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diff --git a/old/spweb10.txt b/old/spweb10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0686968 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/spweb10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16562 @@ +PG's Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke +#2 in our series by Edmund Burke. + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Sue Asscher asschers@dingoblue.net.au +from the book made available by Dr Mike Alder. + + + + + +SELECTIONS FROM THE SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF EDMUND BURKE. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. + +... + +"Id dico, eum qui sit orator, virum bonum esse oportere. In omnibus quae +dicit tanta auctoritas inest, ut dissentire pudeat; nec advocati +studium, sed testis aut judicis afferat fidem."--Quintilianus. + +"Democracy is the most monstrous of all governments, because it is +impossible at once to act and control; and, consequently, the Sovereign +Power is then left without any restraint whatever. That form of +government is the best which places the efficient direction in the hands +of the aristocracy, subjecting them in its exercise to the control of +the people at large."--Sir James Mackintosh. + +... + +The intellectual homage of more than half a century has assigned to +Edmund Burke a lofty pre-eminence in the aristocracy of mind, and we may +justly assume succeeding ages will confirm the judgment which the Past +has thus pronounced. His biographical history is so popularly known, +that it is almost superfluous to record it in this brief introduction. +It may, however, be summed up in a few sentences. He was born at Dublin +in 1730. His father was an attorney in extensive practice, and his +mother's maiden name was Nogle, whose family was respectable, and +resided near Castletown, Roche, where Burke himself received five years +of boyish education under the guidance of a rustic schoolmaster. He was +entered at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1746, but only remained there +until 1749. In 1753 he became a member of the Middle Temple, and +maintained himself chiefly by literary toil. Bristol did itself the +honour to elect him for her representative in 1774, and after years of +splendid usefulness and mental triumph, as an orator, statesman, and +patriot, he retired to his favourite retreat, Beaconsfield, in +Buckinghamshire, where he died on July 9th, 1797. He was buried here; +and the pilgrim who visits the grave of this illustrious man, when he +gazes on the simple tomb which marks the earthly resting?place of +himself, brother, son, and widow, may feelingly recall his own pathetic +wish uttered some forty years before, in London:--"I would rather sleep +in the southern corner of a little country churchyard, than in the tomb +of the Capulets. I should like, however, that my dust should mingle with +kindred dust. The good old expression, 'family burying?ground,' has +something pleasing in it, at least to me." Alluding to his approaching +dissolution, he thus speaks, in a letter addressed to a relative of his +earliest schoolmaster:--"I have been at Bath these four months for no +purpose, and am therefore to be removed to my own house at Beaconsfield +to-morrow, to be nearer a habitation more permanent, humbly and +fearfully hoping that my better part may find a better mansion." It is a +source of deep thankfulness for those who reverence the genius and +eloquence of this great man, to state, that Burke's religion was that of +the Cross, and to find him speaking of the "Intercession" of our +Redeeming Lord, as "what he had long sought with unfeigned anxiety, and +to which he looked with trembling hope." The commencing paragraph in his +Will also authenticates the genuine character of his personal +Christianity. "According to the ancient, good, and laudable custom, of +which my heart and understanding recognise the propriety, I BEQUEATH MY +SOUL TO GOD, HOPING FOR HIS MERCY ONLY THROUGH THE MERITS OF OUR LORD +AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. My body I desire to be buried in the church of +Beaconsfield, near to the bodies of my dearest brother, and my dearest +son, in all humility praying, that as we have lived in perfect unity +together, we may together have part in the resurrection of the just." +(In the "Epistolary Correspondence of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke and +Dr. French Laurence" (Rivingtons, London, 1827), are several touching +allusions to that master?grief which threw a mournful shadow over the +closing period of Burke's life. In one letter the anxious father says, +"The fever continues much as it was. He sleeps in a very uneasy way from +time to time?-but his strength decays visibly, and his voice is, in a +manner, gone. But God is all?sufficient?-and surely His goodness and his +mother's prayers may do much" (page 30). Again, in another communication +addressed to his revered correspondent, we find a beautiful allusion to +his departed son, which involves his belief in that most soothing +doctrine of the Church,--a recognition of souls in the kingdom of the +Beatified. "Here I am in the last retreat of hunted infirmity; I am +indeed 'aux abois.' But, as through the whole of a various and long life +I have been more indebted than thankful to Providence, so I am now +singularly so, in being dismissed, as hitherto I appear to be, so gently +from life, AND SENT TO FOLLOW THOSE WHO IN COURSE OUGHT TO HAVE FOLLOWED +ME, WHOM, I TRUST, I SHALL YET, IN SOME INCONCEIVABLE MANNER, SEE AND +KNOW; AND BY WHOM I SHALL BE SEEN AND KNOWN" (pages 53, 54). + +In reference to the intellectual grandeur, the eloquent genius, and +prophetic wisdom of Burke, which have caused his writings to become +oracles for future statesmen to consult, it is quite unnecessary for +contemporary criticism to speak. By the concurring judgment, both of +political friends and foes, as well as by the highest arbiters of taste +throughout the civilized world, Burke has been pronounced, not only +"primus inter pares," but "facile omnium princeps." At the termination +of these introductory remarks, the reader will be presented with +critical portraitures of Burke from the writings and speeches of men, +who, while opposed to him in their principles of legislative policy, +with all the chivalry and candour of genius paid a noble homage to the +vastness and variety of his unrivalled powers. Meanwhile, it may not be +presumptuous for a writer, on an occasion like the present, to +contemplate this great man under certain aspects, which, perhaps, are +not sufficiently regarded in their DISTINCTIVE bearings on the worth and +wisdom of his character and writings. We say "distinctive," because the +eloquence of Burke, beyond that of all other orators and statesmen which +Great Britain has produced, is featured with expressions, and +characterised by qualities, as peculiar as they are immortal. So far as +invention, imagination, moral fervour, and metaphorical richness of +illustration, combined with that intense "pathos and ethos," which the +Roman critic describes ("Huc igitur incumbat orator: hoc opus ejus, hic +labor est; sine quo caetera nuda, jejuna, infirma, ingrata sunt: adeo +velut spiritus operis hujus atque animus est IN AFFECTIBUS. Horum autem, +sicut antiquitus traditum accepimus, duae sunt species: alteram Graeci +pathos vocant, quem nos vertentes recte ac proprie AFFECTUM dicimus; +alteram ethos, cujus nomine (ut ego quidem sentio) caret sermo Romanus, +mores appellantur."--Quintilian, "Instit. Orat." lib. vi. cap. 2.) as +essential to the true orator, are concerned, the author of "Reflections +on the French Revolution," and "Letters on a Regicide Peace," is justly +admired and appreciated. Moreover, if what we understand by the +"sublime" in eloquence has ever been embodied, the speeches and writings +of Burke appear to have been drawn from those five sources ("pegai") to +which Longinus alludes. In the 8th chapter of his fragment "On the +Sublime," he observes, that if we assume an ability for speaking well, +as a common basis, there are five copious fountains from whence +sublimity in eloquence may be said to flow; viz. + +1. Boldness and grandeur of thought. + +2. The pathetic, or the power of exciting the passions into an +enthusiastic reach and noble degree. + +3. A skilful application of figures, both from sentiment and language. + +4. A graceful, finished, and ornate style, embellished by tropes and +metaphors. + +5. Lastly, as that which completes all the rest,--the structure of +periods, in dignity and grandeur. + +These five sources of the sublime, the same philosophical critic +distinguishes into two classes; the first two he asserts to be gifts of +nature, and the remaining three are considered to depend, in a great +measure, upon literature and art. Again, if we may linger for a moment +in the attractive region of classical authorship, how justly applicable +are the words of Cicero in his "De Oratore," to the vastness and variety +of Burke's attainments! "Ac mea quidem sententia, nemo poterit esse omni +laude cumulatus orator, nisi erit OMNIUM RERUM MAGNARUM ATQUE ARTIUM +SCIENTIAM CONSECUTUS."--Cic. "De Orat." lib. i. cap. 6. Equally +descriptive of Burke's power in raising the dormant sensibilities of our +moral nature by his intuitive perception of what that nature really and +fundamentally is, are the following expressions of the same great +authority:--"Quis enim nescit, maximam vim existere oratoris, in hominum +mentibus vel ad iram aut ad odium, aut dolorem incitandis, vel, ab +hisce, iisdem permonitionibus, ad lenitatem misericordiamque revocandis? +Quare, NISI QUI NATURAS HOMINUM, VIMQUE OMNEM HUMANITATIS, CAUSASQUE EAS +QUIBUS MENTES AUT EXCITANTUR, AUT REFLECTUNTUR, PENITUS PERSPEXERIT, +DICENDO, QUOD VOLET, PERFICERE NON POTERIT."--Cic. "De Orat." lib. i. +cap. 12. + +But to return. If a critical analysis of Burke, as an exhibition of +genius, be attempted, his characteristic endowments may, probably, be +not incorrectly represented by the following succinct statement. + +1. Endless variety in connection with exhaustless vigour of mind. + +2. A lofty power of generalisation, both in speculative views and in his +argumentative process. + +3. Vivid intensity of conception, which caused abstractions to stand out +with almost living force and visible feature, in his impassioned +moments. + +4. An imagination of oriental luxuriance, whose incessant play in +tropes, metaphors, and analogies, frequently causes his speeches to +gleam on the intellectual eye, as Aeschylus says the ocean does, when +the Sun irradiates its bosom with the "anerithmon gelasma" of countless +beams. 5. His positive acquirements in all the varied realms of art, +science, and literature, endowed him with such vast funds of knowledge +(In the wealth of his multitudinous acquirements, Burke seems to realise +Cicero's ideal of what a perfect orator should know:--"Equidem omnia, +quae pertinent ad usum civium, morem hominum, quae versantur in +consuetudine vitae, in ratione reipublicae, in hac societate civili, in +sensu hominum communi, in natura, in moribus, co hendenda esse oratori +puto."--Cicero "De Orat." lib. ii. cap. 16.), that Johnson declared of +Burke--"Enter upon what subject you will, and Burke is ready to meet +you." + +6. In addition to these high gifts, may be added, an ability to wield +the weapons of sarcasm and irony, with a keenness of application and +effect rarely equalled. But, in all candour, it may be added, that just +as a profusion of figures and metaphors sometimes tempted this great +orator into incongruous images and coarse analogies, so his passion for +irony was occasionally too intense. Hence, there are occasions where his +pungency is embittered into acrimony, strength degenerates into +vulgarism, and the vehemence of satire is infuriated with the fierceness +of invective. + +7. With regard to language and style, it may be truly said, they were +the absolute vassals of his Genius, and did homage to its command in +every possible mode by which it chose to employ them. Thus, in his +"Letters on a Regicide Peace," and above all, in "French Revolutions," +the reader will find almost every conceivable manner of style and mode +of expression the English language can develop; and what is +more,--together with classical richness, there are also the pointed +seriousness and persuasive simplicity of our own vernacular Saxon, which +increase the attractions of Burke's style to a wonderful extent. But, +beyond controversy, among these great endowments, the imaginative +faculty is that which appears to be the most transcendent in the mental +constitution of Burke. And so truly is this the case, that both among +his contemporaries, as well as among his successors, this predominance +of imagination has caused his just claims as a philosophic thinker and +statesman to be partially overlooked. The union of ideal theory and +practical realisation, of imaginative creation with logical induction, +is indeed so rare, we cannot be surprised at the injustice which the +genius of Burke has had to endure in this respect. And yet, in the +nature of our faculties themselves, there exists no necessity why a +vivid power to conceive ideas, should NOT be combined with a dialectic +skill in expressing them. Degerando, an admirable French writer, in one +of his Treatises, has some profound observations on this subject; and +does not hesitate to define poetry itself as a species of "logique +cachee." + +But when we assert that these excellencies, which have thus been +succinctly exhibited, characterise the mental constitution of Burke, we +do not mean that others have not, in their degree, possessed similar +endowments. Such an inference would be an absurd extravagance. But what +we mean to affirm is--the qualifications enumerated have never been +combined into co-operative harmony, and developed in proportionable +effect, as they appear in the speeches and writings of this wonderful +man. But after all, we have not reached what may be considered a +peerless excellence, the peculiar gift,--the one great and glorious +distinction, which separates Burke's oratory from that of all others, +and which has caused his speeches to be blended with political History, +and to incorporate themselves with the moral destiny of Europe,--namely, +HIS INTUITIVE PERCEPTION OF UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES. The truth of this +statement may be verified, by comparing the eloquence of Burke with +specimens of departed orators; or by a reference to existing standards +in the parliamentary debates. Compared, then, either with the speeches +of Chatham, Holland, Pitt, Fox, etc. etc., we perceive at once the grand +distinction to which we refer. These illustrious men were effective +debaters, and, in various senses, orators of surpassing excellency. But +how is it, that with all their allowed grandeur of intellect and +political eminence, they have ceased to operate upon the hearts and +minds of the present Age, either as teachers of political Truth, or +oracles of legislative Wisdom? Simply, BECAUSE they were too popular in +temporary effect, ever to become influential by permanent inspiration. +In their highest moods, and amid their noblest hours of triumph, they +were "of the earth earthy." Party; personality; crushing rejoinders, or +satirical attacks; a felicitous exposure of inconsistency, or a +triumphant self-vindication; brilliant repartees, and logical +gladiatorship,--such are among the prominent characteristics which +caused parliamentary debates in Burke's day to be so animating and +interesting to those who heard, or perused them, amid the excitements of +the hour. It is not to be denied that commanding eloquence, vast genius, +political ardour, intellectual enthusiasm, together with indignant +denunciation and argumentative subtlety, were thus summoned into +exercise by the perils of the Nation, and the contentions of Party. +Nevertheless, the local, the temporal, the conventional, and the +individual, in all which relates to the science of politics or the +tactics of partisanship,--are sufficient to excite and employ the +energies and qualities which made the general parliamentary debates of +Burke's period so captivating. But when we revert to his own speeches +and writings, we at once perceive WHY, as long as the mind can +comprehend what is true, the heart appreciate what is pure, or the +conscience authenticate the sanction of heaven and the distinctions +between right and wrong,--Edmund Burke will continue to be admired, +revered, and consulted, not only as the greatest of English orators, but +as the profoundest teacher of political Science. It was not that he +despised the arrangement of facts, or overlooked the minutiae of detail; +on the contrary, as may be proved by his speeches on "economical +reform," and Warren Hastings; in these respects his research was +boundless, and his industry inexhaustible. Moreover, he was quite alive +to the claims of a crisis, and with the coolness and calm of a practical +statesman, knew how to confront a sudden emergency, and to contend with +a gigantic difficulty. Yet all these qualifications recede before +Burke's amazing power of expanding particulars into universals, and of +associating the accidents of a transient discussion with the essential +properties of some permanent Law in policy, or abstract Truth in morals. +His genius looked through the local to the universal; in the temporal +perceived the eternal; and while facing the features of the Individual, +was enabled to contemplate the attributes of a Race. (Cicero, in many +respects a counterpart of Burke, both in statesmanship and oratory, +appears to recognise what is here expressed when he says:--"Plerique duo +genera ad dicendum dederunt; UNUM DE CERTA DEFINITAQUE CAUSA, quales +sunt quae in litibus, quae in deliberationibus versantur;--alterum, quod +appellant omnes fere scriptores, explicat nemo, INFINITAM GENERIS SINE +TEMPORE, ET SINE PERSONA quaestionem."--"De Orat." lib. ii. cap. 15.) +Hence his speeches are virtual prophecies; and his writings a storehouse +of pregnant axioms and predictive enunciations, as limitless in their +range as they are undying in duration. In one word, no speeches +delivered in the English Parliament, are so likely to be eternalized as +Burke's, because he has combined with his treatment of some especial +case or contingency before him, the assertion of immutable Principles, +which can be detached from what is local and national, and thus made to +stand forth alone in all the naked grandeur of their truth and their +tendency. Let us be permitted to investigate this topic a little +further. If, then, what Quintilian asserted of the Roman orator may be +applied to our own British Cicero,--"Ille se profecisse sciat, cui +Cicero valde placebit;" and if, moreover, this pre-eminence be chiefly +discovered in Burke's instinctive grasp of that moral essence which is +incorporated with all questions of political Science, and social +Ethics--from WHENCE came this diviner energy of his Genius? No believer +in Christian revelation will hesitate to appropriate, even to this +subject, the apostolic axiom, "EVERY good gift, and EVERY perfect gift +is from above." But while we subscribe with reverential sincerity to +this announcement, it is equally true, that the Infinite Inspirer of all +good adjusts His secret energies by certain laws, and condescends to +work by analogous means. Bearing this in mind, we venture to think +Burke's gift of almost prescient insight into the recesses of our common +nature, and his consummate faculty of instructing the Future through the +medium of the Present,--were partly derived from the elevation of his +sentiments, and the purity of his private life. (The action and reaction +maintained between our moral and intellectual elements is but remotely +discussed by Quintilian in his "Institutes." But still, in more than one +passage, he most impressively declares, that mental proficiency is +greatly retarded by perversity of heart and will. For instance, on one +occasion we find him speaking thus:--"Nihil enim est tam occupatum, tam +multiforme, tot ac tam variis affectibus concisum, atque laceratum, quam +mala ac improba mens. Quis inter haec, literis, aut ulli bonae arti, +locus? Non hercle magis quam frugibus, in terra sentibus ac rubis +occupata."--"Nothing is so flurried and agitated, so self?contradictory, +or so violently rent and shattered by conflicting passions, as a bad +heart. In the distractions which it produces, what room is there for the +cultivation of letters, or the pursuits of any honourable art? +Assuredly, no more than there is for the growth of corn in a field +overrun with thorns and brambles.") It would be unwise to draw invidious +comparisons, but no student of the period in which Burke was in +Parliament, can deny that, compared with SOME of his illustrious +contemporaries, he was indeed a model of what reason and conscience +alike approve in all the relative duties and personal conduct of a man, +when beheld in his domestic career. It is, indeed, a source of deep +thankfulness, the admirer of Burke's genius in public, has no reason to +blush for his character in private; and that when we have listened to +his matchless oratory upon the arena of the House of Commons, we have +not to mourn over dissipation, impurity, and depravity amid the circles +of private history. Our theory, then, is, that beyond what his +distinctive genius inspired, Burke's wondrous power of enunciating +everlasting principles and of associating the loftiest abstractions of +wisdom with the commonest themes of the hour,--was sustained and +strengthened by the purity of his heart, and the subjection of passion +to the law of conscience. And if the worshippers of mere intellect, +apart from, or as opposed to, moral elevation, are inclined to ridicule +this view of Burke's genius, we beg to remind them, that "One greater +than the Temple" of mortal Wisdom, and all the idols enshrined therein, +has asserted a positive connection to exist between mental insight and +moral purity. We allude to the Redeemer's words, when He declares,--"If +any man WILLS to do His will, he shall KNOW of the doctrine." HOW the +passions act upon our perceptions, and by what process the motions of +the Will elevate or depress the forces of the Intellect, is beyond our +metaphysics to analyse. But that there exists a real, active, and +influential connection between our moral and mental life, is undeniable: +and since Burke's power of seizing the essential Idea, or fundamental +Principle of every complex detail which came before him, was +pre-eminently his gift,--the intellectual insight such gift developed, +was not only an expression of senatorial wisdom, but also a witness for +the elevation of his moral character. We must now allude to the public +conduct of Burke, as a Statesman and Politician, and only regret the +limited range of a popular essay confines us to one view, namely, his +alleged inconsistency. There WAS a period when charges of apostasy were +brought against him with reckless audacity: but Time, the instructor of +ignorance, and the subduer of prejudice, is now beginning to place the +conduct of Burke in its true light. The facts of the case are briefly +these. Up to the period of 1791, Fox and Burke fought in the same rank +of opposition, and stood together upon a basis of complete identity in +principle and sentiment. But even before the celebrated disruption of +1791, the progress of Republicanism in America, and the approaching +separation of the colonies from their parent state, Burke's views of +political liberty had received extensive modifications; and the ardour +of his confidence in the so?called friends of freedom had been greatly +cooled. But in 1791, the disruption between Burke and Fox became open, +absolute, and final, when the latter statesman uttered, in the hearing +of his friend, this fearful eulogium on the French Revolution:--"The new +constitution of France is the most stupendous and glorious edifice of +liberty which had been erected on the foundation of human integrity in +any age or country!" (That ancient Sage unto whose political wisdom +frequent reference has been made in this essay, thus speaks on the +reverence due unto an existing government, even when contemplated from +its weakest side:--"Formidable as these arguments seem, they may be +opposed by others of not less weight; arguments which prove that even +the rust of government is to be respected, and that its fabric is never +to be touched but with a fearful and trembling hand. When the evil of +persevering in hereditary institutions is small, it ought always to be +endured, because the evil of departing from them is certainly very +great. Slight imperfections, therefore, whether in the laws themselves, +or in those who administer and execute the laws, ought always to be +overlooked, because they cannot be corrected without occasioning a much +greater mischief, and tending to weaken that reverence which the safety +of all governments requires that the citizens at large should entertain, +cultivate, and cherish for the hereditary institutions of their country. +The comparison drawn from the improvement of arts does not apply to the +amendment of laws. To change or improve an art, and to alter or amend a +law, are things as dissimilar in their operation as different in their +tendency; for laws operate as practical principles of moral action; and, +like all the rules of morality, derive their force and efficacy, as even +the name imports, from the customary repetition of habitual acts, and +the slow operation of time. Every alteration of the laws, therefore, +tends to subvert that authority on which the persuasive agency of all +laws is founded, and to abridge, weaken, and destroy the power of the +law itself."--Aristotle's "Politics.") The reply of Burke to this burst +of Jacobinism, with all its consequences in the political history of +Europe, is far too well known to be quoted here. But, since it was at +this point in the career of Burke the charge of apostasy was commenced, +and which has never quite died away, even in existing times, we may be +permitted, first, to cite a noble passage from Burke's self?vindication; +and secondly, to adduce a still more impressive evidence of his +political rectitude and wisdom, derived from the admission of those who +were once his uncompromising opponents. In relation to the attacks of +Fox upon his supposed inconsistency, Mr. Burke thus replies:-- + +"I pass to the next head of charge,--Mr. Burke's inconsistency. It is +certainly a great aggravation of his fault in embracing false opinions, +that in doing so he is not supposed to fill up a void, but that he is +guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is +the great gist of the charge against him. It is not so much that he is +wrong in his book (that however is alleged also), as that he has therein +belied his whole life. I believe, if he could venture to value himself +upon anything, it is on the virtue of consistency that he would value +himself the most. Strip him of this, and you leave him naked indeed. + +"In the case of any man who had written something, and spoken a great +deal, upon very multifarious matter, during upwards of twenty?five +years' public service, and in as great a variety of important events as +perhaps have ever happened in the same number of years, it would appear +a little hard, in order to charge such a man with inconsistency, to see +collected by his friend, a sort of digest of his sayings, even to such +as were merely sportive and jocular. This digest, however, has been +made, with equal pains and partiality, and without bringing out those +passages of his writings which might tend to show with what restrictions +any expressions, quoted from him, ought to have been understood. From a +great statesman he did not quite expect this mode of inquisition. If it +only appeared in the works of common pamphleteers, Mr. Burke might +safely trust to his reputation. When thus urged, he ought, perhaps, to +do a little more. It shall be as little as possible, for I hope not much +is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful +to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who +make them, to which they are not entitled for their matter. "A man who, +among various objects of his equal regard, is secure of some, and full +of anxiety for the fate of others, is apt to go to much greater lengths +in his preference of the objects of his immediate solicitude than Mr. +Burke has ever done. A man so circumstanced often seems to undervalue, +to vilify, almost to reprobate and disown, those that are out of danger. +This is the voice of nature and truth, and not of inconsistency and +false pretence. The danger of anything very dear to us removes, for the +moment, every other affection from the mind. When Priam had his whole +thoughts employed on the body of his Hector, he repels with indignation, +and drives from him with a thousand reproaches, his surviving sons, who +with an officious piety crowded about him to offer their assistance. A +good critic (there is no better than Mr. Fox) would say, that this is a +master?stroke, and marks a deep understanding of nature in the father of +poetry. He would despise a Zoilus, who would conclude from this passage +that Homer meant to represent this man of affliction as hating, or being +indifferent and cold in his affections to the poor relics of his house, +or that he preferred a dead carcass to his living children. + +"Mr. Burke does not stand in need of an allowance of this kind, which, +if he did, by candid critics ought to be granted to him. If the +principles of a mixed constitution be admitted, he wants no more to +justify to consistency everything he has said and done during the course +of a political life just touching to its close. I believe that gentleman +has kept himself more clear of running into the fashion of wild, +visionary theories, or of seeking popularity through every means, than +any man perhaps ever did in the same situation. + +"He was the first man who, on the hustings, at a popular election, +rejected the authority of instructions from constituents; or who, in any +place, has argued so fully against it. Perhaps the discredit into which +that doctrine of compulsive instructions under our constitution is since +fallen, may be due, in a great degree, to his opposing himself to it in +that manner, and on that occasion. + +"The reformers in representation, and the Bills for shortening the +duration of Parliaments, he uniformly and steadily opposed for many +years together, in contradiction to many of his best friends. These +friends, however, in his better days, when they had more to hope from +his service and more to fear from his loss than now they have, never +chose to find any inconsistency between his acts and expressions in +favour of liberty, and his votes on those questions. But there is a time +for all things." We need not, however, confine our vindication of Burke +to his own eloquence, but invite the especial attention of his accusers +and defamers unto two forgotten facts: 1st. A few weeks before Fox died, +he dictated a despatch to Lord Yarmouth, which confirmed all the policy +for which Pitt for fifteen years had contended: moreover, in a debate on +Wyndham's "Military System," 1806, Fox thus delivered his own +recantation:--"Indeed, by the circumstances of Europe, I AM READY TO +CONFESS I HAVE BEEN WEANED FROM THE OPINIONS I FORMERLY HELD WITH +RESPECT TO THE FORCE WHICH MIGHT SUFFICE IN TIME OF PEACE: nor do I +consider this any inconsistency, because I see no rational prospect of +any peace, which would exempt us from the necessity of watchful +preparation and powerful establishment." But the change of Fox's +opinions, and their similarity to those maintained by Pitt, with +reference to our war with France, are by no means ALL which history can +produce in justification of Burke's political wisdom and consistency. +The whole civilized world has read the "Reflections on the French +Revolution," whose sale, in one year, achieved the enormous number of +30,000 copies, in connection with medals or marks of honour from almost +every Court in Europe. Now, of all the replies made to this masterpiece +of reasoning and reflection, Mackintosh's "Vindiciae Gallicae" was +incontestably the ablest and profoundest. And yet, the greatest of all +his intellectual opponents thus addresses Burke, as appears from +"Memoirs" of Mackintosh, volume i. page 87:--"The enthusiasm with which +I once embraced the instruction conveyed in your writings is now ripened +into solid conviction by the experience and conviction of more mature +age. For a time, SEDUCED BY THE LOVE OF WHAT I THOUGHT LIBERTY, I +ventured to oppose, without ceasing to venerate, that writer who had +nourished my understanding with the most wholesome principles of +political wisdom...Since that time, A MELANCHOLY EXPERIENCE HAS +UNDECEIVED ME ON MANY SUBJECTS, IN WHICH I WAS THE DUPE OF MY OWN +ENTHUSIASM." Let us part from this branch of our subject by quoting +Burke's own words, uttered, as it were, on the very brink of eternity. +They attest, to the latest moment of his life, with what a sacred +intensity and unflinching sincerity he clung to his original sentiments +touching the French Revolution. Nor let the present writer shrink from +adding, they constitute but one of the many specimens of that +instinctive prescience, whereby this profoundest of philosophical +statesmen was enabled to herald from afar the final triumphs of courage, +patriotism, and truth. The passage occurs towards the conclusion of his +"Letters on a Regicide Peace," and is as follows:--"Never succumb. It is +a struggle for your existence as a nation. If you must die, die with the +sword in your hand. But I have no fear whatever for the result. There is +a salient living principle of energy in the public mind of England, +which only requires proper direction to enable her to withstand this, or +any other ferocious foe. Persevere, therefore, till this tyranny be +over-past." + +If from the glare of public history, we follow this great man into the +shades of domestic seclusion, or watch the features of his social +character unfolding themselves in the varied circle which he graced by +his presence, or dignified by his worth,--he is alike the object of +respectful esteem and love. Warmth of heart, chivalry of sentiment, and +that true high?breeding which springs from the soul rather than a +pedigree, eminently characterise the history of Burke in private life. +Above all, a sympathising tendency for the children of Genius, and a +catholic largeness of view in all which relates unto mental effort, +combined with the utmost charity for human failings and +infirmities,--cannot but endear him to our deepest affections, while his +unrivalled endowments command our highest admiration. To illustrate what +is here alluded to, let the reader recall Burke's noble generosity +towards that erratic victim of genius and grief,--the painter Barry; or +his instantaneous sympathy in behalf of Crabbe the poet, when almost a +foodless wanderer in our vast metropolis; and our estimate of Burke's +excellencies as a man, will not be deemed overdrawn. + +It now remains for the selector of the following pages to offer a few +remarks on their nature, and design. Accustomed, from the earliest +period of his mental life to read and study the writings of Edmund +Burke, he has long wished that such a selection as now appears, should +be published. The works of Burke extend through a vast range of large +volumes; and it is feared thousands have been deterred from holding +communion with a master?spirit of British literature, by the magnitude +of his labours. Hence, a concentrated specimen of his intellect may not +only tempt the "reading public" (Coleridge's horror, yet an author's +friend!) to study some of Burke's noblest passages, but even ultimately +to introduce them into a full acquaintance with his entire products. Let +it be distinctly understood, the selection now published, is not a +second-hand one, grafted on some pre-existing volume; but the result of +a diligent, careful, and analytical perusal of Burke's writings. In +attempting such a work, there was one difficulty, which none but those +who have intimately studied this great orator can appreciate,--we allude +to the giving general titles, or descriptive headings, to passages +selected for quotation. There is a mental fulness, a moral variety, and +such a rapid transition of idea, in most of Burke's speeches, that it +almost baffles ability to abbreviate the spirit of his paragraphs, so as +to exhibit under some general head the bearing of the whole. The +selector, in this respect, can only say, he has done his best; and those +who are most competent to appreciate difficulty, will be least inclined +to criticise failure. + +Finally, as to the leading design of this volume, its title, "First +Principles," is sufficiently descriptive to save much explanation. Burke +represents an unrivalled combination of patriot, senator, and orator; +and as such, the moral and intellectual nature of the Age will be +purified and expanded, when brought into contact with the attributes of +his character, and the productions of his mind. Nor can the meditative +statesman, whose party is his country, and whose political creed is +based upon a true philosophy of human nature, forget,--that while the +French revolution, as involving FACTS, belongs to History, as enclosing +PRINCIPLES, it appertains to Humanity: and hence, the abiding +application of Burke's profound views, not only to France and England, +but to the world. Of course, those who reverence the majesty of +eloquence, and are fascinated by a florid richness of style, boundless +imagination, inexhaustible metaphor, and all the attending graces of +consummate rhetoric, will also be charmed by the appropriate supply +these pages afford. But, without seeking to be homiletical, let the +writer be permitted to add, a far higher purpose than mere literary +amusement, or the gratification of taste, is designed by the present +volume. It is the selector's most earnest hope, that the "First +Principles" these pages so eloquently inculcate, may be transcribed in +all their purity, loftiness, and truth, into the Reason and Conscience +of his countrymen. And among these, for whose especial guidance he +ventures to think the profound wisdom of these pages to be invaluable, +are the rising statesmen and senators of the day, who are either being +trained in our Public Schools, at the Universities, or about to enter +upon the difficult but inspiring arena of the House of Commons. In +reference to this sphere of legislative action, with all reverence to +its claims and character, let it be said,--material ends (a boundless +passion for physical good, whether indulged in by a nation, or professed +by an individual, is rebuked with solemn wisdom in the following passage +from Aristotle:--"The external advantages of power and fortune are +acquired and maintained by virtue, but virtue is not acquired and +maintained by them; and whether we consider the virtuous energies +themselves, or the fruits which they unceasingly produce, THE SOVEREIGN +GOOD OF LIFE MUST EVIDENTLY BE FOUND IN MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL +EXCELLENCE, MODERATELY SUPPLIED WITH EXTERNAL ACCOMMODATIONS, RATHER +THAN IN THE GREATEST ACCUMULATION OF EXTERNAL ADVANTAGES, UNIMPROVED AND +UNADORNED BY VIRTUE. External prosperity is, indeed, instrumental in +producing happiness, and, therefore, like every other instrument, must +have its assigned limits, beyond which it is inconvenient or hurtful. +But to mental excellence no limit can be assigned; the further it +extends the more USEFUL it becomes, if the epithet of 'USEFUL' need ever +be added to that of HONOURABLE. Besides this, the relative importance of +qualities is best estimated by that of their respective subjects. But +the mind, both in itself and in reference to man, is far better than the +body, or than property. The excellencies of the mind, therefore, are in +the same proportion to be preferred to the highest perfection of the +body, and the best disposition of external circumstances. The two last +are of a far inferior, and merely subservient nature; since no man of +sense covets or pursues them, but for the sake of the mind, with a view +to promote its genuine improvement and augment its native joys. Let this +great truth then be acknowledged,--A TRUTH EVINCED BY THE DEITY HIMSELF, +WHO IS HAPPY, NOT FROM ANY EXTERNAL CAUSE, BUT THROUGH THE INHERENT +ATTRIBUTES OF HIS DIVINE NATURE."--"Politics," lib. iv.), commercial +objects, and secular aggrandizement, are now receiving an idolatrous +homage and passionate regard, which no Christian patriot can contemplate +without anxiety. The ideal, the imaginative, and the religious element, +is almost sneered out of the House of Commons at the existing moment; +and any glowing exhibition of oratory, or splendid manifestation of +intellect, is derided, as being "unpractical" and ill-adapted to the +sobriety of the English Senate! Against this heartless materialism and +unholy mammon-worship, Burke's pages are a magnificent protest; and are +admirably suited to protect the political youth and dawning statesmen of +our country, from the blight and the blast of doctrines which decry +Enthusiasm as folly, and condemn the Beautiful as worthless and untrue. +Ships, colonies, and commerce; exports and imports; taxes and imposts; +charters and civic arrangements,--none but a madman will depreciate what +such themes involve, of duty, energy, and zeal, in political life. +Still, let it be fearlessly maintained, neither wealth, nor commerce, IN +THEMSELVES, can constitute the real greatness of an empire; it is only +because they stand in relation to the higher destinies and holier +responsibilities of an Empire, that a true statesman will regard them as +vitally wound up with the vigour and prosperity of national development. +Such, at least, is the philosophy of Politics, breathed from the undying +pages of Edmund Burke. He who studies this great writer, will, more and +more, sympathise with what Hooker taught, and Bishop Sanderson +inculcates. In one word, he will learn to venerate with increasing +reverence THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION, as + + "That peerless growth of patriotic mind, + The great eternal Wonder of mankind!" + +Burke traced the ultimate origin of civil government to the Divine Will, +both as declared in Revelation, and imaged forth by the moral +Constitution of man. In this respect, it is well?known how fundamentally +he differs from the theories of Hobbes, Mandeville, Shaftesbury, and +Hutcheson. Not less also, is he opposed to Locke, who tells us,--"The +original compact which begins and ACTUALLY CONSTITUTES ANY POLITICAL +SOCIETY, IS NOTHING BUT THE CONSENT OF ANY NUMBER OF FREEMEN CAPABLE OF +A MAJORITY, TO UNITE AND INCORPORATE INTO SUCH A SOCIETY. AND THIS IS +THAT, AND THAT ONLY, WHICH COULD GIVE BEGINNING TO ANY LAWFUL GOVERNMENT +IN THE WORLD." In one word, Locke declares that civil government is not +from God in the way of principle, but from man in the way of fact; and +thus, being a mere contingency, or moral accident in the history of +human development, self?government is the essential prerogative of our +nature. In accordance with this irrational and unscriptural hypothesis, +we find Price and Priestly expanding Locke's views at the period of +Burke; while in the writings of that apostle of political Antinomianism, +Rousseau, and his English counterpart Tom Paine,--the principles of the +ASSUMED "CONTRAT SOCIAL" display their utmost virulence. This is not the +place to discuss the origin of Civil Government; but the classical +reader, who has been taught to revere the political wisdom of those +ancient Teachers, whose insight was almost prophetical in abstract +science, will thank us for an extract from Aristotle's "Politics," which +bears upon this subject. It presents a most striking coincidence of +sentiment between two master?spirits on the philosophy of government; +and will at once remind the reader of Burke's memorable passage, +beginning with, "Society is a partnership," etc. etc. The passage to +which we allude in Aristotle's "Politics," begins thus: "Ote men oun e +polis phusei proteron e ekastos," k.t.l. The whole passage may be thus +freely translated. "A participation in rights and advantages forms the +bond of political society; AN INSTITUTION PRIOR, IN THE INTENTION OF +NATURE, TO THE FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS FROM WHOM IT IS CONSTITUTED. +What members are to the body, that citizens are to a commonwealth. The +hands or foot, when separated from the body, retains its name, but +totally changes its nature, because it is completely divested of its +uses and powers. In the same manner a citizen is a constituent part of a +whole system, which invests him with powers and qualifies him for +functions for which, in his individual capacity, he is totally unfit; +and independently of such system, he might subsist indeed as a lonely +savage, but could never attain that improved and happy state to which +his progressive nature invariably tends. Perfected by the offices and +duties of social life, man is the best; but, rude and undisciplined, he +is the very worst, of animals. For nothing is more detestable than armed +improbity; and man is armed with craft and courage, which, uncontrolled +by justice, he will most wickedly pervert, and become at once the most +impious and fiercest of monsters, the most abominable in gluttony, and +shameless in personality. But justice is the fundamental virtue of +political society, since the order of Society cannot be maintained +without law, and laws are constituted to proclaim what is just." Let us +add to this noble passage, Aristotle remarks in his "Ethics" (lib. x. c. +8), that a higher destination than political virtue is the true end of +man. In this respect, he concurs with Plato; who teaches us in his +"Theaetetus," the main object of human pursuit ought to be "omoiosis to +theo kata to dunaton," etc. etc.; i.e. "A similitude unto God as far as +possible; which similitude consists in an imitation of His justice, +holiness, and wisdom." To conclude: the noblest end of all Policy on +earth, is to educate Human Nature for that august "politeuma" (Phil. +iii. v. 20), that Eternal Commonwealth which awaits perfected Spirits +above, when, through infinite grace, they are finally admitted into a +"CITY which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Heb. xi. +10.) (The dim approximations of Platonic philosophy to certain +discoveries in Divine Revelation, have rightly challenged the attention +of theological enquirers. The above quotation from St. Paul suggests a +reference to one of these, which occurs towards the termination of +Plato's ninth book of "The Republic." He is uttering a protest against +our concluding, that because degeneracy appears to be the invariable law +or destiny of all human commonwealths, THEREFORE, no Archetypal Model +exists of any perfect state, or polity: and then, in opposition to this +political scepticism, Plato adds these remarkable words:--"en ourano +isos paradeigma anakeitai to boulomeno oran kai oronti eauton +katoikizein," etc. etc.--"The state we have here established, which +exists only in our reasoning, but it seems to me, HAS NO EXISTENCE ON +EARTH. BUT IN HEAVEN, PROBABLY, I REPLIED, THERE IS A MODEL OF IT FOR +ANY ONE INCLINED TO CONTEMPLATE THE SAME, AND BY SO CONTEMPLATING IT, TO +REGULATE HIMSELF ACCORDINGLY.") + + + +APPENDIX. + +The following are the critical sketches of Burke's character, alluded to +in the commencement of this Essay. They are from the pens of his most +distinguished contemporaries, WHO WERE OPPOSED TO HIM in their political +views and public career. + +(From SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.) + +"There can be no hesitation in according to him a station among the most +extraordinary men that ever appeared; and we think there is now but +little diversity of opinion as to the kind of place which it is fit to +assign him. He was a writer of the first class, and excelled in almost +every kind of composition. Possessed of most extensive knowledge, and of +the most various description; acquainted alike with what different +classes of men knew, each in his own province, and with much that hardly +any one ever thought of learning; he could either bring his masses of +information to bear directly upon the subjects to which they severally +belonged,--or he could avail himself of them generally to strengthen his +faculties, and enlarge his views,--or he could turn any of them to +account for the purpose of illustrating his theme, or enriching his +diction. Hence, when he is handling any one matter, we perceive that we +are conversing with a reasoner or a teacher, to whom almost every other +branch of knowledge is familiar: his views range over all the cognate +objects; his reasonings are derived from principles applicable to other +themes, as well as the one in hand; arguments pour in from all sides, as +well as those which start up under our feet,--the natural growth of the +path he is leading us over; while to throw light round our steps, and +either explore its darkest places, or serve for our recreation; +illustrations are fetched from a thousand quarters, and an imagination +marvellously quick to descry unthought of resemblances, points to our +use the stores, which a love yet more marvellously has gathered from all +ages and nations, and arts and tongues. We are, in respect of the +argument, reminded of Bacon's multifarious knowledge, and the exuberance +of his learned fancy; whilst the many?lettered diction recalls to mind +the first of English poets, and his immortal verse, rich with the spoils +of all sciences and all times. + +... + +"He produced but one philosophical treatise; but no man lays down +abstract principles more soundly, or better traces their application. +All his works, indeed, even his controversial, are so infused with +general reflection, so variegated with speculative discussion, that they +wear the air of the Lyceum, as well as the Academy." + +(From LORD ERSKINE.) + +"I shall take care to put Burke's work on the French Revolution into the +hands of those whose principles are left to my protection. I shall take +care that they have the advantage of doing, in the regular progression +of youthful studies, what I have done even in the short intervals of +laborious life; that they shall transcribe with their own hands from all +the works of this most extraordinary person, and from this last, among +the rest, the soundest truths of religion, the justest principles of +morals, inculcated and rendered delightful by the most sublime +eloquence; the highest reach of philosophy brought down to the level of +common minds by the most captivating taste; the most enlightened +observations on history, and the most copious collection of useful +maxims for the experience of common life." + +(From KING, Bishop of Rochester.) "In the mind of Mr. Burke political +principles were not objects of barren speculation. Wisdom in him was +always practical. Whatever his understanding adopted as truth, made its +way to his heart, and sank deep into it; and his ardent and generous +feelings seized with promptitude every occasion of applying it to +mankind. Where shall we find recorded exertions of active benevolence at +once so numerous, so varied, and so important, made by one man? Among +those, the redress of wrongs, and the protection of weakness from the +oppression of power, were most conspicuous. + +... + +The assumption of arbitrary power, in whatever shape it appeared, +whether under the veil of legitimacy, or skulking in the disguise of +State necessity, or presenting the shameless front of +usurpation--whether the prescriptive claim of ascendancy, or the career +of official authority, or the newly?acquired dominion of a mob,--was the +pure object of his detestation and hostility; and this is not a fanciful +enumeration of possible cases," etc. + + + + +SELECTIONS FROM THE SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF EDMUND BURKE. + + +NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. + +Whatever alterations time and the necessary accommodation of business +may have introduced, this character can never be sustained, unless the +House of Commons shall be made to bear some stamp of the actual +disposition of the people at large. It would (among public misfortunes) +be an evil more natural and tolerable, that the House of Commons should +be infected with every epidemical frenzy of the people, as this would +indicate some consanguinity, some sympathy of nature with their +constituents, than that they should in all cases be wholly untouched by +the opinions and feelings of the people out of doors. By this want of +sympathy they would cease to be a house of commons. For it is not the +derivation of the power of that house from the people, which makes it in +a distinct sense their representative. The king is the representative of +the people; so are the lords, so are the judges. They all are trustees +for the people, as well as the commons; because no power is given for +the sole sake of the holder; and although government certainly is an +institution of Divine authority, yet its forms, and the persons who +administer it, all originate from the people. + +A popular origin cannot therefore be the characteristical distinction of +a popular representative. This belongs equally to all parts of +government, and in all forms. The virtue, spirit, and essence of a house +of commons consists in its being the express image of the feelings of +the nation. It was not instituted to be a control UPON the people, as of +late it has been taught, by a doctrine of the most pernicious tendency. +It was designed as a control FOR the people. Other institutions have +been formed for the purpose of checking popular excesses; and they are, +I apprehend, fully adequate to their object. If not, they ought to be +made so. The House of Commons, as it was never intended for the support +of peace and subordination, is miserably appointed for that service; +having no stronger weapon than its mace, and no better officer than its +serjeant-at-arms, which it can command of its own proper authority. A +vigilant and jealous eye over executory and judicial magistracy; an +anxious care of public money; an openness, approaching towards facility, +to public complaint; these seem to be the true characteristics of a +house of commons. But an addressing house of commons, and a petitioning +nation; a house of commons full of confidence, when the nation is +plunged in despair; in the utmost harmony with ministers, whom the +people regard with the utmost abhorrence; who vote thanks, when the +public opinion calls upon them for impeachments; who are eager to grant, +when the general voice demands account; who, in all disputes between the +people and administration, presume against the people; who punish their +disorders, but refuse even to inquire into the provocations to them; +this is an unnatural, a monstrous state of things in this constitution. +Such an assembly may be a great, wise, awful senate; but it is not, to +any popular purpose, a house of commons. This change from an immediate +state of procuration and delegation to a course of acting as from +original power, is the way in which all the popular magistracies in the +world have been perverted from their purposes. It is indeed their +greatest and sometimes their incurable corruption. For there is a +material distinction between that corruption by which particular points +are carried against reason (this is a thing which cannot be prevented by +human wisdom, and is of less consequence), and the corruption of the +principle itself. For then the evil is not accidental, but settled. The +distemper becomes the natural habit. + + +RETROSPECT AND RESIGNATION. + +You are but just entering into the world; I am going out of it. I have +played long enough to be heartily tired of the drama. Whether I have +acted my part in it well or ill, posterity will judge with more candour +than I, or than the present age, with our present passions, can possibly +pretend to. For my part, I quit it without a sigh, and submit to the +sovereign order without murmuring. The nearer we approach to the goal of +life, the better we begin to understand the true value of our existence, +and the real weight of our opinions. We set out much in love with both: +but we leave much behind us as we advance. We first throw away the tales +along with the rattles of our nurses; those of the priest keep their +hold a little longer; those of our governors the longest of all. But the +passions which prop these opinions are withdrawn one after another; and +the cool light of reason, at the setting of our life, shows us what a +false splendour played upon these objects during our more sanguine +seasons. + + +MODESTY OF MIND. + +If any inquiry thus carefully conducted should fail at last of +discovering the truth, it may answer an end perhaps as useful, in +discovering to us the weakness of our own understanding. If it does not +make us knowing, it may make us modest. If it does not preserve us from +error, it may at least from the spirit of error; and may make us +cautious of pronouncing with positiveness or with haste, when so much +labour may end in so much uncertainty. + + +NEWTON AND NATURE. + +When Newton first discovered the property of attraction, and settled its +laws, he found it served very well to explain several of the most +remarkable phenomena in nature; but yet with reference to the general +system of things, he could consider attraction but as an effect, whose +cause at that time he did not attempt to trace. But when he afterwards +began to account for it by a subtle elastic aether, this great man (if +in so great a man it be not impious to discover anything like a blemish) +seemed to have quitted his usual cautious manner of philosophising: +since, perhaps, allowing all that has been advanced on this subject to +be sufficiently proved, I think it leaves us with as many difficulties +as it found us. That great chain of causes, which linking one to another +even to the throne of God himself, can never be unravelled by any +industry of ours. When we go but one step beyond the immediate sensible +qualities of things, we go out of our depth. All we do after is but a +faint struggle, that shows we are in an element which does not belong to +us. + + +THEORY AND PRACTICE. + +It is, I own, not uncommon to be wrong in theory, and right in practice; +and we are happy that it is so. Men often act right from their feelings, +who afterwards reason but ill on them from principle: but as it is +impossible to avoid an attempt at such reasoning, and equally impossible +to prevent its having some influence on our practice, surely it is worth +taking some pains to have it just, and founded on the