The historian Piers Brendon asserts that Burke laid the moral foundations for the British Empire, epitomised in the trial of Warren Hastings, that was ultimately to be its undoing: when Burke stated that "The British Empire must be governed on a plan of freedom, for it will be governed by no other", this was "...an ideological bacillus that would prove fatal. This was Edmund Burke's paternalistic doctrine that colonial government was a trust. It was to be so exercised for the benefit of subject people that they would eventually attain their birthright—freedom". As a consequence of this opinion, Burke objected to the opium trade, which he called a "smuggling adventure" and condemned "the great Disgrace of the British character in India".
The historian Piers Brendon asserts that Burke laid the moral foundations for the British Empire , epitomised in the trial of Warren Hastings , that was ultimately to be its undoing : when Burke stated that " The British Empire must be governed on a plan of freedom , for it will be governed by no other " , this was " ... an ideological bacillus that would prove fatal . This was Edmund Burke 's paternalistic doctrine that colonial government was a trust . It was to be so exercised for the benefit of subject people that they would eventually attain their birthright — freedom " . As a consequence of this opinion , Burke objected to the opium trade , which he called a " smuggling adventure " and condemned " the great Disgrace of the British character in India " .
Who thought Burke's trial of Hastings was a moral foundation of the British Empire?
Who thought Burke 's trial of Hastings was a moral foundation of the British Empire ?
Piers Brendon
Piers Brendon