Edmund Burke

If the same administration continues, and the country shall again labor under a want of rain, every field will be abandoned, the revenue fail, and thousands perish through want of subsistence: for who will labor for the sole benefit of…

The distresses which were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably tended to heighten the general discontent; yet I have reason to fear that the cause existed principally in a defective, if not a corrupt and oppressive…

It was what I expected in a degree, because it is rare that the exercise of authority should prove satisfactory to all who are the objects of it.

But should she refuse to execute the promise she has made, or delay it beyond the term of twenty-four hours, it is my positive injunction that you immediately put a stop to any further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on no pretext…

I think every demand she has made to you, except that of safety and respect for her person, is unreasonable.

Whoever, with his hands in a supplicating posture, is ready with his life and property, what necessity can there be for him to be dealt with in this way?

In case my honor is not left to me, how shall I be equal to the business of the government?

It depends on you alone to take away or not to take away the country out of my hands.

It expresses no concern for the causes of complaint contained in my letter, or desire to atone for them, nor the smallest intention to pursue a different line of conduct.

This answer you will perceive to be not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style, and less a vindication of himself than a recrimination on me.

I have never swerved in the smallest degree from my duty to you.

My enemies, with a view to my ruin, have made false representations to you.

If a Resident was appointed to receive the money, as it became due, at Benares, such a Resident would unavoidably acquire an influence over the Rajah, and over his country, which would in effect render him the master of both.

It did not relieve the Company from the expense of defending the country; since the revenues thereof far exceeded the subsidy to be paid by Sujah Dowlah, and these revenues justly belonged to the Company as long as the country continued…

It could not strengthen our alliance with Sujah ul Dowlah; since, paying a price for a purchase, he received no favor and incurred no obligation.

That the sale of these provinces to Sujah Dowlah involved the East India Company in a triple breach of justice; since by the same act they violated a treaty, they sold the property of another, and they alienated a deposit committed to…

The applause of my own breast is my surest reward, and was the support of my mind in meeting them: your applause, and that of my country, are my next wish in life.

I am ready to answer every particular question that may be put against myself, upon honor or upon oath.

If I appear in any unfavorable light by these transactions, I resign the common and legal security of those who commit crimes or errors.

If I had at any time possessed that degree of confidence from my immediate employers which they never withheld from the meanest of my predecessors, I should have disdained to use these attentions.

I own I feel most sensibly the mortification of being reduced to the necessity of using such precautions to guard my reputation from dishonor.

I trust, Honorable Sirs, to your breasts for a candid interpretation of my actions, and assume the freedom to add, that I think myself, on such a subject, and on such an occasion, entitled to it.

But it was as great a crime to dissolve the Council upon base and sinister motives as it would be to assume the power of dissolving, if he had it not.

No Governor ought to hear in silence such charges; and no Court of Directors ought to have slept upon them.

We know not how this assertion is to be made good, unless the most daring and flagrant prostitution in every branch be deemed an honor to his administration.