basis of sure +experience. + + +INDUCTION AND COMPARISON. + +We must not attempt to fly, when we can scarcely pretend to creep. In +considering any complex matter, we ought to examine every distinct +ingredient in the composition, one by one; and reduce everything to the +utmost simplicity; since the condition of our nature binds us to a +strict law and vary narrow limits. We ought afterwards to re-examine the +principles by the effect of the composition, as well as the composition +by that of the principles. We ought to compare our subject with things +of a similar nature, and even with things of a contrary nature; for +discoveries may be, and often are, made by the contrast, which would +escape us on the single view. The greater number of the comparisons we +make, the more general and the more certain our knowledge is likely to +prove, as built upon a more extensive and perfect induction. + + +DIVINE POWER ON THE HUMAN IDEA. + +Whilst we consider the Godhead merely as he is an object of the +understanding, which forms a complex idea of power, wisdom, justice, +goodness, all stretched to a degree far exceeding the bounds of our +comprehension, whilst we consider the Divinity in this refined and +abstracted light, the imagination and passions are little or nothing +affected. But because we are bound, by the condition of our nature, to +ascend to these pure and intellectual ideas, through the medium of +sensible images, to judge of these divine qualities by their evident +acts and exertions, it becomes extremely hard to disentangle our idea of +the cause from the effect by which we are led to know it. Thus, when we +contemplate the Deity, his attributes and their operation, coming united +on the mind, form a sort of sensible image, and as such are capable of +affecting the imagination. Now, though in a just idea of the Deity, +perhaps none of his attributes are predominant, yet, to our imagination, +his power is by far the most striking. Some reflection, some comparing, +is necessary to satisfy us of his wisdom, his justice, and his goodness. +To be struck with his power, it is only necessary that we should open +our eyes. But whilst we contemplate so vast an object, under the arm, as +it were of almighty power, and invested upon every side with +omnipresence, we shrink into the minuteness of our own nature, and are, +in a manner, annihilated before him. + + +UNION OF LOVE AND DREAD IN RELIGION. + +True religion has, and must have, a large mixture of salutary fear; and +false religions have generally nothing else but fear to support them. +Before the Christian religion had, as it were, humanized the idea of the +Divinity, and brought it somewhat nearer to us, there was very little +said of the love of God. The followers of Plato have something of it, +and only something; the other writers of pagan antiquity, whether poets +or philosophers, nothing at all. And they who consider with what +infinite attention, by what a disregard of every perishable object, +through what long habits of piety and contemplation it is that any man +is able to attain an entire love and devotion to the Deity, will easily +perceive that it is not the first, the most natural and the most +striking, effect which proceeds from that idea. + + +OFFICE OF SYMPATHY. + +Whenever we are formed by nature to any active purpose, the passion +which animates us to it is attended with delight, or a pleasure of some +kind, let the subject?matter be what it will; and as our Creator had +designed that we should be united by the bond of sympathy, he has +strengthened that bond by a proportionable delight; and there most where +our sympathy is most wanted,--in the distresses of others. + + +WORDS. + +Natural objects affect us, by the laws of that connexion which +Providence has established between certain motions and configurations of +bodies, and certain consequent feelings in our mind. Painting affects in +the same manner, but with the superadded pleasure of imitation. +Architecture affects by the laws of nature, and the law of reason; from +which latter result the rules of proportion, which make a work to be +praised or censured, in the whole or in some part, when the end for +which it was designed is or is not properly answered. But as to words; +they seem to me to affect us in a manner very different from that in +which we are affected by natural objects, or by painting or +architecture; yet words have as considerable a share in exciting ideas +of beauty and of the sublime as many of those, and sometimes a much +greater than any of them. + + +NATURE ANTICIPATES MAN. + +Whenever the wisdom of our Creator intended that we should be affected +with anything, he did not confide the execution of his design to the +languid and precarious operation of our reason; but he endued it with +powers and properties that prevent the understanding, and even the will; +which, seizing upon the senses and imagination, captivate the soul +before the understanding is ready either to join with them, or to oppose +them. It is by a long deduction, and much study, that we discover the +adorable wisdom of God in his works: when we discover it, the effect is +very different, not only in the manner of acquiring it, but in its own +nature, from that which strikes us without any preparation from the +sublime or the beautiful. + + +SELF-INSPECTION. + +Whatever turns the soul inward on itself, tends to concentre its forces, +and to fit it for greater and stronger flights of science. By looking +into physical causes our minds are opened and enlarged; and in this +pursuit, whether we take or whether we lose our game, the chase is +certainly of service. + + +POWER OF THE OBSCURE. + +Poetry, with all its obscurity, has a more general, as well as a more +powerful, dominion over the passions, than the other art. And I think +there are reasons in nature, why the obscure idea, when properly +conveyed, should be more affecting than the clear. It is our ignorance +of things that causes all our admiration, and chiefly excites our +passions. Knowledge and acquaintance make the most striking causes +affect but little. It is thus with the vulgar; and all men are as the +vulgar in what they do not understand. The ideas of eternity and +infinity, are among the most affecting we have: and yet perhaps there is +nothing of which we really understand so little, as of infinity and +eternity. + + +FEMALE BEAUTY. + +The object therefore of this mixed passion, which we call love, is the +BEAUTY of the SEX. Men are carried to the sex in general, as it is the +sex, and by the common law of nature; but they are attached to +particulars by personal BEAUTY. I call beauty a social quality; for +where women and men, and not only they, but when other animals give us a +sense of joy and pleasure in beholding them (and there are many that do +so), they inspire us with sentiments of tenderness and affection towards +their persons; we like to have them near us, and we enter willingly into +a kind of relation with them, unless we should have strong reasons to +the contrary. + + +NOVELTY AND CURIOSITY. + +Curiosity is the most superficial of all the affections; it changes its +object perpetually, it has an appetite which is very sharp, but very +easily satisfied; and it has always an appearance of giddiness, +restlessness, and anxiety. Curiosity, from its nature, is a very active +principle; it quickly runs over the greatest part of its objects, and +soon exhausts the variety which is commonly to be met with in nature; +the same things make frequent returns, and they return with less and +less of any agreeable effect. In short, the occurrences of life, by the +time we come to know it a little, would be incapable of affecting the +mind with any other sensations than those of loathing and weariness, if +many things were not adapted to affect the mind by means of other powers +besides novelty in them, and of other passions besides curiosity in +ourselves. + + +PLEASURES OF ANALOGY. + +The mind of man has naturally a far greater alacrity and satisfaction in +tracing resemblances than in searching for differences: because by +making resemblances we produce NEW IMAGES; we unite, we create, we +enlarge our stock; but in making distinctions we offer no food at all to +the imagination; the task itself is more severe and irksome, and what +pleasure we derive from it is something of a negative and indirect +nature. + + +AMBITION. + +God has planted in man a sense of ambition, and a satisfaction arising +from the contemplation of his excelling his fellows in something deemed +valuable amongst them. It is this passion that drives men to all the +ways we see in use of signalizing themselves, and that tends to make +whatever excites in a man the idea of this distinction so very pleasant. +It has been so strong as to make very miserable men take comfort, that +they were supreme in misery; and certain it is, that, where we cannot +distinguish ourselves by something excellent, we begin to take a +complacency in some singular infirmities, follies, or defects of one +kind or other. It is on this principle that flattery is so prevalent; +for flattery is no more than what raises in a man's mind an idea of a +preference which he has not. + + +EXTENSIONS OF SYMPATHY. + +For sympathy must be considered as a sort of substitution, by which we +are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as +he is affected; so that this passion may either partake of the nature of +those which regard self?preservation, and turning upon pain may be a +source of the sublime; or it may turn upon ideas of pleasure; and then +whatever has been said of the social affections, whether they regard +society in general, or only some particular modes of it, may be +applicable here. It is by this principle chiefly that poetry, painting, +and other affecting arts, transfuse their passions from one breast to +another, and are often capable of grafting a delight on wretchedness, +misery, and death itself. + + +PHILOSOPHY OF TASTE. + +So far, then, as taste belongs to the imagination, its principle is the +same in all men; there is no different in the manner of their being +affected, nor in the causes of the affection; but in the DEGREE there is +a difference, which arises from two causes principally; either from a +greater degree of natural sensibility, or from a closer and longer +attention to the object. + + +CLEARNESS AND STRENGTH IN STYLE. + +We do not sufficiently distinguish, in our observations upon language, +between a clear expression and a strong expression. These are frequently +confounded with each other, though they are in reality extremely +different. The former regards the understanding; the latter belongs to +the passions. The one describes a thing as it is; the latter describes +it as it is felt. Now, as there is a moving tone of voice, an +impassioned countenance, an agitated gesture, which affect independently +of the things about which they are exerted, so there are words, and +certain dispositions of words, which being peculiarly devoted to +passionate subjects, and always used by those who are under the +influence of any passion, touch and move us more than those which far +more clearly and distinctly express the subject?matter. We yield to +sympathy what we refuse to description. The truth is, all verbal +description, merely as naked description, though never so exact, conveys +so poor and insufficient an idea of the thing described, that it could +scarcely have the smallest effect, if the speaker did not call in to his +aid those modes of speech that mark a strong and lively feeling in +himself. Then, by the contagion of our passions, we catch a fire already +kindled in another, which probably might never have been struck out by +the object described. Words, by strongly conveying the passions, by +those means which we have already mentioned, fully compensate for their +weakness in other respects. + + +UNITY OF IMAGINATION. + +Since the imagination is only the representation of the senses, it can +only be pleased or displeased with the images, from the same principle +on which the sense is pleased or displeased with the realities; and +consequently there must be just as close an agreement in the +imaginations as in the senses of men. A little attention will convince +us that this must of necessity be the case. + + +EFFECT OF WORDS. + +If words have all their possible extent of power, three effects arise in +the mind of the hearer. The first is, the SOUND; the second, the +PICTURE, or representation of the thing signified by the sound; the +third is, the AFFECTION of the soul produced by one or by both of the +foregoing. COMPOUNDED ABSTRACT words, of which we have been speaking +(honour, justice, liberty, and the like), produce the first and the last +of these effects, but not the second. SIMPLE ABSTRACTS, are used to +signify some one simple idea without much adverting to others which may +chance to attend it, as blue, green, hot, cold, and the like; these are +capable of effecting all three of the purposes of words; as the +AGGREGATE words, man, castle, horse, etc. are in a yet higher degree. +But I am of opinion, that the most general effect, even of these words, +does not arise from their forming pictures of the several things they +would represent in the imagination; because, on a very diligent +examination of my own mind, and getting others to consider theirs, I do +not find that once in twenty times any such picture is formed, and, when +it is, there is most commonly a particular effort of the imagination for +that purpose. But the aggregate words operate, as I said of the +compound?abstracts, not by presenting any image to the mind, but by +having from use the same effect on being mentioned, that their original +has when it is seen. + + +INVESTIGATION. + +I am convinced that the method of teaching which approaches most nearly +to the method of investigation is incomparably the best; since, not +content with serving up a few barren and lifeless truths, it leads to +the stock on which they grew; it tends to set the reader himself in the +track of invention, and to direct him into those paths in which the +author has made his own discoveries, if he should be so happy as to have +made any that are valuable. + +THE SUBLIME. + +Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, +that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about +terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a +source of the SUBLIME; that is, it is productive of the strongest +emotion which the mind is capable of feeling. + + +OBSCURITY. + +Those despotic governments which are founded on the passions of men, and +principally upon the passion of fear, keep their chief as much as may be +from the public eye. The policy has been the same in many cases of +religion. Almost all the heathen temples were dark. Even in the +barbarous temples of the Americans at this day, they keep their idol in +a dark part of the hut which is consecrated to his worship. For this +purpose too the Druids performed all their ceremonies in the bosom of +the darkest woods, and in the shade of the oldest and most spreading +oaks. No person seems better to have understood the secret of +heightening, or of setting terrible things, if I may use the expression, +in their strongest light, by the force of a judicious obscurity, than +Milton. + + +PRINCIPLES OF TASTE. + +Whatever certainty is to be acquired in morality and the science of +life; just the same degree of certainty have we in what relates to them +in works of imitation. Indeed, it is for the most part in our skill in +manners, and in the observances of time and place, and of decency in +general, which is only to be learned in those schools to which Horace +recommends us, that what is called taste, by way of distinction, +consists; and which is in reality no other than a more refined judgment. +On the whole it appears to me, that what is called taste, in its most +general acceptation, is not a simple idea, but is partly made up of a +perception of the primary pleasures of sense, of the secondary pleasures +of the imagination, and of the conclusions of the reasoning faculty, +concerning the various relations of these, and concerning the human +passions, manners, and actions. All this is requisite to form taste, and +the ground?work of all these is the same in the human mind; for as the +senses are the great originals of all our ideas, and consequently of all +our pleasures, if they are not uncertain and arbitrary, the whole +ground-work of taste is common to all, and therefore there is a +sufficient foundation for a conclusive reasoning on these matters. + + +THE BEAUTIFUL. + +Beauty is a thing much too affecting not to depend upon some positive +qualities. And, since it is no creature of our reason, since it strikes +us without any reference to use, and even where no use at all can be +discerned, since the order and method of nature is generally very +different from our measures and proportions, we must conclude that +beauty is, for the greater part, some quality in bodies acting +mechanically upon the human mind by the intervention of the senses. + + +THE REAL AND THE IDEAL. + +Choose a day on which to represent the most sublime and affecting +tragedy we have: appoint the most favourite actors; spare no cost upon +the scenes and decorations; unite the greatest efforts of poetry, +painting, and music; and when you have collected your audience, just at +the moment when their minds are erect with expectation, let it be +reported that a state criminal of high rank is on the point of being +executed in the adjoining square; in a moment the emptiness of the +theatre would demonstrate the comparative weakness of the imitative +arts, and proclaim the triumph of the real sympathy. I believe that this +notion of our having a simple pain in the reality, yet a delight in the +representation, arises from hence, that we do not sufficiently +distinguish what we would by no means choose to do, from what we should +be eager enough to see if it was once done. We delight in seeing things, +which so far from doing, our heartiest wishes would be to see redressed. +This noble capital, the pride of England and of Europe, I believe no man +is so strangely wicked as to desire to see destroyed by a conflagration +or an earthquake, though he should be removed himself to the greatest +distance from the danger. But suppose such a fatal accident to have +happened, what numbers from all parts would crowd to behold the ruins, +and amongst them many who would have been content never to have seen +London in its glory! + + +JUDGMENT IN ART. + +A rectitude of judgment in the arts, which may be called a good taste, +does in a great measure depend upon sensibility; because, if the mind +has no bent to the pleasures of the imagination, it will never apply +itself sufficiently to works of that species to acquire a competent +knowledge in them. But, though a degree of sensibility is requisite to +form a good judgment, yet a good judgment does not necessarily arise +from a quick sensibility of pleasure. + + +MORAL EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE. + +This arises chiefly from these three causes. First. That we take an +extraordinary part in the passions of others, and that we are easily +affected and brought into sympathy by any tokens which are shown of +them; and there are no tokens which can express all the circumstances of +most passions so fully as words; so that if a person speaks upon any +subject, he can not only convey the subject to you, but likewise the +manner in which he is himself affected by it. Certain it is, that the +influence of most things on our passions is not so much from the things +themselves, as from our opinions concerning them; and these again depend +very much on the opinions of other men, conveyable for the most part by +words only. Secondly. There are many things of a very affecting nature, +which can seldom occur in the reality, but the words that represent them +often do; and thus they have an opportunity of making a deep impression +and taking root in the mind, whilst the idea of the reality was +transient; and to some perhaps never really occurred in any shape, to +whom it is notwithstanding very affecting, as war, death, famine, etc. +Besides, many ideas have never been at all presented to the senses of +any men but by words, as God, angels, devils, heaven, and hell, all of +which have, however, a great influence over the passions. Thirdly. By +words we have it in our power to make such COMBINATIONS as we cannot +possibly do otherwise. By this power of combining, we are able, by the +addition of well?chosen circumstances, to give a new life and force to +the simple object. In painting we may represent any fine figure we +please; but we never can give it those enlivening touches which it may +receive from words. To represent an angel in a picture, you can only +draw a beautiful young man winged: but what painting can furnish out +anything so grand as the addition of one word, "the angel of the LORD?" + + +SECURITY OF TRUTH. + +I then thought, and am still of the same opinion, that error, and not +truth of any kind, is dangerous; that ill conclusions can only flow from +false propositions; and that, to know whether any proposition be true or +false, it is a preposterous method to examine it by its apparent +consequences. + + +IMITATION AN INSTINCTIVE LAW. + +For as sympathy makes us take a concern in whatever men feel, so this +affection prompts us to copy whatever they do; and consequently we have +a pleasure in imitating, and in whatever belongs to imitation merely as +it is such, without any intervention of the reasoning faculty, but +solely from our natural constitution, which Providence has framed in +such a manner as to find either pleasure or delight, according to the +nature of the object, in whatever regards the purposes of our being. It +is by imitation far more than by precept, that we learn everything; and +what we learn thus, we acquire not only more effectually, but more +pleasantly. This forms our manners, our opinions, our lives. It is one +of the strongest links of society; it is a species of mutual compliance, +which all men yield to each other, without constraint to themselves, and +which is extremely flattering to all. + + +STANDARD OF REASON AND TASTE. + +It is probable that the standard both of reason and taste is the same in +all human creatures. For if there were not some principles of judgment +as well as of sentiment common to all mankind, no hold could possibly be +taken either on their reason or their passions, sufficient to maintain +the ordinary correspondence of life. + + +USE OF THEORY. + +A theory founded on experiment, and not assumed, is always good for so +much as it explains. Our inability to push it indefinitely is no +argument at all against it. This inability may be owing to our ignorance +of some necessary MEDIUMS; to a want of proper application; to many +other causes besides a defect in the principles we employ. + + +POLITICAL OUTCASTS. + +In the mean time, that power, which all these changes aimed at securing, +remains still as tottering and as uncertain as ever. They are delivered +up into the hands of those who feel neither respect for their persons, +nor gratitude for their favours; who are put about them in appearance to +serve, in reality to govern them; and, when the signal is given, to +abandon and destroy them, in order to set up some new dupe of ambition, +who in his turn is to be abandoned and destroyed. Thus, living in a +state of continual uneasiness and ferment, softened only by the +miserable consolation of giving now and then preferments to those for +whom they have no value; they are unhappy in their situation, yet find +it impossible to resign. Until, at length, soured in temper, and +disappointed by the very attainment of their ends, in some angry, in +some haughty, or some negligent moment, they incur the displeasure of +those upon whom they have rendered their very being dependent. Then +perierunt tempora longi servitii; they are cast off with scorn; they are +turned out, emptied of all natural character, of all intrinsic worth, of +all essential dignity, and deprived of every consolation of friendship. +Having rendered all retreat to old principles ridiculous, and to old +regards impracticable, not being able to counterfeit pleasure, or to +discharge discontent, nothing being sincere or right, or balanced in +their minds, it is more than a chance, that, in the delirium of the last +stage of their distempered power, they make an insane political +testament, by which they throw all their remaining weight and +consequence into the scale of their declared enemies, and the avowed +authors of their destruction. + + +INJUSTICE TO OUR OWN AGE. + +If these evil dispositions should spread much farther they must end in +our destruction; for nothing can save a people destitute of public and +private faith. However, the author, for the present state of things, has +extended the charge by much too widely; as men are but too apt to take +the measure of all mankind from their own particular acquaintance. +Barren as this age may be in the growth of honour and virtue, the +country does not want, at this moment, as strong, and those not a few, +examples as were ever known, of an unshaken adherence to principle, and +attachment to connexion, against every allurement of interest. Those +examples are not furnished by the great alone; nor by those, whose +activity in public affairs may render it suspected that they make such a +character one of the rounds in their ladder of ambition; but by men more +quiet, and more in the shade, on whom an unmixed sense of honour alone +could operate. + + +FALSE COALITIONS. + +No system of that kind can be formed, which will not leave room fully +sufficient for healing coalitions: but no coalition which, under the +specious name of independency, carries in its bosom the unreconciled +principles of the original discord of parties, ever was, or will be, an +healing coalition. Nor will the mind of our sovereign ever know repose, +his kingdom settlement, or his business order, in efficiency or grace +with his people, until things are established upon the basis of some set +of men, who are trusted by the public, and who can trust one another. + + +POLITICAL EMPIRICISM. + +Men of sense, when new projects come before them, always think a +discourse proving the mere right or mere power of acting in the manner +proposed, to be no more than a very unpleasant way of mispending time. +They must see the object to be of proper magnitude to engage them; they +must see the means of compassing it to be next to certain: the mischiefs +not to counterbalance the profit; they will examine how a proposed +imposition or regulation agrees with the opinion of those who are likely +to be affected by it; they will not despise the consideration even of +their habitudes and prejudices. They wish to know how it accords or +disagrees with the true spirit of prior establishments, whether of +government or of finance; because they well know, that in the +complicated economy of great kingdoms, and immense revenues, which in a +length of time, and by a variety of accidents, have coalesced into a +sort of body, an attempt towards a compulsory equality in all +circumstances, and an exact practical definition of the supreme rights +in every case, is the most dangerous and chimerical of all enterprises. +The old building stands well enough, though part Gothic, part Grecian, +and part Chinese, until an attempt is made to square it into uniformity. +Then it may come down upon our heads altogether, in much uniformity of +ruin; and great will be the fall thereof. + + +A VISIONARY. + +Enough of this visionary union; in which much extravagance appears +without any fancy, and the judgment is shocked without anything to +refresh the imagination. It looks as if the author had dropped down from +the moon, without any knowledge of the general nature of this globe, of +the general nature of its inhabitants, without the least acquaintance +with the affairs of this country. + + +PARTY DIVISIONS. + +Party divisions, whether on the whole operating for good or evil, are +things inseparable from free government. This is a truth which, I +believe, admits little dispute, having been established by the uniform +experience of all ages. The part a good citizen ought to take in these +divisions has been a matter of much deeper controversy. But God forbid +that any controversy relating to our essential morals should admit of no +decision. It appears to me, that this question, like most of the others +which regard our duties in life, is to be determined by our station in +it. Private men may be wholly neutral, and entirely innocent; but they +who are legally invested with public trust, or stand on the high ground +of rank and dignity, which is trust implied, can hardly in any case +remain indifferent, without the certainty of sinking into +insignificance; and thereby in effect deserting that post in which, with +the fullest authority, and for the wisest purposes, the laws and +institutions of their country have fixed them. However, if it be the +office of those who are thus circumstanced, to take a decided part, it +is no less their duty that it should be a sober one. + + +DECORUM IN PARTY. + +It ought to be circumscribed by the same laws of decorum, and balanced +by the same temper, which bound and regulate all the virtues. In a word, +we ought to act in party with all the moderation which does not +absolutely enervate that vigour, and quench that fervency of spirit, +without which the best wishes for the public good must evaporate in +empty speculation. + + +NOT SO BAD AS WE SEEM. + +Our circumstances are indeed critical; but then they are the critical +circumstances of a strong and mighty nation. If corruption and meanness +are greatly spread, they are not spread universally. Many public men are +hitherto examples of public spirit and integrity. Whole parties, as far +as large bodies can be uniform, have preserved character. However they +may be deceived in some particulars, I know of no set of men amongst us +which does not contain persons on whom the nation, in a difficult +exigence, may well value itself. Private life, which is the nursery of +the commonwealth, is yet in general pure, and on the whole disposed to +virtue; and the people at large want neither generosity nor spirit. No +small part of that very luxury, which is so much the subject of the +author's declamation, but which, in most parts of life, by being well +balanced and diffused, is only decency and convenience, has perhaps as +many or more good than evil consequences attending it. It certainly +excites industry, nourishes emulation, and inspires some sense of +personal value into all ranks of people. What we want is to establish +more fully an opinion of uniformity, and consistency of character, in +the leading men of the state; such as will restore some confidence to +profession and appearance, such as will fix subordination upon esteem. +Without this all schemes are begun at the wrong end. + + +POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLE. + +People not very well grounded in the principles of public morality find +a set of maxims in office ready made for them, which they assume as +naturally and inevitably, as any of the insignia or instruments of the +situation. A certain tone of the solid and practical is immediately +acquired. Every former profession of public spirit is to be considered +as a debauch of youth, or, at best, as a visionary scheme of +unattainable perfection. The very idea of consistency is exploded. The +convenience of the business of the day is to furnish the principle for +doing it. Then the whole ministerial cant is quickly got by heart. The +prevalence of faction is to be lamented. All opposition is to be +regarded as the effect of envy and disappointed ambition. All +administrations are declared to be alike. The same necessity justifies +all their measures. It is no longer a matter of discussion, who or what +administration is; but that administration is to be supported, is a +general maxim. Flattering themselves that their power is become +necessary to the support of all order and government, everything which +tends to the support of that power is sanctified, and becomes a part of +the public interest. + + +MORAL DEBASEMENT PROGRESSIVE. + +I believe the instances are exceedingly rare of men immediately passing +over a clear, marked line of virtue into declared vice and corruption. +There are a sort of middle tints and shades between the two extremes; +there is something uncertain on the confines of the two empires which +they first pass through, and which renders the change easy and +imperceptible. There are even a sort of splendid impositions so well +contrived, that, at the very time the path of rectitude is quitted for +ever, men seem to be advancing into some higher and nobler road of +public conduct. Not that such impositions are strong enough in +themselves; but a powerful interest, often concealed from those whom it +affects, works at the bottom, and secures the operation. Men are thus +debauched away from those legitimate connexions, which they had formed +on a judgment, early perhaps but sufficiently mature, and wholly +unbiassed. + + +DESPOTISM. + +It is the nature of despotism to abhor power held by any means but its +own momentary pleasure; and to annihilate all intermediate situations +between boundless strength on its own part, and total debility on the +part of the people. + + +JUDGMENT AND POLICY. + +Nothing can render this a point of indifference to the nation, but what +must either render us totally desperate, or sooth us into the security +of idiots. We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of +infancy, to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity +truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and +corrupt. Men are in public as in private, some good, some evil. The +elevation of the one, and the depression of the other, are the first +objects of all true policy. But that form of government, which, neither +in its direct institutions, nor in their immediate tendency, has +contrived to throw its affairs into the most trustworthy hands, but has +left its whole executory system to be disposed of agreeably to the +uncontrolled pleasures of any one man, however excellent or virtuous, is +a plan of polity defective not only in that member, but consequentially +erroneous in every part of it. + + +POPULAR DISCONTENT. + +To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors +of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the +future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind; +indeed, the necessary effects of the ignorance and levity of the vulgar. +Such complaints and humours have existed in all times; yet as all times +have NOT been alike, true political sagacity manifests itself in +distinguishing that complaint which only characterises the general +infirmity of human nature, from those which are symptoms of the +particular distemperature of our own air and season. + + +THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. + +I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong. +They have been so, frequently and outrageously, both in other countries +and in this. But I do say, that in all disputes between them and their +rulers, the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people. +Experience may perhaps justify me in going farther. When popular +discontents have been very prevalent, it may well be affirmed and +supported, that there has been generally something found amiss in the +constitution, or in the conduct of government. The people have no +interest in disorder. When they do wrong, it is their error, and not +their crime. + + +GOVERNMENT FAVOURITISM. + +It is this unnatural infusion of a government which in a great part of +its constitution is popular, that has raised the present ferment in the +nation. The people, without entering deeply into its principles, could +plainly perceive its effects, in much violence, in a great spirit of +innovation, and a general disorder in all the functions of government. I +keep my eye solely on this system; if I speak of those measures which +have arisen from it, it will be so far only as they illustrate the +general scheme. This is the fountain of all those bitter waters, of +which, through an hundred different conduits, we have drunk until we are +ready to burst. The discretionary power of the Crown in the formation of +ministry, abused by bad or weak men, has given rise to a system which, +without directly violating the letter of any law, operates against the +spirit of the whole constitution. + +A plan of favouritism for our executory government is essentially at +variance with the plan of our legislature. One great end undoubtedly of +a mixed government like ours, composed of monarchy, and of controls, on +the part of the higher people and the lower, is that the prince shall +not be able to violate the laws. This is useful indeed and fundamental. +But this, even at first view, in no more than a negative advantage; an +armour merely defensive. It is therefore next in order, and equal in +importance, THAT THE DISCRETIONARY POWERS WHICH ARE NECESSARILY VESTED +IN THE MONARCH, WHETHER FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE LAWS, OR FOR THE +NOMINATION TO MAGISTRACY AND OFFICE, OR FOR CONDUCTING THE AFFAIRS OF +PEACE AND WAR, OR FOR ORDERING THE REVENUE, SHOULD ALL BE EXERCISED UPON +PUBLIC PRINCIPLES AND NATIONAL GROUNDS, AND NOT ON THE LIKINGS OR +PREJUDICES, THE INTRIGUES OR POLICIES, OF A COURT. + + +ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION. + +In arbitrary governments, the constitution of the ministry follows the +constitution of the legislature. Both the law and the magistrate are the +creatures of will. It must be so. Nothing, indeed, will appear more +certain, on any tolerable consideration of this matter, than that EVERY +SORT OF GOVERNMENT OUGHT TO HAVE ITS ADMINISTRATION CORRESPONDENT TO ITS +LEGISLATURE. If it should be otherwise, things must fall into a hideous +disorder. The people of a free commonwealth, who have taken such care +that their laws should be the result of general consent, cannot be so +senseless as to suffer their executory system to be composed of persons +on whom they have no dependence, and whom no proofs of the public love +and confidence have recommended to those powers, upon the use of which +the very being of the state depends. + + +INFLUENCE OF THE CROWN. + +The power of the Crown, almost dead and rotten as Prerogative, has grown +up anew, with much more strength, and far less odium, under the name of +Influence. An influence, which operated without noise and without +violence; an influence which converted the very antagonist into the +instrument of power; which contained in itself a perpetual principle of +growth and renovation; and which the distresses and the prosperity of +the country equally tend to augment, was an admirable substitute for a +prerogative, that, being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, +had moulded into its original stamina irresistible principles of decay +and dissolution. The ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a +temporary system; the interest of active men in the state is a +foundation perpetual and infallible. + + +VOICE OF THE PEOPLE. + +Government is deeply interested in everything which, even through the +medium of some temporary uneasiness, may tend finally to compose the +minds of the subjects, and to conciliate their affections. I have +nothing to do here with the abstract value of the voice of the people. +But as long as reputation, the most precious possession of every +individual, and as long as opinion, the great support of the state, +depend entirely upon that voice, it can never be considered as a thing +of little consequence either to individuals or to governments. Nations +are not primarily ruled by laws; less by violence. Whatever original +energy may be supposed either in force or regulation, the operation of +both is, in truth, merely instrumental. Nations are governed by the same +methods, and on the same principles, by which an individual without +authority is often able to govern those who are his equals or his +superiors--by a knowledge of their temper, and by a judicious management +of it; I mean, when public affairs are steadily and quietly conducted; +and when government is nothing but a continued scuffle between the +magistrate and the multitude; in which sometimes the one and sometimes +the other is uppermost; in which they alternately yield and prevail, in +a series of contemptible victories, and scandalous submissions. The +temper of the people amongst whom he presides ought therefore to be the +first study of a statesman. And the knowledge of this temper it is by no +means impossible for him to attain, if he has not an interest in being +ignorant of what it is his duty to learn. + + +FALLACY OF EXTREMES. + +It is a fallacy in constant use with those who would level all things, +and confound right with wrong, to insist upon the inconveniences which +are attached to every choice, without taking into consideration the +different weight and consequence of those inconveniences. The question +is not concerning ABSOLUTE discontent or PERFECT satisfaction in +government; neither of which can be pure and unmixed at any time, or +upon any system. The controversy is about that degree of good humour in +the people, which may possibly be attained, and ought certainly to be +looked for. While some politicians may be waiting to know whether the +sense of every individual be against them, accurately distinguishing the +vulgar from the better sort, drawing lines between the enterprises of a +faction and the efforts of a people, they may chance to see the +government, which they are so nicely weighing, and dividing, and +distinguishing, tumble to the ground in the midst of their wise +deliberation. Prudent men, when so great an object as the security of +government, or even its peace, is at stake, will not run the risk of a +decision which may be fatal to it. They who can read the political sky +will see a hurricane in a cloud no bigger than a hand at the very edge +of the horizon, and will run into the first harbour. No lines can be +laid down for civil or political wisdom. They are a matter incapable of +exact definition. But, though no man can draw a stroke between the +confines of day and night, yet light and darkness are, upon the whole, +tolerably distinguishable. Nor will it be impossible for a prince to +find out such a mode of government, and such persons to administer it, +as will give a great degree of content to his people; without any +curious and anxious research for that abstract, universal, perfect +harmony, which, while he is seeking, he abandons those means of ordinary +tranquillity which are in his power without any research at all. + + +PRIVATE CHARACTER A BASIS FOR PUBLIC CONFIDENCE. + +Before men are put forward into the great trusts of the state, they +ought, by their conduct, to have obtained such a degree of estimation in +their country, as may be some sort of pledge and security to the public, +that they will not abuse those trusts. It is no mean security for a +proper use of power, that a man has shown by the general tenor of his +actions, that the affection, the good opinion, the confidence of his +fellow citizens, have been among the principal objects of his life; and +that he has owed none of the degradations of his power or fortune to a +settled contempt, or occasional forfeiture of their esteem. + +That man who before he comes into power has no friends, or who coming +into power is obliged to desert his friends, or who losing it has no +friends to sympathise with him; he who has no sway among any part of the +landed or commercial interest, but whose whole importance has begun with +his office, and is sure to end with it; is a person who ought never to +be suffered by a controlling parliament to continue in any of those +situations which confer the lead and direction of all our public +affairs; because such a man HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE INTEREST OF THE +PEOPLE. Those knots or cabals of men who have got together avowedly +without any public principle, in order to sell their conjunct iniquity +at the higher rate, and are therefore universally odious, ought never to +be suffered to domineer in the state; because they have NO CONNECTION +WITH THE SENTIMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PEOPLE. + + +PREVENTION. + +Every good political institution must have a preventive operation as +well as a remedial. It ought to have a natural tendency to exclude bad +men from government, and not to trust for the safety of the state to +subsequent punishment alone: punishment, which has ever been tardy and +uncertain, and which, when power is suffered in bad hands, may chance to +fall rather on the injured than the criminal. + + +CONFIDENCE IN THE PEOPLE. + +They may be assured, that however they amuse themselves with a variety +of projects for substituting something else in the place of that great +and only foundation of government, the confidence of the people, every +attempt will but make their condition worse. When men imagine that their +food is only a cover for poison, and when they neither love nor trust +the hand that serves it, it is not the name of the roast beef of Old +England, that will persuade them to sit down to the table that is spread +for them. When the people conceive that laws, and tribunals, and even +popular assemblies, are perverted from the ends of their institution, +they find in those names of degenerated establishments only new motives +to discontent. Those bodies which, when full of life and beauty, lay in +their arms, and were their joy and comfort, when dead and putrid, become +but the more loathsome from remembrance of former endearments. A sullen +gloom and furious disorder prevail by fits: the nation loses its relish +for peace and prosperity; as it did in that season of fulness which +opened our troubles in the time of Charles the First. A species of men +to whom a state of order would become a sentence of obscurity, are +nourished into a dangerous magnitude by the heat of intestine +disturbances; and it is no wonder that, by a sort of sinister piety, +they cherish, in their turn, the disorders which are the parents of all +their consequence. + + +FALSE MAXIMS ASSUMED AS FIRST PRINCIPLES. + +It is an advantage to all narrow wisdom and narrow morals, that their +maxims have a plausible air; and, on a cursory view, appear equal to +first principles. They are light and portable. They are as current as +copper coin; and about as valuable. They serve equally the first +capacities and the lowest; and they are, at least, as useful to the +worst men as to the best. Of this stamp is the cant of NOT MEN, BUT +MEASURES; a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every +honourable engagement. When I see a man acting this desultory and +disconnected part, with as much detriment to his own fortune as +prejudice to the cause of any party, I am not persuaded that he is +right; but I am ready to believe he is in earnest. I respect virtue in +all its situations; even when it is found in the unsuitable company of +weakness. I lament to see qualities rare and valuable, squandered away +without any public utility. But when a gentleman with great visible +emoluments abandons the party in which he has long acted, and tells you, +it is because he proceeds upon his own judgment; that he acts on the +merits of the several measures as they arise; and that he is obliged to +follow his own conscience, and not that of others; he gives reasons +which it is impossible to controvert, and discovers a character which it +is impossible to mistake. What shall we think of him who never differed +from a certain set of men until the moment they lost their power, and +who never agreed with them in a single instance afterwards? Would not +such a coincidence of interest and opinion be rather fortunate? Would it +not be an extraordinary cast upon the dice, that a man's connexions +should degenerate into faction, precisely at the critical moment when +they lose their power, or he accepts a place? When people desert their +connexions, the desertion is a manifest FACT, upon which a direct simple +issue lies, triable by plain men. Whether a MEASURE of government be +right or wrong, IS NO MATTER OF FACT, but a mere affair of opinion, on +which men may, as they do, dispute and wrangle without end. But whether +the individual THINKS the measure right or wrong, is a point at still a +greater distance from the reach of all human decision. It is therefore +very convenient to politicians, not to put the judgment of their conduct +on overt acts, cognizable in any ordinary court, but upon such matter as +can be triable only in that secret tribunal, where they are sure of +being heard with favour, or where at worst the sentence will be only +private whipping. + + +LORD CHATHAM. + +Another scene was opened, and other actors appeared on the stage. The +State, in the condition I have described it, was delivered into the +hands of Lord Chatham--a great and celebrated name; a name that keeps +the name of this country respectable in every other on the globe. It may +be truly called-- + + Clarum et venerabile nomen + Gentibus, et multum nostrae quod proderat urbi. + +Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his superior +eloquence, his splendid qualities, his eminent services, the vast space +he fills in the eye of mankind; and, more than all the rest, his fall +from power, which, like death, canonizes and sanctifies a great +character, will not suffer me to censure any part of his conduct. I am +afraid to flatter him; I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let +those, who have betrayed him by their adulation, insult him with their +malevolence. But what I do not presume to censure, I may have leave to +lament. For a wise man, he seemed to me at that time to be governed too +much by general maxims. I speak with the freedom of history, and I hope +without offence. One or two of these maxims, flowing from an opinion not +the most indulgent to our unhappy species, and surely a little too +general, led him into measures that were greatly mischievous to himself; +and for that reason, among others, perhaps fatal to his country; +measures, the effects of which, I am afraid, are for ever incurable. He +made an administration, so checkered and speckled; he put together a +piece of joinery, so crossly indented and whimsically dove-tailed; a +cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a +tesselated pavement without cement; here a bit of black stone, and there +a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans; +Whigs and Tories; treacherous friends and open enemies; that it was +indeed a very curious show; but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to +stand on. The colleagues whom he had assorted at the same boards, stared +at each other, and were obliged to ask, "Sir, your name?--Sir, you have +the advantage of me--Mr. Such-a-one--I beg a thousand pardons--" I +venture to say, it did so happen, that persons had a single office +divided between them, who had never spoken to each other in their lives, +until they found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads +and points, in the same truckle-bed. + +Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, having put so much the larger +part of his enemies and opposers into power, the confusion was such, +that his own principles could not possibly have any effect or influence +in the conduct of affairs. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if +any other cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the +contrary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had +not an inch of ground to stand upon. When he had accomplished his scheme +of administration, he was no longer a minister. When his face was hid +but for a moment, his whole system was on a wide sea, without chart or +compass. The gentlemen, his particular friends, who, with the names of +various departments of ministry, were admitted to seem as if they acted +a part under him, with a modesty that becomes all men, and with a +confidence in him, which was justified even in its extravagance by his +superior abilities, had never, in any instance, presumed upon any +opinion of their own. Deprived of his guiding influence, they were +whirled about, the sport of every gust, and easily driven into any port; +and as those who joined with them in manning the vessel were the most +directly opposite to his opinions, measures, and character, and far the +most artful and most powerful of the set, they easily prevailed, so as +to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends; +and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his +policy. As if it were to insult as well as to betray him, even long +before the close of the first session of his administration, when +everything was publicly transacted, and with great parade, in his name, +they made an act, declaring it highly just and expedient to raise a +revenue in America. For even then, Sir, even before this splendid orb +was entirely set, and while the western horizon was in a blaze with his +descending glory, on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose another +luminary, and, for his hour, became lord of the ascendant. + + +GRENVILLE. + +Mr. Grenville was a first-rate figure in this country. With a masculine +understanding, and a stout and resolute heart, he had an application +undissipated and unwearied. He took public business not as a duty which +he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was to enjoy; and he seemed to +have no delight out of this house, except in such things as some way +related to the business that was to be done within it. If he was +ambitious, I will say this for him, his ambition was of a noble and +generous strain. It was to raise himself, not by the low, pimping +politics of a court, but to win his way to power, through the laborious +gradations of public service; and to secure himself a well-earned rank +in Parliament, by a thorough knowledge of its constitution, and a +perfect practice in all its business. + +Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be from defects not +intrinsical; they must be rather sought in the particular habits of his +life; which though they do not alter the ground-work of character, yet +tinge it with their own hue. He was bred in a profession. He was bred to +the law, which is, in my opinion, one of the first and noblest of human +sciences; a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the +understanding, than all the other kinds of learning put together; but it +is not apt, except in persons very happily born, to open and to +liberalize the mind exactly in the same proportion. Passing from that +study he did not go very largely into the world; but plunged into +business; I mean into the business of office; and the limited and fixed +methods and forms established there. Much knowledge is to be had +undoubtedly in that line; and there is no knowledge which is not +valuable. But it may be truly said, that men too much conversant in +office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement. Their habits of +office are apt to give them a turn to think the substance of business +not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted. +These forms are adapted to ordinary occasions; and therefore persons who +are nurtured in office do admirably well as long as things go on in +their common order; but when the high roads are broken up, and the +waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file +affords no precedent, then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind, +and a far more extensive comprehension of things, is requisite, than +ever office gave, or than office can ever give. + + +CHARLES TOWNSHEND. + +This light too is passed and set for ever. You understand, to be sure, +that I speak of Charles Townshend, officially the reproducer of this +fatal scheme; whom I cannot even now remember without some degree of +sensibility. In truth, Sir, he was the delight and ornament of this +house, and the charm of every private society which he honoured with his +presence. Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any country, +a man of a more pointed and finished wit; and (where his passions were +not concerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment. +If he had not so great a stock, as some have had who flourished +formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better by far, than +any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together within a short +time, all that was necessary to establish, to illustrate, and to +decorate that side of the question he supported. He stated his matter +skilfully and powerfully. He particularly excelled in a most luminous +explanation and display of his subject. His style of argument was +neither trite and vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse. He hit the house just +between wind and water. And not being troubled with too anxious a zeal +for any matter in question, he was never more tedious, or more earnest, +than the pre-conceived opinions and present temper of his hearers +required; to whom he was always in perfect unison. He conformed exactly +to the temper of the house; and he seemed to guide, because he was +always sure to follow it. + + +PARTY AND PLACE. + +Party is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours +the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are +all agreed. For my part, I find it impossible to conceive that any one +believes in his own politics, or thinks them to be of any weight, who +refuses to adopt the means of having them reduced into practice. It is +the business of the speculative philosopher to mark the proper ends of +government. It is the business of the politician, who is the philosopher +in action, to find out proper means towards those ends, and to employ +them with effect. Therefore every honourable connection will avow it is +their first purpose to pursue every just method to put the men who hold +their opinions into such a condition as may enable them to carry their +common plans into execution, with all the power and authority of the +state. As this power is attached to certain situations, it is their duty +to contend for these situations. Without a proscription of others, they +are bound to give to their own party the preference in all things; and +by no means, for private considerations, to accept any offers of power +in which the whole body is not included; nor to suffer themselves to be +led, or to be controlled, or to be overbalanced, in office or in +council, by those who contradict the very fundamental principles on +which their party is formed, and even those upon which every fair +connection must stand. Such a generous contention for power, on such +manly and honourable maxims, will easily be distinguished from the mean +and interested struggle for place and emolument. The very style of such +persons will serve to discriminate them from those numberless imposters +who have deluded the ignorant with professions incompatible with human +practice, and have afterwards incensed them by practices below the level +of vulgar rectitude. + + +POLITICAL CONNECTIONS. + +Every profession, not excepting the glorious one of a soldier, or the +sacred one of a priest, is liable to its own particular vices, which, +however, form no argument against those ways of life; nor are the vices +themselves inevitable to every individual in those professions. Of such +a nature are connections in politics; essentially necessary for the full +performance of our public duty, accidentally liable to degenerate into +faction. Commonwealths are made of families, free commonwealths of +parties also; and we may as well affirm, that our natural regards and +ties of blood tend inevitably to make men bad citizens, as that the +bonds of our party weaken those by which we are held to our country. + +Some legislators went so far as to make neutrality in party a crime +against the state. I do not know whether this might not have been rather +to overstrain the principle. Certain it is, the best patriots in the +greatest commonwealths have always commended and promoted such +connections. Idem sentire de republica, was with them a principal ground +of friendship and attachment; nor do I know any other capable of forming +firmer, dearer, more pleasing, more honourable, and more virtuous +habitudes. The Romans carried this principle a great way. Even the +holding of offices together, the disposition of which arose from chance, +not selection, gave rise to a relation which continued for life. It was +called necessitudo sortis; and it was looked upon with a sacred +reverence. Breaches of any of these kinds of civil relation were +considered as acts of the most distinguished turpitude. The whole people +was distributed into political societies, in which they acted in support +of such interests in the state as they severally affected. For it was +then thought no crime to endeavour, by every honest means, to advance to +superiority and power those of your own sentiments and opinions. This +wise people was far from imagining that those connections had no tie, +and obliged to no duty; but that men might quit them without shame, upon +every call of interest. They believed private honour to be the great +foundation of public trust; that friendship was no mean step towards +patriotism; that he who, in the common intercourse of life, showed he +regarded somebody besides himself, when he came to act in a public +situation, might probably consult some other interest than his own. + + +NEUTRALITY. + +They were a race of men (I hope in God the species is extinct) who, when +they rose in their place, no man living could divine, from any known +adherence to parties, to opinions, or to principles, from any order or +system in their politics, or from any sequel or connection in their +ideas, what part they were going to take in any debate. It is +astonishing how much this uncertainty, especially at critical times, +called the attention of all parties on such men. All eyes were fixed on +them, all ears open to hear them; each party gaped, and looked +alternately for their vote, almost to the end of their speeches. While +the house hung on this uncertainty, now the HEAR HIMS rose from this +side--now they rebellowed from the other; and that party, to whom they +fell at length from their tremulous and dancing balance, always received +them in a tempest of applause. The fortune of such men was a temptation +too great to be resisted by one to whom a single whiff of incense +withheld gave much greater pain than he received delight in the clouds +of it which daily rose about him from the prodigal superstition of +innumerable admirers. He was a candidate for contradictory honours; and +his great aim was to make those agree in admiration of him who never +agreed in anything else. + + +WEAKNESS IN GOVERNMENT. + +Let us learn from our experience. It is not support that is wanting to +government, but reformation. When ministry rests upon public opinion, it +is not indeed built upon a rock of adamant; it has, however, some +stability. But when it stands upon private humour, its structure is of +stubble, and its foundation is on quicksand. I repeat it again--He that +supports every administration subverts all government. The reason is +this: The whole business in which a court usually takes an interest goes +on at present equally well, in whatever hands, whether high or low, wise +or foolish, scandalous or reputable; there is nothing, therefore, to +hold it firm to any one body of men, or to any one consistent scheme of +politics. Nothing interposes to prevent the full operation of all the +caprices and all the passions of a court upon the servants of the +public. The system of administration is open to continual shocks and +changes, upon the principles of the meanest cabal, and the most +contemptible intrigue. Nothing can be solid and permanent. All good men +at length fly with horror from such a service. Men of rank and ability, +with the spirit which ought to animate such men in a free state, while +they decline the jurisdiction of dark cabal on their actions and their +fortunes, will, for both, cheerfully put themselves upon their country. +They will trust an inquisitive and distinguishing parliament; because it +does inquire, and does distinguish. If they act well, they know that, in +such a parliament, they will be supported against any intrigue; if they +act ill, they know that no intrigue can protect them. This situation, +however awful, is honourable. But in one hour, and in the self-same +assembly, without any assigned or assignable cause, to be precipitated +from the highest authority to the most marked neglect, possibly into the +greatest peril of life and reputation, is a situation full of danger, +and destitute of honour. It will be shunned equally by every man of +prudence, and every man of spirit. + + +AMERICAN PROGRESS. + +Nothing in the history of mankind is like their progress. For my part, I +never cast an eye on their flourishing commerce, and their cultivated +and commodious life, but they seem to me rather ancient nations grown to +perfection through a long series of fortunate events, and a train of +successful industry, accumulating wealth in many centuries, than the +colonies of yesterday; than a set of miserable outcasts, a few years +ago, not so much sent as thrown out, on the bleak and barren shore of a +desolate wilderness, three thousand miles from all civilized +intercourse. + + +COMBINATION, NOT FACTION. + +That connection and faction are equivalent terms, is an opinion which +has been carefully inculcated at all times by unconstitutional +statesmen. The reason is evident. Whilst men are linked together, they +easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design. They are +enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to oppose it with united +strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed, without concert, order, or +discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and +resistance impracticable. Where men are not acquainted with each other's +principles, nor experienced in each other's talents, nor at all +practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in +business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no common interest, +subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a +public part with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy. In a connection, +the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has +his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly +unserviceable to the public. No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory +into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, +desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat the subtle +designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, +the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied +sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. + + +GREAT MEN. + +Great men are the guide-posts and land-marks in the state. The credit of +such men at court, or in the nation, is the sole cause of all the public +measures. It would be an invidious thing (most foreign, I trust, to what +you think my disposition) to remark the errors into which the authority +of great names has brought the nation, without doing justice at the same +time to the great qualities whence that authority arose. The subject is +instructive to those who wish to form themselves on whatever of +excellence has gone before them. There are many young members in the +house (such of late has been the rapid succession of public men) who +never saw that prodigy, Charles Townshend; nor of course know what a +ferment he was able to excite in everything by the violent ebullition of +his mixed virtues and failings. For failings he had undoubtedly--many of +us remember them; we are this day considering the effect of them. But he +had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, +generous, perhaps an immoderate, passion for fame; a passion which is +the instinct of all great souls. + + +POWER OF CONSTITUENTS. + +The power of the people, within the laws, must show itself sufficient to +protect every representative in the animated performance of his duty, or +that duty cannot be performed. The House of Commons can never be a +control on other parts of government, unless they are controlled +themselves by their constituents; and unless these constituents possess +some right in the choice of that house, which it is not in the power of +that house to take away. If they suffer this power of arbitrary +incapacitation to stand, they have utterly perverted every other power +of the House of Commons. The late proceeding I will not say IS contrary +to law, it MUST be so; for the power which is claimed cannot, by any +possibility, be a legal power in any limited member of government. + + +INFLUENCE OF PLACE IN GOVERNMENT. + +It is no inconsiderable part of wisdom, to know how much of an evil +ought to be tolerated; lest, by attempting a degree of purity +impracticable in degenerate times and manners, instead of cutting off +the subsisting ill practices, new corruptions might be produced for the +concealment and security of the old. It were better, undoubtedly, that +no influence at all could affect the mind of a member of Parliament. But +of all modes of influence, in my opinion, a place under the government +is the least disgraceful to the man who holds it, and by far the most +safe to the country. I would not shut out that sort of influence which +is open and visible, which is connected with the dignity and the service +of the state, when it is not in my power to prevent the influence of +contracts, of subscriptions, of direct bribery, and those innumerable +methods of clandestine corruption, which are abundantly in the hands of +the court, and which will be applied as long as these means of +corruption, and the disposition to be corrupted, have existence among +us. Our constitution stands on a nice equipoise, with steep precipices +and deep waters upon all sides of it. In removing it from a dangerous +leaning towards one side, there may be a risk of oversetting it on the +other. Every project of a material change in a government so complicated +as ours, combined at the same time with external circumstances, still +more complicated, is a matter full of difficulties: in which a +considerate man will not be too ready to decide; a prudent man too ready +to undertake; or an honest man too ready to promise. They do not respect +the public nor themselves, who engage for more than they are sure that +they ought to attempt, or that they are able to perform. + + +TAXATION INVOLVES PRINCIPLE. + +No man ever doubted that the commodity of tea could bear an imposition +of threepence. But no commodity will bear threepence, or will bear a +penny, when the general feelings of men are irritated, and two millions +of people are resolved not to pay. The feelings of the colonies were +formerly the feelings of Great Britain. Theirs were formerly the +feelings of Mr. Hampden when called upon for the payment of twenty +shillings. Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune? No! +but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle it was +demanded, would have made him a slave. + + +GOOD MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. + +To be a good member of parliament is, let me tell you, no easy task; +especially at this time, when there is so strong a disposition to run +into the perilous extremes of servile compliance or wild popularity. To +unite circumspection with vigour is absolutely necessary; but it is +extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial CITY; this +city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial NATION, the interests +of which are various, multiform, and intricate. We are members for that +great nation, which however is itself but part of a great EMPIRE, +extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest limits of the +east and of the west. All these wide-spread interests must be +considered; must be compared; must be reconciled, if possible. We are +members for a FREE country; and surely we all know, that the machine of +a free constitution is no simple thing; but as intricate and as delicate +as it is valuable. We are members in a great and ancient MONARCHY; and +we must preserve religiously the true legal rights of the sovereign, +which form the key-stone that binds together the noble and +well-constructed arch of our empire and our constitution. + + +FISHERIES OF NEW ENGLAND. + +As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the sea by their +fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. You surely +thought those acquisitions of value, for they seemed even to excite your +envy; and yet the spirit by which that enterprising employment has been +exercised ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and +admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it! Pass by the +other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of New England +have of late carried on the whale fishery. Whilst we follow them among +the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the +deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we +are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they have +pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at the +antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. Falkland +Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of +national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of +their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging +to them, than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that +whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of +Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along +the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No +climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of +Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity +of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hard +industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent +people; a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not +yet hardened into the bone of manhood. + + +PREPARATION FOR PARLIAMENT. + +When I first devoted myself to the public service, I considered how I +should render myself fit for it; and this I did by endeavouring to +discover what it was that gave this country the rank it holds in the +world. I found that our prosperity and dignity arose principally, if not +solely, from two sources;--our constitution and commerce. Both these I +have spared no study to understand, and no endeavour to support. + +The distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty. To preserve +that liberty inviolate, seems the particular duty and proper trust of a +member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the only liberty I +mean, is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with +order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres +in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle. + +The other source of our power is commerce, of which you are so large a +part, and which cannot exist, no more than your liberty, without a +connection with many virtues. It has ever been a very particular and a +very favourite object of my study, in its principles, and in its +details. I think many here are acquainted with the truth of what I say. +This I know, that I have ever had my house open, and my poor services +ready, for traders and manufacturers of every denomination. My favourite +ambition is to have those services acknowledged. I now appear before you +to make trial, whether my earnest endeavours have been so wholly +oppressed by the weakness of my abilities as to be rendered +insignificant in the eyes of a great trading city; or whether you choose +to give a weight to humble abilities, for the sake of the honest +exertions with which they are accompanied. This is my trial to?day. My +industry is not on trial. Of my industry I am sure, as far as my +constitution of mind and body admitted. + + +BATHURST AND AMERICA'S FUTURE. + +Let us, however, before with descend from this noble eminence, reflect +that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within the +short period of the life of man. It has happened within sixty-eight +years. There are those alive whose memory might touch the two +extremities. For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all the +stages of the progress. He was, in 1704, of an age at least to be made +to comprehend such things. He was then old enough "acta parentum jam +legere, et quae sit poterit cognoscere virtus." Suppose, Sir, that the +angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues which made +him one of the most amiable, as he is one of the most fortunate, men of +his age, had opened to him in vision, that when, in the fourth +generation, the third prince of the house of Brunswick had sat twelve +years on the throne of that nation, which (by the happy issue of +moderate and healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should +see his son, lord chancellor of England, turn back the current of +hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to a higher rank of +peerage, whilst he enriched the family with a new one. If amidst these +bright and happy scenes of domestic honour and prosperity, that angel +should have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his +country, and whilst he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial +grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a little speck, +scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, a small seminal +principle, rather than a formed body, and should tell him--"Young man, +there is America--which at this day serves for little more than to amuse +you with stories of savage men, and uncouth manners; yet shall, before +you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce +which now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England has been +growing to by a progressive increase of improvement, brought in by +varieties of people, by succession of civilizing conquests and +civilizing settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall +see as much added to her by America in the course of a single life!" If +this state of his country had been foretold to him, would it not require +all the sanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of +enthusiasm, to make him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see +it! Fortunate, indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the +prospect, and cloud the setting of his day! + + +CANDID POLICY. + +Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion; and ever will be +so, as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as +easily discovered at the first view, as fraud is surely detected at +last, is, let me say, of no mean force in the government of mankind. +Genuine simplicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle. My +plan, therefore, being formed upon the most simple grounds imaginable, +may disappoint some people, when they hear it. It has nothing to +recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. There is nothing at all +new and captivating in it. It has nothing of the splendour of the +project which has been lately laid upon your table by the noble lord in +the blue riband. It does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling +colony agents, who will require the interposition of your mace, at every +instant, to keep the peace amongst them. It does not institute a +magnificent auction of finance, where captivated provinces come to +general ransom by bidding against each other, until you knock down the +hammer, and determine a proportion of payments beyond all the powers of +algebra to equalize and settle. + + +WISDOM OF CONCESSION. + +Peace implies reconciliation; and where there has been a material +dispute, reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession on the +one part or the other. In this state of things I make no difficulty in +affirming that the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and +acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by +an unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer peace +with honour and with safety. Such an offer from such a power will be +attributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the +concessions of fear. When such a one is disarmed, he is wholly at the +mercy of his superior; and he loses for ever that time and those chances +which, as they happen to all men, are the strength and resources of all +inferior power. + + +MAGNANIMITY. + +As for the trifling petulance which the rage of party stirs up in little +minds, though it should show itself even in this court, it has not made +the slightest impression on me. The highest flight of such clamorous +birds is winged in an inferior region of the air. We hear them, and we +look upon them, just as you, gentlemen, when you enjoy the serene air on +your lofty rocks, look down upon the gulls that skim the mud of your +river, when it is exhausted of its tide. + + +DUTY OF REPRESENTATIVES. + +It ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in +the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved +communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great +weight with him; their opinion high respect; their business unremitted +attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his +satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to +prefer their interest to his own. But, his unbiassed opinion, his mature +judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, +to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from +your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a +trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. +Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; +and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your +opinion. + + +PRUDENTIAL SILENCE. + +Though I gave so far into his opinion, that I immediately threw my +thoughts into a sort of parliamentary form, I was by no means equally +ready to produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural +impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, to hazard +plans of government except from a seat of authority. Propositions are +made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably, when the minds +of men are not properly disposed for their reception: and for my part, I +am not ambitious of ridicule; not absolutely a candidate for disgrace. + + +COLONIAL TIES. + +They are "our children;" but when children ask for bread, we are not to +give a stone. Is it because the natural resistance of things, and the +various mutations of time, hinders our government, or any scheme of +government, from being any more than a sort of approximation to the +right, is it therefore that the colonies are to recede from it +infinitely? When this child of ours wishes to assimilate to its parent, +and to reflect with a true filial resemblance the beauteous countenance +of British liberty, are we to turn to them the shameful parts of our +constitution? are we to give them our weakness for their strength? our +opprobrium for their glory? and the slough of slavery, which we are not +able to work off, to serve them for their freedom? + + +GOVERNMENT AND LEGISLATION. + +If government were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without +question, ought to be superior. But government and legislation are +matters of reason and judgment, and not of inclination; and what sort of +reason is that, in which the determination precedes the discussion; in +which one set of men deliberate, and another decide; and where those who +form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those +who hear the arguments? + + +PARLIAMENT. + +Parliament is not a CONGRESS of ambassadors from different and hostile +interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, +against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a DELIBERATIVE +assembly of ONE nation, with ONE interest, that of the whole; where, not +local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general +good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a +member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of +Bristol, but he is a member of PARLIAMENT. + + +MORAL LEVELLERS. + +This moral levelling is a SERVILE PRINCIPLE. It leads to practical +passive obedience far better than all the doctrines which the pliant +accommodation of theology to power has ever produced. It cuts up by the +roots, not only all idea of forcible resistance, but even of civil +opposition. It disposes men to an abject submission, not by opinion, +which may be shaken by argument or altered by passion, but by the strong +ties of public and private interest. For if all men who act in a public +situation are equally selfish, corrupt, and venal, what reason can be +given for desiring any sort of change, which, besides the evils which +must attend all changes, can be productive of no possible advantage? The +active men in the state are true samples of the mass. If they are +universally depraved, the commonwealth itself is not sound. We may amuse +ourselves with talking as much as we please of the virtue of middle or +humble life; that is, we may place our confidence in the virtue of those +who have never been tried. But if the persons who are continually +emerging out of that sphere be no better than those whom birth has +placed above it, what hopes are there in the remainder of the body, +which is to furnish the perpetual succession of the state? All who have +ever written on government are unanimous, that among a people generally +corrupt, liberty cannot long exist. And indeed how is it possible? when +those who are to make the laws, to guard, to enforce, or to obey them, +are, by a tacit confederacy of manners, indisposed to the spirit of all +generous and noble institutions. + + +PUBLIC SALARY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICE. + +I am not possessed of an exact common measure between real service and +its reward. I am very sure that states do sometimes receive services +which it is hardly in their power to reward according to their worth. If +I were to give my judgment with regard to this country, I do not think +the great efficient offices of the state to be overpaid. The service of +the public is a thing which cannot be put to auction, and struck down to +those who will agree to execute it the cheapest. When the proportion +between reward and service is our object, we must always consider of +what nature the service is, and what sort of men they are that must +perform it. What is just payment for one kind of labour, and full +encouragement for one kind of talents, is fraud and discouragement to +others. Many of the great offices have much duty to do, and much expense +of representation to maintain. A secretary of state, for instance, must +not appear sordid in the eyes of the ministers of other nations; neither +ought our ministers abroad to appear contemptible in the courts where +they reside. In all offices of duty, there is, almost necessarily, a +great neglect of all domestic affairs. A person in high office can +rarely take a view of his family house. If he sees that the state takes +no detriment, the state must see that his affairs should take as little. +I will even go so far as to affirm, that if men were willing to serve in +such situations without salary, they ought not to be permitted to do it. +Ordinary service must be secured by the motives to ordinary integrity. I +do not hesitate to say, that that state which lays its foundations in +rare and heroic virtues, will be sure to have its superstructure in the +basest profligacy and corruption. An honourable and fair profit is the +best security against avarice and rapacity; as in all things else, a +lawful and regulated enjoyment is the best security against debauchery +and excess. For as wealth is power, so all power will infallibly draw +wealth to itself by some means or other: and when men are left no way of +ascertaining their profits but by their means of obtaining them, those +means will be increased to infinity. This is true in all the parts of +administration, as well as in the whole. If any individual were to +decline his appointments, it might give an unfair advantage to +ostentatious ambition over unpretending service; it might breed +invidious comparisons; it might tend to destroy whatever little unity +and agreement may be found among ministers. And, after all, when an +ambitious man had run down his competitors by a fallacious show of +disinterestedness, and fixed himself in power by that means, what +security is there that he would not change his course, and claim as an +indemnity ten times more than he has given up? + + +RATIONAL LIBERTY. + +Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be possessed. The degree of +restraint it is impossible in any case to settle precisely. But it ought +to be the constant aim of every wise public council to find out by +cautious experiments, and rational, cool endeavours, with how little, +not how much, of this restraint the community can subsist. For liberty +is a good to be improved, and not an evil to be lessened. It is not only +a private blessing of the first order, but the vital spring and energy +of the state itself, which has just so much life and vigour as there is +liberty in it. But whether liberty be advantageous or not (for I know it +is a fashion to decry the very principle), none will dispute that peace +is a blessing; and peace must in the course of human affairs be +frequently bought by some indulgence and toleration at least to liberty. +For as the sabbath (though of Divine institution) was made for man, not +man for the sabbath, government, which can claim no higher origin or +authority, in its exercise at least, ought to conform to the exigencies +of the time, and the temper and character of the people with whom it is +concerned; and not always to attempt violently to bend the people to +their theories of subjection. The bulk of mankind on their part are not +excessively curious concerning any theories whilst they are really +happy; and one sure symptom of an ill-conducted state is the propensity +of the people to resort to them. + + +IRELAND AND MAGNA CHARTA. + +The feudal baronage and the feudal knighthood, the roots of our +primitive constitution, were early transplanted into that soil, and grew +and flourished there. Magna Charta, if it did not give us originally the +House of Commons, gave us at least a house of commons of weight and +consequence. But your ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to the +feast of Magna Charta. Ireland was made immediately a partaker. This +benefit of English laws and liberties, I confess, was not at first +extended to ALL Ireland. Mark the consequence. English authority and +English liberty had exactly the same boundaries. Your standard could +never be advanced an inch beyond your privileges. Sir John Davis shows, +beyond a doubt, that the refusal of a general communication of these +rights was the true cause why Ireland was five hundred years in +subduing; and after the vain projects of a military government, +attempted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was soon discovered that +nothing could make that country English, in civility and allegiance, but +your laws and your forms of legislature. It was not English arms, but +the English constitution, that conquered Ireland. From that time Ireland +has ever had a general parliament, as she had before a partial +parliament. You changed the people; you altered the religion; but you +never touched the form or the vital substance of free government in that +kingdom. You deposed kings; you restored them; you altered the +succession to theirs, as well as to your own crown; but you never +altered their constitution; the principle of which was respected by +usurpation; restored with the restoration of monarchy, and established, +I trust, for ever, by the glorious Revolution. + + +COLONIES AND BRITISH CONSTITUTION. + +For that service, for all service, whether of revenue, trade, or empire, +my trust is in her interest in the British constitution. My hold of the +colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from +kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are +ties, which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let +the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with +your government;--they will cling and grapple to you; and no force under +heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it +be once understood that your government may be one thing, and their +privileges another; that these two things may exist without any mutual +relation; the cement is gone; the cohesion is loosened; and everything +hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep +the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the +sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race +and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards +you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more +ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. +Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. +They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But, until +you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural +dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity +of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the true act of +navigation, which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and through +them secures to you the wealth of the world. Deny them this +participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond, which originally +made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain +so weak an imagination, as that your registers and your bonds, your +affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your clearances, are +what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your +letters of office, and your instructions, and your suspending clauses, +are the things that hold together the great contexture of this +mysterious whole. These things do not make your government. Dead +instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English +communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the +spirit of the English constitution, which, infused through the mighty +mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the +empire, even down to the minutest member. + + +RECIPROCAL CONFIDENCE. + +At the first fatal opening of this contest, the wisest course seemed to +be to put an end as soon as possible to the immediate causes of the +dispute; and to quiet a discussion, not easily settled upon clear +principles, and arising from claims, which pride would permit neither +party to abandon, by resorting as nearly as possible to the old, +successful course. A mere repeal of the obnoxious tax, with a +declaration of the legislative authority of this kingdom, was then fully +sufficient to procure peace to BOTH SIDES. Man is a creature of habit, +and, the first breach being of very short continuance, the colonies fell +back exactly into their ancient state. The congress has used an +expression with regard to this pacification, which appears to me truly +significant. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, "the colonies fell," +says this assembly, "into their ancient state of UNSUSPECTING CONFIDENCE +IN THE MOTHER COUNTRY." This unsuspecting confidence is the true centre +of gravity amongst mankind, about which all the parts are at rest. It is +this UNSUSPECTING CONFIDENCE that removes all difficulties, and +reconciles all the contradictions which occur in the complexity of all +ancient, puzzled, political establishments. Happy are the rulers which +have the secret of preserving it! + + +PENSIONS AND THE CROWN. + +When men receive obligations from the Crown, through the pious hands of +fathers, or of connections as venerable as the paternal, the +dependencies which arise from thence are the obligations of gratitude, +and not the fetters of servility. Such ties originate in virtue, and +they promote it. They continue men in those habitudes of friendship, +those political connexions, and those political principles, in which +they began life. They are antidotes against a corrupt levity, instead of +causes of it. What an unseemly spectacle would it afford, what a +disgrace would it be to the commonwealth that suffered such things, to +see the hopeful son of a meritorious minister begging his bread at the +door of that treasury, from whence his father dispensed the economy of +an empire, and promoted the happiness and glory of his country! Why +should he be obliged to prostrate his honour, and to submit his +principles at the levee of some proud favourite, shouldered and thrust +aside by every impudent pretender, on the very spot where a few days +before he saw himself adored?--obliged to cringe to the author of the +calamities of his house, and to kiss the hands that are red with his +father's blood. + + +COLONIAL PROGRESS. + +But nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well +think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant. Therefore as +the colonies prospered and increased to a numerous and mighty people, +spreading over a very great tract of the globe; it was natural that they +should attribute to assemblies, so respectable in their formal +constitution, some part of the dignity of the great nations which they +represented. No longer tied to by-laws, these assemblies made acts of +all sorts and in all cases whatsoever. They levied money, not for +parochial purposes, but upon regular grants to the Crown, following all +the rules and principles of a parliament to which they approached every +day more and more nearly. Those who think themselves wiser than +Providence, and stronger than the course of nature, may complain of all +this variation, on the one side or the other, as their several humours +and prejudices may lead them. But things could not be otherwise; and +English colonies must be had on these terms, or not had at all. + + +FEUDAL PRINCIPLES AND MODERN TIMES. + +In the first place, it is formed, in many respects, upon FEUDAL +PRINCIPLES. In the feudal times, it was not uncommon, even among +subjects, for the lowest offices to be held by considerable persons; +persons as unfit by their incapacity, as improper from their rank, to +occupy such employments. They were held by patent, sometimes for life, +and sometimes by inheritance. If my memory does not deceive me, a person +of no slight consideration held the office of patent hereditary cook to +an earl of Warwick. The earl of Warwick's soups, I fear, were not the +better for the dignity of his kitchen. I think it was an earl of +Gloucester, who officiated as steward of the household to the +archbishops of Canterbury. Instances of the same kind may in some degree +be found in the Northumberland house-book, and other family records. +There was some reason in ancient necessities, for these ancient customs. +Protection was wanted; and the domestic tie, thought not the highest, +was the closest. The king's household has not only several strong traces +of this FEUDALITY, but it is formed also upon the principles of a BODY +CORPORATE; it has its own magistrates, courts, and by-laws. This might +be necessary in the ancient times, in order to have a government within +itself, capable of regulating the vast and often unruly multitude which +composed and attended it. This was the origin of the ancient court +called the GREEN CLOTH--composed of the marshal, treasurer, and other +great officers of the household, with certain clerks. The rich subjects +of the kingdom who had formerly the same establishments (only on a +reduced scale) have since altered their economy; and turned the course +of their expense from the maintenance of vast establishments within +their walls, to the employment of a great variety of independent trades +abroad. Their influence is lessened; but a mode of accommodation, and a +style of splendour, suited to the manners of the times, has been +increased. Royalty itself has insensibly followed; and the royal +household has been carried away by the resistless tide of manners: but +with this very material difference;--private men have got rid of the +establishments along with the reasons of them; whereas the royal +household has lost all that was stately and venerable in the antique +manners, without retrenching anything of the cumbrous charge of a Gothic +establishment. It is shrunk into the polished littleness of modern +elegance and personal accommodation; it has evaporated from the gross +concrete into an essence and rectified spirit of expense, where you have +tuns of ancient pomp in a vial of modern luxury. + + +RESTRICTIVE VIRTUES. + +I know, that all parsimony is of a quality approaching to unkindness; +and that (on some person or other) every reform must operate as a sort +of punishment. Indeed, the whole class of the severe and restrictive +virtues are at a market almost too high for humanity. What is worse, +there are very few of those virtues which are not capable of being +imitated, and even outdone, in many of their most striking effects, by +the worst of vices. Malignity and envy will carve much more deeply, and +finish much more sharply, in the work of retrenchment, than frugality +and providence. I do not, therefore, wonder that gentlemen have kept +away from such a task, as well from good-nature as from prudence. +Private feeling might, indeed, be overborne by legislative reason; and a +man of a longd-sighted and a strong-nerved humanity might bring himself, +not so much to consider from whom he takes a superfluous enjoyment, as +for whom in the end he may preserve the absolute necessaries of life. + + +LIBELLERS OF HUMAN NATURE. + +I hope there are none of you corrupted with the doctrine taught by +wicked men for the worst purposes, and received by the malignant +credulity of envy and ignorance, which is, that the men who act upon the +public stage are all alike; all equally corrupt; all influenced by no +other views than the sordid lure of salary and pension. The thing I know +by experience to be false. Never expecting to find perfection in men, +and not looking for divine attributes in created beings, in my commerce +with my contemporaries, I have found much human virtue. I have seen not +a little public spirit; a real subordination of interest to duty; and a +decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and reputation. The age +unquestionably produces (whether in a greater or less number than former +times, I know not) daring profligates, and insidious hypocrites. What +then? Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found in the +world, because of the mixture of evil that will always be in it? The +smallness of the quantity in currency only heightens the value. They who +raise suspicions on the good on account of the behaviour of ill men, are +of the party of the latter. The common cant is no justification for +taking this party. I have been deceived, say they, by Titius and +Maevius; I have been the dupe of this pretender or of that mountebank; +and I can trust appearances no longer. But my credulity and want of +discernment cannot, as I conceive, amount to a fair presumption against +any man's integrity. A conscientious person would rather doubt his own +judgment, than condemn his species. He would say, I have observed +without attention, or judged upon erroneous maxims; I trusted to +profession, when I ought to have attended to conduct. Such a man will +grow wise, not malignant, by his acquaintance with the world. But he +that accuses all mankind of corruption, ought to remember that he is +sure to convict only one. In truth I should much rather admit those, +whom at any time I have disrelished the most, to be patterns of +perfection, than seek a consolation to my own unworthiness, in a general +communion of depravity with all about me. + + +REFUSAL A REVENUE. + +What (says the financier) is peace to us without money? Your plan gives +us no revenue. No! But it does--for it secures to the subject the power +of REFUSAL; the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and fact a +liar, if this power in the subject of proportioning his grant, or of not +granting at all, has not been found the richest mine of revenue ever +discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man. It does not indeed +vote you 152,752 pounds : 11 : 2 3/4ths, nor any other paltry limited +sum. But it gives the strong box itself, the fund, the bank, from whence +only revenues can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom: Posita +luditur arca. Cannot you in England; cannot you at this time of day; +cannot you, a House of Commons, trust to the principle which has raised +so mighty a revenue, and accumulated a debt of near 140 millions in this +country? Is this principle to be true in England, and false everywhere +else? Is it not true in Ireland? Has it not hitherto been true in the +colonies? Why should you presume, that, in any country, a body duly +constituted for any function, will neglect to perform its duty, and +abdicate its trust? Such a presumption would go against all governments +in all modes. But, in truth, this dread of penury of supply, from a free +assembly, has no foundation in nature. For first observe, that besides +the desire which all men have naturally of supporting the honour of +their own government, that sense of dignity, and that security to +property, which ever attend freedom, have a tendency to increase the +stock of the free community. Most may be taken where most is +accumulated. And what is the soil or climate where experience has not +uniformly proved, that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting +from the weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever run with a more +copious stream of revenue, than could be squeezed from the dry husks of +oppressed indigence, by the straining of all the politic machinery in +the world. + + +A PARTY MAN. + +The only method which has ever been found effectual to preserve any man +against the corruption of nature and example, is a habit of life and +communication of counsels with the most virtuous and public-spirited men +of the age you live in. Such a society cannot be kept without advantage +or deserted without shame. For this rule of conduct I may be called in +reproach a PARTY MAN; but I am little affected with such aspersions. In +the way which they call party, I worship the constitution of your +fathers; and I shall never blush for my political company. All reverence +to honour, all idea of what it is, will be lost out of the world, before +it can be imputed as a fault to any man, that he has been closely +connected with those incomparable persons, living and dead, with whom +for eleven years I have constantly thought and acted. If I have wandered +out of the paths of rectitude into those of interested faction, it was +in company with the Saviles, the Dowdeswells, the Wentworths, the +Bentincks; with the Lenoxes, the Manchesters, the Keppels, the +Saunderses; with the temperate, permanent, hereditary virtue of the +whole house of Cavendish; names, among which, some have extended your +fame and empire in arms, and all have fought the battle of your +liberties in fields not less glorious. These, and many more like these, +grafting public principles on private honour, have redeemed the present +age, and would have adorned the most splendid period in your history. + + +PATRIOTISM AND PUBLIC INCOME. + +Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in England? +Do you imagine, then, that it is the land-tax which raises your revenue? +that it is the annual vote in the committee of supply, which gives you +your army? or that it is the Mutiny Bill, which inspires it with bravery +and discipline? No! surely no! It is the love of the people; it is their +attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they +have in such a glorious institution, which gives you your army and your +navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience, without which your +army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber. + +All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the +profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians, who have no +place among us; a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what +is gross and material; and who therefore, far from being qualified to be +directors of the great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel +in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, these +ruling and master principles, which, in the opinion of such men as I +have mentioned, have no substantial existence, are in truth everything, +and all in all. Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; +and a great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious +of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes our +station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings +on America, with the old warning of the Church, Sursum corda! We ought +to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order +of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high +calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious +empire; and have made the most extensive, and the only honourable +conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, +the happiness of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we +have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it +is; English privileges alone will make it all it can be. + + +AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM. + +If anything were wanting to this necessary operation of the form of +government, religion would have given it a complete effect. Religion, +always a principle of energy, in this new people is no way worn out or +impaired; and their mode of professing it is also one main cause of this +free spirit. The people are Protestants; and of that kind which is the +most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is a +persuasion not only favourable to liberty, but built upon it. I do not +think, Sir, that the reason of this averseness in the dissenting +churches, from all that looks like absolute government, is so much to be +sought in their religious tenets, as in their history. Every one knows +that the Roman Catholic religion is at least coeval with most of the +governments where it prevails; that it has generally gone hand in hand +with them, and received great favour and every kind of support from +authority. The Church of England, too, was formed from her cradle, under +the nursing care of regular government. But the dissenting interests +have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of the +world; and could justify that opposition only on a strong claim to +natural liberty. Their very existence depended on the powerful and +unremitted assertion of that claim. All Protestantism, even the most +cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent +in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; +it is the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Protestant +religion. + + +RIGHT OF TAXATION. + +I am resolved this day to have nothing at all to do with the question of +the right of taxation. Some gentlemen startle, but it is true; I put it +totally out of the question. It is less than nothing in my +consideration. I do not indeed wonder, nor will you, Sir, that gentlemen +of profound learning are fond of displaying it on this profound subject. +But my consideration is narrow, confined, and wholly limited to the +policy of the question. I do not examine whether the giving away a man's +money be a power excepted and reserved out of the general trust of +government; and how far all mankind, in all forms of polity, are +entitled to an exercise of that right by the charter of nature. Or +whether, on the contrary, a right of taxation is necessarily involved in +the general principle of legislation, and inseparable from the ordinary +supreme power. These are deep questions, where great names militate +against each other; where reason is perplexed; and an appeal to +authorities only thickens the confusion. For high and reverend +authorities lift up their heads on both sides; and there is no sure +footing in the middle. This point is the GREAT SERBONIAN BOG, BETWIXT +DAMIATA AND MOUNT CASIUS OLD, WHERE ARMIES WHOLE HAVE SUNK. I do not +intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though in such respectable +company. The question with me is, not whether you have a right to render +your people miserable; but whether it is not your interest to make them +happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I MAY do; but what humanity, +reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. Is a politic act the worse +for being a generous one? Is no concession proper, but that which is +made from your want of right to keep what you grant? Or does it lessen +the grace or dignity of relaxing in the exercise of an odious claim, +because you have your evidence-room full of titles, and your magazines +stuffed with arms to enforce them? What signify all those titles, and +all those arms? Of what avail are they, when the reason of the thing +tells me, that the assertion of my title is the loss of my suit; and +that I could do nothing but wound myself by the use of my own weapons? + + +CONTRACTED VIEWS. + +It is exceedingly common for men to contract their love to their country +into an attachment to its petty subdivisions; and they sometimes even +cling to their provincial abuses, as if they were franchises and local +privileges. Accordingly, in places where there is much of this kind of +estate, persons will be always found who would rather trust to their +talents in recommending themselves to power for the renewal of their +interests, than to incumber their purses, though never so lightly, in +order to transmit independence to their posterity. It is a great +mistake, that the desire of securing property is universal among +mankind. Gaming is a principle inherent in human nature. It belongs to +us all. I would therefore break those tables; I would furnish no evil +occupation for that spirit. I would make every man look everywhere, +except to the intrigue of a court, for the improvement of his +circumstances, or the security of his fortune. + + +ASSIMILATING POWER OF CONTACT. + +I am sure that the only means of checking precipitate degeneracy is +heartily to concur with whatever is the best in our time; and to have +some more correct standard of judging what that best is, than the +transient and uncertain favour of a court. If once we are able to find, +and can prevail on ourselves to strengthen, a union of such men, +whatever accidentally becomes indisposed to ill-exercised power, even by +the ordinary operation of human passions, must join with that society, +and cannot long be joined without in some degree assimilating to it. +Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact; and the public stock of +honest, manly principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to +scrutinize motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough +(and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy to +convicted guilt and declared apostacy. + + +PRUDENCE OF TIMELY REFORM. + +But there is a time when men will not suffer bad things because their +ancestors have suffered worse. There is a time when the hoary head of +inveterate abuse will neither draw reverence nor obtain protection. If +the noble lord in the blue riband pleads "not guilty" to the charges +brought against the present system of public economy, it is not possible +to give a fair verdict by which he will not stand acquitted. But +pleading is not our present business. His plea or his traverse may be +allowed as an answer to a charge, when a charge is made. But if he puts +himself in the way to obstruct reformation, then the faults of his +office instantly become his own. Instead of a public officer in an +abusive department, whose province is an object to be regulated, he +becomes a criminal who is to be punished. I do most seriously put it to +administration, to consider the wisdom of a timely reform. Early +reformations are amicable arrangements with a friend in power; late +reformations are terms imposed upon a conquered enemy: early +reformations are made in cool blood; late reformations are made under a +state of inflammation. In that state of things people behold in +government nothing that is respectable. They see the abuse, and they +will see nothing else: they fall into the temper of a furious populace +provoked at the disorder of a house of ill-fame; they never attempt to +correct or regulate; they go to work by the shortest way--they abate the +nuisance, they pull down the house. + + +DIFFICULTIES OF REFORMERS. + +Nothing, you know, is more common than for men to wish, and call loudly, +too, for a reformation, who, when it arrives, do by no means like the +severity of its aspect. Reformation is one of those pieces which must be +put at some distance in order to please. Its greatest favourers love it +better in the abstract than in the substance. When any old prejudice of +their own, or any interest that they value, is touched, they become +scrupulous, they become captious, and every man has his separate +exception. Some pluck out the black hairs, some the gray; one point must +be given up to one; another point must be yielded to another; nothing is +suffered to prevail upon its own principle; the whole is so frittered +down, and disjointed, that scarcely a trace of the original scheme +remains! Thus, between the resistance of power, and the unsystematical +process of popularity, the undertaker and the undertaking are both +exposed, and the poor reformer is hissed off the stage both by friends +and