Dictionary of Indian Biography/Burke, Edmund
BURKE, EDMUND (1729–1797)
Son of Richard Burke: born Jan. 12, 1729: educated at Ballitore and Trinity College, Dublin, 1743–8: entered at the Middle Temple, but not called to the bar: took to literature: founded the Annual Register, 1759: Private Secretary to Lord Rockingham, Prime Minister, 1765: M.P. for Wendover, 1765–74: for Bristol, 1774–80: for Malton, 1781–94: Paymaster of the Forces, 1782–3: his connexion with India extended over many years: he attacked the E. I. Co., 1766: refused, in 1772, an offer by the E. I. Co.'s Directors, of an appointment to reform their adminstration: opposed Lord North's "Regulating Act," 1773: was member of the Committee on the affairs of the E.I. Co., 1783, wrote both the Ninth Report on the trade of Bengal and the system pursued by Warren Hastings, and the Eleventh Report on the system of presents: drafted Fox's. East India Bill, 1783: attacked Hastings in a speech on the debts of the Nawab of Arcot, 1785, and again on the Rohilla war, 1786: impeached Hastings before the House of Lords, May, 1787: led the impeachment at the trial of Hastings in Westminster Hall, Feb., 1788: secured its continuation in a new Parliament, 1790: spoke for nine days in May-June, 1794, in reply to Hastings' defence: Hastings was acquitted in April, 1795: Burke died July 9, 1797: no further allusion need be made here to his writings, speeches in Parliament and political. career, which are well known apart from his relations to India.