[The Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IX. (of 12) by Edmund Burke]@TWC D-Link bookThe Works Of The Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IX. (of 12) PART V 3/4
And that such a gross and palpable display of a predetermination to discover guilt did argue in the said Johnson a knowledge, a strong presumption, or a belief, that such representations would be agreeable to the secret wishes and views of the said Hastings, under whose orders he, the said Johnson, acted, and to whom all his reports were to be referred. IX.
That the said Richard Johnson, did soon after proceed to the immediate object of his mission, "which" (the said Johnson relates) "was short to a degree." The demand was made, and "a flat refusal" given.
The question was repeated, with like effect.
The said Johnson, in presence of proper witnesses, then drew up his protest, "together with a memorandum of _a palliative offer_ made by the Nabob Fyzoola Khan," and inserted in the protest:--"That he would, in compliance with the demand, and _in conformity to the treaty, which specified no definite number of cavalry or infantry, only expressing troops_, furnish three thousand men: viz., he would, in addition to the one thousand cavalry already granted, give one thousand more, when and wheresoever required, and one thousand foot,"-- together with one year's pay in advance, and funds for the regular payment of them in future. And this, the said Richard Johnson observes, "I put down at his [the Nabob Fyzoola Khan's] particular desire, but otherwise useless; as _my orders_" (which orders do not appear) "_were, not to receive any palliation, but a negative or affirmative_": though such palliation, as it is called by the said Johnson, might be, as it was, in the strictest conformity to the treaty. X.That in the said offer the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, instead of palliating, did at once admit the extreme right of the Vizier under the treaty, by agreeing to furnish three thousand men, when he, Fyzoola Khan, would have been justified in pleading his inability to send more than two thousand; that such inability would not (as appears) have been a false and evasive plea, but perfectly true and valid,--as the three thousand foot maintained by Fyzoola Khan were for the purposes of his internal government, for which the whole three thousand must have been demonstrably necessary; and that the Nabob Fyzoola Khan, by declining to avail himself of a plea so fair, so well founded, and so consonant to the indulgence expressly acknowledged in the treaty, and by thus meeting the specific demand of the Vizier as fully as, according to his own military establishment, he could, did for the said offer deserve rather the thanks of the said Vizier and the Company than the protest which the aforesaid Johnson, under the orders of Warren Hastings, did deliver. XI.
That the report of the said protest, as well as the former letter of the said Johnson, were by the Resident, Middleton, transmitted to the board, together with a letter from the Vizier, founded on the said report and letter of the said Johnson, and proposing in consequence "to resume the grant, and to leave Fyzoola Khan to join his other faithless brethren who were sent across the Ganges." That the said papers were read in Council on the 4th of June, 1781, when the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, did move and carry a vote to suspend a final resolution on the same: and the said Hastings did not express any disapprobation of the proceedings of the said Johnson; neither did the said Hastings assign any reasons for his motion of suspension, which passed without debate.
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