foes. + + +PHILOSOPHY OF COMMERCE. + +If honesty be true policy with regard to the transient interest of +individuals, it is much more certainly so with regard to the permanent +interests of communities. I know, that it is but too natural for us to +see our own CERTAIN ruin in the POSSIBLE prosperity of other people. It +is hard to persuade us, that everything which is GOT by another is not +TAKEN from ourselves. But it is fit that we should get the better of +these suggestions, which come from what is not the best and soundest +part of our nature, and that we should form to ourselves a way of +thinking, more rational, more just, and more religious. Trade is not a +limited thing; as if the objects of mutual demand and consumption could +not stretch beyond the bounds of our jealousies. God has given the earth +to the children of men, and he has undoubtedly, in giving it to them, +given them what is abundantly sufficient for all their exigencies; not a +scanty, but a most liberal, provision for them all. The author of our +nature has written it strongly in that nature, and has promulgated the +same law in his written word, that man shall eat his bread by his +labour; and I am persuaded, that no man, and no combination of men, for +their own ideas of their particular profit, can, without great impiety, +undertake to say, that he SHALL NOT do so; that they have no sort of +right, either to prevent the labour, or to withhold the bread. + + +THEORIZING POLITICIANS. + +There are people who have split and anatomised the doctrine of free +government, as if it were an abstract question concerning metaphysical +liberty and necessity; and not a matter of moral prudence and natural +feeling. They have disputed, whether liberty be a positive or a negative +idea; whether it does not consist in being governed by laws, without +considering what are the laws, or who are the makers; whether man has +any rights by nature; and whether all the property he enjoys be not the +alms of his government, and his life itself their favour and indulgence. +Others corrupting religion, as these have perverted philosophy, contend, +that Christians are redeemed into captivity; and the blood of the +Saviour of mankind has been shed to make them the slaves of a few proud +and insolent sinners. These shocking extremes provoking to extremes of +another kind, speculations are let loose as destructive to all +authority, as the former are to all freedom; and every government is +called tyranny and usurpation which is not formed on their fancies. In +this manner the stirrers-up of this contention, not satisfied with +distracting our dependencies and filling them with blood and slaughter, +are corrupting our understandings; they are endeavouring to tear up, +along with practical liberty, all the foundations of human society, all +equity and justice, religion and order. + + +ECONOMY AND PUBLIC SPIRIT. + +Economy and public spirit have made a beneficent and an honest spoil; +they have plundered from extravagance and luxury, for the use of +substantial service, a revenue of near four hundred thousand pounds. The +reform of the finances, joined to this reform of the court, gives to the +public nine hundred thousand pounds a year and upwards. + +The minister who does these things is a great man--but the king who +desires that they should be done is a far greater. We must do justice to +our enemies--these are the acts of a patriot king. I am not in dread of +the vast armies of France; I am not in dread of the gallant spirit of +its brave and numerous nobility; I am not alarmed even at the great navy +which has been so miraculously created. All these things Louis the +Fourteenth had before. With all these things, the French monarchy has +more than once fallen prostrate at the feet of the public faith of Great +Britain. It was the want of public credit which disabled France from +recovering after her defeats, or recovering even from her victories and +triumphs. It was a prodigal court, it was an ill-ordered revenue, that +sapped the foundations of all her greatness. Credit cannot exist under +the arm of necessity. Necessity strikes at credit, I allow, with a +heavier and quicker blow under an arbitrary monarchy, than under a +limited and balanced government; but still necessity and credit are +natural enemies, and cannot be long reconciled in any situation. From +necessity and corruption, a free state may lose the spirit of that +complex constitution which is the foundation of confidence. + + +REFORM OUGHT TO BE PROGRESSIVE. + +Whenever we improve, it is right to leave room for a further +improvement. It is right to consider, to look about us, to examine the +effect of what we have done. Then we can proceed with confidence, +because we can proceed with intelligence. Whereas in hot reformations, +in what men, more zealous than considerate, call MAKING CLEAR WORK, the +whole is generally so crude, so harsh, so indigested; mixed with so much +imprudence, and so much injustice; so contrary to the whole course of +human nature and human institutions, that the very people who are most +eager for it are among the first to grow disgusted at what they have +done. Then some part of the abdicated grievance is recalled from its +exile in order to become a corrective of the correction. Then the abuse +assumes all the credit and popularity of a reform. The very idea of +purity and disinterestedness in politics falls into disrepute, and is +considered as a vision of hot and inexperienced men; and thus disorders +become incurable, not by the virulence of their own quality, but by the +unapt and violent nature of the remedies. A great part, therefore, of my +idea of reform is meant to operate gradually; some benefits will come at +a nearer, some at a more remote period. We must no more make haste to be +rich by parsimony, than by intemperate acquisition. + + +CIVIL FREEDOM. + +Civil freedom, gentlemen, is not, as many have endeavoured to persuade +you, a thing that lies hid in the depth of abstruse science. It is a +blessing and a benefit, not an abstract speculation; and all the just +reasoning that can be upon it is of so coarse a texture, as perfectly to +suit the ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy, and of those who +are to defend it. Far from any resemblance to those propositions in +geometry and metaphysics, which admit no medium, but must be true or +false in all their latitude; social and civil freedom, like all other +things in common life, are variously mixed and modified, enjoyed in very +different degrees, and shaped into an infinite diversity of forms, +according to the temper and circumstances of every community. The +EXTREME of liberty (which is its abstract perfection, but its real +fault) obtains nowhere, nor ought to obtain anywhere. Because extremes, +as we all know, in every point which relates either to our duties or +satisfactions in life, are destructive both to virtue and enjoyment. + + +TENDENCIES OF POWER. + +When any community is subordinately connected with another, the great +danger of the connection is the extreme pride and self-complacency of +the superior, which in all matters of controversy will probably decide +in its own favour. It is a powerful corrective to such a very rational +cause of fear if the inferior body can be made to believe that the party +inclination, or political views, of several in the principal state will +induce them in some degree to counteract this blind and tyrannical +partiality. There is no danger that any one acquiring consideration or +power in the presiding state should carry this leaning to the inferior +too far. The fault of human nature is not of that sort. Power, in +whatever hands, is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself. +But one great advantage to the support of authority attends such an +amicable and protecting connection, that those who have conferred +favours obtain influence; and from the foresight of future events can +persuade men who have received obligations, sometimes to return them. +Thus, by the mediation of those healing principles (call them good or +evil), troublesome discussions are brought to some sort of adjustment, +and every hot controversy is not a civil war. + + +INDIVIDUAL GOOD AND PUBLIC BENEFIT. + +The individual good felt in a public benefit is comparatively so small, +comes round through such an involved labyrinth of intricate and tedious +revolutions; whilst a present, personal detriment is so heavy where it +falls, and so instant in its operation, that the cold commendation of a +public advantage never was, and never will be a match for the quick +sensibility of a private loss: and you may depend upon it, sir, that +when many people have an interest in railing, sooner or later, they will +bring a considerable degree of unpopularity upon any measure, So that, +for the present at least, the reformation will operate against the +reformers, and revenge (as against them at the least) will produce all +the effects of corruption. + + +PUBLIC CORRUPTION. + +Nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, that our LAWS +are corrupted. Whilst MANNERS remain entire, they will correct the vices +of law, and soften it at length to their own temper. But we have to +lament, that in most of the late proceedings we see very few traces of +that generosity, humanity, and dignity of mind which formerly +characterized this nation. War suspends the rules of moral obligation, +and what is long suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated. +Civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the people. They +vitiate their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert even the +natural taste and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to +consider our fellow-citizens in a hostile light, the whole body of our +nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very names of affection +and kindred, which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed, become new +incentives to hatred and rage when the communion of our country is +dissolved. We may flatter ourselves that we shall not fall into this +misfortune. But we have no charter of exemption, that I know of, from +the ordinary frailties of our nature. + + +CRUELTY AND COWARDICE. + +A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood. He would +feel some apprehension at being called to a tremendous account for +engaging in so deep a play, without any sort of knowledge of the game. +It is no excuse for presumptuous ignorance, that it is directed by +insolent passion. The poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to +save itself from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in +the eyes of God and man. But I cannot conceive any existence under +heaven (which, in the depths of its wisdom, tolerates all sorts of +things) that is more truly odious and disgusting, than an impotent +helpless creature, without civil wisdom or military skill, without a +consciousness of any other qualification for power but his servility to +it, bloated with pride and arrogance, calling for battles which he is +not to fight, contending for a violent dominion which he can never +exercise, and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable, in order to +render others contemptible and wretched. + + +BAD LAWS PRODUCE BASE SUBSERVIENCY. + +Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. In such a country as this they +are of all bad things the worst, worse by far than anywhere else; and +they derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom and soundness of +the rest of our institutions. For very obvious reasons you cannot trust +the crown with a dispensing power over any of your laws. However, a +government, be it as bad as it may, will, in the exercise of a +discretionary power, discriminate times and persons; and will not +ordinarily pursue any man when its own safety is not concerned. A +mercenary informer knows no distinction. Under such a system, the +obnoxious people are slaves, not only to the government, but they live +at the mercy of every individual; they are at once the slaves of the +whole community, and of every part of it; and the worst and most +unmerciful men are those on whose goodness they most depend. + +In this situation men not only shrink from the frowns of a stern +magistrate, but they are obliged to fly from their very species. The +seeds of destruction are sown in civil intercourse, in social habitudes. +The blood of wholesome kindred is infected. Their tables and beds are +surrounded with snares. All the means given by Providence to make life +safe and comfortable are perverted into instruments of terror and +torment. This species of universal subserviency, that makes the very +servant who waits behind your chair the arbiter of your life and +fortune, has such a tendency to degrade and abase mankind, and to +deprive them of that assured and liberal state of mind which alone can +make us what we ought to be, that I vow to God I would sooner bring +myself to put a man to immediate death for opinions I disliked, and so +to get rid of the man and his opinions at once, than to fret him with a +feverish being, tainted with the jail-distemper of a contagious +servitude, to keep him above ground an animated mass of putrefaction, +corrupted himself, and corrupting all about him. + + +FALSE REGRET. + +If we repent of our good actions, what, I pray you, is left for our +faults and follies? It is not the beneficence of the laws, it is the +unnatural temper which beneficence can fret and sour that is to be +lamented. It is this temper which, by all rational means, ought to be +sweetened and corrected. If froward men should refuse this cure, can +they vitiate anything but themselves? Does evil so react upon good, as +not only to retard its motion, but to change its nature? If it can so +operate, then good men will always be in the power of the bad; and +virtue, by a dreadful reverse of order, must lie under perpetual +subjection and bondage to vice. + + +BRITISH DOMINION IN EAST INDIA. + +With very few, and those inconsiderable, intervals, the British +dominion, either in the Company's name, or in the names of princes +absolutely dependent upon the Company, extends from the mountains that +separate India from Tartary to Cape Comorin,--that is, one-and-twenty +degrees of latitude! + +In the northern parts it is a solid mass of land, about eight hundred +miles in length, and four or five hundred broad. As you go southward, it +becomes narrower for a space. It afterwards dilates; but, narrower or +broader, you possess the whole eastern and north-eastern coast of that +vast country, quite from the borders of Pegu. Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, +with Benares (now unfortunately in our immediate possession), measure +161,978 square English miles; a territory considerably larger than the +whole kingdom of France. Oude, with its dependent provinces, is 53,286 +square miles, not a great deal less than England. The Carnatic, with +Tanjore and the Circars, is 65,948 square miles, very considerably +larger than England; and the whole of the Company's dominions, +comprehending Bombay and Salsette, amounts to 281,412 square miles; +which forms a territory larger than any European dominion, Russia and +Turkey excepted. Through all that vast extent of country there is not a +man who eats a mouthful of rice but by permission of the East-India +Company. + +So far with regard to the extent. The population of this great empire is +not easily to be calculated. When the countries, of which it is +composed, came into our possession, they were all eminently peopled, and +eminently productive; though at that time considerably declined from +their ancient prosperity. But, since they are come into our hands!--! +However, if we make the period of our estimate immediately before the +utter desolation of the Carnatic, and if we allow for the havoc which +our government had even then made in these regions, we cannot, in my +opinion, rate the population at much less than thirty millions of +souls,--more than four times the number of persons in the Island of +Great Britain. + +My next inquiry to that of the number, is the quality and description of +the inhabitants. This multitude of men does not consist of an abject and +barbarous populace; much less of gangs of savages, like the Guaranies +and Chiquitos, who wander on the waste borders of the river of Amazons, +or the Plate; but a people for ages civilized and cultivated; cultivated +by all the arts of polished life, whilst we were yet in the woods. There +have been (and still the skeletons remain) princes once of great +dignity, authority, and opulence. There are to be found the chiefs of +tribes and nations. There is to be found an ancient and venerable +priesthood, the depository of their laws, learning, and history, the +guides of the people whilst living, and their consolation in death; a +nobility of great antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities, not +exceeded in population and trade by those of the first class in Europe; +merchants and bankers, individual houses of whom have once vied in +capital with the Bank of England; whose credit had often supported a +tottering state, and preserved their governments in the midst of war and +desolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics; millions +of the most diligent, and not the least intelligent, tillers of the +earth. There are to be found almost all the religions professed by +men,--the Brahminical, the Mussulman, the Eastern and the Western +Christian. + +If I were to take the whole aggregate of our possessions there, I should +compare it, as the nearest parallel I can find, with the empire of +Germany. Our immediate possessions I should compare with the Austrian +dominions,--and they would not suffer in the comparison. The nabob of +Oude might stand for the king of Prussia; the nabob of Arcot I would +compare, as superior in territory and equal in revenue, to the elector +of Saxony. Cheyt Sing, the rajah of Benares, might well rank with the +prince of Hesse, at least; and the rajah of Tanjore (though hardly equal +in extent of dominion, superior in revenue), to the elector of Bavaria. +The Polygars and the northern Zemindars, and other great chiefs, might +well class with the rest of the princes, dukes, counts, marquises, and +bishops, in the empire; all of whom I mention to honour, and surely +without disparagement to any or all of those most respectable princes +and grandees. All this vast mass, composed of so many orders and classes +of men, is again infinitely advocated by manners, by religion, by +hereditary employment, through all their possible combinations. This +renders the handling of India a matter in a high degree critical and +delicate. But oh! it has been handled rudely indeed. Even some of the +reformers seem to have forgot that they had anything to do but to +regulate the tenants of a manor, or the shopkeepers of the next county +town. + +It is an empire of this extent, of this complicated nature, of this +dignity and importance, that I have compared to Germany, and the German +government; not for an exact resemblance, but as a sort of a middle +term, by which India might be approximated to our understandings, and if +possible to our feelings; in order to awaken something of sympathy for +the unfortunate natives, of which I am afraid we are not perfectly +susceptible, whilst we look at this very remote object through a false +and cloudy medium. + + +POLITICAL CHARITY. + +Honest men will not forget either their merit or their sufferings. There +are men (and many, I trust, there are) who, out of love to their country +and their kind, would torture their invention to find excuses for the +mistakes of their brethren; and who, to stifle dissension, would +construe even doubtful appearances with the utmost favour: such men will +never persuade themselves to be ingenious and refined in discovering +disaffection and treason in the manifest, palpable signs of suffering +loyalty. Persecution is so unnatural to them, that they gladly snatch +the very first opportunity of laying aside all the tricks and devices of +penal politics; and of returning home, after all their irksome and +vexatious wanderings, to our natural family mansion, to the grand social +principle, that unites all men, in all descriptions, under the shadow of +an equal and impartial justice. + + +EVILS OF DISTRACTION. + +The very attempt towards pleasing everybody discovers a temper always +flashy, and often false and insincere. Therefore as I have proceeded +straight onward in my conduct, so I will proceed in my account of those +parts of it which have been most excepted to. But I must first beg leave +just to hint to you, that we may suffer very great detriment by being +open to every talker. It is not to be imagined how much of service is +lost from spirits full of activity and full of energy, who are pressing, +who are rushing forward, to great and capital objects, when you oblige +them to be continually looking back. Whilst they are defending one +service, they defraud you of an hundred. Applaud us when we run; console +us when we fall; cheer us when we recover; but let us pass on--for God's +sake let us pass on. + + +CHARLES FOX. + +And now, having done my duty to the bill, let me say a word to the +author. I should leave him to his own noble sentiments, if the unworthy +and illiberal language with which he has been treated, beyond all +example of parliamentary liberty, did not make a few words necessary; +not so much in justice to him, as to my own feelings. I must say, then, +that it will be a distinction honourable to the age, that the rescue of +the greatest number of the human race that ever were so grievously +oppressed, from the greatest tyranny that was ever exercised, has fallen +to the lot of abilities and dispositions equal to the task; that it has +fallen to one who has the enlargement to comprehend, the spirit to +undertake, and the eloquence to support, so great a measure of hazardous +benevolence. His spirit is not owing to his ignorance of the state of +men and things; he well knows what snares are spread about his path, +from personal animosity, from court intrigues, and possibly from popular +delusion. But he has put to hazard his ease, his security, his interest, +his power, even his darling popularity, for the benefit of a people whom +he has never seen. This is the road that all heroes have trod before +him. He is traduced and abused for his supposed motives. He will +remember, that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of +all true glory: he will remember, that it was not only in the Roman +customs, but it is in the nature and constitution of things, that +calumny and abuse are essential parts of triumph. These thoughts will +support a mind, which only exists for honour, under the burthen of +temporary reproach. He is doing indeed a great good; such as rarely +falls to the lot, and almost as rarely coincides with the desires, of +any man. Let him use his time. Let him give the whole length of the +reins to his benevolence. He is now on a great eminence, where the eyes +of mankind are turned to him. He may live long, he may do much. But here +is the summit. He never can exceed what he does this day. + +He has faults; but they are faults that, though they may in a small +degree tarnish the lustre, and sometimes impede the march, of his +abilities, have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of great virtues. +In those faults there is no mixture of deceit, of hypocrisy, of pride, +of ferocity, of complexional despotism, or want of feeling for the +distresses of mankind. His are faults which might exist in a descendant +of Henry the Fourth of France, as they did exist in that father of his +country. Henry the Fourth wished that he might live to see a fowl in the +pot of every peasant in his kingdom. That sentiment of homely +benevolence was worth all the splendid sayings that are recorded of +kings. But he wished perhaps for more than could be obtained, and the +goodness of the man exceeded the power of the king. But this gentleman, +a subject, may this day say this at least, with truth, that he secures +the rice in his pot to every man in India. A poet of antiquity thought +it one of the first distinctions to a prince whom he meant to celebrate, +that through a long succession of generations, he had been the +progenitor of an able and virtuous citizen, who by force of the arts of +peace, had corrected governments of oppression, and suppressed wars of +rapine. + + Indole proh quanta juvenis, quantumque daturus + Ausoniae populis ventura in saecula civem. + Ille super Gangem, super exauditus et Indos, + Implebit terras voce; et furialia bella + Fulmine compescet linguae.-- + +This was what was said of the predecessor of the only person to whose +eloquence it does not wrong that of the mover of this bill to be +compared. But the Ganges and the Indus are the patrimony of the fame of +my honourable friend, and not of Cicero. I confess, I anticipate with +joy the reward of those, whose whole consequence, power, and authority, +exist only for the benefit of mankind; and I carry my mind to all the +people, and all the names and descriptions, that, relieved by this bill, +will bless the labours of this parliament, and the confidence which the +best House of Commons has given to him who the best deserves it. The +little cavils of party will not be heard, where freedom and happiness +will be felt. There is not a tongue, a nation, or religion in India +which will not bless the presiding care and manly beneficence of this +house, and of him who proposes to you this great work. Your names will +never be separated before the throne of the Divine goodness, in whatever +language, or with whatever rites, pardon is asked for sin, and reward +for those who imitate the Godhead in his universal bounty to his +creatures. These honours you deserve, and they will surely be paid, when +all the jargon of influence, and party, and patronage, are swept into +oblivion. + + +THE IMPRACTICABLE UNDESIRABLE. + +I know it is common for men to say, that such and such things are +perfectly right--very desirable; but that, unfortunately, they are not +practicable. Oh! no, sir, no. Those things, which are not practicable, +are not desirable. There is nothing in the world really beneficial that +does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding, and a +well-directed pursuit. There is nothing that God has judged good for us +that he has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural +and the moral world. If we cry, like children, for the moon, like +children we must cry on. + + +CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMONS. + +The late House of Commons has been punished for its independence. That +example is made. Have we an example on record of a House of Commons +punished for its servility? The rewards of a senate so disposed are +manifest to the world. Several gentlemen are very desirous of altering +the constitution of the House of Commons; but they must alter the frame +and constitution of human nature itself before they can so fashion it by +any mode of election that its conduct will not be influenced by reward +and punishment, by fame, and by disgrace. If these examples take root in +the minds of men, what members hereafter will be bold enough not to be +corrupt? Especially as the king's highway of obsequiousness is so very +broad and easy. To make a passive member of parliament, no dignity of +mind, no principles of honour, no resolution, no ability, no industry, +no learning, no experience, are in the least degree necessary. To defend +a post of importance against a powerful enemy, requires an Elliot; a +drunken invalid is qualified to hoist a white flag, or to deliver up the +keys of the fortress on his knees. + + +EMOLUMENTS OF OFFICE. + +No man knows, when he cuts off the incitements to a virtuous ambition, +and the just rewards of public service, what infinite mischief he may do +his country, through all generations. Such saving to the public may +prove the worst mode of robbing it. The crown, which has in its hands +the trust of the daily pay for national service, ought to have in its +hands also the means for the repose of public labour, and the fixed +settlement of acknowledged merit. There is a time when the +weather-beaten vessels of the state ought to come into harbour. They +must at length have a retreat from the malice of rivals, from the +perfidy of political friends, and the inconstancy of the people. Many of +the persons, who in all times have filled the great offices of state, +have been younger brothers, who had originally little, if any, fortune. +These offices do not furnish the means of amassing wealth. There ought +to be some power in the crown of granting pensions out of the reach of +its own caprices. An entail of dependence is a bad reward of merit. + + +MORAL DISTINCTIONS. + +Those who are least anxious about your conduct are not those that love +you most. Moderate affection and satiated enjoyment are cold and +respectful; but an ardent and injured passion is tempered up with wrath, +and grief, and shame, and conscious worth, and the maddening sense of +violated right. A jealous love lights his torch from the firebrands of +the furies. They who call upon you to belong WHOLLY to the people, are +those who wish you to return to your PROPER home; to the sphere of your +duty, to the post of your honour, to the mansion-house of all genuine, +serene, and solid satisfaction. + + +ELECTORS AND REPRESENTATIVES. + +Look, gentlemen, to the WHOLE TENOUR of your member's conduct. Try +whether his ambition or his avarice have jostled him out of the straight +line of duty; or whether that grand foe of the offices of active life, +that master vice in men of business, a degenerate and inglorious +sloth--has made him flag and languish in his course. This is the object +of our inquiry. If our member's conduct can bear this touch, mark it for +sterling. He may have fallen into errors; he must have faults; but our +error is greater, and our fault is radically ruinous to ourselves, if we +do not bear, if we do not even applaud, the whole compound and mixed +mass of such a character. Not to act thus is folly; I had almost said it +is impiety. He censures God, who quarrels with the imperfections of man. + +Gentlemen, we must not be peevish with those who serve the people. For +none will serve us whilst there is a court to serve but those who are of +a nice and jealous honour. They who think everything, in comparison of +that honour, to be dust and ashes, will not bear to have it soiled and +impaired by those for whose sake they make a thousand sacrifices to +preserve it immaculate and whole. We shall either drive such men from +the public stage, or we shall send them to the court for protection; +where, if they must sacrifice their reputation, they will at least +secure their interest. Depend upon it, that the lovers of freedom will +be free. None will violate their conscience to please us, in order +afterwards to discharge that conscience, which they have violated, by +doing us faithful and affectionate service. If we degrade and deprave +their minds by servility, it will be absurd to expect, that they who are +creeping and abject towards us, will ever be bold and incorruptible +assertors of our freedom, against the most seducing and the most +formidable of all powers. No! human nature is not so formed; nor shall +we improve the faculties or better the morals of public men, by our +possession of the most infallible receipt in the world for making cheats +and hypocrites. + +Let me say with plainness, I who am no longer in a public character, +that if by a fair, by an indulgent, by a gentlemanly behaviour to our +representatives, we do not give confidence to their minds, and a liberal +scope to their understandings; if we do not permit our members to act +upon a VERY enlarged view of things; we shall at length infallibly +degrade our national representation into a confused and scuffling bustle +of local agency. When the popular member is narrowed in his ideas, and +rendered timid in his proceedings, the service of the crown will be the +sole nursery of statesmen. Among the frolics of the court, it may at +length take that of attending to its business. Then the monopoly of +mental power will be added to the power of all other kinds it possesses. +On the side of the people there will be nothing but impotence: for +ignorance is impotence; narrowness of mind is impotence; timidity is +itself impotence, and makes all other qualities that go along with it, +impotent and useless. + + +POPULAR OPINION A FALLACIOUS STANDARD. + +When we know, that the opinions of even the greatest multitudes are the +standard of rectitude, I shall think myself obliged to make those +opinions the masters of my conscience. But if it may be doubted whether +Omnipotence itself is competent to alter the essential constitution of +right and wrong, sure I am that such THINGS, as they and I, are +possessed of no such power. No man carries further than I do the policy +of making government pleasing to the people. But the widest range of +this politic complaisance is confined within the limits of justice. I +would not only consult the interest of the people, but I would +cheerfully gratify their humours. We are all a sort of children that +must be soothed and managed. I think I am not austere or formal in my +nature. I would bear, I would even myself play my part in any innocent +buffooneries to divert them. But I never will act the tyrant for their +amusement. If they will mix malice in their sports, I shall never +consent to throw them any living, sentient creature whatsoever--no, not +so much as a kitling, to torment. + + +ENGLISH REFORMATION. + +The condition of our nature is such, that we buy our blessings at a +price. The Reformation, one of the greatest periods of human +improvement, was a time of trouble and confusion. The vast structure of +superstition and tyranny, which had been for ages in rearing, and which +was combined with the interest of the great and of the many, which was +moulded into the laws, the manners, and civil institutions of nations, +and blended with the frame and policy of states, could not be brought to +the ground without a fearful struggle; nor could it fall without a +violent concussion of itself and all about it. When this great +revolution was attempted in a more regular mode by government, it was +opposed by plots and seditions of the people; when by popular efforts, +it was repressed as a rebellion by the hand of power; and bloody +executions (often bloodily returned) marked the whole of its progress +through all its stages. The affairs of religion, which are no longer +heard of in the tumult of our present contentions, made a principal +ingredient in the wars and politics of that time; the enthusiasm of +religion threw a gloom over the politics; and political interests +poisoned and perverted the spirit of religion upon all sides. The +Protestant religion in that violent struggle, infected, as the Popish +had been before, by worldly interests and worldly passions, became a +persecutor in its turn, sometimes of the new sects, which carried their +own principles further than it was convenient to the original reformers; +and always of the body from whom they parted: and this persecuting +spirit arose, not only from the bitterness of retaliation, but from the +merciless policy of fear. + +It was long before the spirit of true piety and true wisdom, involved in +the principles of the Reformation, could be depurated from the dregs and +feculence of the contention with which it was carried through. However, +until this be done, the Reformation is not complete; and those who think +themselves good Protestants, from their animosity to others, are in that +respect no Protestants at all. + + +PROSCRIPTION. + +This way of PROSCRIBING THE CITIZENS BY DENOMINATIONS AND GENERAL +DESCRIPTIONS, dignified by the name of reason of state, and security for +constitutions and commonwealths, is nothing better at bottom, than the +miserable invention of an ungenerous ambition, which would fain hold the +sacred trust of power, without any of the virtues or any of the energies +that give a title to it: a receipt of policy, made up of a detestable +compound of malice, cowardice, and sloth. They would govern men against +their will; but in that government they would be discharged from the +exercise of vigilance, providence, and fortitude; and therefore, that +they may sleep on their watch, they consent to take some one division of +the society into partnership of the tyranny over the rest. But let +government, in what form it may be, comprehend the whole in its justice, +and restrain the suspicious by its vigilance; let it keep watch and +ward; let it discover by its sagacity, and punish by its firmness, all +delinquency against its power, whenever delinquency exists in the overt +acts; and then it will be as safe as ever God and nature intended it +should be. Crimes are the acts of individuals, and not of denominations; +and therefore arbitrarily to class men under general descriptions, in +order to proscribe and punish them in the lump for a presumed +delinquency, of which perhaps but a part, perhaps none at all, are +guilty, is indeed a compendious method, and saves a world of trouble +about proof; but such a method, instead of being law, is an act of +unnatural rebellion against the legal dominion of reason and justice; +and this vice, in any constitution that entertains it, at one time or +other will certainly bring on its ruin. + + +JUST FREEDOM. + +I must fairly tell you, that so far as my principles are concerned, +(principles that I hope will only depart with my last breath), I have no +idea of a liberty unconnected with honesty and justice. Nor do I believe +that any good constitutions of government, or of freedom, can find it +necessary for their security to doom any part of the people to a +permanent slavery. Such a constitution of freedom, if such can be, is in +effect no more than another name for the tyranny of the strongest +faction; and factions in republics have been, and are, full as capable +as monarchs of the most cruel oppression and injustice. It is but too +true, that the love, and even the very idea of genuine liberty is +extremely rare. It is but too true, that there are many whose whole +scheme of freedom is made up of pride, perverseness, and insolence. They +feel themselves in a state of thraldom, they imagine that their souls +are cooped and cabined in, unless they have some man, or some body of +men, dependent on their mercy. The desire of having some one below them +descends to those who are the very lowest of all,--and a Protestant +cobbler, debased by his poverty, but exalted by his share of the ruling +church, feels a pride in knowing it is by his generosity alone that the +peer, whose footman's instep he measures, is able to keep his chaplain +from a gaol. + + +ENGLAND'S EMBASSY TO AMERICA. + +They enter the capital of America only to abandon it; and these +assertors and representatives of the dignity of England, at the tail of +a flying army, let fly their Parthian shafts of memorials and +remonstrances at random behind them. Their promises and their offers, +their flatteries and their menaces, were all despised; and we were saved +from the disgrace of their formal reception, only because the congress +scorned to receive them; whilst the state-house of independent +Philadelphia opened her doors to the public entry of the ambassador of +France. From war and blood we went to submission; and from submission +plunged back again to war and blood; to desolate and be desolated, +without measure, hope, or end. I am a Royalist, I blushed for this +degradation of the crown. I am a Whig, I blushed for the dishonour of +parliament. I am a true Englishman, I felt to the quick for the disgrace +of England. I am a man, I felt for the melancholy reverse of human +affairs in the fall of the first power in the world. + + +HOWARD, THE PHILANTHROPIST. + +I cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his labours and +writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has +visited all Europe,--not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the +stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains +of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art; +not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts:--but to dive into the +depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey +the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of +misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend +to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the +distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original; and is as +full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery; a +circumnavigation of charity. Already the benefit of his labour is felt +more or less in every country; I hope he will anticipate his final +reward by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own. He will +receive, not by detail, but in gross, the reward of those who visit the +prisoner; and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of +charity, that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such acts +of benevolence hereafter. + + +PARLIAMENTARY RETROSPECT. + +It is certainly not pleasing to be put out of the public service. But I +wish to be a member of parliament, to have my share of doing good and +resisting evil. It would therefore be absurd to renounce my objects in +order to obtain my seat. I deceive myself indeed most grossly if I had +not much rather pass the remainder of my life hidden in the recesses of +the deepest obscurity, feeding my mind even with the visions and +imaginations of such things, than to be placed on the most splendid +throne of the universe, tantalized with a denial of the practice of all +which can make the greatest situation any other than the greatest curse. +Gentlemen, I have had my day. I can never sufficiently express my +gratitude to you for having set me in a place wherein I could lend the +slightest help to great and laudable designs. If I have had my share in +any measure giving quiet to private property, and private conscience; if +by my vote I have aided in securing to families the best possession, +peace; if I have joined in reconciling kings to their subjects, and +subjects to their prince; if I have assisted to loosen the foreign +holdings of the citizen, and taught him to look for his protection to +the laws of his country, and for his comfort to the goodwill of his +countrymen--if I have thus taken my part with the best of men in the +best of their actions, I can shut the book;--I might wish to read a page +or two more--but this is enough for my measure,--I have not lived in +vain. + + +PEOPLE AND PARLIAMENT. + +Let the commons in parliament assembled be one and the same thing with +the commons at large. The distinctions that are made to separate us are +unnatural and wicked contrivances. Let us identify, let us incorporate, +ourselves with the people. Let us cut all the cables and snap the chains +which tie us to an unfaithful shore, and enter the friendly harbour that +shoots far out into the main its moles and jettees to receive us.--"War +with the world, and peace with our constituents." Be this our motto, and +our principle. Then, indeed, we shall be truly great. Respecting +ourselves, we shall be respected by the world. At present all is +troubled, and cloudy, and distracted, and full of anger and turbulence, +both abroad and at home; but the air may be cleared by this storm, and +light and fertility may follow it. Let us give a faithful pledge to the +people, that we honour indeed the crown, but that we BELONG to them; +that we are their auxiliaries, and not their task-masters,--the +fellow-labourers in the same vineyard,--not lording over their rights, +but helpers of their joy: that to tax them is a grievance to ourselves; +but to cut off from our enjoyments to forward theirs, is the highest +gratification we are capable of receiving. + + +REFORMED CIVIL LIST. + +As things now stand, every man, in proportion to his consequence at +court, tends to add to the expense of the civil list, by all manner of +jobs, if not for himself, yet for his dependents. When the new plan is +established, those who are now suitors for jobs will become the most +strenuous opposers of them. They will have a common interest with the +minister in public economy. Every class, as it stands low, will become +security for the payment of the preceding class; and, thus, the persons +whose insignificant services defraud those that are useful, would then +become interested in their payment. Then the powerful, instead of +oppressing, would be obliged to support the weak; and idleness would +become concerned in the reward of industry. The whole fabric of the +civil economy would become compact and connected in all its parts; it +would be formed into a well-organized body, where every member +contributes to the support of the whole; and where even the lazy stomach +secures the vigour of the active arm. + + +FRENCH AND ENGLISH REVOLUTION. + +He felt some concern that this strange thing, called a Revolution in +France, should be compared with the glorious event commonly called the +Revolution in England; and the conduct of the soldiery, on that +occasion, compared with the behaviour of some of the troops of France in +the present instance. At that period the prince of Orange, a prince of +the blood-royal in England, was called in by the flower of the English +aristocracy to defend its ancient constitution, and not to level all +distinctions. To this prince, so invited, the aristocratic leaders who +commanded the troops went over with their several corps, in bodies, to +the deliverer of their country. Aristocratic leaders brought up the +corps of citizens who newly enlisted in this cause. Military obedience +changed its object; but military discipline was not for a moment +interrupted in its principle. The troops were ready for war, but +indisposed to mutiny. But as the conduct of the English armies was +different, so was that of the whole English nation at that time. In +truth, the circumstances of our revolution (as it is called) and that of +France, are just the reverse of each other in almost every particular, +and in the whole spirit of the transaction. With us it was the case of a +legal monarch attempting arbitrary power--in France it is the case of an +arbitrary monarch, beginning, from whatever cause, to legalize his +authority. The one was to be resisted, the other was to be managed and +directed; but in neither case was the order of the state to be changed, +lest government might be ruined, which ought only to be corrected and +legalized. With us we got rid of the man, and preserved the constituent +parts of the state. There they get rid of the constituent parts of the +state, and keep the man. What we did was in truth and substance, and in +a constitutional light, a revolution, not made, but prevented. We took +solid securities; we settled doubtful questions; we corrected anomalies +in our law. In the stable, fundamental parts of our constitution we made +no revolution; no, nor any alteration at all. We did not impair the +monarchy. Perhaps it might be shown that we strengthened it very +considerably. The nation kept the same ranks, the same orders, the same +privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property, the same +subordinations, the same order in the law, in the revenue, and in the +magistracy; the same lords, the same commons, the same corporations, the +same electors. + +The church was not impaired. Her estates, her majesty, her splendour, +her orders and gradations, continued the same. She was preserved in her +full efficiency, and cleared only of a certain intolerance, which was +her weakness and disgrace. The church and the state were the same after +the revolution that they were before, but better secured in every part. + +Was little done because a revolution was not made in the constitution? +No! Everything was done; because we commenced with reparation, not with +ruin. Accordingly the state flourished. Instead of laying as dead, in a +sort of trance, or exposed, as some others, in an epileptic fit, to the +pity or derision of the world, for her wild, ridiculous, convulsive +movements, impotent to every purpose but that of dashing out her brains +against the pavement, Great Britain rose above the standard even of her +former self. An era of a more improved domestic prosperity then +commenced, and still continues not only unimpaired, but growing, under +the wasting hand of time. All the energies of the country were awakened. +England never preserved a firmer countenance, nor a more vigorous arm, +to all her enemies, and to all her rivals. Europe under her respired and +revived. Everywhere she appeared as the protector, assertor, or avenger, +of liberty. A war was made and supported against fortune itself. The +treaty of Ryswick, which first limited the power of France, was soon +after made; the grand alliance very shortly followed, which shook to the +foundations the dreadful power which menaced the independence of +mankind. The states of Europe lay happy under the shade of a great and +free monarchy, which knew how to be great without endangering its own +peace at home, or the internal or external peace of any of its +neighbours. + + +ARMED DISCIPLINE. + +He knew too well, and he felt as much as any man, how difficult it was +to accommodate a standing army to a free constitution, or to any +constitution. An armed, disciplined, body is, in its essence, dangerous +to liberty; undisciplined, it is ruinous to society. Its component parts +are, in the latter case, neither good citizens nor good soldiers. What +have they thought of in France, under such a difficulty as almost puts +the human faculties to a stand? They have put their army under such a +variety of principles of duty, that it is more likely to breed +litigants, pettifoggers, and mutineers, than soldiers. They have set up, +to balance their crown army, another army, deriving under another +authority, called a municipal army--a balance of armies, not of orders. +These latter they have destroyed with every mark of insult and +oppression. States may, and they will best, exist with a partition of +civil powers. Armies cannot exist under a divided command. This state of +things he thought, in effect, a state of war, or, at best, but a truce +instead of peace, in the country. + + +GILDED DESPOTISM. + +In the last century, Louis the Fourteenth had established a greater and +better disciplined military force than ever had been before seen in +Europe, and with it a perfect despotism. Though that despotism was +proudly arrayed in manners, gallantry, splendour, magnificence, and even +covered over with the imposing robes of science, literature, and arts, +it was, in government, nothing better than a painted and gilded tyranny; +in religion, a hard, stern intolerance, the fit companion and auxiliary +to the despotic tyranny which prevailed in its government. The same +character of despotism insinuated itself into every court of Europe, the +same spirit of disproportioned magnificence--the same love of standing +armies, above the ability of the people. In particular, our then +sovereigns, King Charles and King James, fell in love with the +government of their neighbour, so flattering to the pride of kings. A +similarity of sentiments brought on connections equally dangerous to the +interests and liberties of their country. It were well that the +infection had gone no farther than the throne. The admiration of a +government flourishing and successful, unchecked in its operations, and +seeming therefore to compass its objects more speedily and effectually, +gained something upon all ranks of people. The good patriots of that +day, however, struggled against it. They sought nothing more anxiously +than to break off all communication with France, and to be get a total +alienation from its councils and its example; which, by the animosity +prevalent between the abettors of their religious system and the +assertors of ours, was in some degree effected. + + +OUR FRENCH DANGERS. + +In the last age we were in danger of being entangled by the example of +France in the net of a relentless despotism. It is not necessary to say +anything upon that example. It exists no longer. Our present danger from +the example of a people, whose character knows no medium, is, with +regard to government, a danger from anarchy; a danger of being led +through an admiration of successful fraud and violence, to an imitation +of the excesses of an irrational, unprincipled, proscribing, +confiscating, plundering, ferocious, bloody, and tyrannical democracy. +On the side of religion, the danger of their example is no longer from +intolerance, but from atheism; a foul, unnatural vice, foe to all the +dignity and consolation of mankind; which seems in France, for a long +time, to have been embodied into a faction, accredited, and almost +avowed. + + +SIR GEORGE SAVILLE. + +When an act of great and signal humanity was to be done, and done with +all the weight and authority that belonged to it, the world would cast +its eyes upon none but him. I hope that few things which have a tendency +to bless or to adorn life have wholly escaped my observation in my +passage through it. I have sought the acquaintance of that gentleman, +and have seen him in all situations. He is a true genius; with an +understanding vigorous, and acute, and refined, and distinguishing even +to excess; and illuminated with a most unbounded, peculiar, and original +cast of imagination. With these he possesses many external and +instrumental advantages; and he makes use of them all. His fortune is +among the largest; a fortune which, wholly unincumbered, as it is, with +one single charge from luxury, vanity, or excess, sinks under the +benevolence of its dispenser. This private benevolence, expanding itself +into patriotism, renders his whole being the estate of the public, in +which he has not reserved a peculium for himself of profit, diversion, +or relaxation. During the session, the first in, and the last out of the +House of Commons; he passes from the senate to the camp; and, seldom +seeing the seat of his ancestors, he is always in the senate to serve +his country, or in the field to defend it. + + +CORRUPTION NOT SELF-REFORMED. + +Those, who would commit the reformation of India to the destroyers of +it, are the enemies to that reformation. They would make a distinction +between directors and proprietors, which, in the present state of +things, does not, cannot exist. But a right honourable gentleman says, +he would keep the present government of India in the court of directors; +and would, to curb them, provide salutary regulations;--wonderful! That +is, he would appoint the old offenders to correct the old offences; and +he would render the vicious and the foolish wise and virtuous, by +salutary regulations. He would appoint the wolf as guardian of the +sheep; but he has invented a curious muzzle, by which this protecting +wolf shall not be able to open his jaws above an inch or two at the +utmost. Thus his work is finished. But I tell the right honourable +gentleman, that controlled depravity is not innocence; and that it is +not the labour of delinquency in chains that will correct abuses. Will +these gentlemen of the direction animadvert on the partners of their own +guilt? Never did a serious plan of amending any old tyrannical +establishment propose the authors and abettors of the abuses as the +reformers of them. + + +THE BRIBED AND THE BRIBERS. + +If I am to speak my private sentiments, I think that in a thousand cases +for one it would be far less mischievous to the public, and full as +little dishonourable to themselves, to be polluted with direct bribery, +than thus to become a standing auxiliary to the oppression, usury, and +peculation, of multitudes, in order to obtain a corrupt support to their +power. It is by bribing, not so often by being bribed, that wicked +politicians bring ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to the pursuits of +many. It finds a multitude of checks, and many opposers, in every walk +of life. But the objects of ambition are for the few; and every person +who aims at indirect profit, and therefore wants other protection, than +innocence and law, instead of its rival becomes its instrument. There is +a natural allegiance and fealty do you to this domineering, paramount +evil, from all the vassal vices, which acknowledge its superiority, and +readily militate under its banners; and it is under that discipline +alone that avarice is able to spread to any considerable extent, or to +render itself a general, public mischief. + + +HYDER ALI. + +When at length Hyder Ali found that he had to do with men who either +would sign no convention, or whom no treaty and no signature could bind, +and who were the determined enemies of human intercourse itself, he +decreed to make the country possessed by these incorrigible and +predestinated criminals a memorable example to mankind. He resolved, in +the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious of such things, to leave the +whole Carnatic an everlasting monument of vengeance, and to put +perpetual desolation as a barrier between him and those, against whom +the faith which holds the moral elements of the world together, was no +protection. He became at length so confident of his force, so collected +in his might, that he made no secret whatsoever of his dreadful +resolution. Having terminated his disputes with every enemy, and every +rival, who buried their mutual animosities in their common detestation +against the creditors of the nabob of Arcot, he drew from every quarter +whatever a savage ferocity could add to his new rudiments in the arts of +destruction; and compounding all the materials of fury, havoc, and +desolation, into one black cloud, he hung for a while on the declivities +of the mountains. Whilst the authors of all these evils were idly and +stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor, which blackened all their +horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured down the whole of its contents +upon the plains of the Carnatic. Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of +which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can +adequately tell. All the horrors of war before known or heard of, were +mercy to that new havoc. A storm of universal fire blasted every field, +consumed every house, destroyed every temple. The miserable inhabitants +flying from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered; others, +without regard to sex, to age, to the respect of rank, or sacredness of +function, fathers torn from children, husbands from wives, enveloped in +a whirlwind of cavalry, and amidst the goading spears of drivers, and +the trampling of pursuing horses, were swept into captivity, in an +unknown and hostile land. Those who were able to evade the tempest fled +to the walled cities. But escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they +fell into the jaws of famine. + +The alms of the settlement in this dreadful exigency, were certainly +liberal; and all was done by charity that private charity could do; but +it was a people in beggary; it was a nation which stretched out its +hands for food. For months together these creatures of sufferance, whose +very excess and luxury in their most plenteous days had fallen short of +the allowance of our austerest fasts, silent, patient, resigned, without +sedition or disturbance, almost without complaint, perished by an +hundred a day in the streets of Madras; every day seventy at least laid +their bodies in the streets, or on the glacis of Tanjore, and expired of +famine in the granary of India. I was going to awake your justice +towards this unhappy part of our fellow-citizens, by bringing before you +some of the circumstances of this plague of hunger. Of all the +calamities which beset and waylay the life of man, this comes the +nearest to our heart, and is that wherein the proudest of us all feels +himself to be nothing more than he is: but I find myself unable to +manage it with decorum: these details are of a species of horror so +nauseous and disgusting; they are so degrading to the sufferers and to +the hearers; they are so humiliating to human nature itself, that, on +better thoughts, I think it more advisable to throw a pall over this +hideous object, and to leave it to your general conceptions. + + +REFORMATION AND ANARCHY CONTRASTED AND COMPARED. + +That the house must perceive, from his coming forward to mark an +expression or two of his best friend, how anxious he was to keep the +distemper of France from the least countenance in England, where he was +sure some wicked persons had shown a strong disposition to recommend an +imitation of the French spirit of reform. He was so strongly opposed to +any the least tendency towards the MEANS of introducing a democracy like +theirs, as well as to the END itself, that much as it would afflict him, +if such a thing could be attempted, and that any friend of his could +concur in such measures (he was far, very far, from believing they +could), he would abandon his best friends, and join with his worst +enemies to oppose either the means or the end; and to resist all violent +exertions of the spirit of innovation, so distant from all principles of +true and safe reformation; a spirit well calculated to overturn states, +but perfectly unfit to amend them. + +That he was no enemy to reformation. Almost every business in which he +was much concerned, from the first day he sat in that house to that +hour, was a business of reformation; and when he had not been employed +in correcting, he had been employed in resisting, abuses. Some traces of +this spirit in him now stand on their statute-book. In his opinion, +anything which unnecessarily tore to pieces the contexture of the state, +not only prevented all real reformation, but introduced evils which +would call, but perhaps call in vain, for new reformation. + +That he thought the French nation very unwise. What they valued +themselves on, was a disgrace to them. They had gloried (and some people +in England had thought fit to take share in that glory) in making a +revolution; as if revolutions were good things in themselves. All the +horrors, and all the crimes of the anarchy which led to their +revolution, which attend its progress, and which may virtually attend it +in its establishment, pass for nothing with the lovers of revolutions. +The French have made their way, through the destruction of their +country, to a bad constitution, when they were absolutely in possession +of a good one. They were in possession of it the day the states met in +separate orders. Their business, had they been either virtuous or wise, +or had they been left to their own judgment, was to secure the stability +and independence of the states, according to those orders, under the +monarch on the throne. It was then their duty to redress grievances. + +Instead of redressing grievances, and improving the fabric of their +state, to which they were called by their monarch, and sent by their +country, they were made to take a very different course. They first +destroyed all the balances and counterpoises which serve to fix the +state, and to give it a steady direction, and which furnish sure +correctives to any violent spirit which may prevail in any of the +orders. These balances existed in their oldest constitution; and in the +constitution of this country; and in the constitution of all the +countries in Europe. These they rashly destroyed, and then they melted +down the whole into one incongruous, ill-connected mass. + +When they had done this, they instantly, and with the most atrocious +perfidy and breach of all faith among men, laid the axe to the root of +all property, and consequently of all national prosperity, by the +principles they established, and the example they set, in confiscating +all the possessions of the church. They made and recorded a sort of +INSTITUTE and DIGEST of anarchy, called the rights of man, in such a +pedantic abuse of elementary principles as would have disgraced boys at +school; but this declaration of rights was worse than trifling and +pedantic in them, as by their name and authority they systematically +destroyed every hold of authority by opinion, religious or civil, on the +minds of the people. By this mad declaration they subverted the state, +and brought on such calamities as no country, without a long war, has +ever been known to suffer; and which may in the end produce such a war, +and perhaps many such. + +With them the question was not between despotism and liberty. The +sacrifice they made of the peace and power of their country was not made +on the altar of freedom. Freedom, and a better security for freedom than +that they have taken, they might have had without any sacrifice at all. +They brought themselves into all the calamities they suffer, not that +through them they might obtain a British constitution; they plunged +themselves headlong into those calamities to prevent themselves from +settling into that constitution, or into anything resembling it. + + +CONFIDENCE AND JEALOUSY. + +Confidence might become a vice, and jealousy a virtue, according to +circumstances. That confidence, of all public virtues, was the most +dangerous, and jealousy in a house of commons, of all public vices, the +most tolerable; especially where the number and the charge of standing +armies in time of peace was the question. + + +ECONOMY OF INJUSTICE. + +Strange as this scheme of conduct in ministry is, and inconsistent with +all just policy, it is still true to itself, and faithful to its own +perverted order. Those who are bountiful to crimes, will be rigid to +merit, and penurious to service. Their penury is even held out as a +blind and cover to their prodigality. The economy of injustice is, to +furnish resources for the fund of corruption. Then they pay off their +protection to great crimes and great criminals by being inexorable to +the paltry frailties of little men; and these modern flagellants are +sure, with a rigid fidelity, to whip their own enormities on the +vicarious back of every small offender. + + +SUBSISTENCE AND REVENUE. + +The benefits of heaven to any community ought never to be connected +with political arrangements, or made to depend on the personal +conduct of princes; in which the mistake, or error, or neglect, or +distress, or passion of a moment on either side, may bring famine on +millions, and ruin an innocent nation perhaps for ages. The means of +the subsistence of mankind should be as immutable as the laws of +nature, let power and dominion take what course they may. + + +AUTHORITY AND VENALITY. + +It is difficult for the most wise and upright government to correct the +abuses of remote, delegated power, productive of unmeasured wealth, and +protected by the boldness and strength of the same ill-got riches. These +abuses, full of their own wild native vigour, will grow and flourish +under mere neglect. But where the supreme authority, not content with +winking at the rapacity of its inferior instruments, is so shameless and +corrupt as openly to give bounties and premiums for disobedience to its +laws, when it will not trust to the activity of avarice in the pursuit +of its own gains, when it secures public robbery by all the careful +jealousy and attention with which it ought to protect property from such +violence, the commonwealth then is become totally perverted from its +purposes; neither God nor man will long endure it; nor will it long +endure itself. In that case there is an unnatural infection, a +pestilential taint fermenting in the constitution of society, which +fever and convulsions of some kind or other must throw off; or in which +the vital powers, worsted in an unequal struggle, are pushed back upon +themselves, and, by a reversal of their whole functions, fester to +gangrene, to death; and instead of what was but just now the delight and +boast of the creation, there will be cast out in the face of the sun a +bloated, putrid, noisome carcass, full of stench, and poison, an +offence, a horror, a lesson to the world. + + +PREROGATIVE OF THE CROWN AND PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT. + +It is the undoubted prerogative of the crown to dissolve parliament; but +we beg leave to lay before his majesty, that it is, of all the trusts +vested in his majesty, the most critical and delicate, and that in which +this house has the most reason to require, not only the good faith, but +the favour of the crown. His commons are not always upon a par with his +ministers in an application to popular judgment: it is not in the power +of the members of this house to go to their election at the moment the +most favourable to them. It is in the power of the crown to choose a +time for their dissolution whilst great and arduous matters of state and +legislation are depending, which may be easily misunderstood, and which +cannot be fully explained before that misunderstanding may prove fatal +to the honour that belongs, and to the consideration that is due, to +members of parliament. With his majesty is the gift of all the rewards, +the honours, distinctions, favour, and graces of the state; with his +majesty is the mitigation of all the rigours of the law: and we rejoice +to see the crown possessed of trusts calculated to obtain goodwill, and +charged with duties which are popular and pleasing. Our trusts are of a +different kind. Our duties are harsh and invidious in their nature; and +justice and safety is all we can expect in the exercise of them. We are +to offer salutary, which is not always pleasing, counsel; we are to +inquire and to accuse: and the objects of our inquiry and charge will be +for the most part persons of wealth, power, and extensive connections: +we are to make rigid laws for the preservation of revenue, which of +necessity more or less confine some action, or restrain some function, +which before was free: what is the most critical and invidious of all, +the whole body of the public impositions originate from us, and the hand +of the House of Commons is seen and felt in every burthen that presses +on the people. Whilst, ultimately, we are serving them, and in the first +instance whilst we are serving his majesty, it will be hard, indeed, if +we should see a House of Commons the victim of its zeal and fidelity, +sacrificed by his ministers to those very popular discontents, which +shall be excited by our dutiful endeavours for the security and +greatness of his throne. No other consequence can result from such an +example, but that, in future, the House of Commons, consulting its +safety at the expense of its duties, and suffering the whole energy of +the state to be relaxed, will shrink from every service, which, however +necessary, is of a great and arduous nature; or that, willing to provide +for the public necessities, and, at the same time, to secure the means +of performing that task, they will exchange independence for protection, +and will court a subservient existence through the favour of those +ministers of state, or those secret advisers, who ought themselves to +stand in awe of the commons of this realm. + +A House of Commons respected by his ministers is essential to his +majesty's service: it is fit that they should yield to parliament, and +not that parliament should be new modelled until it is fitted to their +purposes. If our authority is only to be held up when we coincide in +opinion with his majesty's advisers, but is to be set at nought the +moment it differs from them, the House of Commons will sink into a mere +appendage of administration; and will lose that independent character +which, inseparably connecting the honour and reputation with the acts of +this house, enables us to afford a real, effective, and substantial +support to his government. It is the deference shown to our opinion when +we dissent from the servants of the crown, which alone can give +authority to the proceedings of this house when it concurs with their +measures. + +That authority once lost, the credit of his majesty's crown will be +impaired in the eyes of all nations. Foreign powers, who may yet wish to +revive a friendly intercourse with this nation, will look in vain for +that hold which gave a connection with Great Britain the preference to +an alliance with any other state. A House of Commons, of which ministers +were known to stand in awe, where everything was necessarily discussed, +on principles fit to be openly and publicly avowed, and which could not +be retracted or varied without danger, furnished a ground of confidence +in the public faith, which the engagement of no state dependent on the +fluctuation of personal favour, and private advice, can ever pretend to. +If faith with the House of Commons, the grand security for the national +faith itself, can be broken with impunity, a wound is given to the +political importance of Great Britain, which will not easily be healed. + + +BURKE AND FOX. + +His confidence in Mr. Fox was such, and so ample, as to be almost +implicit. That he was not ashamed to avow that degree of docility. That +when the choice is well made, it strengthens instead of oppressing our +intellect. That he who calls in the aid of an equal understanding +doubles his own. He who profits of a superior understanding raises his +powers to a level with the height of the superior understanding he +unites with. He had found the benefit of such a junction, and would not +lightly depart from it. He wished almost, on all occasions, that his +sentiments were understood to be conveyed in Mr. Fox's words; and he +wished, as amongst the greatest benefits he could wish the country, an +eminent share of power to that right honourable gentleman; because he +knew, that, to his great and masterly understanding, he had joined the +greatest possible degree of that natural moderation, which is the best +corrective of power; that he was of the most artless, candid, open, and +benevolent disposition; disinterested in the extreme; of a temper mild +and placable even to a fault; without one drop of gall in his whole +constitution. + + +PEERS AND COMMONS. + +The commons have the deepest interest in the purity and integrity of +the peerage. The peers dispose of all the property in the kingdom, in +the last resort; and they dispose of it on their honour and not on +their oaths, as all the members of every other tribunal in the +kingdom must do; though in them the proceeding is not conclusive. We +have, therefore, a right to demand that no application shall be made +to peers of such a nature as may give room to call in question, much +less to attaint, our sole security for all that we possess. This +corrupt proceeding appeared to the House of Commons, who are the +natural guardians of the purity of parliament, and of the purity of +every branch of judicature, a most reprehensible and dangerous +practice, tending to shake the very foundation of the authority of +the House of Peers: and they branded it as such by their resolution. + + +NATURAL SELF-DESTRUCTION. + +The French had shown themselves the ablest architects of ruin that had +hitherto existed in the world. In that very short space of time they had +completely pulled down to the ground their monarchy, their church, their +nobility, their law, their revenue, their army, their navy, their +commerce, their arts, and their manufactures. They had done their +business for us as rivals, in a way in which twenty Ramilies or +Blenheims could never have done it. Were we absolute conquerors, and +France to lie prostrate at our feet, we should be ashamed to send a +commission to settle their affairs which could impose so hard a law upon +the French, and so destructive of all their consequence as a nation, as +that they had imposed on themselves. + + +THE CARNATIC. + +The Carnatic is a country not much inferior in extent to England. Figure +to yourself, Mr. Speaker, the land in whose representative chair you +sit; figure to yourself the form and fashion of your sweet and cheerful +country from Thames to Trent, north and south, and from the Irish to the +German sea east and west, emptied and embowelled (may God avert the omen +of our crimes!) by so accomplished a desolation. Extend your imagination +a little further, and then suppose your ministers taking a survey of +this scene of waste and desolation; what would be your thoughts if you +should be informed, that they were computing how much had been the +amount of the excises, how much the customs, how much the land and +malt-tax, in order that they should charge (take it in the most +favourable light) for public service, upon the relics of the satiated +vengeance of relentless enemies, the whole of what England had yielded +in the most exuberant seasons of peace and abundance? What would you +call it? To call it tyranny sublimed into madness, would be too faint an +image; yet this very madness is the principle upon which the ministers +at your right hand have proceeded in their estimate of the revenues of +the Carnatic, when they were providing, not supply for the +establishments of its protection, but, rewards for the authors of its +ruin. + +Every day you are fatigued and disgusted with this cant, "the Carnatic +is a country that will soon recover, and become instantly as prosperous +as ever." They think they are talking to innocents, who will believe +that, by sowing of dragons' teeth, men may come up ready grown and ready +armed. They who will give themselves the trouble of considering (for it +requires no great reach of thought, no very profound knowledge) the +manner in which mankind are increased, and countries cultivated, will +regard all this raving as it ought to be regarded. In order that the +people, after a long period of vexation and plunder, may be in a +condition to maintain government, government must begin by maintaining +them. Here the road to economy lies not through receipt, but through +expense; and in that country nature has given no short cut to your +object. Men must propagate like other animals, by the mouth. Never did +oppression light the nuptial torch; never did extortion and usury spread +out the genial bed. Does any one of you think that England, so wasted, +would, under such a nursing attendance, so rapidly and cheaply recover? +But he is meanly acquainted with either England or India, who does not +know that England would a thousand times sooner resume population, +fertility, and what ought to be the ultimate secretion from +both--revenue, than such a country as the Carnatic. The Carnatic is not +by the bounty of nature a fertile soil. The general size of its cattle +is proof enough that it is much otherwise. It is some days since I +moved, that a curious and interesting map, kept in the India house, +should be laid before you. The India House is not yet in readiness to +send it; I have therefore brought down my own copy, and there it lies +for the use of any gentleman who may think such a matter worthy of his +attention. It is indeed a noble map, and of noble things; but it is +decisive against the golden dreams and sanguine speculations of avarice +run mad. In addition to what you know must be the case in every part of +the world (the necessity of a previous provision of habitation, seed, +stock, capital), that map will show you, that the uses of the influences +of Heaven itself are in that country a work of art. The Carnatic is +refreshed by few or no living brooks or running streams, and it has rain +only at a season; but its product of rice exacts the use of water +subject to perpetual command. This is the national bank of the Carnatic, +on which it must have a perpetual credit, or it perishes irretrievably. +For that reason, in the happier times of India, a number, almost +incredible, of reservoirs have been made in chosen places throughout the +whole country; they are formed for the greater part of mounds of earth +and stones, with sluices of solid masonry; the whole constructed with +admirable skill and labour, and maintained at a mighty charge. In the +territory contained in that map alone, I have been at the trouble of +reckoning the reservoirs, and they amount to upwards of eleven hundred, +from the extent of two or three acres to five miles in circuit. From +these reservoirs currents are occasionally drawn over the fields, and +these watercourses again call for a considerable expense to keep them +properly scoured and duly leveled. Taking the district in that map as a +measure, there cannot be in the Carnatic and Tanjore fewer than ten +thousand of these reservoirs of the larger and middling dimensions, to +say nothing of those for domestic services, and the uses of religious +purification. These are not the enterprises of your power, nor in a +style of magnificence suited to the taste of your minister. These are +the monuments of real kings, who were the fathers of their people; +testators to a posterity which they embraced as their own. These were +the grand sepulchres built by ambition; but by the ambition of an +insatiable benevolence, which, not contented with reigning in the +dispensation of happiness during the contracted term of human life, had +strained, with all the reachings and graspings of a vivacious mind, to +extend the dominion of their bounty beyond the limits of nature, and to +perpetuate themselves through generations of generations, the guardians, +the protectors, the nourishers of mankind. + + +ABSTRACT THEORY OF HUMAN LIBERTY. + +I love a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as any gentleman of +that society, be he who he will: and perhaps I have given as good proofs +of my attachment to that cause in the whole course of my public conduct. +I think I envy liberty as little as they do, to any other nation. But I +cannot stand forward, and give praise or blame to anything which relates +to human actions, and human concerns, on a simple view of the object, as +it stands stripped of every relation, in all the nakedness and solitude +of metaphysical abstraction. Circumstances (which with some gentlemen +pass for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its +distinguishing colour and discriminating effect. The circumstances are +what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to +mankind. Abstractedly speaking, government, as well as liberty, is good; +yet could I, in common sense, ten years ago, have felicitated France on +her enjoyment of a government (for she then had a government) without +inquiry what the nature of that government was, or how it was +administered? Can I now congratulate the same nation upon its freedom? +Is it because liberty in the abstract may be classed amongst the +blessings of mankind that I am seriously to felicitate a madman, who has +escaped from the protecting restraint and wholesome darkness of his +cell, on his restoration to the enjoyment of light and liberty? Am I to +congratulate a highwayman and murderer, who has broken prison, upon the +recovery of his natural rights? This would be to act over again the +scene of the criminals condemned to the galleys, and their heroic +deliverer, the metaphysic knight of the sorrowful countenance. When I +see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at work; +and this, for a while, is all I can possibly know of it. The wild GAS, +the fixed air, is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our +judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the +liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation +of a troubled and frothy surface. I must be tolerably sure, before I +venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have +really received one. Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver; +and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings. I +should therefore suspend my congratulations on the new liberty of +France, until I was informed how it had been combined with government; +with public force; with the discipline and obedience of armies; with the +collection of an effective and well-distributed revenue; with morality +and religion; with solidity and property; with peace and order; with +civil and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things too; +and, without them, liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not +likely to continue long. The effect of liberty to individuals, is, that +they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them +to do before we risk congratulations, which may be soon turned into +complaints. Prudence would dictate this in the case of separate, +insulated, private men; but liberty, when men act in bodies, is POWER. +Considerate people, before they declare themselves, will observe the use +which is made of POWER; and particularly of so trying a thing as NEW +power in NEW persons, of whose principles, tempers, and dispositions, +they have little or no experience, and in situations where those who +appear the most stirring in the scene may possibly not be the real +movers. + + +POLITICS AND THE PULPIT. + +Supposing, however, that something like moderation were visible in this +political sermon; yet politics and the pulpit are terms that have little +agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing +voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil +government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of +duties. Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not +belong to them, are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the +character they leave, and of the character they assume. Wholly +unacquainted with the world in which they are so fond of meddling, and +inexperienced in all its affairs, on which they pronounce with so much +confidence, they have nothing of politics but the passions they excite. +Surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed +to the dissensions and animosities of mankind. + + +IDEA OF FRENCH REVOLUTION. + +It appears to me as if I were in a great crisis, not of the affairs of +France alone, but of all Europe, perhaps of more than Europe. All +circumstances taken together, the French revolution is the most +astonishing that has hitherto happened in the world. The most wonderful +things are brought about in many instances by means the most absurd and +ridiculous; in the most ridiculous modes; and, apparently, by the most +contemptible instruments. Everything seems out of nature in this strange +chaos of levity and ferocity, and of all sorts of crimes jumbled +together with all sorts of follies. In viewing this monstrous +tragi-comic scene, the most opposite passions necessarily succeed, and +sometimes mix with each other in the mind; alternate contempt and +indignation; alternate laughter and tears; alternate scorn and horror. + + +PATRIOTIC DISTINCTION. + +I certainly have the honour to belong to more clubs than one in which +the constitution of this kingdom and the principles of the glorious +Revolution are held in high reverence; and I reckon myself among the +most forward in my zeal for maintaining that constitution and those +principles in their utmost purity and vigour. It is because I do so +that I think it necessary for me that there should be no mistake. +Those who cultivate the memory of our revolution, and those who are +attached to the constitution of this kingdom, will take good care how +they are involved with persons, who, under the pretext of zeal +towards the Revolution and constitution, too frequently wander from +their true principles; and are ready on every occasion to depart from +the firm but cautious and deliberate spirit which produced the one, +and which presides in the other. + + +KINGLY POWER NOT BASED ON POPULAR CHOICE. + +According to this spiritual doctor of politics, if his majesty does not +owe his crown to the choice of his people, he is no LAWFUL KING. Now +nothing can be more untrue than that the crown of this kingdom is so +held by his majesty. Therefore, if you follow their rule, the king of +Great Britain, who most certainly does not owe his high office to any +form of popular election, is in no respect better than the rest of the +gang of usurpers, who reign, or rather rob, all over the face of this +our miserable world, without any sort of right or title to the +allegiance of their people. The policy of this general doctrine, so +qualified, is evident enough. The propagators of this political gospel +are in hopes that their abstract principle (their principle that a +popular choice is necessary to the legal existence of the sovereign +magistracy) would be overlooked, whilst the king of Great Britain was +not affected by it. In the mean time the ears of their congregations +would be gradually habituated to it, as if it were a first principle +admitted without dispute. For the present it would only operate as a +theory, pickled in the preserving juices of pulpit eloquence, and laid +by for future use. Condo et compono quae mox depromere possim. By this +policy, whilst our government is soothed with a reservation in its +favour to which it has no claim, the security, which it has in common +with all governments, so far as opinion is security, is taken away. + +Thus these politicians proceed, whilst little notice is taken of their +doctrines; but when they come to be examined upon the plain meaning of +their words, and the direct tendency of their doctrines, then +equivocations and slippery construction come into play. When they say +the king owes his crown to the choice of his people, and is, therefore, +the only lawful sovereign in the world, they will perhaps tell us they +mean to say no more than that some of the king's predecessors have been +called to the throne by some sort of choice; and therefore he owes his +crown to the choice of his people. Thus, by a miserable subterfuge, they +hope to render their proposition safe by rendering it nugatory. They are +welcome to the asylum they seek for their offence, since they take +refuge in their folly. For, if you admit this interpretation, how does +their idea of election differ from our idea of inheritance? And how does +the settlement of the crown in the Brunswick line derived from James I. +come to legalize our monarchy, rather than that of any of the +neighbouring countries? At some time or other, to be sure, all the +beginners of dynasties were chosen by those who called them to govern. +There is ground enough for the opinion that all the kingdoms of Europe +were, at a remote period, elective, with more or fewer limitations in +the objects of choice. But whatever kings might have been here or +elsewhere a thousand years ago, or in whatever manner the ruling +dynasties of England or France may have begun, the king of Great Britain +is, at this day, king by a fixed rule of succession, according to the +laws of his country; and whilst the legal conditions of the compact of +sovereignty are performed by him (as they are performed), he holds his +crown in contempt of the choice of the Revolution Society, who have not +a single vote for a king amongst them, either individually or +collectively; though I make no doubt they would soon erect themselves +into an electoral college, if things were ripe to give effect to their +claim. His majesty's heirs and successors, each in his time and order, +will come to the crown with the same contempt of their choice with which +his majesty has succeeded to that he wears. + +Whatever may be the success of evasion in explaining away the gross +error of FACT, which supposes that his majesty (though he holds it in +concurrence with the wishes) owes his crown to the choice of his people, +yet nothing can evade their full explicit declaration concerning the +principle of a right in the people to choose; which right is directly +maintained, and tenaciously adhered to. All the oblique insinuations +concerning election bottom in this proposition, and are referable to it. +Lest the foundation of the king's exclusive legal title should pass for +a mere rant of adulatory freedom, the political divine proceeds +dogmatically to assert, that, by the principles of the Revolution, the +people of England have acquired three fundamental rights, all of which, +with him, compose one system, and lie together in one short sentence; +namely, that we have acquired a right, + +1. "To choose our own governors." + +2. "To cashier them for misconduct." + +3. "To frame a government for ourselves." + +This new, and hitherto unheard of, bill of rights, though made in the +name of the whole people, belongs to those gentlemen and their faction +only. The body of the people of England have no share in it. They +utterly disclaim it. They will resist the practical assertion of it with +their lives and fortunes. They are bound to do so by the laws of their +country, made at the time of that very Revolution which is appealed to +in favour of the fictitious rights claimed by the society which abuses +its name. + + +PREACHING DEMOCRACY OF DISSENT. + +If the noble SEEKERS should find nothing to satisfy their pious fancies +in the old staple of the national church, or in all the rich variety to +be found in the well-assorted warehouses of the dissenting +congregations, Dr. Price advises them to improve upon non-conformity; +and to set up, each of them, a separate meeting-house upon his own +particular principles. It is somewhat remarkable that this reverend +divine should be so earnest for setting up new churches, and so +perfectly indifferent concerning the doctrine which may be taught in +them. His zeal is of a curious character. It is not for the propagation +of his own opinions, but of any opinions. It is not for the diffusion of +truth, but for the spreading of contradiction. Let the noble teachers +but dissent, it is no matter from whom or from what. This great point +once secured, it is taken for granted their religion will be rational +and manly. I doubt whether religion would reap all the benefits which +the calculating divine computes from this "great company of great +preachers." It would certainly be a valuable addition of nondescripts to +the ample collection of known classes, genera and species, which at +present beautify the hortus siccus of dissent. A sermon from a noble +duke, or a noble marquis, or a noble earl, or baron bold, would +certainly increase and diversify the amusements of this town, which +begins to grow satiated with the uniform round of its vapid +dissipations. I should only stipulate that these new Mess-Johns in robes +and coronets should keep some sort of bounds in the democratic and +levelling principles which are expected from their titled pulpits. The +new evangelists will, I dare say, disappoint the hopes that are +conceived of them. They will not become, literally as well as +figuratively, polemic divines, nor be disposed so to drill their +congregations, that they may, as in former blessed times, preach their +doctrines to regiments of dragoons and corps of infantry and artillery. +Such arrangements, however favourable to the cause of compulsory +freedom, civil and religious, may not be equally conducive to the +national tranquillity. These few restrictions I hope are no great +stretches of intolerance, no very violent exertions of despotism. + + +JARGON OF REPUBLICANISM. + +Dr. Price, in this sermon, condemns very properly the practice of +gross, adulatory addresses to kings. Instead of this fulsome style, +he proposes that his majesty should be told, on occasions of +congratulation, that "he is to consider himself as more properly the +servant than the sovereign of his people." For a compliment, this new +form of address does not seem to be very soothing. Those who are +servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of +their situation, their duty and their obligations. The slave, in the +old play, tells his master, "Haec commemoratio est quasi exprobatio." +It is not pleasant as compliment; it is not wholesome as instruction. +After all, if the king were to bring himself to echo this new kind of +address, to adopt it in terms, and even to take the appellation of +Servant of the People as his royal style, how either he or we should +be much mended by it, I cannot imagine. I have seen very assuming +letters, signed, Your most obedient, humble servant. The proudest +denomination that ever was endured on earth took a title of still +greater humility than that which is now proposed for sovereigns by +the Apostle of Liberty. Kings and nations were trampled upon by the +foot of one calling himself "the Servant of Servants;" and mandates +for deposing sovereigns were sealed with the signet of "the +Fisherman." + +I should have considered all this as no more than a sort of flippant, +vain discourse, in which, as in an unsavoury fume, several persons +suffer the spirit of liberty to evaporate, if it were not plainly in +support of the idea, and a part of the scheme, of "cashiering kings for +misconduct." In that light it is worth some observation. + +Kings, in one sense, are undoubtedly the servants of the people, because +their power has no other rational end than that of the general +advantage; but it is not true that they are, in the ordinary sense (by +our constitution at least), anything like servants; the essence of whose +situation is to obey the commands of some other, and to be removable at +pleasure. But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other +persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to +him a legal obedience. The law, which knows neither to flatter nor to +insult, calls this high magistrate, not our servant, as this humble +divine calls him, but "OUR SOVEREIGN LORD THE KING;" and we, on our +parts, have learned to speak only the primitive language of the law, and +not the confused jargon of their Babylonian pulpits. + + +CONSERVATIVE PROGRESS OF INHERITED FREEDOM. + +The policy appears to me to be the result of profound reflection; or +rather the happy effect of following nature, which is wisdom without +reflection, and above it. A spirit of innovation is generally the result +of a selfish temper, and confined views. People will not look forward to +posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Besides, the +people of England well know that the idea of inheritance furnishes a +sure principle of conservation, and a sure principle of transmission, +without at all excluding a principle of improvement. It leaves +acquisition free; but it secures what it acquires. Whatever advantages +are obtained by a state proceeding on these maxims, are locked fast as +in a sort of family settlement; grasped as in a kind of mortmain for +ever. By a constitutional policy working after the pattern of nature, we +receive, we hold, we transmit our government and our privileges, in the +same manner in which we enjoy and transmit our property and our lives. +The institutions of policy, the goods of fortune, the gifts of +Providence, are handed down to us, and from us, in the same course and +order. Our political system is placed in a just correspondence and +symmetry with the order of the world, and with the mode of existence +decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts; wherein, by +the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great +mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is +never old, or middle-aged, or young, but, in a condition of unchangeable +constancy, moves on through the varied tenour of perpetual decay, fall, +renovation, and progression. Thus, by preserving the method of nature in +the conduct of the state, in what we improve, we are never wholly new; +in what we retain, we are never wholly obsolete. By adhering in this +manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided not by +the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic +analogy. In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of +polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution of +our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our fundamental +laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable, and +cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected +charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars. + +Through the same plan of a conformity to nature in our artificial +institutions, and by calling in the aid of her unerring and powerful +instincts to fortify the fallible and feeble contrivances of our reason, +we have derived several other, and those no small benefits, from +considering our liberties in the light of an inheritance. Always acting +as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, +leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful +gravity. This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of +habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost +inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers +of any distinction. By this means our liberty becomes a noble freedom. +It carries an imposing and majestic aspect. It has a pedigree and +illustrating ancestors. It has its bearings and its ensigns armorial. It +has its gallery of portraits; its monumental inscriptions; its records, +evidences, and titles. We procure reverence to our civil institutions on +the principle upon which nature teaches us to revere individual men; on +account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are +descended. All your sophisters cannot produce anything better adapted to +preserve a rational and manly freedom than the course that we have +pursued, who have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our +breasts rather than our inventions, for the great conservatories and +magazines of our rights and privileges. + + +CONSERVATION AND CORRECTION. + +A state without the means of some change is without the means of its +conservation. Without such means it might even risk the loss of that +part of the constitution which it wished the most religiously to +preserve. The two principles of conservation and correction operated +strongly at the two critical periods of the Restoration and Revolution, +when England found itself without a king. At both those periods the +nation had lost the bond of union in their ancient edifice; they did +not, however, dissolve the whole fabric. On the contrary, in both cases +they regenerated the deficient part of the old constitution through the +parts which were not impaired. They kept these old parts exactly as they +were, that the part recovered might be suited to them. They acted by the +ancient organized states in the shape of their old organization, and not +by the organic moleculae of a disbanded people. At no time, perhaps, did +the sovereign legislature manifest a more tender regard to that +fundamental principle of British constitutional policy than at the time +of the Revolution, when it deviated from the direct line of hereditary +succession. The crown was carried somewhat out of the line in which it +had before moved; but the new line was derived from the same stock. It +was still a line of hereditary descent; still an hereditary descent in +the same blood, though an hereditary descent qualified with +Protestantism. When the legislature altered the direction, but kept the +principle, they showed that they held it inviolable. + + +HEREDITARY SUCCESSION OF ENGLISH CROWN. + +Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King +William, a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a +regular hereditary succession; but it is against all genuine principles +of jurisprudence to draw a principle from a law made in a special case, +and regarding an individual person. Privilegium non transit in exemplum. +If ever there was a time favourable for establishing the principle, that +a king of popular choice was the only legal king, without all doubt it +was at the Revolution. Its not being done at that time is a proof that +the nation was of opinion it ought not to be done at any time. There is +no person so completely ignorant of our history as not to know that the +majority in parliament of both parties were so little disposed to +anything resembling that principle, that at first they were determined +to place the vacant crown, not on the head of the prince of Orange, but +on that of his wife Mary, daughter of King James, the eldest born of the +issue of that king, which they acknowledged as undoubtedly his. It would +be to repeat a very trite story, to recall to your memory all those +circumstances which demonstrated that their accepting King William was +not properly a CHOICE; but to all those who did not wish, in effect, to +recall King James, or to deluge their country in blood, and again to +bring their religion, laws, and liberties into the peril they had just +escaped, it was an act of NECESSITY, in the strictest moral sense in +which necessity can be taken. + +So far is it from being true, that we acquired a right by the Revolution +to elect our kings, that if we had possessed it before, the English +nation did at that time most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for +themselves, and for all their posterity for ever. These gentlemen may +value themselves as much as they please on their Whig principles; but I +never desire to be thought a better Whig than Lord Somers; or to +understand the principles of the Revolution better than those by whom it +was brought about; or to read in the Declaration of Right any mysteries +unknown to those whose penetrating style has engraved in our ordinances, +and in our hearts, the words and spirit of that immortal law. + +It is true that, aided with the powers derived from force and +opportunity, the nation was at that time, in some sense, free to take +what course it pleased for filling the throne; but only free to do so +upon the same grounds on which they might have wholly abolished their +monarchy, and every other part of their constitution. + +However, they did not think such bold changes within their commission. +It is indeed difficult, perhaps impossible, to give limits to the mere +ABSTRACT competence of the supreme power, such as was exercised by +parliament at that time; but the limits of a MORAL competence, +subjecting, even in powers more indisputably sovereign, occasional will +to permanent reason, and to the steady maxims of faith, justice, and +fixed fundamental policy, are perfectly intelligible, and perfectly +binding upon those who exercise any authority, under any name, or under +any title, in the state. The House of Lords, for instance, is not +morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons; no, nor even to +dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the +legislature of the kingdom. Though a king may abdicate for his own +person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy. By as strong, or by a +stronger reason, the House of Commons cannot renounce its share of +authority. The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by +the name of the constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender. +The constituent parts of a state are obliged to hold their public faith +with each other, and with all those who derive any serious interest +under their engagements, as much as the whole state is bound to keep its +faith with separate communities. Otherwise competence and power would +soon be confounded, and no law be left but the will of a prevailing +force. On this principle the succession of the crown has always been +what it now is, an hereditary succession by law: in the old line it was +a succession by the common law; in the new by the statute law, operating +on the principles of the common law, not changing the substance, but +regulating the mode and describing the persons. Both these descriptions +of law are of the same force, and are derived from an equal authority, +emanating from the common agreement and original compact of the state, +communi sponsione reipublicae, and as such are equally binding on king +people too, as long as the terms are observed, and they continue the +same body politic. + + +LIMITS OF LEGISLATIVE CAPACITY. + +If we were to know nothing of this assembly but by its title and +function, no colours could paint to the imagination anything more +venerable. In that light the mind of an inquirer, subdued by such an +awful image as that of the virtue and wisdom of a whole people +collected into one focus, would pause and hesitate in condemning +things even of the very worst aspect. Instead of blameable, they +would appear only mysterious. But no name, no power, no function, no +artificial institution whatsoever, can make the men of whom any +system of authority is composed, any other than God, and nature, and +education, and their habits of life have made them. Capacities beyond +these the people have not to give. Virtue and wisdom may be the +objects of their choice; but their choice confers neither the one nor +the other on those upon whom they lay their ordaining hands. They +have not the engagement of nature, they have not the promise of +revelation, for any such power. + + +OUR CONSTITUTION, NOT FABRICATED, BUT INHERITED. + +The Revolution was made to preserve our ANCIENT, indisputable laws and +liberties, and that ANCIENT constitution of government which is our only +security for law and liberty. If you are desirous of knowing the spirit +of our constitution, and the policy which predominated in that great +period which has secured it to this hour, pray look for both in our +histories, in our records, in our acts of parliament, and journals of +parliament, and not in the sermons of the Old Jewry, and the +after-dinner toasts of the Revolution Society. In the former you will +find other ideas and another language. Such a claim is as ill suited to +our temper and wishes as it is unsupported by any appearance of +authority. The very idea of the fabrication of a new government is +enough to fill us with disgust and horror. We wished at the period of +the Revolution, and do now wish, to derive all we possess as AN +INHERITANCE FROM OUR FOREFATHERS. Upon that body and stock of +inheritance, we have taken care not to inoculate any scion alien to the +nature of the original plant. All the reformations we have hitherto made +have proceeded upon the principle of reverence to antiquity; and I hope, +nay, I am persuaded, that all those which possibly may be made +hereafter, will be carefully formed upon analogical precedent, +authority, and example. + +Our oldest reformation is that of Magna Charta. You will see that Sir +Edward Coke, that great oracle of our law, and indeed all the great men +who follow him, to Blackstone, are industrious to prove the pedigree of +our liberties. They endeavour to prove, that the ancient charter, the +Magna Charta of King John, was connected with another positive charter +from Henry I., and that both the one and the other were nothing more +than a re-affirmance of the still more ancient standing law of the +kingdom. In the matter of fact, for the greater part, these authors +appear to be in the right; perhaps not always; but if the lawyers +mistake in some particulars, it proves my position still the more +strongly, because it demonstrates the powerful prepossession towards +antiquity, with much the minds of all our lawyers and legislators, and +of all the people whom they wish to influence, have been always filled; +and the stationary policy of this kingdom in considering their most +sacred rights and franchises as an INHERITANCE. + +In the famous law of the 3rd of Charles I., called the PETITION OF +RIGHT, the parliament says to the king, "Your subjects have INHERITED +this freedom," claiming their franchises not on abstract principles "as +the rights of men," but as the rights of Englishmen, and as a patrimony +derived from their forefathers. Selden, and the other profoundly learned +men, who drew this petition of right, were as well acquainted, at least, +with all the general theories concerning the "rights of men," as any of +the discoursers in our pulpits, or on your tribune; full as well as Dr. +Price, or as the Abbe Sieyes. But, for reasons worthy of that practical +wisdom which superseded their theoretic science, they preferred this +positive, recorded, HEREDITARY title to all which can be dear to the man +and the citizen, to that vague speculative right, which exposed their +sure inheritance to be scrambled for and torn to pieces by every wild, +litigious spirit. + +The same policy pervades all the laws which have since been made for the +preservation of our liberties. In the 1st of William and Mary, in the +famous statute called the Declaration of Right, the two houses utter not +a syllable of "a right to frame a government for themselves." You will +see, that their whole care was to secure the religion, laws, and +liberties, that had been long possessed, and had been lately endangered. +"Taking into their most serious consideration the BEST means for making +such an establishment that their religion, laws, and liberties, might +not be in danger of being again subverted," they auspicate all their +proceedings, by stating as some of those BEST means, "in the FIRST +PLACE" to do "as their ANCESTORS IN LIKE CASES HAVE USUALLY done for +vindicating their ANCIENT rights and liberties, to DECLARE;"--and then +they pray the king and queen, "that it may be DECLARED and enacted, that +ALL AND SINGULAR the rights and liberties ASSERTED AND DECLARED, are the +true ANCIENT and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this +kingdom." + +You will observe, that from Magna Charta to the Declaration of Right, it +has been the uniform policy of our constitution to claim and assert our +liberties, as an ENTAILED INHERITANCE derived to us from our +forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity, as an estate +specially belonging to the people of this kingdom, without any reference +whatever to any other more general or prior right. By this means our +constitution preserves a unity in so great a diversity of its parts. We +have an inheritable crown; an inheritable peerage; and a house of +commons and a people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties, +from a long line of ancestors. + + +LOW AIMS AND LOW INSTRUMENTS. + +When men of rank sacrifice all ideas of dignity to an ambition without a +distinct object, and work with low instruments and for low ends, the +whole composition becomes low and base. Does not something like this now +appear in France? Does it not produce something ignoble and inglorious? +a kind of meanness in all the prevalent policy? a tendency in all that +is done to lower along with individuals all the dignity and importance +of the state? Other revolutions have been conducted by persons, who, +whilst they attempted or affected changes in the commonwealth, +sanctified their ambition by advancing the dignity of the people whose +peace they troubled. They had long views. They aimed at the rule, not at +the destruction, of their country. They were men of great civil and +great military talents, and if the terror, the ornament of their age. +They were not like Jew brokers, contending with each other who could +best remedy with fraudulent circulation and depreciated paper the +wretchedness and ruin brought on their country by their degenerate +councils. The compliment made to one of the great bad men of the old +stamp (Cromwell) by his kinsman, a favourite poet of that time, shows +what it was he proposed, and what indeed to a great degree he +accomplished, in the success of his ambition:-- + + "Still as YOU rise, the STATE exalted too, + Finds no distemper whilst 'tis changed by YOU: + Changed like the world's great scene, when without noise + The rising sun night's VULGAR lights destroys." + +These disturbers were not so much like men usurping power, as asserting +their natural place in society. Their rising was to illuminate and +beautify the world. Their conquest over their competitors was by +outshining them. The hand that, like a destroying angel, smote the +country, communicated to it the force and energy under which it +suffered. I do not say (God forbid), I do not say, that the virtues of +such men were to be taken as a balance to their crimes: but they were +some corrective to their effects. Such was, as I said, our Cromwell. +Such were your whole race of Guises, Condes, and Colignis. Such the +Richelieus, who in more quite times acted in the spirit of a civil war. +Such, as better men, and in a less dubious cause, were your Henry the +Fourth and your Sully, though nursed in civil confusions, and not wholly +without some of their taint. It is a thing to be wondered at, to see how +very soon France, when she had a moment to respire, recovered and +emerged from the longest and most dreadful civil war that ever was known +in any nation. Why? Because among all their massacres, they had not +slain the MIND in their country. A conscious dignity, a noble pride, a +generous sense of glory and emulation, was not extinguished. On the +contrary, it was kindled and enflamed. The organs also of the state, +however shattered, existed. All the prizes of honour and virtue, all the +rewards, all the distinctions, remained. But your present confusion, +like a palsy, has attacked the fountain of life itself. Every person in +your country, in a situation to be actuated by a principle of honour, is +disgraced and degraded, and can entertain no sensation of life, except +in a mortified and humiliated indignation. But this generation will +quickly pass away. The next generation of the nobility will resemble the +artificers and clowns, and money-jobbers, usurers, and Jews, who will be +always their fellows, sometimes their masters. Believe me, Sir, those +who attempt to level, never equalise. In all societies, consisting of +various descriptions of citizens, some description must be uppermost. +The levellers therefore only change and pervert the natural order of +things; they load the edifice of society, by setting up in the air what +the solidity of the structure requires to be on the ground. The +associations of tailors and carpenters, of which the republic (of Paris, +for instance), is composed, cannot be equal to the situation into which, +by the worst of usurpations, a usurpation on the prerogatives of nature, +you attempt to force them. + +The Chancellor of France, at