if it was a free gift…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke posits that Hastings had an obligation to act justly towards the donor of a gift, whether it was a free gift or a bargain.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
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.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.