the opening of the states, said, in a tone +of oratorical flourish, that all occupations were honourable. If he +meant only, that no honest employment was disgraceful, he would not have +gone beyond the truth. But in asserting that anything is honourable, we +imply some distinction in its favour. The occupation of a hair-dresser, +or of a working tallow-chandler, cannot be a matter of honour to any +person--to say nothing of a number of other more servile employments. +Such descriptions of men ought not to suffer oppression from the state; +but the state suffers oppression, if such as they, either individually +or collectively, are permitted to rule. In this you think you are +combating prejudice, but you are at war with nature. + + +HOUSE OF COMMONS CONTRASTED WITH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. + +The British House of Commons, without shutting its doors to any merit in +any class, is, by the sure operation of adequate causes, filled with +everything illustrious in rank, in descent, in hereditary and in +acquired opulence, in cultivated talents, in military, civil, naval, and +politic distinction, that the country can afford. But supposing, what +hardly can be supposed as a case, that the House of Commons should be +composed in the same manner with the Tiers-Etat in France, would this +dominion of chicane be borne with patience, or even conceived without +horror? God forbid I should insinuate anything derogatory to that +profession, which is another priesthood, administering the rights of +sacred justice. But whilst I revere men in the functions which belong to +them, and would do as much as one man can do to prevent their exclusion +from any, I cannot, to flatter them, give the lie to nature. They are +good and useful in the composition; they must be mischievous if they +preponderate so as virtually to become the whole. Their very excellence +in their peculiar functions may be far from a qualification for others. +It cannot escape observation, that when men are too much confined to +professional and faculty habits, and as it were inveterate in the +recurrent employment of that narrow circle, they are rather disabled +than qualified for whatever depends on the knowledge of mankind, on +experience in mixed affairs, on a comprehensive, connected view of the +various, complicated, external, and internal interests, which go to the +formation of that multifarious thing called a state. After all, if the +House of Commons were to have a wholly professional and faculty +composition, what is the power of the House of Commons, circumscribed +and shut in by the immoveable barriers of law, usages, positive rules of +doctrine and practice, counterpoised by the House of Lords, and every +moment of its existence at the discretion of the crown to continue, +prorogue, or dissolve us? The power of the House of Commons, direct or +indirect, is indeed great; and long may it be able to preserve its +greatness, and the spirit belonging to true greatness, at the full; and +it will do so, as long as it can keep the breakers of law in India from +becoming the makers of law for England. The power, however, of the House +of Commons, when least diminished, is as a drop of water in the ocean, +compared to that residing in a settled majority of your National +Assembly. That assembly, since the destruction of the orders, has no +fundamental law, no strict convention, no respected usage to restrain +it. Instead of finding themselves obliged to conform to a fixed +constitution, they have a power to make a constitution which shall +conform to their designs. Nothing in heaven or upon earth can serve as a +control on them. What ought to be the heads, the hearts, the +dispositions, that are qualified, or that dare, not only to make laws +under a fixed constitution, but at one heat to strike out a totally new +constitution for a great kingdom, and every part of it, from the monarch +on the throne to the vestry of a parish? But--"fools rush in where +angels fear to tread." In such a state of unbounded power, for undefined +and indefinable purposes, the evil of a moral and almost physical +inaptitude of the man to the function, must be the greatest we can +conceive to happen in the management of human affairs. + + +PROPERTY, MORE THAN ABILITY, REPRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT. + +Nothing is a due and adequate representation of a state that does not +represent its ability, as well as its property. But as ability is a +vigorous and active principle, and as property is sluggish, inert, and +timid, it never can be safe from the invasions of ability, unless it be, +out of all proportion, predominant in the representation. It must be +represented too in great masses of accumulation, or it is not rightly +protected. The characteristic essence of property, formed out of the +combined principles of its acquisition and conservation, is to be +UNEQUAL. The great masses, therefore, which excite envy, and tempt +rapacity, must be put out of the possibility of danger. Then they form a +natural rampart about the lesser properties in all their gradations. The +same quantity of property, which is by the natural course of things +divided among many, has not the same operation. Its defensive power is +weakened as it is diffused. In this diffusion each man's portion is less +than what, in the eagerness of his desires, he may flatter himself to +obtain by dissipating the accumulations of others. The plunder of the +few would, indeed, give but a share inconceivably small in the +distribution to the many. But the many are not capable of making this +calculation; and those who lead them to rapine never intend this +distribution. + +The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the +most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that +which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself. It makes our +weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon +avarice. The possessors of family wealth, and of the distinction which +attends hereditary possession (as most concerned in it), are the natural +securities for this transmission. With us the House of Peers is formed +upon this principle. It is wholly composed of hereditary property and +hereditary distinction; and made, therefore, the third of the +legislature; and, in the last event, the sole judge of all property in +all its subdivisions. The House of Commons, too, though not necessarily, +yet in fact, is always so composed, in the far greater part. Let those +large proprietors be what they will, and they have their chance of being +among the best, they are, at the very worst, the ballast in the vessel +of the commonwealth. For though hereditary wealth, and the rank which +goes with it, are too much idolized by creeping sycophants, and the +blind, abject admirers of power, they are too rashly slighted in shallow +speculations of the petulant, assuming, short-sighted coxcombs of +philosophy. Some decent, regulated pre-eminence, some preference (not +exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, nor +unjust, nor impolitic. It is said, that twenty-four millions ought to +prevail over two hundred thousand. True; if the constitution of a +kingdom be a problem of arithmetic. This sort of discourse does well +enough with the lamp-post for its second: to men who MAY reason calmly, +it is ridiculous. The will of the many, and their interest, must very +often differ; and great will be the difference when they make an evil +choice. + + +VIRTUE AND WISDOM QUALIFY FOR GOVERNMENT. + +I do not, my dear sir, conceive you to be of that sophistical, captious +spirit, or of that uncandid dulness, as to require, for every general +observation or sentiment, an explicit detail of the correctives and +exceptions which reason will presume to be included in all the general +propositions which come from reasonable men. You do not imagine that I +wish to confine power, authority, and distinction to blood, and names, +and titles. No, sir. There is no qualification for government but virtue +and wisdom, actual or presumptive. Wherever they are actually found, +they have, in whatever state, condition, profession, or trade, the +passport of heaven to human place and honour. Woe to that country which +would madly and impiously reject the service of the talents and virtues, +civil, military, or religious, that are given to grace and to serve it; +and would condemn to obscurity everything formed to diffuse lustre and +glory around a state. Woe to that country, too, that, passing into the +opposite extreme, considers a low education, a mean, contracted view of +things, a sordid, mercenary occupation, as a preferable title to +command. Everything ought to be open; but not indifferently to every +man. No rotation; no appointment by lot; no mode of election operating +in the spirit of sortition, or rotation, can be generally good in a +government conversant in extensive objects. Because they have no +tendency, direct or indirect, to select the man with a view to the duty, +or to accommodate the one to the other. I do not hesitate to say, that +the road to eminence and power, from obscure condition, ought not to be +made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the +rarest of all rare things, in ought to pass through some sort of +probation. The temple of honour ought to be seated on an eminence. If it +be opened through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is +never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle. + + +NATURAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS. + +Far am I from denying in theory, full as far as is my heart from +withholding in practice (if I were of power to give or to withhold), the +REAL rights of men. In denying their false claims of right, I do not +mean to injure those which are real, and are such as their pretended +rights would totally destroy. If civil society be made for the advantage +of man, all the advantages for which it is made become his right. It is +an institution of beneficence; and law itself is only beneficence acting +by a rule. Men have a right to live by that rule; they have a right to +do justice, as between their fellows, whether their fellows are in +politic function, or in ordinary occupation. They have a right to the +fruits of their industry, and to the means of making their industry +fruitful. They have a right to the acquisitions of their parents; to the +nourishment and improvement of their offspring; to instruction in life, +and to consolation in death. Whatever each man can separately do, +without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and +he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all its +combinations of skill and force, can do in his favour. In this +partnership all men have equal rights; but not to equal things. He that +has but five shillings in the partnership, has as good a right to it, as +he that has five hundred pounds has to his larger proportion. But he has +not a right to an equal dividend in the product of the joint-stock; and +as to the share of power, authority, and direction which each individual +ought to have in the management of the state, that I must deny to be +amongst the direct original rights of man in civil society; for I have +in my contemplation the civil social man, and no other. It is a thing to +be settled by convention. If civil society be the offspring of +convention, that convention must be its law. That convention must limit +and modify all the descriptions of constitution which are formed under +it. Every sort of legislature, judicial, or executory power, are its +creatures. They can have no being in any other state of things; and how +can any man claim, under the conventions of civil society, rights which +do not so much as suppose its existence? Rights which are absolutely +repugnant to it? One of the first motives to civil society, and which +becomes one of its fundamental rules, is, THAT NO MAN SHOULD BE JUDGE IN +HIS OWN CAUSE. By this each person has at once divested himself of the +first fundamental right of uncovenanted man, that is, to judge for +himself, and to assert his own cause. He abdicates all right to be his +own governor. He inclusively, in a great measure, abandons the right of +self-defence, the first law of nature. Men cannot enjoy the rights of an +uncivil and of a civil state together. That he may obtain justice, he +gives up his right of determining what it is in points the most +essential to him. That he may secure some liberty, he makes a surrender +in trust of the whole of it. + +Government is not made in virtue of natural rights, which may and do +exist in total independence of it; and exist in much greater clearness, +and in a much greater degree of abstract perfection: but their abstract +perfection is their practical defect. By having a right to everything +they want everything. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to +provide for human WANTS. Men have a right that these wants should be +provided for by this wisdom. Among these wants is to be reckoned the +want, out of civil society, of a sufficient restraint upon their +passions. Society requires not only that the passions of individuals +should be subjected, but that even in the mass and body, as well as in +the individuals, the inclinations of men should frequently be thwarted, +their will controlled, and their passions brought into subjection. This +can only be done BY A POWER OUT OF THEMSELVES, and not, in the exercise +of its function, subject to that will and to those passions which it is +its office to bridle and subdue. In this sense the restraints on men, as +well as their liberties, are to be reckoned among their rights. But as +the liberties and the restrictions vary with times and circumstances, +and admit of infinite modifications, they cannot be settled upon any +abstract rule; and nothing is so foolish as to discuss them upon that +principle. + +The moment you abate anything from the full rights of men, each to +govern himself, and suffer any artificial, positive limitation upon +those rights, from that moment the whole organization of government +becomes a consideration of convenience. This it is which makes the +constitution of a state, and the due distribution of its powers, a +matter of the most delicate and complicated skill. It requires a deep +knowledge of human nature and human necessities, and of the things which +facilitate or obstruct the various ends, which are to be pursued by the +mechanism of civil institutions. The state is to have recruits to its +strength, and remedies to its distempers. What is the use of discussing +a man's abstract right to food or medicine? The question is upon the +method of procuring and administering them. In that deliberation I shall +always advise to call in the aid of the farmer and the physician, rather +than the professor of metaphysics. The science of constructing a +commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other +experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short +experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the +real effects of moral causes are not always immediate; but that which in +the first instance is prejudicial may be excellent in its remoter +operation; and its excellence may arise even from the ill effects it +produces in the beginning. The reverse also happens; and very plausible +schemes, with very pleasing commencements, have often shameful and +lamentable conclusions. In states there are often some obscure and +almost latent causes, things which appear at first view of little +moment, on which a very great part of its prosperity or adversity may +most essentially depend. The science of government being therefore so +practical in itself, and intended for such practical purposes, a matter +which requires experience, and even more experience than any person can +gain in his whole life, however sagacious and observing he may be, it is +with infinite caution that any man ought to venture upon pulling down an +edifice, which has answered in any tolerable degree for ages the common +purposes of society, or on building it up again, without having models +and patterns of approved utility before his eyes. + +These metaphysic rights entering into common life, like rays of light +which pierce into a dense medium, are, by the laws of nature, refracted +from their straight line. Indeed in the gross and complicated mass of +human passions and concerns, the primitive rights of men undergo such a +variety of refractions and reflections, that it becomes absurd to talk +of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original +direction. The nature of man is intricate; the objects of society are of +the greatest possible complexity: and therefore no simple disposition or +direction of power can be suitable either to man's nature, or to the +quality of his affairs. When I hear the simplicity of contrivance aimed +at and boasted of in any new political constitutions, I am at no loss to +decide that the artificers are grossly ignorant of their trade, or +totally negligent of their duty. The simple governments are +fundamentally defective, to say no worse of them. If you were to +contemplate society in but one point of view, all these simple modes of +polity are infinitely captivating. In effect each would answer its +single end much more perfectly than the more complex is able to attain +all its complex purposes. But it is better that the whole should be +imperfectly and anomalously answered, than that, while some parts are +provided for with great exactness, others might be totally neglected, or +perhaps materially injured, by the over-care of a favourite member. + +The pretended rights of these theorists are all extremes: and in +proportion as they are metaphysically true, they are morally and +politically false. The rights of men are in a sort of MIDDLE, incapable +of definition, but not impossible to be discerned. The rights of men in +governments are their advantages, and these are often in balances +between differences of good; in compromises sometimes between good and +evil, and sometimes between evil and evil. Political reason is a +computing principle, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, +morally and not metaphysically or mathematically, true moral +denominations. + +By these theorists the right of the people is almost always +sophistically confounded with their power. The body of the community, +whenever it can come to act, can meet with no effectual resistance; but +till power and right are the same, the whole body of them has no right +inconsistent with virtue, and the first of all virtues--prudence. + + +MARIE ANTOINETTE. It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the +queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never +lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful +vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the +elevated sphere she just began to move in,--glittering like the +morning-star, full of life, and splendour, and joy. Oh! what a +revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion +that elevation and that fall! Little did I dream when she added titles +of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that +she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace +concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I should have lived to +see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a +nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords +must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that +threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of +sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of +Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more shall we behold that +generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified +obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in +servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace +of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and +heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, +that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired +courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it +touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all +its grossness. + + +SPIRIT OF A GENTLEMAN AND THE SPIRIT OF RELIGION. + +How much of that prosperous state was owing to the spirit of our old +manners and opinions is not easy to say; but as such causes cannot be +indifferent in their operation, we must presume that, on the whole, +their operation was beneficial. + +We are but too apt to consider things in the state in which we find +them, without sufficiently adverting to the causes by which they have +been produced, and possibly may be upheld. Nothing is more certain, than +that our manners, our civilization, and all the good things which are +connected with manners and with civilization, have, in this European +world of ours, depended for ages upon two principles, and were indeed +the result of both combined; I mean the spirit of a gentleman and the +spirit of religion. The nobility and the clergy, the one by profession, +the other by patronage, kept learning in existence, even in the midst of +arms and confusions, and whilst governments were rather in their causes, +than formed. Learning paid back what it received to nobility and to +priesthood; and paid it with usury, by enlarging their ideas, and by +furnishing their minds. Happy if they had all continued to know their +indissoluble union, and their proper place! Happy if learning, not +debauched by ambition, had been satisfied to continue the instructor, +and not aspired to be the master! Along with its natural protectors and +guardians, learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under +the hoofs of a swinish multitude. + +If, as I suspect, modern letters owe more than they are always willing +to own to ancient manners, so do other interests which we value full as +much as they are worth. Even commerce, and trade, and manufacture, the +gods of our economical politicians, are themselves, perhaps, but +creatures; are themselves but effects, which, as first causes, we choose +to worship. They certainly grew under the same shade in which learning +flourished. They too may decay with their natural protecting principles. +With you, for the present at least, they all threaten to disappear +together. Where trade and manufactures are wanting to a people, and the +spirit of nobility and religion remains, sentiment supplies, and not +always ill supplies, their place; but if commerce and the arts should be +lost in an experiment to try how well a state may stand without these +old fundamental principles, what sort of a thing must be a nation of +gross, stupid, ferocious, and, at the same time, poor and sordid +barbarians, destitute of religion, honour, or manly pride, possessing +nothing at present, and hoping for nothing hereafter? + + +POWER SURVIVES OPINION. + +But power, of some kind or other, will survive the shock in which +manners and opinions perish! And it will find other and worse means for +its support. The usurpation which, in order to subvert ancient +institutions, has destroyed ancient principles, will hold power by arts +similar to those by which it has acquired it. When the old feudal and +chivalrous spirit of FEALTY, which, by freeing kings from fear, freed +both kings and subjects from the precaution of tyranny, shall be extinct +in the minds of men, plots and assassinations will be anticipated by +preventive murder and preventive confiscation, and that long roll of +grim and bloody maxims, which form the political code of all power, not +standing on its own honour, and the honour of those who are to obey it. +Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from +principle. + + +CHIVALRY A MORALIZING CHARM. + +This mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its origin in the +ancient chivalry; and the principle, though varied in its appearance +by the varying state of human affairs, subsisted and influenced +through a long succession of generations, even to the time we live +in. If it should ever be totally extinguished, the loss I fear will +be great. It is this which has given its character to modern Europe. +It is this which has distinguished it under all its forms of +government, and distinguished it, to its advantage, from the states +of Asia, and possibly from those states which flourished in the most +brilliant periods of the antique world. It was this which, without +confounding ranks, had produced a noble equality, and handed it down +through all the gradations of social life. It was this opinion which +mitigated kings into companions, and raised private men to be fellows +with kings. Without force or opposition, it subdued the fierceness +of pride and power; it obliged sovereigns to submit to the soft +collar of social esteem, compelled stern authority to submit to +elegance, and gave a dominating vanquisher of laws to be subdued by +manners. + +But now all is to be changed. All the pleasing illusions, which made +power gentle, and obedience liberal, which harmonized the different +shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into +politics the sentiments which beautify and soften private society, are +to be dissolved by this new conquering empire of light and reason. All +the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off. All the superadded +ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination, which the +heart owns and the understanding ratifies as necessary to cover the +defects of our naked, shivering nature, and to raise it to dignity in +our own estimation, are to be exploded as a ridiculous, absurd, and +antiquated fashion. + +On this scheme of things, a king is but a man, a queen is but a woman; a +woman is but an animal,--and an animal not of the highest order. All +homage paid to the sex in general as such, and without distinct views, +is to be regarded as romance and folly. Regicide, and parricide, and +sacrilege are but fictions of superstition, corrupting jurisprudence by +destroying its simplicity. The murder of a king, or a queen, or a +bishop, or a father, are only common homicide; and if the people are by +any chance, or in any way, gainers by it, a sort of homicide much the +most pardonable, and into which we ought not to make too severe a +scrutiny. + +On the scheme of this barbarous philosophy, which is the offspring of +cold hearts and muddy understandings, and which is as void of solid +wisdom as it is destitute of all taste and elegance, laws are to be +supported only by their own terrors, and by the concern which each +individual may find in them from his own private speculations, or can +spare to them from his own private interests. In the groves of THEIR +academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows. +Nothing is left which engages the affections on the part of the +commonwealth. On the principles of this mechanic philosophy, our +institutions can never be embodied, if I may use the expression, in +persons, so as to create in us love, veneration, admiration, or +attachment. But that sort of reason which banishes the affections is +incapable of filling their place. These public affections, combined with +manners, are required sometimes as supplements, sometimes as +correctives, always as aids to law. The precept given by a wise man, as +well as a great critic, for the construction of poems, is equally true +as to states:--Non satis est pulchra esse poemata, dulcia sunto. There +ought to be a system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind +would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country +ought to be lovely. + + +SACREDNESS OF MORAL INSTINCTS. + +Why do I feel so differently from the Reverend Dr. Price, and those +of his lay flock, who will choose to adopt the sentiments of his +discourse? For this plain reason--because it is NATURAL I should; +because we are so made, as to be affected at such spectacles with +melancholy sentiments upon the unstable condition of mortal +prosperity and the tremendous uncertainty of human greatness; because +in those natural feelings we learn great lessons; because in events +like these our passions instruct our reason; because when kings are +hurled from their thrones by the Supreme Director of this great +drama, and become the objects of insult to the base, and of pity to +the good, we behold such disasters in the moral, as we should behold +a miracle in the physical, order of things. We are alarmed into +reflection; our minds (as it has long since been observed) are +purified by terror and pity; our weak, unthinking pride is humbled +under the dispensations of a mysterious wisdom. Some tears might be +drawn from me, if such a spectacle were exhibited on the stage. I +should be truly ashamed of finding in myself that superficial, +theatric sense of painted distress, whilst I could exult over it in +real life. With such a perverted mind, I could never venture to show +my face at a tragedy. People would think the tears that Garrick +formerly, or that Siddons not long since, have extorted from me, were +the tears of hypocrisy; I should know them to be the tears of folly. + +Indeed the theatre is a better school of moral sentiments than churches, +where the feelings of humanity are thus outraged. Poets who have to deal +with an audience not yet graduated in the school of the rights of men, +and who must apply themselves to the moral constitution of the heart, +would not dare to produce such a triumph as a matter of exultation. +There, where men follow their natural impulses, they would not bear the +odious maxims of a Machiavelian policy, whether applied to the +attainment of monarchical or democratic tyranny. They would reject them +on the modern, as they once did on the ancient stage, where they could +not bear even the hypothetical proposition of such wickedness in the +mouth of a personated tyrant, though suitable to the character he +sustained. No theatric audience in Athens would bear what has been +borne, in the midst of the real tragedy of this triumphal day; a +principal actor weighing, as it were in scales hung in a shop of +horrors, so much actual crime against so much contingent advantage, and +after putting in and out weights, declaring that the balance was on the +side of the advantages. They would not bear to see the crimes of new +democracy posted as in a ledger against the crimes of old despotism, and +the book-keepers of politics finding democracy still in debt, but by no +means unable or unwilling to pay the balance. In the theatre, the first +intuitive glance, without any elaborate process of reasoning, will show, +that this method of political computation would justify every extent of +crime. They would see, that on these principles, even where the very +worst acts were not perpetrated, it was owing rather to the fortune of +the conspirators, than to their parsimony in the expenditure of +treachery and blood. They would soon see, that criminal means once +tolerated are soon preferred. They present a shorter cut to the object +than through the highway of the moral virtues. Justifying perfidy and +murder for public benefit, public benefit would soon become the pretext, +and perfidy and murder the end; until rapacity, malice, revenge, and +fear more dreadful than revenge, could satiate their insatiable +appetites. Such must be the consequences of losing, in the splendour of +these triumphs of the rights of men, all natural sense of wrong and +right. + + +PARENTAL EXPERIENCE. + +Had it pleased God to continue to me the hopes of succession, I +should have been, according to my mediocrity, and the mediocrity of +the age I live in, a sort of founder of a family: I should have left +a son, who, in all the points in which personal merit can be +viewed,--in science, in erudition, in genius, in taste, in honour, in +generosity, in humanity, in every liberal sentiment, and every +liberal accomplishment,--would not have shown himself inferior to the +duke of Bedford, or to any of those whom he traces in his line. His +grace very soon would have wanted all plausibility in his attack upon +that provision which belonged more to mine than to me. He would soon +have supplied every deficiency, and symmetrized every disproportion. +It would not have been for that successor to resort to any stagnant +wasting reservoir of merit in me, or in any ancestry. He had in +himself a salient, living spring of generous and manly action. Every +day he lived he would have re-purchased the bounty of the Crown, and +ten times more, if ten times more he had received. He was made a +public creature, and had no enjoyment whatever but in the performance +of some duty. At this exigent moment, the loss of a finished man is +not easily supplied. + +But a Disposer whose power we are little able to resist, and whose +wisdom it behoves us not at all to dispute, has ordained it in another +manner, and (whatever my querulous weakness might suggest) a far better. +The storm has gone over me, and I lie like one of those old oaks which +the late hurricane has scattered about me. I am stripped of all my +honours, I am torn up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the earth! +There, and prostrate there, I most unfeignedly recognise the divine +justice, and in some degree submit to it. But whilst I humble myself +before God, I do not know that it is forbidden to repel the attacks of +unjust and inconsiderate men. The patience of Job is proverbial. After +some of the convulsive struggles of our irritable nature, he submitted +himself, and repented in dust and ashes. But even so, I do not find him +blamed for reprehending, and with a considerable degree of verbal +asperity, those ill-natured neighbours of his, who visited his dunghill +to read moral, political, and economical lectures on his misery. I am +alone. I have none to meet my enemies in the gate. Indeed, my Lord, I +greatly deceive myself, if in this hard season I would give a peck of +refuse wheat for all that is called fame and honour in the world. This +is the appetite but of a few. It is a luxury, it is a privilege, it is +an indulgence for those who are at their ease. But we are all of us made +to shun disgrace, as we are made to shrink from pain, and poverty, and +disease. It is an instinct; and under the direction of reason, instinct +is always in the right. I live in an inverted order. They who ought to +have succeeded me have gone before me. They who should have been to me +as posterity are in the place of ancestors. I owe to the dearest +relation (which ever must subsist in memory) that act of piety which he +would have performed to me; I owe it to him to show that he was not +descended, as the duke of Bedford would have it, from an unworthy +parent. + + +REVOLUTIONARY SCENE. + +History, who keeps a durable record of all our acts, and exercises her +awful censure over the proceedings of all sorts of sovereigns, will not +forget either those events or the era of this liberal refinement in the +intercourse of mankind. History will record, that on the morning of the +6th of October, 1789, the king and queen of France, after a day of +confusion, alarm, dismay, and slaughter, lay down, under the pledged +security of public faith, to indulge nature in a few hours of respite, +and troubled, melancholy repose. From this sleep the queen was first +startled by the voice of the sentinel at her door, who cried out to her +to save herself by flight--that this was the last proof of fidelity he +could give--that they were upon him, and he was dead. Instantly he was +cut down. A band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with his +blood, rushed into the chamber of the queen, and pierced with a hundred +strokes of bayonets and poniards the bed from whence this persecuted +woman had but just time to fly almost naked, and, through ways unknown +to the murderers, had escaped to seek refuge at the feet of a king and +husband, not secure of his own life for a moment. This king, to say no +more of him, and this queen, and their infant children (who once would +have been the pride and hope of a great and generous people), were then +forced to abandon the sanctuary of the most splendid palace in the +world, which they left swimming in blood, polluted by massacre, and +strewed with scattered limbs and mutilated carcases. Thence they were +conducted into the capital of their kingdom. Two had been selected from +the unprovoked, unresisted, promiscuous slaughter, which was made of the +gentlemen of birth and family who composed the king's body-guard. These +two gentlemen, with all the parade of an execution of justice, were +cruelly and publicly dragged to the block, and beheaded in the great +court of the palace. Their heads were stuck upon spears, and led the +procession; whilst the royal captives who followed in the train were +slowly moved along, amidst the horrid yells, and shrilling screams, and +frantic dances, and infamous contumelies, and all the unutterable +abominations of the furies of hell, in the abused shape of the vilest of +women. After they had been made to taste, drop by drop, more than the +bitterness of death, in the slow torture of a journey of twelve miles, +protracted to six hours, they were, under a guard composed of those very +soldiers who had thus conducted them through this famous triumph, lodged +in one of the old palaces of Paris, now converted into a Bastille for +kings. + +Is this a triumph to be consecrated at altars? to be commemorated with +grateful thanksgiving? to be offered to the divine humanity with fervent +prayer and enthusiastic ejaculation?--These Theban and Thracian orgies, +acted in France, and applauded only in the Old Jewry, I assure you, +kindle prophetic enthusiasm in the minds but of very few people in this +kingdom: although a saint and apostle, who may have revelations of his +own, and who has so completely vanquished all the mean superstitions of +the heart, may incline to think it pious and decorous to compare it with +the entrance into the world of the Prince of Peace, proclaimed in a holy +temple by a venerable sage, and not long before not worse announced by +the voice of angels to quiet the innocence of shepherds. + + +ECONOMY ON STATE PRINCIPLES. + +Economy in my plans was, as it ought to be, secondary, subordinate, +instrumental. I acted on state principles. I found a great distemper in +the commonwealth; and, according to the nature of the evil and of the +object, I treated it. The malady was deep; it was complicated, in the +causes and in the symptoms. Throughout it was full of contra-indicants. +On one hand government, daily growing more invidious from an apparent +increase of the means of strength, was every day growing more +contemptible by real weakness. Nor was this dissolution confined to +government commonly so called. It extended to parliament; which was +losing not a little in its dignity and estimation, by an opinion of its +not acting on worthy motives. On the other hand, the desires of the +people (partly natural and partly infused into them by art) appeared in +so wild and inconsiderate a manner, with regard to the economical object +(for I set aside for a moment the dreadful tampering with the body of +the constitution itself), that, if their petitions had literally been +complied with, the state would have been convulsed, and a gate would +have been opened through which all property might be sacked and ravaged. +Nothing could have saved the public from the mischiefs of the false +reform but its absurdity, which would soon have brought itself, and with +it all real reform, into discredit. This would have left a rankling +wound in the hearts of the people, who would know they had failed in the +accomplishment of their wishes, but who, like the rest of mankind in all +ages, would impute the blame to anything rather than to their own +proceedings. But there were then persons in the world who nourished +complaint, and would have been thoroughly disappointed if the people +were ever satisfied. I was not of that humour. I wished that they SHOULD +be satisfied. It was my aim to give to the people the substance of what +I knew they desired, and what I thought was right, whether they desired +or not, before it had been modified for them into senseless petitions. I +knew that there is a manifest, marked distinction, which ill men with +ill designs, or weak men incapable of any design, will constantly be +confounding, that is a marked distinction between change and +reformation. The former alters the substance of the objects themselves, +and gets rid of all their essential good, as well as of all the +accidental evil, annexed to them. Change is novelty; and whether it is +to operate any one of the effects of reformation at all, or whether it +may not contradict the very principle upon which reformation is desired, +cannot be certainly known beforehand. Reform is not a change in the +substance, or in the primary modification of the object, but a direct +application of a remedy to the grievance complained of. So far as that +is removed, all is sure. It stops there; and if it fails, the substance +which underwent the operation, at the very worst, is but where it was. +All this, in effect, I think, but am not sure, I have said elsewhere. It +cannot at this time be too often repeated; line upon line; precept upon +precept; until it comes into the currency of a proverb, TO INNOVATE IS +NOT TO REFORM. The French revolutionists complained of everything; they +refused to reform anything; and they left nothing, no, nothing at all, +UNCHANGED. The consequences are BEFORE us,--not in remote history; not +in future prognostication: they are about us; they are upon us. They +shake the public security; they menace private enjoyment. They dwarf the +growth of the young; they break the quiet of the old. If we travel, they +stop our way. They infest us in town; they pursue us to the country. Our +business is interrupted; our repose is troubled; our pleasures are +saddened; our very studies are poisoned and perverted, and knowledge is +rendered worse than ignorance by the enormous evils of this dreadful +innovation. The revolution harpies of France, sprung from night and +hell, or from that chaotic anarchy which generates equivocally "all +monstrous, all prodigious things," cuckoo-like, adulterously lay their +eggs, and brood over, and hatch them in the nest of every neighbouring +state. These obscene harpies, who deck themselves in I know not what +divine attributes, but who in reality are foul and ravenous birds of +prey (both mothers and daughters), flutter over our heads, and souse +down upon our tables, and leave nothing unrent, unrifled, unravaged, or +unpolluted with the slime of their filthy offal. + + +PHILOSOPHICAL VANITY; ITS MAXIMS, AND EFFECTS. + +The Assembly recommends to its youth a study of the bold experimenters +in morality. Everybody knows that there is a great dispute amongst their +leaders, which of them is the best resemblance of Rousseau. In truth, +they all resemble him. His blood they transfuse into their minds and +into their manners. Him they study; him they meditate; him they turn +over in all the time they can spare from the laborious mischief of the +day, or the debauches of the night. Rousseau is their canon of holy +writ; in his life he is their canon of Polycletus; he is their standard +figure of perfection. To this man and this writer, as a pattern to +authors and to Frenchmen, the foundries of Paris are now running for +statues, with the kettles of their poor and the bells of their churches. +If an author had written like a great genius on geometry, though its +practical and speculative morals were vicious in the extreme, it might +appear, that in voting the statue, they honoured only the geometrician. +But Rousseau is a moralist, or he is nothing. It is impossible, +therefore, putting the circumstances together, to mistake their design +in choosing the author, with whom they have begun to recommend a courses +studies. + +Their great problem is to find a substitute for all the principles which +hitherto have been employed to regulate the human will and action. They +find dispositions in the mind of such force and quality as may fit men, +far better than the old morality, for the purposes of such a state as +theirs, and may go much further in supporting their power and destroying +their enemies. They have therefore chosen a selfish, flattering, +seductive, ostentatious vice, in the place of plain duty. True humility, +the basis of the Christian system, is the low, but deep and firm, +foundation of all real virtue. But this, as very painful in the +practice, and little imposing in the appearance, they have totally +discarded. Their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment +in inordinate vanity. In a small degree, and conversant in little +things, vanity is of little moment. When full grown, it is the worst of +vices, and the occasional mimic of them all. It makes the whole man +false. It leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy about him. His best +qualities are poisoned and perverted by it, and operate exactly as the +worst. When your lords had many writers as immoral as the object of +their statue (such as Voltaire and others) they chose Rousseau, because +in him that peculiar vice, which they wished to erect into ruling +virtue, was by far the most conspicuous. We have had the great professor +and founder of THE PHILOSOPHY OF VANITY in England. As I had good +opportunities of knowing his proceedings almost from day to day, he left +no doubt on my mind that he entertained no principle either to influence +his heart, or to guide his understanding, but VANITY. With this vice he +was possessed to a degree little short of madness. It is from the same +deranged, eccentric vanity, that this, the insane Socrates of the +National Assembly, was impelled to publish a mad confession of his mad +faults, and to attempt a new sort of glory from bringing hardily to +light the obscure and vulgar vices which we know may sometimes be +blended with eminent talents. He has not observed on the nature of +vanity who does not know that it is omnivorous; that it has no choice in +its food; that it is fond to talk even of its own faults and vices, as +what will excite surprise and draw attention, and what will pass at +worst for openness and candour. + +It was this abuse and perversion, which vanity makes even of hypocrisy, +that has driven Rousseau to record a life not so much as chequered, or +spotted here and there, with virtues, or even distinguished by a single +good action. It is such a life he chooses to offer to the attention of +mankind. It is such a life that, with a wild defiance, he flings in the +face of his Creator, whom he acknowledges only to brave. Your Assembly, +knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chosen +this man (by his own account without a single virtue) for a model. To +him they erect their first statue. From him they commence their series +of honours and distinctions. + +It is that new-invented virtue, which your masters canonize, that led +their model hero constantly to exhaust the stores of his powerful +rhetoric in the expression of universal benevolence; whilst his heart +was incapable of harbouring one spark of common parental affection. +Benevolence to the whole species, and want of feeling for every +individual with whom the professors come in contact, form the character +of the new philosophy. Setting up for an unsocial independence, this +their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labour, as well as +the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which, when paid, honours +the giver and the receiver: and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse +for his crimes. He melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by +the remotest relation, and then, without one natural pang, casts away, +as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his disgustful amours, +and sends his children to the hospital of foundlings. The bear loves, +licks, and forms her young; but bears are not philosophers. Vanity, +however, finds its account in reversing the train of our natural +feelings. Thousands admire the sentimental writer; the affectionate +father is hardly known in his parish. + +Under this philosophic instructor in the ETHICS OF VANITY, they have +attempted in France a regeneration of the moral constitution of man. +Statesmen, like your present rulers, exist by everything which is +spurious, fictitious, and false; by everything which takes the man from +his house, and sets him on a stage; which makes him up an artificial +creature, with painted theatric sentiments, fit to be seen by the glare +of candlelight, and formed to be contemplated at a due distance. Vanity +is too apt to prevail in all of us, and in all countries. To the +improvement of Frenchmen it seems not absolutely necessary that it +should be taught upon system. But it is plain that the present rebellion +was its legitimate offspring, and it is piously fed by that rebellion +with a daily dole. If the system of institution recommended by the +Assembly be false and theatric, it is because their system of government +is of the same character. To that, and to that alone, it is strictly +conformable. To understand either, we must connect the morals with the +politics of the legislators. Your practical philosophers, systematic in +everything, have wisely begun at the source. As the relation between +parents and children is the first amongst the elements of vulgar, +natural morality (Filiola tua te delectari laetor et probari tibi +phusiken esse ten pros ta tekna: etenim, si haec non est, nulla potest +homini esse ad hominem naturae adjunctio: qua sublata vitae societas +tollitur. Valete Patron (Rousseau) et tui condiscipuli (l'Assemblee +National).--Cic. Ep. ad Atticum.), they erect statues to a wild, +ferocious, low-minded, hard-hearted father, of fine general feelings; a +lover of his kind, but a hater of his kindred. Your masters reject the +duties of his vulgar relation, as contrary to liberty; as not founded in +the social compact; and not binding according to the rights of men; +because the relation is not, of course, the result of FREE ELECTION; +never so on the side of the children, not always on the part of the +parents. + +The next relation which they regenerate by their statues to Rousseau is +that which is next in sanctity to that of a father. They differ from +those old-fashioned thinkers, who considered pedagogues as sober and +venerable characters, and allied to the parental. The moralists of the +dark times, preceptorum sancti voluere parentis esse loco. In this age +of light, they teach the people that preceptors ought to be in the place +of gallants. They systematically corrupt a very corruptible race (for +some time a growing nuisance amongst you), a set of pert, petulant +literators, to whom, instead of their proper, but severe, unostentatious +duties, they assign the brilliant part of men of wit and pleasure, of +gay, young, military sparks, and danglers at toilets. They call on the +rising generation in France to take a sympathy in the adventures and +fortunes, and they endeavour to engage their sensibility on the side of +pedagogues who betray the most awful family trusts, and vitiate their +female pupils. They teach the people that the debauchers of virgins, +almost in the arms of their parents, may be safe inmates in the houses, +and even fit guardians of the honour of those husbands who succeed +legally to the office which the young literators had preoccupied, +without asking leave of law or conscience. + +Thus they dispose of all the family relations of parents and children, +husbands and wives. Through this same instructor, by whom they corrupt +the morals, they corrupt the taste. Taste and elegance, though they are +reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean +importance in the regulation of life. A moral taste is not of force to +turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the +blandishments of pleasure; and it infinitely abates the evils of vice. +Rousseau, a writer of great force and vivacity, is totally destitute of +taste in any sense of the word. Your masters, who are his scholars, +conceive that all refinement has an aristocratic character. The last age +had exhausted all its powers in giving a grace and nobleness to our +mutual appetites, and in raising them into a higher class and order than +seemed justly to belong to them. Through Rousseau, your masters are +resolved to destroy these aristocratic prejudices. The passion called +love has so general and powerful an influence; it makes so much of the +entertainment, and indeed so much of the occupation of that part of life +which decides the character for ever, that the mode and the principles +on which it engages the sympathy, and strikes the imagination, become of +the utmost importance to the morals and manners of every society. Your +rulers were well aware of this; and in their system of changing your +manners to accommodate them to their politics, they found nothing so +convenient as Rousseau. Through him they teach men to love after the +fashion of philosophers; that is, they teach to men, to Frenchmen, a +love without gallantry; a love without anything of that fine flower of +youthfulness and gentility, which places it, if not among the virtues, +among the ornaments of life. Instead of this passion, naturally allied +to grace and manners, they infuse into their youth an unfashioned, +indelicate, sour, gloomy, ferocious medly of pedantry and lewdness; of +metaphysical speculations blended with the coarsest sensuality. Such is +the general morality of the passions to be found in their famous +philosopher, in his famous work of philosophic gallantry the "Nouvelle +Eloise." When the fence from the gallantry of preceptors is broken down, +and your families are no longer protected by decent pride, and salutary +domestic prejudice, there is but one step to a frightful corruption. The +rulers in the National Assembly are in good hopes that the females of +the first families in France may become an easy prey to dancing-masters, +fiddlers, pattern-drawers, friseurs, and valets de chambre, and other +active citizens of that description, who having the entry into your +houses, and being half domesticated by their situation, may be blended +with you by regular and irregular relations. By a law they have made +these people their equals. By adopting the sentiments of Rousseau they +have made them your rivals. In this manner these great legislators +complete their plan of levelling, and establish their rights of men on a +sure foundation. + +I am certain that the writings of Rousseau lead directly to this kind of +shameful evil. I have often wondered how he comes to be so much more +admired and followed on the continent than he is here. Perhaps a secret +charm in the language may have its share in this extraordinary +difference. We certainly perceive, and to a degree we feel, in this +writer, a style glowing, animated, enthusiastic; at the same time that +we find it lax, diffuse, and not in the best taste of composition; all +the members of the piece being pretty equally laboured and expanded, +without any due selection or subordination of parts. He is generally too +much on the stretch, and his manner has little variety. We cannot rest +upon any of his works, though they contain observations which +occasionally discover a considerable insight into human nature. But his +doctrines, on the whole, are so inapplicable to real life and manners, +that we never dream of drawing from them any rule for laws or conduct, +or for fortifying or illustrating anything by a reference to his +opinions. They have with us the fate of older paradoxes. + + "Cum ventum ad VERUM est, SENSUS MORESQUE repugnant, + Atque ipsa utilitas, justi prope mater et aequi." + +Perhaps bold speculations are more acceptable because more new to you +than to us, who have been long since satiated with them. We continue, as +in the two last ages, to read, more generally than I believe is now done +on the continent, the authors of sound antiquity. These occupy our +minds. They give us another taste and turn, and will not suffer us to be +more than transiently amused with paradoxical morality. It is not that I +consider this writer as wholly destitute of just notions. Amongst his +irregularities, it must be reckoned that he is sometimes moral, and +moral in a very sublime strain. But the GENERAL SPIRIT AND TENDENCY of +his works is mischievous; and the more mischievous for this mixture: for +perfect depravity of sentiment is not reconcileable with eloquence; and +the mind (though corruptible, not complexionally vicious) would reject, +and throw off with disgust, a lesson of pure and unmixed evil. These +writers make even virtue a pander to vice. + +However, I less consider the author than the system of the Assembly in +perverting morality through his means. This I confess makes me nearly +despair of any attempt upon the minds of their followers, through +reason, honour, or conscience. The great object of your tyrants is to +destroy the gentlemen of France; and for that purpose they destroy, to +the best of their power, all the effect of those relations which may +render considerable men powerful or even safe. To destroy that order, +they vitiate the whole community. That no means may exist of +confederating against their tyranny, by the false sympathies of this +"Nouvelle Eloise" they endeavour to subvert those principles of domestic +trust and fidelity, which form the discipline of social life. They +propagate principles by which every servant may think it, if not his +duty, at least his privilege, to betray his master. By these principles, +every considerable father of a family loses the sanctuary of his house. +Debet sua cuique domus esse perfugium tutissimum, says the law, which +your legislators have taken so much pains first to decry, then to +repeal. They destroy all the tranquillity and security of domestic life; +turning the asylum of the house into a gloomy prison, where the father +of the family must drag out a miserable existence, endangered in +proportion to the apparent means of his safety; where he is worse than +solitary in a crowd of domestics, and more apprehensive from his +servants and inmates, than from the hired, bloodthirsty mob without +doors, who are ready to pull him to the lanterne. It is thus, and for +the same end, that they endeavour to destroy that tribunal of conscience +which exists independently of edicts and decrees. Your despots govern by +terror. They know that he who fears God fears nothing else: and +therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their Voltaire, their +Helvetius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only sort of fear +which generates true courage. Their object is, that their +fellow-citizens may be under the dominion of no awe, but that of their +committee of research, and of their lanterne. + +Having found the advantage of assassination in the formation of their +tyranny, it is the grand resource in which they trust for the support of +it. Whoever opposes any of their proceedings, or is suspected of a +design to oppose them, is to answer it with his life, or the lives of +his wife and children. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice of +assassination they have the imprudence to call MERCIFUL. They boast that +they operated their usurpation rather by terror than by force; and that +a few seasonable murders have prevented the bloodshed of many battles. +There is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever they see +an occasion. Dreadful, however, will be the consequences of their +attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of murder. If, +by effectual punishment of the guilty, they do not wholly disavow that +practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of their policy; if ever +a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as into a country +of assassins. The mode of civilized war will not be practised; nor are +the French who act on the present system entitled to expect it. They, +whose known policy is to assassinate every citizen whom they suspect to +be discontented by their tyranny, and to corrupt the soldiery of every +open enemy, must look for no modified hostility. All war, which is not +battle, will be military execution. This will beget acts of retaliation +from you; and every retaliation will beget a new revenge. The +hell-hounds of war, on all sides, will be uncoupled and unmuzzled. The +new school of murder and barbarism, set up in Paris, having destroyed +(so far as in it lies) all the other manners and principles which have +hitherto civilized Europe, will destroy also the mode of civilized war, +which, more than anything else, has distinguished the Christian world. +Such is the approaching golden age, which the Virgil of your assembly +has sung to his Pollios! (Mirabeau's speech concerning universal peace.) + + +UNITY BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. + +They take this tenet of the head and heart, not from the great name +which it immediately bears, nor from the greater from whence it is +derived; but from that which alone can give true weight and sanction to +any learned opinion, the common nature and common relation of men. +Persuaded that all things ought to be done with reference, and referring +all to the point of reference to which all should be directed, they +think themselves bound, not only as individuals in the sanctuary of the +heart, or as congregated in that personal capacity, to renew the memory +of their high origin and caste; but also in their corporate character to +perform their national homage to the institutor, and author, and +protector of civil society; without which civil society man could not by +any possibility arrive at the perfection of which his nature is capable, +nor even make a remote and faint approach to it. They conceive that He +who gave our nature to be perfected by our virtue, willed also the +necessary means of its perfection.--He willed therefore the state--He +willed its connection with the source and original archetype of all +perfection. They who are convinced of this his will, what is the law of +laws, and the sovereign of sovereigns, cannot think it reprehensible +that this our corporate fealty and homage, that this our recognition of +a signiory paramount, I had almost said this oblation of the state +itself, as a worthy offering on the high altar of universal praise, +should be performed as all public, solemn acts are performed, in +buildings, in music, in decoration, in speech, in the dignity of +persons, according to the customs of mankind, taught by their nature; +that is, with modest splendour and unassuming state, with mild majesty +and sober pomp. For those purposes they think some part of the wealth of +the country is as usefully employed as it can be, in fomenting the +luxury of individuals. It is the public ornament. It is the public +consolation. It nourishes the public hope. The poorest man finds his own +importance and dignity in it, whilst the wealth and pride of individuals +at every moment makes the man of humble rank and fortune sensible of his +inferiority, and degrades and vilifies his condition. It is for the man +in humble life, and to raise his nature, and to put him in mind of a +state in which the privileges of opulence will cease, when he will be +equal by nature, and may be more than equal by virtue, that this portion +of the general wealth of his country is employed and sanctified. + +I assure you I do not aim at singularity. I give you opinions which have +been accepted amongst us, from very early times to this moment, with a +continued and general approbation, and which indeed are so worked into +my mind, that I am unable to distinguish what I have learned from others +from the results of my own meditation. + +It is on some such principles that the majority of the people of +England, far from thinking a religious national establishment unlawful, +hardly think it lawful to be without one. In France you are wholly +mistaken if you do not believe us above all other things attached to it, +and beyond all other nations; and when this people has acted unwisely +and unjustifiably in its favour (as in some instances they have done +most certainly) in their very errors you will at least discover their +zeal. + +This principle runs through the whole system of their polity. They do +not consider their church establishment as convenient, but as essential +to their state; not as a thing heterogeneous and inseparable; something +added for accommodation; what they may either keep or lay aside, +according to their temporary ideas of convenience. They consider it as +the foundation of their whole constitution, with which, and with every +part of which, it holds an indissoluble union. Church and state are +ideas inseparable in their minds, and scarcely is the one ever mentioned +without mentioning the other. + +(In preparing these pages for publication, the selector has discovered +how unconsciously he was indebted to the intellectual inspiration of +Burke, in the following extract:-- + + "Founded in Christ, and by Apostles form'd, + Glory of England! oh, my Mother Church, + Hoary with time, but all untouched in creed, + Firm to thy Master, by as fond a grasp + Of faith as Luther, with his free-born mind + Clung to Emmanuel,--doth thy soul remain. + But yet around Thee scowls a fierce array + Of Foes and Falsehoods; must'ring each their powers, + Triumphantly. And well may thoughtful Hearts + Heave with foreboding swell and heavy fears, + To mark, how mad opinion doth infect + Thy children; how thine apostolic claims + And love maternal are regarded now, + By creedless Vanity, or careless Vice. + For time there was, when peerless Hooker wrote, + And deep-soul'd Bacon taught the world to think, + When thou wert paramount,--thy cause sublime! + And in THY life, all Polity and Powers + The throne securing, or in law enshrined, + With all estates our balanced Realm contains, + In thee supreme, a master-virtue own'd + And honour'd. Church and State could then co-work, + Like soul and body in one breathing Form + Distinct, but undivided; each with rule + Essential to the kingdom's healthful frame, + Yet BOTH, in unity august and good + Together, under Christ their living Head, + A hallow'd commonwealth of powers achieved. + But now, in evil times, sectarian Will + Would split the Body, and to sects reduce + Our sainted Mother of th'imperial Isles, + Which have for ages from Her bosom drank + Those truths immortal, Life and Conscience need. + But never may the rude assault of hearts + Self-blinded, or the autocratic pride + Of Reason, by no hallowing faith subdued, + + One lock of glory from Her rev'rend head + Succeed in tearing: Love, and Awe, and Truth + Her doctrines preach, with apostolic force: + Her creed is Unity, her head is Christ, + Her Forms primeval, and her Creed divine, + And Catholic, that crowning name she wears." + + "Luther," 6th edition 1852. + + +TRIPLE BASIS OF FRENCH REVOLUTION. + +Instead of the religion and the law by which they were in a great +politic communion with the Christian world, they have constructed their +republic on three bases, all fundamentally opposite to those on which +the communities of Europe are built. Its foundation is laid in regicide, +in jacobinism, and in atheism; and it has joined to those principles a +body of systematic manners, which secures their operation. + +If I am asked, how I would be understood in the use of these terms, +regicide, jacobinism, atheism, and a system of corresponding manners, +and their establishment? I will tell you:-- + +I.--REGICIDE. + +I call a commonwealth REGICIDE, which lays it down as a fixed law of +nature, and a fundamental right of man, that all government, not being a +democracy, is a usurpation. That all kings, as such, are usurpers; and +for being kings may and ought to be put to death, with their wives, +families, and adherents. The commonwealth which acts uniformly upon +those principles, and which, after abolishing every festival of +religion, chooses the most flagrant act of a murderous regicide treason +for a feast of eternal commemoration, and which forces all her people to +observe it--this I call REGICIDE BY ESTABLISHMENT. + +II.--JACOBINISM. + +Jacobinism is the revolt of the enterprising talents of a country +against its property. When private men form themselves into associations +for the purpose of destroying the pre-existing laws and institutions of +their country; when they secure to themselves an army, by dividing +amongst the people of no property the estates of the ancient and lawful +proprietors; when a state recognises those acts; when it does not make +confiscations for crimes, but makes crimes for confiscations; when it +has its principal strength, and all its resources, in such a violation +of property; when it stands chiefly upon such a violation, massacring by +judgments, or otherwise, those who make any struggle for their old legal +government, and their legal, hereditary, or acquired possessions--I call +this JACOBINISM BY ESTABLISHMENT. + +III.--ATHEISM. + +I call it ATHEISM BY ESTABLISHMENT, when any state, as such, shall +not acknowledge the existence of God as a moral governor of the +world; when it shall offer to him no religious or moral +worship;--when it shall abolish the Christian religion by a regular +decree;--when it shall persecute with a cold, unrelenting, steady +cruelty, by every mode of confiscation, imprisonment, exile, and +death, all its ministers;--when it shall generally shut up or pull +down churches; when the few buildings which remain of this kind shall +be opened only for the purpose of making a profane apotheosis of +monsters, whose vices and crimes have no parallel amongst men, and +whom all other men consider as objects of general detestation, and +the severest animadversion of law. When, in the place of that +religion of social benevolence, and of individual self-denial, in +mockery of all religion, they institute impious, blasphemous, +indecent theatric rites, in honour of their vitiated, perverted +reason, and erect altars to the personification of their own +corrupted and bloody republic;--when schools and seminaries are +founded at the public expense to poison mankind, from generation to +generation, with the horrible maxims of this impiety;--when wearied +out with incessant martyrdom, and the cries of a people hungering and +thirsting for religion, they permit it only as a tolerated evil--I +call this ATHEISM BY ESTABLISHMENT. + + +CORRESPONDENT SYSTEM OF MANNERS AND MORALS. + +When to these establishments of regicide, of jacobinism, and of atheism, +you add the CORRESPONDENT SYSTEM OF MANNERS, no doubt can be left on the +mind of a thinking man concerning their determined hostility to the +human race. Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in a +great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, +and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, +exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, +insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give +their whole form and colour to our lives. According to their quality, +they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them. Of this +the new French legislators were aware; therefore, with the same method, +and under the same authority, they settled a system of manners, the most +licentious, prostitute, and abandoned that ever has been known, and at +the same time the most coarse, rude, savage, and ferocious. Nothing in +the Revolution, no, not to a phrase or gesture, not to the fashion of a +hat or a shoe, was left to accident. All has been the result of design; +all has been matter of institution. No mechanical means could be devised +in favour of this incredible system of wickedness and vice, that has not +been employed. The noblest passions, the love of glory, the love of +country, have been debauched into means of its preservation and its +propagation. All sorts of shows and exhibitions, calculated to inflame +and vitiate the imagination, and pervert the moral sense, have been +contrived. They have sometimes brought forth five or six hundred drunken +women, calling at the bar of the Assembly for the blood of their own +children, as being royalists or constitutionalists. Sometimes they have +got a body of wretches, calling themselves fathers, to demand the murder +of their sons, boasting that Rome had but one Brutus, but that they +could show five hundred. There were instances in which they inverted, +and retaliated the impiety, and produced sons, who called for the +execution of their parents. The foundation of their republic is laid in +moral paradoxes. Their patriotism is always prodigy. All those instances +to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public +spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from +which affrighted nature recoils, are their chosen, and almost sole +examples for the instruction of their youth. + +The whole drift of their institution is contrary to that of the wise +legislators of all countries, who aimed at improving instincts into +morals, and at grafting the virtues on the stock of the natural +affections. They, on the contrary, have omitted no pains to eradicate +every benevolent and noble propensity in the mind of men. In their +culture it is a rule always to graft virtues on vices. They think +everything unworthy of the name of public virtue, unless it indicates +violence on the private. All their new institutions (and with them +everything is new) strike at the root of our social nature. Other +legislators, knowing that marriage is the origin of all relations, and +consequently the first element of all duties, have endeavoured, by every +art, to make it sacred. The Christian religion, by confining it to the +pairs, and by rendering that relation indissoluble, has by these two +things done more towards the peace, happiness, settlement, and +civilization of the world, than by any other part in this whole scheme +of Divine Wisdom. The direct contrary course has been taken in the +synagogue of antichrist, I mean in that forge and manufactury of all +evil, the sect which predominated in the Constituent Assembly of 1789. +Those monsters employed the same, or greater industry, to desecrate and +degrade that state, which other legislators have used to render it holy +and honourable. + + +FEROCITY OF JACOBINISM. + +As to those whom they suffer to die a natural death, they do not +permit them to enjoy the last consolations of mankind, or those +rights of sepulture, which indicate hope, and which mere nature has +taught to mankind, in all countries, to soothe the afflictions, and +to cover the infirmity, of mortal condition. They disgrace men in the +entry into life, they vitiate and enslave them through the whole +course of it, and they deprive them of all comfort at the conclusion +of their dishonoured and depraved existence. Endeavouring to persuade +the people that they are no better than beasts, the whole body of +their institution tends to make them beasts of prey, furious and +savage. For this purpose the active part of them is disciplined into +a ferocity which has no parallel. To this ferocity there is joined +not one of the rude, unfashioned virtues, which accompany the vices, +where the whole are left to grow up together in the rankness of +uncultivated nature. But nothing is left to nature in their systems. + +The same discipline which hardens their hearts relaxes their morals. +Whilst courts of justice were thrust out by revolutionary tribunals, and +silent churches were only the funeral monuments of departed religion, +there were no fewer than nineteen or twenty theatres, great and small, +most of them kept open at the public expense, and all of them crowded +every night. Among the gaunt, haggard forms of famine and nakedness, +amidst the yells of murder, the tears of affliction, and the cries of +despair, the song, the dance, the mimic scene, the buffoon laughter, +went on as regularly as in the gay hour of festive peace. I have it from +good authority, that under the scaffold of judicial murder, and the +gaping planks that poured down blood on the spectators, the space was +hired out for a show of dancing dogs. I think, without concert, we have +made the very same remark on reading some of their pieces, which being +written for other purposes, let us into a view of their social life. It +struck us that the habits of Paris had no resemblance to the finished +virtues, or to the polished vice, and elegant, though not blameless, +luxury, of the capital of a great empire. Their society was more like +that of a den of outlaws upon a doubtful frontier; of a lewd tavern for +the revels and debauches of banditti, assassins, bravos, smugglers, and +their more desperate paramours, mixed with bombastic players, the refuse +and rejected offal of strolling theatres, puffing out ill-sorted verses +about virtue, mixed with the licentious and blasphemous songs, proper to +the brutal and hardened course of life belonging to that sort of +wretches. This system of manners in itself is at war with all orderly +and moral society, and is in its neighbourhood unsafe. If great bodies +of that kind were anywhere established in a bordering territory, we +should have a right to demand of their governments the suppression of +such a nuisance. + + +VOICE OF OPPRESSION. + +Should we not obtest Heaven, and whatever justice there is yet on earth? +Oppression makes wise men mad; but the distemper is still the madness of +the wise, which is better than the sobriety of fools. The cry is the +voice of sacred misery, exalted not into wild raving, but into the +sanctified frenzy of prophecy and inspiration--in that bitterness of +soul, in that indignation of suffering virtue, in that exaltation of +despair, would not persecuted English loyalty cry out, with an awful +warning voice, and denounce the destruction that waits on monarchs, who +consider fidelity to them as the most degrading of all vices; who suffer +it to be punished as the most abominable of all crimes; and who have no +respect but for rebels, traitors, regicides, and furious negro slaves, +whose crimes have broken their chains? Would not this warm language of +high indignation have more of sound reason in it, more of real +affection, more of true attachment, than all the lullabies of +flatterers, who would hush monarchs to sleep in the arms of death. + + +BRITAIN VINDICATED IN HER WAR WITH FRANCE. + +There is one thing in this business which appears to be wholly +unaccountable, or accountable on a supposition I dare not entertain +for a moment. I cannot help asking, Why all this pains, to clear the +British nation of ambition, perfidy, and the insatiate thirst of war? +At what period of time was it that our country has deserved that load +of infamy, of which nothing but preternatural humiliation in language +and conduct can serve to clear us? If we have deserved this kind of +evil fame from anything we have done in a state of prosperity, I am +sure that it is not an abject conduct in adversity than can clear our +reputation. Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar. +The pride of no person in a flourishing condition is more justly to +be dreaded, than that of him who is mean and cringing under a +doubtful and unprosperous fortune. But it seems it was thought +necessary to give some out-of-the-way proofs of our sincerity, as +well as of our freedom from ambition. Is then fraud and falsehood +become the distinctive character of Englishmen? Whenever your enemy +chooses to accuse you of perfidy and ill faith, will you put it into +his power to throw you into the purgatory of self-humiliation? Is his +charge equal to the finding of the grand jury of Europe, and +sufficient to put you upon your trial? But on that trial I will +defend the English ministry. I am sorry that on some points I have, +on the principles I have always opposed, so good a defence to make. +THEY WERE NOT THE FIRST TO BEGIN THE WAR. THEY DID NOT EXCITE THE +GENERAL CONFEDERACY IN EUROPE, WHICH WAS SO PROPERLY FORMED ON THE +ALARM GIVEN BY THE JACOBINISM OF FRANCE. THEY DID NOT BEGIN WITH AN +HOSTILE AGGRESSION ON THE REGICIDES, ARE ANY OF THEIR ALLIES. THESE +PARRICIDES OF THEIR OWN COUNTRY, DISCIPLINING THEMSELVES FOR FOREIGN +BY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, WERE THE FIRST TO ATTACK A POWER THAT WAS OUR +ALLY BY NATURE, BY HABIT, AND BY THE SANCTION OF MULTIPLIED TREATIES. +(The Editor has ventured to print these lines in italics, because it +appears, while this selection from Burke is preparing for the press, +an inflated demagogue has not only dared to deny the claims of the +duke of Wellington to be the Hero of a nation's heart, but has also +accused the illustrious Burke of misrepresenting historical facts +connected with our war in the French revolution. On which side both +the truth and integrity of history are to be found, may safely be +left to the moral decision of men who do NOT look at History through +the exclusive medium of the market, and in listening to the voice of +instruction are, at least, enabled to distinguish the bray of an ass +from the peal of a trumpet.) Is it not true, that they were the first +to declare war upon this kingdom? Is every word in the declaration +from Downing-Street, concerning their conduct, and concerning ours +and that of our allies, so obviously false, that it is necessary to +give some new-invented proofs of our good faith in order to expunge +the memory of all this perfidy? + + +POLISH AND FRENCH REVOLUTION. + +A king without authority; nobles without union or subordination; a +people without arts, industry, commerce, or liberty; no order within, +no defence without; no effective public force, but a foreign force, +which entered a naked country at will, and disposed of everything at +pleasure. Here was a state of things which seemed to invite, and +might perhaps justify, bold enterprise and desperate experiment. But +in what manner was this chaos brought into order? The means were as +striking to the imagination, as satisfactory to the reason, and +soothing to the moral sentiments. In contemplating that change, +humanity has everything to rejoice and to glory in; nothing to be +ashamed of, nothing to suffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is +the most pure and defecated public good which ever has been conferred +on mankind. We have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed; a +throne strengthened for the protection of the people, without +trenching on their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing +the crown from elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of +pleasing wonder, we have seen a reigning king, from an heroic love to +his country, exerting himself with all the toil, the dexterity, the +management, the intrigue, in favour of a family of strangers, with +which ambitious men labour for the aggrandizement of their own. Ten +millions of men in a way of being freed gradually, and therefore +safely to themselves and the state, not from civil or political +chains, which, bad as they are, only fetter the mind, but from +substantial personal bondage. Inhabitants of cities, before without +privileges, placed in the consideration which belongs to that +improved and connecting situation of social life. One of the most +proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known +in the world, arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous +citizens. Not one man incurred loss, or suffered degradation. All, +from the king to the day-labourer, were improved in their condition. +Everything was kept in its place and order; but in that place and +order everything was betterd. To add to this happy wonder (this +unheard-of conjunction of wisdom and fortune), not one drop of blood +was spilled; no treachery; no outrage; no system of slander more +cruel than the sword; no studied insults on religion, morals, or +manners; no spoil; no confiscation; no citizen beggared; none +imprisoned; none exiled: the whole was effected with a policy, a +discretion, a unanimity and secrecy, such as have never been before +known on any occasion; but such wonderful conduct was reserved for +this glorious conspiracy in favour of the true and genuine rights and +interests of men. Happy people, if they know how to proceed as they +have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with splendour, or to close +with glory, a race of patriots and of kings: and to leave + + "A name, which ev'ry wind to heav'n would bear, + Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear." + +To finish all--this great good, as in the instant it is, contains in it +the seeds of all further improvement, and may be considered as in a +regular progress, because founded on similar principles, towards the +stable excellency of a British constitution. + +Here was a matter for congratulation and for festive remembrance through +ages. Here moralists and divines might indeed relax in their temperance, +to exhilarate their humanity. But mark the character of our faction. All +their enthusiasm is kept for the French revolution. They cannot pretend +that France had stood so much in need of a change as Poland. They cannot +pretend that Poland has not obtained a better system of liberty, or of +government, than it enjoyed before. They cannot assert, that the Polish +revolution cost more dearly than that of France to the interests and +feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and subordinate light in +which they look upon the one, and the pains they take to preach up the +other of these revolutions, leave us no choice in fixing on their +motives. Both revolutions profess liberty as their object; but in +obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to order; the other +from order to anarchy. The first secures its liberty by establishing its +throne; the other builds its freedom on the subversion of its monarchy. +In the one their means are unstained by crimes, and their settlement +favours morality. In the other, vice and confusion are in the very +essence of their pursuit, and of their enjoyment. The circumstances in +which these two events differ, must cause the difference we make in +their comparative estimation. These turn the scale with the societies in +favour of France. Ferrum est quod amant. The frauds, the violences, the +sacrileges, the havoc and ruin of families, the dispersion and exile of +the pride and flower of a great country, the disorder, the confusion, +the anarchy, the violation of property, the cruel murders, the inhuman +confiscations, and in the end the insolent domination of bloody, +ferocious, and senseless clubs--these are the things which they love and +admire. What men admire and love, they would surely act. Let us see what +is done in France; and then let us undervalue any the slightest danger +of falling into the hands of such a merciless and savage faction! + + +EUROPE IN 1789. + +In the long series of ages which have furnished the matter of +history, never was so beautiful and so august a spectacle presented +to the moral eye, as Europe afforded the day before the revolution in +France. I knew indeed that this prosperity contained in itself the +seeds of its own danger. In one part of the society it caused laxity +and debility; in the other it produced bold spirits and dark designs. +A false philosophy passed from academies into courts; and the great +themselves were infected with the theories which conducted to their +ruin. Knowledge, which in the two last centuries either did not exist +at all, or existed solidly on right principles and in chosen hands, +was now diffused, weakened, and perverted. General wealth loosened +morals, relaxed vigilance, and increased presumption. Men of talent +began to compare, in the partition of the common stock of public +prosperity, the proportions of the dividends with the merits of the +claimants. As usual, they found their portion not equal to their +estimate (or perhaps to the public estimate) of their own worth. When +it was once discovered by the revolution in France, that a struggle +between establishment and rapacity could be maintained, though but +for one year, and in one place, I was sure that a practicable breach +was made in the whole order of things and in every country. Religion, +that held the materials of the fabric together, was first +systematically loosened. All other opinions, under the name of +prejudices, must fall along with it; and property, left undefended by +principles, became a repository of spoils to tempt cupidity, and not +a magazine to furnish arms for defence. I knew that, attacked on all +sides by the infernal energies of talents set in action by vice and +disorder, authority could not stand upon authority alone. It wanted +some other support than the poise of its own gravity. Situations +formerly supported persons. It now became necessary that personal +qualities should support situations. Formerly, where authority was +found, wisdom and virtue were presumed. But now the veil was torn, +and, to keep off sacrilegious intrusion, it was necessary that in the +sanctuary of government something should be disclosed not only +venerable, but dreadful. Government was at once to show itself full +of virtue and full of force. It was to invite partisans, by making it +appear to the world that a generous cause was to be asserted; one fit +for a generous people to engage in. From passive submission was it to +expect resolute defence? No! It must have warm advocates and +passionate defenders, which a heavy, discontented acquiescence never +could produce. What a base and foolish thing is it for any +consolidated body of authority to say, or to act as if it said, "I +will put my trust not in my own virtue, but in your patience; I will +indulge in effeminacy, in indolence, in corruption; I will give way +to all my perverse and vicious humours, because you cannot punish me +without the hazard of ruining yourselves?" + + +ATHEISM CANNOT REPENT. + +Disappointment and mortification undoubtedly they feel; but to them, +repentance is a thing impossible. They are atheists. This wretched +opinion, by which they are possessed even to the height of fanaticism, +leading them to exclude from their ideas of a commonwealth the vital +principle of the physical, the moral, and the political world, engages +them in a thousand absurd contrivances to fill up this dreadful void. +Incapable of innoxious repose, or honourable action, or wise +speculation, in the lurking-holes of a foreign land, into which (in a +common ruin) they are driven to hide their heads amongst the innocent +victims of their madness, they are at this very hour as busy in the +confection of the dirt-pies of their imaginary constitutions, as if they +had not been quite fresh from destroying, by their impious and desperate +vagaries, the finest country upon earth. + + +OUTWARD DIGNITY OF THE CHURCH DEFENDED. + +The English people are satisfied, that to the great the consolations +of religion are as necessary as its instructions. They too are among +the unhappy. They feel personal pain, and domestic sorrow. In these +they have no privilege, but are subject to pay their full contingent +to the contributions levied on mortality. They want this sovereign +balm under their gnawing cares and anxieties, which, being less +conversant about the limited wants of animal life, range without +limit, and are diversified by infinite combinations in the wild and +unbounded regions of imagination. Some charitable dole is wanting to +these, our often very unhappy brethren, to fill the gloomy void that +reigns in minds which have nothing on earth to hope or fear; +something to relieve in the killing languor and over-laboured +lassitude of those who have nothing to do; something to excite an +appetite to existence in the palled satiety which attends on all +pleasures which may be bought, where nature is not left to her own +process, where even desire is anticipated, and therefore fruition +defeated by meditated schemes and contrivances of delight; and no +interval, no obstacle, is interposed between the wish and the +accomplishment. + +The people of England know how little influence the teachers of religion +are likely to have with the wealthy and powerful of long standing, and +how much less with the newly fortunate, if they appear in a manner no +way assorted to those with whom they must associate, and over whom they +must even exercise, in some cases, something like an authority. What +must they think of that body of teachers, if they see it in no part +above the establishment of their domestic servants? If the poverty were +voluntary, there might be some difference. Strong instances of +self-denial operate powerfully on our minds; and a man who has no wants +has obtained great freedom, and firmness, and even dignity. But as the +mass of any description of men are but men, and their poverty cannot be +voluntary, that disrespect, which attends upon all lay property, will +not depart from the ecclesiastical. Our provident constitution has +therefore taken care that those who are to instruct presumptuous +ignorance, those who are to be censors over insolent vice, should +neither incur their contempt, nor live upon their alms; nor will it +tempt the rich to a neglect of the true medicine of their minds. For +these reasons, whilst we provide first for the poor, and with a parental +solicitude, we have not relegated religion (like something we were +ashamed to show) to obscure municipalities, or rustic villages. No! We +will have her to exalt her mitred front in courts and parliaments. We +will have her mixed throughout the whole mass of life, and blended with +all the classes of society. The people of England will show to the +haughty potentates of the world, and to their talking sophisters, that a +free, a generous, an informed nation honours the high magistrates of its +church; that it will not suffer the insolence of wealth and titles, or +any other species of proud pretension, to look down with scorn upon what +they look up to with reverence; nor presume to trample on that acquired +personal nobility, which they intend always to be, and which often is, +the fruit, not the reward (for what can be the reward), of learning, +piety, and virtue. They can see, without pain or grudging, an archbishop +precede a duke. They can see a bishop of Durham, or a bishop of +Winchester, in possession of ten thousand pounds a year; and cannot +conceive why it is in worse hands than estates to the like amount in the +hands of this earl, or that squire; although it may be true, that so +many dogs and horses are not kept by the former, and fed with the +victuals which ought to nourish the children of the people. It is true, +the whole church revenue is not always employed, and to every shilling, +in charity; nor perhaps ought it; but something is generally so +employed. It is better to cherish virtue and humanity by leaving much to +free will, even with some loss to the object, than to attempt to make +men mere machines and instruments of a political benevolence. The world +on the whole will gain by a liberty, without which virtue cannot exist. + +When once the commonwealth has established the estates of the church as +property, it can, consistently, hear nothing of the more or the less. +Too much and too little are treason against property. What evil can +arise from the quantity in any hand, whilst the supreme authority has +the full, sovereign superintendence over this, as over any property, to +prevent every species of abuse; and, whenever it notably deviates, to +give to it a direction agreeable to the purposes of its institution. In +England most of us conceive that it is envy and malignity towards those +who are often the beginners of their own fortune, and not a love of the +self-denial and mortification of the ancient church, that makes some +look askance at the distinctions, and honours, and revenues, which, +taken from no person, are set apart for virtue. The ears of the people +of England are distinguishing. They hear these men speak broad. Their +tongue betrays them. Their language is in the patois of fraud; in the +cant and gibberish of hypocrisy. The people of England must think so, +when these praters affect to carry back the clergy to that primitive, +evangelic poverty, which, in the spirit, ought always to exist in them +(and in us too, however we may like it), but in the thing must be +varied, when the relation of that body to the state is altered; when +manners, when modes of life, when indeed the whole order of human +affairs, has undergone a total revolution. We shall believe those +reformers then to be honest enthusiasts, not, as now we think them, +cheats and deceivers, when we see them throwing their own goods into +common, and submitting their own persons to the austere discipline of +the early church. + + +DANGER OF ABSTRACT VIEWS. + +It is not worth our while to discuss, like sophisters, whether, in no +case, some evil, for the sake of some benefit, is to be tolerated. +Nothing universal can be rationally affirmed on any moral or any +political subject. Pure metaphysical abstraction does not belong to +these matters. The lines of morality are not like ideal lines of +mathematics. They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of +exceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions and +modifications are not made by the process of logic, but by the rules of +prudence. Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues +political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the +standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but +prudence is cautious how she defines. Our courts cannot be more fearful +in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting +their determination on a point of law, than prudent moralists are in +putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not +existing. Without attempting therefore to define, what never can be +defined, the case of a revolution in government, this, I think, may be +safely affirmed, that a sore and pressing evil is to be removed, and +that a good, great in its amount, and unequivocal in its nature, must be +probable almost to certainty, before the inestimable price of our own +morals, and the well-being of a number of our fellow-citizens, is paid +for a revolution. If ever we ought to be economists even to parsimony, +it is in the voluntary production of evil. Every revolution contains in +it something of evil. + + +APPEAL TO IMPARTIALITY. + +The quality of the sentence does not however decide on the justice of +it. Angry friendship is sometimes as bad as calm enmity. For this reason +the cold neutrality of abstract justice is, to a good and clear cause, a +more desirable thing than an affection liable to be any way disturbed. +When the trial is by friends, if the decision should happen to be +favourable, the honour of the acquittal is lessened; if adverse, the +condemnation is exceedingly embittered. It is aggravated by coming from +lips professing friendship, and pronouncing judgment with sorrow and +reluctance. Taking in the whole view of life, it is more safe to live +under the jurisdiction of severe but steady reason, than under the +empire of indulgent but capricious passion. It is certainly well for Mr. +Burke that there are impartial men in the world. To them I address +myself, pending the appeal which on his part is made from the living to +the dead, from the modern Whigs to the ancient. + + +HISTORICAL ESTIMATE OF LOUIS XVI. + +The unhappy Louis XVI. was a man of the best intentions that probably +ever reigned. He was by no means deficient in talents. He had a most +laudable desire to supply by general reading, and even by the +acquisition of elemental knowledge, an education in all points +originally defective; but nobody told him (and it was no wonder he +should not himself divine it) that the world of which he read, and +the world in which he lived, were no longer the same. Desirous of +doing everything for the best, fearful of cabal, distrusting his own +judgment, he sought his ministers of all kinds upon public testimony. +But as courts are the field for caballers, the public is the theatre +for mountebanks and imposters. The cure for both those evils is in +the discernment of the prince. But an accurate and penetrating +discernment is what in a young prince could not be looked for. + +His conduct in its principle was not unwise; but, like most other of his +well-meant designs, it failed in his hands. It failed partly from mere +ill fortune, to which speculators are rarely pleased to assign that very +large share to which she is justly entitled in human affairs. The +failure, perhaps, in part was owing to his suffering his system to be +vitiated and disturbed by those intrigues, which it is, humanly +speaking, impossible wholly to prevent in courts, or indeed under any +form of government. However, with these aberrations, he gave himself +over to a succession of the statesmen of public opinion. In other things +he thought that he might be a king on the terms of his predecessors. He +was conscious of the purity of his heart, and the general good tendency +of his government. He flattered himself, as most men in his situation +will, that he might consult his ease without danger to his safety. It is +not at all wonderful that both he and his ministers, giving way +abundantly in other respects to innovation, should take up in policy +with the tradition of their monarchy. Under his ancestors the monarchy +had subsisted, and even been strengthened, by the generation or support +of republics. First, the Swiss republics grew under the guardianship of +the French monarchy. The Dutch republics were hatched and cherished +under the same incubation. Afterwards, a republican constitution was, +under the influence of France, established in the empire against the +pretensions of its chief. Even whilst the monarchy of France, by a +series of wars and negociations, and lastly, by the treaties of +Westphalia, had obtained the establishment of the Protestants in Germany +as a law of the empire, the same monarchy under Louis the Thirteenth, +had force enough to destroy the republican system of the Protestants at +home. Louis the Sixteenth was a diligent reader of history. But the very +lamp of prudence blinded him. The guide of human life led him astray. A +silent revolution in the moral world preceded the political, and +prepared it. It became of more importance than ever what examples were +given, and what measures were adopted. Their causes no longer lurked in +the recesses of cabinets, or in the private conspiracies of the +factious. They were no longer to be controlled by the force and +influence of the grandees, who formerly had been able to stir up +troubles by their discontents, and to quiet them by their corruption. +The chain of subordination, even in cabal and sedition, was broken in +its most important links. It was no longer the great and the populace. +Other interests were formed, other dependencies, other connections, +other communications. The middle classes had swelled far beyond their +former proportion. Like whatever is the most effectively rich and great +in society, these classes became the seat of all the active politics; +and the preponderating weight to decide on them. There were all the +energies by which fortune is acquired; there the consequence of their +success. There were all the talents which assert their pretensions, and +are impatient of the place which settled society prescribes to them. +These descriptions had got between the great and the populace; and the +influence on the lower classes was with them. The spirit of ambition had +taken possession of this class as violent as ever it had done of any +other. They felt the importance of this situation. The correspondence of +the monied and the mercantile world, the literary intercourse of +academies, but, above all, the press, of which they had in a manner +entire possession, made a kind of electric communication everywhere. The +press in reality has made every government, in its spirit, almost +democratic. Without it the great, the first movements in this Revolution +could not, perhaps, have been given. But the spirit of ambition, now for +the first time connected with the spirit of speculation, was not to be +restrained at will. There was no longer any means of arresting a +principle in its course. When Louis the Sixteenth, under the influence +of the enemies to monarchy, meant to found but one republic, he set up +two. When he meant to take away half the crown of his neighbour, he lost +the whole of his own. Louis the Sixteenth could not with impunity +countenance a new republic: yet between his throne and that dangerous +lodgment for an enemy, which he had erected, he had the whole Atlantic +for a ditch. He had for an outwork the English nation itself, friendly +to liberty, adverse to that mode of it. He was surrounded by a rampart +of monarchies, most of them allied to him, and generally under his +influence. Yet even thus secured, a republic erected under his auspices, +and dependent on his power, became fatal to his throne. The very money +which he had lent to support this republic, by a good faith, which to +him operated as perfidy, was punctually paid to his enemies, and became +a resource in the hands of his assassins. + + +NEGATIVE RELIGION A NULLITY. + +If mere dissent from the church of Rome be a merit, he that dissents the +most perfectly is the most meritorious. In many points we hold strongly +with that church. He that dissents throughout with that church will +dissent with the church of England, and then it will be a part of his +merit that he dissents with ourselves:--a whimsical species of merit for +any set of men to establish. We quarrel to extremity with those who we +know agree with us in many things, but we are to be so malicious even in +the principle of our friendships, that we are to cherish in our bosom +those who accord with us in nothing, because whilst they despise +ourselves, they abhor, even more than we do, those with whom we have +some disagreement. A man is certainly the most perfect Protestant who +protests against the whole Christian religion. Whether a person's having +no Christian religion be a title to favour, in exclusion to the largest +description of Christians who hold all the doctrines of Christianity, +though holding along with them some errors and some superfluities, is +rather more than any man, who has not become recreant and apostate from +his baptism, will, I believe, choose to affirm. The countenance given +from a spirit of controversy to that negative religion may, by degrees, +encourage light and unthinking people to a total indifference to +everything positive in matters of doctrine; and, in the end, of practice +too. If continued, it would play the game of that sort of active, +proselytizing, and persecuting atheism, which is the disgrace and +calamity of our time, and which we see to be as capable of subverting a +government, as any mode can be of misguided zeal for better things. + + +ANTECHAMBER OF REGICIDE. + +To those who do not love to contemplate the fall of human greatness, +I do not know a more mortifying spectacle, than to see the assembled +majesty of the crowned heads of Europe waiting as patient suitors in +the antechamber of regicide. They wait, it seems, until the +sanguinary tyrant Carnot shall have snorted away the fumes of the +indigested blood of his sovereign. Then, when, sunk on the down of +usurped pomp, he shall have sufficiently indulged his meditations +with what monarch he shall next glut his ravening maw, he may +condescend to signify that it is his pleasure to be awake; and that +he is at leisure to receive the proposals of his high and mighty +clients for the terms on which he may respite the execution of the +sentence he has passed upon them. At the opening of those doors, what +a sight it must be to behold the plenipotentiaries of royal +impotence, in the precedency which they will intrigue to obtain, and +which will be granted to them according to the seniority of their +degradation, sneaking into the regicide presence, and with the relics +of the smile, which they had dressed up for the levee of their +masters, still flickering on their curled lips, presenting the faded +remains of their courtly graces, to meet the scornful, ferocious, +sardonic grin of a bloody ruffian, who, whilst he is receiving their +homage, is measuring them with his eye, and fitting to their size the +slider of his guillotine! These ambassadors may easily return as good +courtiers as they went; but can they ever return from that degrading +residence, loyal and faithful subjects; or with any true affection to +their master, or true attachment to the constitution, religion, or +laws of their country? There is great danger that they, who enter +smiling into this Trophonian cave, will come out of it sad and +serious conspirators; and such will continue as long as they live. +They will become true conductors of contagion to every country which +has had the misfortune to send them to the source of that +electricity. At best they will become totally indifferent to good and +evil, to one institution or another. This species of indifference is +but too generally distinguishable in those who have been much +employed in foreign courts; but in the present case the evil must be +aggravated without measure; for they go from their country, not with +the pride of the old character, but in a state of the lowest +degradation, and what must happen in their place of residence can +have no effect in raising them to the level of true dignity, or of +chaste self-estimation, either as men, or as representatives of +crowned heads. + + +TREMENDOUSNESS OF WAR. + +As if war was a matter of experiment! As if you could take it up or lay +it down as an idle frolic! As if the dire goddess that presides over it, +with her murderous spear in hand, and her gorgon at her breast, was a +coquette to be flirted with! We ought with reverence to approach that +tremendous divinity, that loves courage, but commands counsel. War never +leaves where it found a nation. It is never to be entered into without +mature deliberation; not a deliberation lengthened out into a perplexing +indecision, but a deliberation leading to a sure and fixed judgment. +When so taken up, it is not to be abandoned without reason as valid, as +fully, and as extensively considered. Peace may be made as unadvisedly +as war. Nothing is so rash as fear; and the councils of pusillanimity +very rarely put off, whilst they are always sure to aggravate, the evils +from which they would fly. + + +ENGLISH OFFICERS. + +There is no want of officers, that I have ever understood, for the new +ships which we commission, or the new regiments which we raise. In the +nature of things it is not with their persons, that the higher classes +principally pay their contingent to the demands of war. There is +another, and not less important part, which rests with almost exclusive +weight upon them. They furnish the means, + + "How war may best upheld + Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, + In all her equipage." + +Not that they are exempt from contributing also by their personal +service in the fleets and armies of their country. They do contribute, +and in their full and fair proportion, according to the relative +proportion of their numbers in the community. They contribute all the +mind that actuates the whole machine. The fortitude required of them is +very different from the unthinking alacrity of the common soldier, or +common sailor, in the face of danger and death; it is not a passion, it +is not an impulse, it is not a sentiment; it is a cool, steady, +deliberate principle, always present, always equable; having no +connection with anger; tempering honour with prudence; incited, +invigorated, and sustained, by a generous love of fame; informed, +moderated, and directed by an enlarged knowledge of its own great public +ends; flowing in one blended stream from the opposite sources of the +heart and the head; carrying in itself its own commission, and proving +its title to every other command, by the first and most difficult +command, that of the bosom in which it resides: it is a fortitude, which +unites with the courage of the field the more exalted and refined +courage of the council; which knows as well to retreat, as to advance; +which can conquer as well by delay, as by the rapidity of a march, or +the impetuosity of an attack; which can be, with Fabius, the black cloud +that lowers on the tops of the mountains, or with Scipio, the +thunderbolt of war; which, undismayed by false shame, can patiently +endure the severest trial that a gallant spirit can undergo, in the +taunts and provocations of the enemy, the suspicions, the cold respect, +and "mouth-honour" of those, from whom it should meet a cheerful +obedience; which, undisturbed by false humanity, can calmly assume that +most awful moral responsibility of deciding, when victory may be too +dearly purchased by the loss of a single life, and when the safety and +glory of their country may demand the certain sacrifice of thousands. +Different stations of command may call for different modifications of +this fortitude; but the character ought to be the same in all. And +never, in the most "palmy state" of our martial renown, did it shine +with brighter lustre than in the present sanguinary and ferocious +hostilities, wherever the British arms have been carried. + + +DIPLOMACY OF HUMILIATION. + +It happens frequently that pride may reject a public advance, while +interest listens to a secret suggestion of advantage. The opportunity +has been afforded. At a very early period in the diplomacy of +humiliation, a gentleman was sent on an errand, of which, from the +motive of it, whatever the event might be, we can never be ashamed. +Humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation. It is its very character to +submit to such things. There is a consanguinity between benevolence and +humility. They are virtues of the same stock. Dignity is of as good a +race; but it belongs to the family of fortitude. In the spirit of that +benevolence we sent a gentleman to beseech the Directory of regicide not +to be quite so prodigal as their republic had been of judicial murder. +We solicited them to spare the lives of some unhappy persons of the +first distinction, whose safety at other times could not have been an +object of solicitation. They had quitted France on the faith of the +declaration of the rights of citizens. They never had been in the +service of the regicides, nor at their hands had received any stipend. +The very system and constitution of government that now prevails was +settled subsequently to their emigration. They were under the protection +of Great Britain, and in his majesty's pay and service. Not an hostile +invasion, but the disasters of the sea, had thrown them upon a shore +more barbarous and inhospitable than the inclement ocean under the most +pitiless of its storms. Here was an opportunity to express a feeling for +the miseries of war; and to open some sort of conversation, which (after +our public overtures had glutted their pride), at a cautious and jealous +distance, might lead to something like an accommodation. What was the +event? A strange uncouth thing, a theatrical figure of the opera, his +head shaded with three-coloured plumes, his body fantastically habited, +strutted from the back scenes, and, after a short speech, in the mock +heroic falsetto of stupid tragedy, delivered the gentleman who came to +make the representation into the custody of a guard, with directions not +to lose sight of him for a moment; and then ordered him to be sent from +Paris in two hours. + + +RELATION OF WEALTH TO NATIONAL DIGNITY. + +We have a vast interest to preserve, and we possess great means of +preserving it: but it is to be remembered that the artificer may be +encumbered by his tools, and that resources may be among impediments. +If wealth is the obedient and laborious slave of virtue and of public +honour, then wealth is in its place, and has its use: but if this +order is changed, and honour is to be sacrificed to the conservation +of riches,--riches, which have neither eyes nor hands, nor anything +truly vital in them, cannot long survive the being of their vivifying +powers, their legitimate masters, and their potent protectors. If we +command our wealth, we shall be rich and free: if our wealth command +us, we are poor indeed. We are bought by the enemy with the treasure +from our own coffers. Too great a sense of the value of a subordinate +interest may be the very source of its danger, as well as the certain +ruin of interests of a superior order. Often has a man lost his all +because he would not submit to hazard all in defending it. A display +of our wealth before robbers is not the way to restrain their +boldness, or to lessen their rapacity. This display is made, I know, +to persuade the people of England that thereby we shall awe the +enemy, and improve the terms of our capitulation: it is made, not +that we should fight with more animation, but that we should +supplicate with better hopes. We are mistaken. We have an enemy to +deal with who never regarded our contest as a measuring and weighing +of purses. He is the Gaul that puts his SWORD into the scale. He is +more tempted with our wealth as booty, than terrified with it as +power. But let us be rich or poor, let us be either in what +proportion we may, nature is false or this is true, that where the +essential public force (of which money is but a part) is in any +degree upon a par in a conflict between nations, that state, which is +resolved to hazard its existence rather than to abandon its objects, +must have an infinite advantage over that which is resolved to yield +rather than to carry its resistance beyond a certain point. Humanly +speaking, that people which bounds its efforts only with its being, +must give the law to that nation which will not push its opposition +beyond its convenience. + + +AMBASSADORS OF INFAMY. + +On this their gaudy day the new regicide Directory sent for their +diplomatic rabble, as bad as themselves in principle, but infinitely +worse in degradation. They called them out by a sort of roll of their +nations, one after another, much in the manner in which they called +wretches out of their prison to the guillotine. When these ambassadors +of infamy appeared before them, the chief director, in the name of the +rest, treated each of them with a short, affected, pedantic, insolent, +theatric laconium: a sort of epigram of contempt. When they had thus +insulted them in a style and language which never before was heard, and +which no sovereign would for a moment endure from another, supposing any +of them frantic enough to use it; to finish their outrage, they drummed +and trumpeted the wretches out of their hall of audience. + +Among the objects of this insolent buffoonery was a person supposed to +represent the king of Prussia. To this worthy representative they did +not so much as condescend to mention his master; they did not seem to +know that he had one; they addressed themselves solely to Prussia in the +abstract, notwithstanding the infinite obligation they owed to their +early protector for their first recognition and alliance, and for the +part of his territory he gave into their hands for the first-fruits of +his homage. None but dead monarchs are so much as mentioned by them, and +those only to insult the living by an invidious comparison. They told +the Prussians they ought to learn, after the example of Frederick the +Great, a love for France. What a pity it is, that he, who loved France +so well as to chastise it, was not now alive, by an unsparing use of the +rod (which indeed he would have spared little) to give them another +instance of his paternal affection. But the Directory were mistaken. +These are not days in which monarchs value themselves upon the title of +GREAT: they are grown PHILOSOPHIC: they are satisfied to be good. Your +lordship will pardon me for this no very long reflection on the short +but excellent speech of the plumed director to the ambassador of +Cappadocia. The imperial ambassador was not in waiting, but they found +for Austria a good Judean representation. With great judgment his +highness the Grand Duke had sent the most atheistic coxcomb to be found +in Florence to represent, at the bar of impiety, the house of apostolic +majesty, and the descendants of the pious, though high-minded, Maria +Theresa. He was sent to humble the whole race of Austria before those +grim assassins, reeking with the blood of the daughter of Maria Theresa, +whom they sent, half-dead, in a dung-cart, to a cruel execution; and +this true-born son of apostasy and infidelity, this renegado from the +faith, and from all honour and all humanity, drove an Austrian coach +over the stones which were yet wet with her blood;--with that blood +which dropped every step through her tumbril, all the way she was drawn +from the horrid prison, in which they had finished all the cruelty and +horrors, not executed in the face of the sun! The Hungarian subjects of +Maria Theresa, when they drew their swords to defend her rights against +France, called her, with correctness of truth, though not with the same +correctness, perhaps, of grammar, a king: Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria +Theresa.--She lived and died a king, and others will have subjects ready +to make the same vow, when, in either sex, they show themselves real +kings. + + +DIFFICULTY THE PATH TO GLORY. + +When you choose an arduous and slippery path, God forbid that any weak +feelings of my declining age, which calls for soothings and supports, +and which can have none but from you, should make me wish that you +should abandon what you are about, or should trifle with it. In this +house we submit, though with troubled minds, to that order which has +connected all great duties with toils and with perils, which has +conducted the road to glory through the regions of obloquy and reproach, +and which will never suffer the disparaging alliance of spurious, false, +and fugitive praise with genuine and permanent reputation. We know that +the Power which has settled that order, and subjected you to it by +placing you in the situation you are in, is able to bring you out of it +with credit and with safety. His will be done. All must come right. You +may open the way with pain, and under reproach. Others will pursue it +with ease and with applause. + + +ROBESPIERRE AND HIS COUNTERPARTS. + +They have murdered one Robespierre. This Robespierre they tell us +was a cruel tyrant, and now that he is put out of the way, all will +go well in France. Astraea will again return to that earth from which +she has been an emigrant, and all nations will resort to her golden +scales. It is very extraordinary, that the very instant the mode of +Paris is known here, it becomes all the fashion in London. This is +their jargon. It is the old bon ton of robbers, who cast their common +crimes on the wickedness of their departed associates. I care little +about the memory of this same Robespierre. I am sure he was an +execrable villain. I rejoiced at his punishment neither more nor less +than I should at the execution of the present Directory, or any of +its members. But who gave Robespierre the power of being a tyrant? +and who were the instruments of his tyranny? The present virtuous +constitution-mongers. He was a tyrant, they were his satellites and +his hangmen. Their sole merit is in the murder of their colleague. +They have expiated their other murders by a new murder. It has always +been the case among this banditti. They have always had the knife at +each other's throats, after they had almost blunted it at the throats +of every honest man. These people thought that, in the commerce of +murder, he was like to have the better of the bargain if any time was +lost; they therefore took one of their short revolutionary methods, +and massacred him in a manner so perfidious and cruel, as would shock +all humanity, if the stroke was not struck by the present rulers on +one of their own associates. But this last act of infidelity and +murder is to expiate all the rest, and to qualify them for the amity +of a humane and virtuous sovereign and civilized people. I have heard +that a Tartar believes, when he has killed a man, that all his +estimable qualities pass with his clothes and arms to the murderer: +but I have never heard that it was the opinion of any savage +Scythian, that, if he kills a brother villain, he is, ipso facto, +absolved of all his own offences. The Tartarian doctrine is the most +tenable opinion. The murderers of Robespierre, besides what they are +entitled to by being engaged in the same tontine of infamy, are his +representatives, have inherited all his murderous qualities in +addition to their own private stock. But it seems we are always to be +of a party with the last and victorious assassins. I confess I am of +a different mind, and am rather inclined, of the two, to think and +speak less hardly of a dead ruffian, than to associate with the +living. I could better bear the stench of the gibbeted murderer than +the society of the bloody felons who yet annoy the world. Whilst they +wait the recompense due to their ancient crimes, they merit new +punishment by the new offences they commit. There is a period to the +offences of Robespierre. They survive in his assassins. Better a +living dog, says the old proverb, than a dead lion; not so here. +Murderers and hogs never look well till they are hanged. From villany +no good can arise, but in the example of its fate. So I leave them +their dead Robespierre, either to gibbet his memory, or to deify him +in their Pantheon with their Marat and their Mirabeau. + + +ACCUMULATION, A STATE PRINCIPLE. + +There must be some impulse besides public spirit to put private interest +into motion along with it. Monied men ought to be allowed to set a value +on their money; if they did not, there could be no monied men. This +desire of accumulation is a principle without which the means of their +service to the state could not exist. The love of lucre, though +sometimes carried to a ridiculous, sometimes to a vicious excess, is the +grand cause of prosperity to all states. In this natural, this +reasonable, this powerful, this prolific principle, it is for the +satirist to expose the ridiculous: it is for the moralist to censure the +vicious; it is for the sympathetic heart to reprobate the hard and +cruel; it is for the judge to animadvert on the fraud, the extortion, +and the oppression; but it is for the statesman to employ it as he finds +it, with all its concomitant excellencies, with all its imperfections on +its head. It is his part, in this case, as it is in all other cases +where he is to make use of the general energies of nature, to take them +as he finds them. + + +WARNING FOR A NATION. + +With all these causes of corruption, we may well judge what the general +fashion of mind will be through both sexes and all conditions. Such +spectacles and such examples will overbear all the laws that ever +blackened the cumbrous volumes of our statutes. When royalty shall have +disavowed itself; when it shall have relaxed all the principles of its +own support; when it has rendered the system of regicide fashionable, +and received it as triumphant in the very persons who have consolidated +that system by the perpetration of every crime; who have not only +massacred the prince, but the very laws and magistrates which were the +support of royalty, and slaughtered, with an indiscriminate +proscription, without regard to either sex or age, every person that was +suspected of an inclination to king, law, or magistracy,--I say, will +any one dare to be loyal? Will any one presume, against both authority +and opinion, to hold up this unfashionable, antiquated, exploded +constitution? The Jacobin faction in England must grow in strength and +audacity; it will be supported by other intrigues, and supplied by other +resources than yet we have seen in action. Confounded at its growth, the +government may fly to parliament for its support. But who will answer +for the temper of a house of commons elected under these circumstances? +Who will answer for the courage of a house of commons to arm the crown +with the extraordinary powers that it may demand? But the ministers will +not venture to ask half of what they know they want. They will lose half +of that half in the contest: and when they have obtained their nothing, +they will be driven by the cries of faction either to demolish the +feeble works they have thrown up in a hurry, or, in effect, to abandon +them. As to the House of Lords, it is not worth mentioning. The peers +ought naturally to be the pillars of the crown; but when their titles +are rendered contemptible, and their property invidious, and a part of +their weakness, and not of their strength, they will be found so many +degraded and trembling individuals, who will seek by evasion to put off +the evil day of their ruin. Both houses will be in perpetual oscillation +between abortive attempts at energy, and still more unsuccessful +attempts at compromise. You will be impatient of your disease, and +abhorrent of your remedy. A spirit of subterfuge and a tone of apology +will enter into all your proceedings, whether of law or legislation. +Your judges, who now sustain so masculine an authority, will appear more +on their trial than the culprits they have before them. The awful frown +of criminal justice will be smoothed into the silly smile of seduction. +Judges will think to insinuate and soothe the accused into conviction +and condemnation, and to wheedle to the gallows the most artful of all +delinquents. But they will not be so wheedled. They will not submit even +to the appearance of persons on their trial. Their claim to this +exception will be admitted. The place in which some of the greatest +names which ever distinguished the history of this country have stood, +will appear beneath their dignity. The criminal will climb from the dock +to the side-bar, and take his place and his tea with the counsel. From +the bar of the counsel, by a natural progress, he will ascend to the +bench, which long before had been virtually abandoned. They who escape +from justice will not suffer a question upon reputation. They will take +the crown of the causeway: they will be revered as martyrs; they will +triumph as conquerors. Nobody will dare to censure that popular part of +the tribunal, whose only restraint on misjudgment is the censure of the +public. They who find fault with the decision will be represented as +enemies to the institution. Juries that convict for the crown will be +loaded with obloquy. The juries who acquit will be held up as models of +justice. If parliament orders a prosecution, and fails (as fail it +will), it will be treated to its face as guilty of a conspiracy +maliciously to prosecute. Its care in discovering a conspiracy against +the state will be treated as a forged plot to destroy the liberty of the +subject; every such discovery, instead of strengthening government, will +weaken its reputation. + +In this state things will be suffered to proceed, lest measures of +vigour should precipitate a crisis. The timid will act thus from +character; the wise from necessity. Our laws had done all that the old +condition of things dictated to render our judges erect and independent; +but they will naturally fail on the side upon which they had taken no +precautions. The judicial magistrates will find themselves safe as +against the crown, whose will is not their tenure; the power of +executing their office will be held at the pleasure of those who deal +out fame or abuse as they think fit. They will begin rather to consult +their own repose and their own popularity, than the critical and +perilous trust that is in their hands. They will speculate on +consequences when they see at court an ambassador whose robes are lined +with a scarlet dyed in the blood of judges. It is no wonder, nor are +they to blame, when they are to consider how they shall answer for their +conduct to the criminal of to?day turned into the magistrate of +to-morrow. + + +SANTERRE AND TALLIEN. + +Is it only an oppressive nightmare with which we have been loaded? Is it +then all a frightful dream, and are there no regicides in the world? +Have we not heard of that prodigy of a ruffian, who would not suffer his +benignant sovereign, with his hands tied behind him, and stripped for +execution, to say one parting word to his deluded people;--of Santerre, +who commanded the drums and trumpets to strike up to stifle his voice, +and dragged him backward to the machine of murder? This nefarious +villain (for a few days I may call him so) stands high in France, as in +a republic of robbers and murderers he ought. What hinders this monster +from being sent as ambassador to convey to his majesty the first +compliments of his brethren, the regicide Directory? They have none that +can represent them more properly. I anticipate the day of his arrival. +He will make his public entry into London on one of the pale horses of +his brewery. As he knows that we are pleased with the Paris taste for +the orders of knighthood, he will fling a bloody sash across his +shoulders with the order of the Holy Guillotine, surmounting the Crown, +appendant to the riband. Thus adorned, he will proceed from Whitechapel +to the further end of Pall Mall, all the music of London playing the +Marseillais hymn before him, and escorted by a chosen detachment of the +Legion de l'Echaffaud. It were only to be wished, that no ill-fated +loyalist for the imprudence of his zeal may stand in the pillory at +Charing Cross, under the statue of King Charles the First, at the time +of this grand procession, lest some of the rotten eggs, which the +constitutional society shall let fly at his indiscreet head, may hit the +virtuous murderer of his king. They might soil the state dress, which +the ministers of so many crowned heads have admired, and in which Sir +Clement Cotterel is to introduce him at St. James's. + +If Santerre cannot be spared from the constitutional butcheries at home, +Tallien may supply his place, and, in point of figure, with advantage. +He has been habituated to commissions; and he is as well qualified as +Santerre for this. Nero wished the Roman people had but one neck. The +wish of the more exalted Tallien, when he sat in judgment, was, that his +sovereign had eighty-three heads, that he might send one to every one of +the departments. Tallien will make an excellent figure at Guildhall at +the next sheriff's feast. He may open the ball with my Lady Mayoress. +But this will be after he has retired from the public table, and gone +into the private room for the enjoyment of more social and unreserved +conversation with the ministers of state and the judges of the bench. +There these ministers and magistrates will hear him entertain the worthy +aldermen with an instructing and pleasing narrative of the manner in +which he made the rich citizens of Bordeaux squeak, and gently led them +by the public credit of the guillotine to disgorge their +anti-revolutionary pelf. + +All this will be the display, and the town-talk, when our regicide is on +a visit of ceremony. At home nothing will equal the pomp and splendour +of the Hotel de la Republique. There another scene of gaudy grandeur +will be opened. When his citizen excellency keeps the festival, which +every citizen is ordered to observe, for the glorious execution of Louis +the Sixteenth, and renews his oath of detestation of kings, a grand +ball, of course, will be given on the occasion. Then what a +hurly-burly;--what a crowding;--what a glare of a thousand flambeaux in +the square;--what a clamour of footmen contending at the door;--what a +rattling of a thousand coaches of duchesses, countesses, and Lady Marys, +choking the way, and overturning each other, in a struggle who should be +first to pay her court to the Citoyenne, the spouse of the twenty-first +husband, he the husband of the thirty-first wife, and to hail her in the +rank of honourable matrons, before the four days' duration of marriage +is expired!--Morals, as they were:--decorum, the great outguard of the +sex, and the proud sentiment of honour, which makes virtue more +respectable where it is, and conceals human frailty where virtue may not +be, will be banished from this land of propriety, modesty, and reserve. + + +SIR SYDNEY SMITH. + +This officer having attempted, with great gallantry, to cut out a +vessel from one of the enemy's harbours, was taken after an obstinate +resistance, such as obtained him the marked respect of those who were +witnesses of his valour, and knew the circumstances in which it was +displayed. Upon his arrival at Paris, he was instantly thrown into +prison; where the nature of his situation will best be understood, by +knowing, that amongst its MITIGATIONS, was the permission to walk +occasionally in the court, and to enjoy the privilege of shaving +himself. On the old system of feelings and principles, his sufferings +might have been entitled to consideration, and even in a comparison +with those of citizen La Fayette, to a priority in the order of +compassion. If the ministers had neglected to take any steps in his +favour, a declaration of the sense of the House of Commons would have +stimulated them to their duty. If they had caused a representation to +be made, such a proceeding would have added force to it. If reprisal +should be thought advisable, the address of the House would have +given an additional sanction to a measure which would have been, +indeed, justifiable without any other sanction than its own reason. +But, no. Nothing at all like it. In fact, the merit of Sir Sydney +Smith, and his claim on British compassion, was of a kind altogether +different from that which interested so deeply the authors of the +motion in favour of citizen La Fayette. In my humble opinion, Captain +Sir Sydney Smith has another sort of merit with the British nation, +and something of a higher claim on British humanity, than citizen La +Fayette. Faithful, zealous, and ardent, in the service of his king +and country; full of spirit; full of resources; going out of the +beaten road, but going right, because his uncommon enterprise was not +conducted by a vulgar judgment;--in his profession, Sir Sydney Smith +might be considered as a distinguished person, if any person could +well be distinguished in a service in which scarcely a commander can +be named without putting you in mind of some action of intrepidity, +skill, and vigilance, that has given them a fair title to contend +with any men, and in any age. But I will say nothing farther of the +merits of Sir Sydney Smith: the mortal animosity of the regicide +enemy supersedes all other panegyric. Their hatred is a judgment in +his favour without appeal. At present he is lodged in the tower of +the Temple, the last prison of Louis the Sixteenth, and the last but +one of Maria Antonietta of Austria; the prison of Louis the +Seventeenth; the prison of Elizabeth of Bourbon. There he lies, +unpitied by the grand philanthropy, to meditate upon the fate of +those who are faithful to their king and country. Whilst this +prisoner, secluded from intercourse, was indulging in these cheering +reflections, he might possibly have had the further consolation of +learning (by means of the insolent exultation of his guards), that +there was an English ambassador at Paris; he might have had the proud +comfort of hearing, that this ambassador had the honour of passing +his mornings in respectful attendance at the office of a regicide +pettifogger; and that in the evening he relaxed in the amusements of +the opera, and in the spectacle of an audience totally new; an +audience in which he had the pleasure of seeing about him not a +single face that he could formerly have known in Paris; but in the +place of that company, one indeed more than equal to it in display of +gaiety, splendour, and luxury; a set of abandoned wretches, +squandering in insolent riot the spoils of their bleeding country. A +subject of profound reflection both to the prisoner and to the +ambassador. + + +A MORAL DISTINCTION. + +I think we might have found, before the rude hand of insolent office was +on our shoulder, and the staff of usurped authority brandished over our +heads, that contempt of the suppliant is not the best forwarder of a +suit; that national disgrace is not the high road to security, much less +to power and greatness. Patience, indeed, strongly indicates the love of +peace; but mere love does not always lead to enjoyment. It is the power +of winning that palm which ensures our wearing it. Virtues have their +place; and out of their place they hardly deserve the name. They pass +into the neighbouring vice. The patience of fortitude and the endurance +of pusillanimity are things very different, as in their principle, so in +their effects. + + +INFIDELS AND THEIR POLICY. + +In the revolution of France two sorts of men were principally concerned +in giving a character and determination to its pursuits: the +philosophers and the politicians. They took different ways, but they met +in the same end. The philosophers had one predominant object, which they +pursued with a fanatical fury; that is, the utter extirpation of +religion. To that every question of empire was subordinate. They had +rather domineer in a parish of atheists than rule over a Christian +world. Their temporal ambition was wholly subservient to their +proselytizing spirit, in which they were not exceeded by Mahomet +himself. They who have made but superficial studies in the natural +history of the human mind, have been taught to look on religious +opinions as the only cause of enthusiastic zeal and sectarian +propagation. But there is no doctrine whatever, on which men can warm, +that is not capable of the very same effect. The social nature of man +impels him to propagate his principles, as much as physical impulses +urge him to propagate his kind. The passions give zeal and vehemence. +The understanding bestows design and system. The whole man moves under +the discipline of his opinions. Religion is among the most powerful +causes of enthusiasm. When anything concerning it becomes an object of +much meditation, it cannot be indifferent to the mind. They who do not +love religion, hate it. The rebels to God perfectly abhor the author of +their being. They hate him "with all their heart, with all their mind, +with all their soul, and with all their strength." He never presents +himself to their thoughts, but to menace and alarm them. They cannot +strike the sun out of heaven, but they are able to raise a smouldering +smoke that obscures him from their own eyes. Not being able to revenge +themselves on God, they have a delight in vicariously defacing, +degrading, torturing, and tearing in pieces his image in man. Let no one +judge of them by what he has conceived of them, when they were not +incorporated, and had no lead. They were then only passengers in a +common vehicle. They were then carried along with the general motion of +religion in the community, and, without being aware of it, partook of +its influence. In that situation, at worst, their nature was left free +to counter-work their principles. They despaired of giving any very +general currency to their opinions. They considered them as a reserved +privilege for the chosen few. But when the possibility of dominion, +lead, and propagation, presented itself, and that the ambition, which +before had so often made them hypocrites, might rather gain than lose by +a daring avowal of their sentiments, then the nature of this infernal +spirit, which has "evil for its good," appeared in its full perfection. +Nothing indeed but the possession of some power can with any certainty +discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man. Without +reading the speeches of Vergniaud, Francian of Nantes, Isnard, and some +others of that sort, it would not be easy to conceive the passion, +rancour, and malice of their tongues and hearts. They worked themselves +up to a perfect frenzy against religion and all its professors. They +tore the reputation of the clergy to pieces by their infuriated +declamations and invectives, before they lacerated their bodies by their +massacres. This fanatical atheism left out, we omit the principal +feature in the French revolution, and a principal consideration with +regard to the effects to be expected from a peace with it. + +The other sort of men were the politicians. To them, who had little or +not at all reflected on the subject, religion was in itself no object of +love or hatred. They disbelieved it, and that was all. Neutral with +regard to that object, they took the side which in the present state of +things might best answer their purposes. They soon found that they could +not do without the philosophers; and the philosophers soon made them +sensible that the destruction of religion was to supply them with means +of conquest, first at home, and then abroad. The philosophers were the +active internal agitators, and supplied the spirit and principles: the +second gave the practical direction. Sometimes the one predominated in +the composition, sometimes the other. The only difference between them +was in the necessity of concealing the general design for a time, and in +their dealing with foreign nations; the fanatics going straightforward +and openly, the politicians by the surer mode of zigzag. In the course +of events, this, among other causes, produced fierce and bloody +contentions between them. But at the bottom they thoroughly agreed in +all the objects of ambition and irreligion, and substantially in all the +means of promoting these ends. + + +WHAT A MINISTER SHOULD ATTEMPT. + +After such an elaborate display had been made of the injustice and +insolence of an enemy, who seems to have been irritated by every one +of the means which had been commonly used with effect to soothe the +rage of intemperate power, the natural result would be, that the +scabbard, in which we in vain attempted to plunge our sword, should +have been thrown away with scorn. It would have been natural that, +rising in the fulness of their might, insulted majesty, despised +dignity, violated justice, rejected supplication, patience goaded +into fury, would have poured out all the length of the reins upon all +the wrath which they had so long restrained. It might have been +expected that, emulous of the glory of the youthful hero in alliance +with him, touched by the example of what one man, well formed and +well placed, may do in the most desperate state of affairs, convinced +there is a courage of the cabinet full as powerful, and far less +vulgar than that of the field, our minister would have changed the +whole line of that useless, prosperous prudence, which had hitherto +produced all the effects of the blindest temerity. If he found his +situation full of danger (and I do not deny that it is perilous in +the extreme), he must feel that it is also full of glory; and that he +is placed on a stage, than which no muse of fire that had ascended +the highest heaven of invention could imagine anything more awful and +august. It was hoped that, in this swelling scene in which he moved +with some of the first potentates of Europe for his fellow-actors, +and with so many of the rest for the anxious spectators of a part, +which, as he plays it, determines for ever their destiny and his own, +like Ulysses in the unravelling point of the epic story, he would +have thrown off his patience and his rags together; and, stripped of +unworthy disguises, he would have stood forth in the form and in the +attitude of a hero. On that day it was thought he would have assumed +the port of Mars; that he would bid to be brought forth from their +hideous kennel (where his scrupulous tenderness had too long immured +them) those impatient dogs of war, whose fierce regards affright even +the minister of vengeance that feeds them; that he would let them +loose, in famine, fever, plagues, and death, upon a guilty race, to +whose frame, and to all whose habit, order, peace, religion, and +virtue are alien and abhorrent. It was expected that he would at last +have thought of active and effectual war; that he would no longer +amuse the British lion in the chase of mice and rats; that he would +no longer employ the whole naval power of Great Britain, once the +terror of the world, to prey upon the miserable remains of a peddling +commerce, which the enemy did not regard, and from which none could +profit. It was expected that he would have re-asserted the justice of +his cause; that he would have re-animated whatever remained to him of +his allies, and endeavoured to recover those whom their fears had led +astray; that he would have rekindled the martial ardour of his +citizens; that he would have held out to them the example of their +ancestry, the assertor of Europe, and the scourge of French ambition; +that he would have reminded them of a posterity, which, if this +nefarious robbery under the fraudulent name and false colour of a +government, should in full power be seated in the heart of Europe, +must for ever be consigned to vice, impiety, barbarism, and the most +ignominious slavery of body and mind. In so holy a cause it was +presumed that he would (as in the beginning of the war he did) have +opened all the temples; and with prayer, with fasting, and with +supplication (better directed than to the grim Moloch of regicide in +France), have called upon us to raise that united cry which has so +often stormed heaven, and with a pious violence forced down blessings +upon a repentant people. It was hoped that when he had invoked upon +his endeavours the favourable regard of the Protector of the human +race, it would be seen that his menaces to the enemy, and his prayers +to the Almighty, were not followed, but accompanied, with +correspondent action. It was hoped that his shrilling trumpet should +be heard, not to announce a show, but to sound a charge. + + +LAW OF VICINITY. + +This violent breach in the community of Europe we must conclude to have +been made (even if they had not expressly declared it over and over +again) either to force mankind into an adoption of their system, or to +live in perpetual enmity with a community the most potent we have ever +known. Can any person imagine, that, in offering to mankind this +desperate alternative, there is no indication of a hostile mind, because +men in possession of the ruling authority are supposed to have a right +to act without coercion in their own territories. As to the right of men +to act anywhere according to their pleasure, without any moral tie, no +such right exists. Men are never in a state of TOTAL independence of +each other. It is not the condition of our nature: nor is it conceivable +how any man can pursue a considerable course of action without its +having some effect upon others; or, of course, without producing some +degree of responsibility for his conduct. The SITUATIONS in which men +relatively stand produce the rules and principles of that +responsibility, and afford directions to prudence in exacting it. +Distance of place does not extinguish the duties or the rights of men; +but it often renders their exercise impracticable. The same circumstance +of distance renders the noxious effects of an evil system in any +community less pernicious. But there are situations where this +difficulty does not occur; and in which, therefore, these duties are +obligatory, and these rights are to be asserted. It has ever been the +method of public jurists to draw a great part of the analogies, on which +they form the law of nations, from the principles of law which prevail +in civil community. Civil laws are not all of them merely positive. +Those, which are rather conclusions of legal reason than matters of +statutable provision, belong to universal equity, and are universally +applicable. Almost the whole praetorian law is such. There is a "Law of +Neighbourhood" which does not leave a man perfectly master on his own +ground. When a neighbour sees a NEW ERECTION, in the nature of a +nuisance, set up at his door, he has a right to represent it to the +judge; who, on his part, has a right to order the work to be stayed; or, +if established, to be removed. On this head the parent law is express +and clear, and has made many wise provisions, which, without destroying, +regulate and restrain the right of OWNERSHIP, by the right of VICINAGE. +No INNOVATION is permitted that may redound, even secondarily, to the +prejudice of a neighbour. The whole doctrine of that important head of +praetorian law, "De novi operis nunciatione," is founded on the +principle, that no NEW use should be made of a man's private liberty of +operating upon his private property, from whence a detriment may be +justly apprehended by his neighbour. This law of denunciation is +prospective. It is to anticipate what is called damnum infectum, or +damnum nondum factum, that is, a damage justly apprehended, but not +actually done. Even before it is clearly known whether the innovation be +damageable or not, the judge is competent to issue a prohibition to +innovate, until the point can be determined. This prompt interference is +grounded on principles favourable to both parties. It is preventive of +mischief difficult to be repaired, and of ill blood difficult to be +softened. The rule of law, therefore, which comes before the evil, is +amongst the very best parts of equity, and justifies the promptness of +the remedy; because, as it is well observed, Res damni infecti +celeritatem desiderat, et periculosa est dilatio. This right of +denunciation does not hold, when things continue, however inconveniently +to the neighbourhood, according to the ANCIENT mode. For there is a sort +of presumption against novelty, drawn out of a deep consideration of +human nature, and human affairs; and the maxim of jurisprudence is well +laid down, Vetustas pro lege semper habetur. + +Such is the law of civil vicinity. Now where there is no constituted +judge, as between independent states there is not, the vicinage itself +is the natural judge. It is, preventively, the assertor of its own +rights, or remedially, their avenger. Neighbours are presumed to take +cognizance of each other's acts. "Vicini vicinorum facta praesumuntur +scire." This principle, which, like the rest, is as true of nations as +of individual men, has bestowed on the grand vicinage of Europe a duty +to know, and a right to prevent, any capital innovation which may amount +to the erection of a dangerous nuisance. + + +EUROPEAN COMMUNITY. + +The operation of dangerous and delusive first principles obliges us to +have recourse to the true ones. In the intercourse between nations, we +are apt to rely too much on the instrumental part. We lay too much +weight upon the formality of treaties and compacts. We do not act much +more wisely when we trust to the interests of men as guarantees of their +engagements. The interests frequently tear to pieces the engagements; +and the passions trample upon both. Entirely to trust to either, is to +disregard our own safety, or not to know mankind. Men are not tied to +one another by papers and seals. They are led to associate by +resemblances, by conformities, by sympathies. It is with nations as with +individuals. Nothing is so strong a tie of amity between nation and +nation as correspondence in laws, customs, manners, and habits of life. +They have more than the force of treaties in themselves. They are +obligations written in the heart. They approximate men to men, without +their knowledge, and sometimes against their intentions. The secret, +unseen, but irrefragable bond of habitual intercourse holds them +together, even when their perverse and litigious nature sets them to +equivocate, scuffle, and fight, about the terms of their written +obligations. As to war, if it be the means of wrong and violence, it is +the sole means of justice amongst nations. Nothing can banish it from +the world. They who say otherwise, intending to impose upon us, do not +impose upon themselves. But it is one of the greatest objects of human +wisdom to mitigate those evils which we are unable to remove. The +conformity and analogy of which I speak, incapable, like everything +else, of preserving perfect trust and tranquillity among men, has a +strong tendency to facilitate accommodation, and to produce a generous +oblivion of the rancour of their quarrels. With this similitude, peace +is more of peace, and war is less of war. I will go further. There have +been periods of time in which communities, apparently in peace with each +other, have been more perfectly separated than, in latter times, many +nations in Europe have been in the course of long and bloody wars. The +cause must be sought in the similitude throughout Europe of religion, +laws, and manners. At bottom, these are all the same. The writers on +public law have often called this AGGREGATE of nations a commonwealth. +They had reason. It is virtually one great state having the same basis +of general law, with some diversity of provincial customs and local +establishments. The nations of Europe have had the very same Christian +religion, agreeing in the fundamental parts, varying a little in the +ceremonies and in the subordinate doctrines. The whole of the polity and +economy of every country in Europe has been derived from the same +sources. It was drawn from the old Germanic or Gothic custumary, from +the feudal institutions which must be considered as an emanation from +that custumary; and the whole has been improved and digested into system +and discipline by the Roman law. From hence arose the several orders, +with or without a monarch (which are called states), in every European +country; the strong traces of which, where monarchy predominated, were +never wholly extinguished or merged in despotism. In the few places +where monarchy was cast off, the spirit of European monarchy was still +left. Those countries still continued countries of states; that is, of +classes, orders, and distinctions such as had before subsisted, or +nearly so. Indeed, the force and form of the institution called states +continued in greater perfection in those republican communities than +under monarchies. From all those sources arose a system of manners and +of education which was nearly similar in all this quarter of the globe; +and which softened, blended, and harmonized the colours of the whole. + + +PERILS OF JACOBIN PEACE. + +The same temper which brings us to solicit a Jacobin peace, will +induce us to temporize with all the evils of it. By degrees our minds +will be made to our circumstances. The novelty of such things, which +produces half the horror, and all the disgust, will be worn off. Our +ruin will be disguised in profit, and the sale of a few wretched +baubles will bribe a degenerate people to barter away the most +precious jewel of their souls. Our constitution is not made for this +kind of warfare. It provides greatly for our happiness,--it furnishes +few means for our defence. It is formed, in a great measure, upon the +principle of jealousy of the crown; and, as things stood when it took +that turn, with very great reason. I go further; it must keep alive +some part of that fire of jealousy eternally and chastely burning, or +it cannot be the British constitution. At various periods we have had +tyranny in this country, more than enough. We have had rebellions, +with more or less justification. Some of our kings have made +adulterous connections abroad, and trucked away for foreign gold the +interests and glory of their crown. But before this time our liberty +has never been corrupted. I mean to say, that it has never been +debauched from its domestic relations. To this time it has been +English liberty, and English liberty only. Our love of liberty and +our love of our country were not distinct things. Liberty is now, it +seems, put upon a larger and more liberal bottom. We are men, and as +men, undoubtedly nothing human is foreign to us. We cannot be too +liberal in our general wishes for the happiness of our kind. But in +all questions on the mode of procuring it for any particular +community, we ought to be fearful of admitting those who have no +interest in it, or who have, perhaps, an interest against it, into +the consultation. Above all, we cannot be too cautious in our +communication with those who seek their happiness by other roads than +those of humanity, morals, and religion, and whose liberty consists, +and consists alone, in being free from those restraints which are +imposed by the virtues upon the passions. + +When we invite danger from a confidence in defensive measures, we ought, +first of all, to be sure that it is a species of danger against which +any defensive measures that can be adopted will be sufficient. Next we +ought to know that the spirit of our laws, or that our own dispositions, +which are stronger than laws, are susceptible of all those defensive +measures which the occasion may require. A third consideration is, +whether these measures will not bring more odium than strength to +government; and the last, whether the authority that makes them, in a +general corruption of manners and principles, can insure their +execution? Let no one argue from the state of things, as he sees them at +present, concerning what will be the means and capacities of government, +when the time arrives, which shall call for remedies commensurate to +enormous evils. + +It is an obvious truth that no constitution can defend itself: it must +be defended by the wisdom and fortitude of men. These are what no +constitution can give: they are the gifts of God; and he alone knows +whether we shall possess such gifts at the time when we stand in need of +them. Constitutions furnish the civil means of getting at the natural; +it is all that in this case they can do. But our constitution has more +impediments than helps. Its excellencies, when they come to be put to +this sort of proof, may be found among its defects. + +Nothing looks more awful and imposing than an ancient fortification. Its +lofty, embattled walls, its bold, projecting, rounded towers, that +pierce the sky, strike the imagination, and promise inexpugnable +strength. But they are the very things that make its weakness. You may +as well think of opposing one of these old fortresses to the mass of +artillery brought by a French irruption into the field, as to think of +resisting, by your old laws, and your old forms, the new destruction +which the corps of Jacobin engineers of to-day prepare for all such +forms and all such laws. Besides the debility and false principle of +their construction to resist the present modes of attack, the fortress +itself is in ruinous repair, and there is a practicable breach in every +part of it. + +Such is the work. But miserable works have been defended by the +constancy of the garrison. Weather-beaten ships have been brought safe +to port by the spirit and alertness of the crew. But it is here that we +shall eminently fail. The day that, by their consent, the seat of +regicide has its place among the thrones of Europe, there is no longer a +motive for zeal in their favour; it will at best be cold, unimpassioned, +dejected, melancholy duty. The glory will seem all on the other side. +The friends of the crown will appear, not as champions, but as victims; +discountenanced, mortified, lowered, defeated, they will fall into +listlessness and indifference. They will leave things to take their +course; enjoy the present hour, and submit to the common fate. + + +PARLIAMENTARY AND REGAL PREROGATIVE. + +Your throne cannot stand secure upon the principles of unconditional +submission and passive obedience; on powers exercised without the +concurrence of the people to be governed; on acts made in defiance of +their prejudices and habits; on acquiescence procured by foreign +mercenary troops, and secured by standing armies. These may possibly +be the foundation of other thrones: they must be the subversion of +yours. It was not to passive principles in our ancestors that we owe +the honour of appearing before a sovereign, who cannot feel that he +is a prince, without knowing that we ought to be free. The revolution +is a departure from the ancient course of the descent of this +monarchy. The people at that time re-entered into their original +rights; and it was not because a positive law authorized what was +then done, but because the freedom and safety of the subject, the +origin and cause of all laws, required a proceeding paramount and +superior to them. At that ever-memorable and instructive period, the +letter of the law was superseded in favour of the substance of +liberty. To the free choice, therefore, of the people, without +either king or parliament, we owe that happy establishment, out of +which both king and parliament were regenerated. From that great +principle of liberty have originated the statutes, confirming and +ratifying the establishment, from which your majesty derives your +right to rule over us. Those statutes have not given us our +liberties; our liberties have produced them. Every hour of your +majesty's reign your title stands upon the very same foundation on +which it was at first laid; and we do not know a better on which it +can possibly be placed. + +Convinced, sir, that you cannot have different rights and a different +security in different parts of your dominions, we wish to lay an even +platform for your throne; and to give it an unmovable stability, by +laying it on the general freedom of your people; and by securing to your +majesty that confidence and affection in all parts of your dominions, +which makes your best security and dearest title in this the chief seat +of your empire. + +Such, sir, being amongst us the foundation of monarchy itself, much more +clearly and much more peculiarly is it the ground of all parliamentary +power. Parliament is a security provided for the protection of freedom, +and not a subtile fiction, contrived to amuse the people in its place. +The authority of both houses can, still less than that of the crown, be +supported upon different principles in different places, so as to be, +for one part of your subjects, a protector of liberty, and for another a +fund of despotism, through which prerogative is extended by occasional +powers, whenever an arbitrary will finds itself straitened by the +restrictions of law. Had it seemed good to parliament to consider itself +as the indulgent guardian and strong protector of the freedom of the +subordinate popular assemblies, instead of exercising its power to their +annihilation, there is no doubt that it never could have been their +inclination, because not their interest, to raise questions on the +extent of parliamentary rights, or to enfeeble privileges which were the +security of their own. Powers evident from necessity, and not suspicious +from an alarming mode or purpose in the exertion, would, as formerly +they were, be cheerfully submitted to; and these would have been fully +sufficient for conservation of unity in the empire, and for directing +its wealth to one common centre. Another use has produced other +consequences; and a power which refuses to be limited by moderation must +either be lost, or find other more distinct and satisfactory +limitations. + + +BURKE'S DESIGN IN HIS GREATEST WORK. + +He had undertaken to demonstrate by arguments which he thought could +not be refuted, and by documents which he was sure could not be +denied, that no comparison was to be made between the British +government and the French usurpation. That they who endeavoured madly +to compare them, were by no means making the comparison of one good +system with another good system, which varied only in local and +circumstantial differences; much less, that they were holding out to +us a superior pattern of legal liberty, which we might substitute in +the place of our old, and, as they described it, superannuated +constitution. He meant to demonstrate that the French scheme was not +a comparative good, but a positive evil. That the question did not at +all turn, as had been stated, on a parallel between a monarchy and a +republic. He denied that the present scheme of things in France did +at all deserve the respectable name of a republic: he had therefore +no comparison between monarchies and republics to make. That what was +done in France was a wild attempt to methodize anarchy; to perpetuate +and fix disorder. That it was a foul, impious, monstrous thing, +wholly out of the course of moral nature. He undertook to prove that +it was generated in treachery, fraud, falsehood, hypocrisy, and +unprovoked murder. He offered to make out that those who had led in +that business had conducted themselves with the utmost perfidy to +their colleagues in function, and with the most flagrant perjury both +towards their king and their constituents; to the one of whom the +Assembly had sworn fealty, and to the other, when under no sort of +violence or constraint, they had sworn a full obedience to +instructions.--That, by the terror of assassination, they had driven +away a very great number of the members, so as to produce a false +appearance of a majority.--That this fictitious majority had +fabricated a constitution, which, as now it stands, is a tyranny far +beyond any example that can be found in the civilized European world +of our age; that therefore the lovers of it must be lovers, not of +liberty, but if they really understand its nature, of the lowest and +basest of all servitude. + +He proposed to prove that the present state of things in France is not a +transient evil, productive, as some have too favourably represented it, +of a lasting good; but that the present evil is only the means of +producing future and (if that were possible) worse evils.--That it is +not an undigested, imperfect, and crude scheme of liberty, which may +gradually be mellowed and ripened into an orderly and social freedom; +but that it is so fundamentally wrong, as to be utterly incapable of +correcting itself by any length of time, or of being formed into any +mode of polity of which a member of the House of Commons could publicly +declare his approbation. + + +LORD KEPPEL. + +I ever looked on Lord Keppel as one of the greatest and best men of his +age; and I loved and cultivated him accordingly. He was much in my +heart, and I believe I was in his to the very last beat. It was at his +trial at Portsmouth that he gave me this picture. With what zeal and +anxious affection I attended him through that his agony of glory, what +part my son took in the early flush and enthusiasm of his virtue, and +the pious passion with which he attached himself to all my connections, +with what prodigality we both squandered ourselves in courting almost +every sort of enmity for his sake, I believe he felt, just as I should +have felt such friendship on such an occasion. I partook indeed of this +honour with several of the first, and best, and ablest in the kingdom, +but I was behindhand with none of them; and I am sure, that if to the +eternal disgrace of this nation, and to the total annihilation of every +trace of honour and virtue in it, things had taken a different turn from +what they did, I should have attended him to the quarter-deck with no +less good-will and more pride, though with far other feelings, than I +partook of the general flow of national joy that attended the justice +that was done to his virtue. + +Pardon, my lord, the feeble garrulity of age, which loves to diffuse +itself in discourse of the departed great. At my years we live in +retrospect alone; and, wholly unfitted for the society of vigorous life, +we enjoy, the best balm to all wounds, the consolation of friendship in +those only whom we have lost for ever. Feeling the loss of Lord Keppel +at all times, at no time did I feel it so much as on the first day when +I was attacked in the House of Lords. + +Had he lived, that reverend form would have risen in its place, and, +with a mild, parental reprehension to his nephew the duke of Bedford, he +would have told him that the favour of that gracious prince, who had +honoured his virtues with the government of the navy of Great Britain, +and with a seat in the hereditary great council of his kingdom, was not +undeservedly shown to the friend of the best portion of his life, and +his faithful companion and counsellor under his rudest trials. He would +have told him, that to whomever else these reproaches might be becoming, +they were not decorous in his near kindred. He would have told him that +when men in that rank lose decorum they lose everything. On that day I +had a loss in Lord Keppel; but the public loss of him in this awful +crisis--! I speak from much knowledge of the person, he never would have +listened to any compromise with the rabble rout of this sans-culotterie +of France. His goodness of heart, his reason, his taste, his public +duty, his principles, his prejudices, would have repelled him for ever +from all connection with that horrid medley of madness, vice, impiety, +and crime. + +Lord Keppel had two countries; one of descent, and one of birth. Their +interest and their glory are the same; and his mind was capacious of +both. His family was noble, and it was Dutch: that is, he was the oldest +and purest nobility that Europe can boast, among a people renowned above +all others for love of their native land. Though it was never shown in +insult to any human being, Lord Keppel was something high. It was a wild +stock of pride, on which the tenderest of all hearts had grafted the +milder virtues. He valued ancient nobility; and he was not disinclined +to augment it with new honours. He valued the old nobility and the new, +not as an excuse for inglorious sloth, but as an incitement to virtuous +activity. He considered it as a sort of cure for selfishness and a +narrow mind; conceiving that a man born in an elevated place in himself +was nothing, but everything in what went before, and what was to come +after him. Without much speculation, but by the sure instinct of +ingenuous feelings, and by the dictates of plain, unsophisticated, +natural understanding, he felt that no great commonwealth could by any +possibility long subsist without a body of some kind or other of +nobility, decorated with honour, and fortified by privilege. This +nobility forms the chain that connects the ages of a nation, which +otherwise (with Mr. Paine) would soon be taught that no one generation +can bind another. He felt that no political fabric could be well made +without some such order of things as might, through a series of time, +afford a rational hope of securing unity, coherence, consistency, and +stability to the state. He felt that nothing else can protect it against +the levity of courts, and the greater levity of the multitude. That to +talk of hereditary monarchy, without anything else of hereditary +reverence in the commonwealth, was a low-minded absurdity, fit only for +those detestable "fools aspiring to be knaves," who began to forge in +1789 the false money of the French constitution.--That it is one fatal +objection to all NEW fancied and NEW FABRICATED republics (among a +people who, once possessing such an advantage, have wickedly and +insolently rejected it), that the PREJUDICE of an old nobility is a +thing that CANNOT be made. It may be improved, it may be corrected, it +may be replenished: men may be taken from it or aggregated to it, but +the THING ITSELF is matter of INVETERATE opinion, and therefore CANNOT +be matter of mere positive institution. He felt that this nobility in +fact does not exist in wrong of other orders of the state, but by them, +and for them. + + +"LABOURING POOR." + +Let government protect and encourage industry, secure property, repress +violence, and discountenance fraud, it is all that they have to do. In +other respects, the less they meddle in these affairs the better; the +rest is in the hands of our Master and theirs. We are in a constitution +of things wherein--"Modo sol nimius, modo corripit imber." But I will +push this matter no further. As I have said a good deal upon it at +various times during my public service, and have lately written +something on it which may yet see the light, I shall content myself now +with observing, that the vigorous and laborious class of life has lately +got, from the bon ton of the humanity of this day, the name of the +"labouring poor." We have heard many plans for the relief of the +"labouring poor." This puling jargon is not as innocent as it is +foolish. In meddling with great affairs, weakness is never innoxious. +Hitherto the name of poor (in the sense in which it is used to excite +compassion) has not been used for those who can, but for those who +cannot, labour--for the sick and infirm, for orphan infancy, for +languishing and decrepit age: but when we affect to pity, as poor, those +who must labour, or the world cannot exist, we are trifling with the +condition of mankind. It is the common doom of man that he must eat his +bread by the sweat of his brow, that is, by the sweat of his body, or +the sweat of his mind. If this toil was inflicted as a curse, it is, as +might be expected from the curses of the Father of all blessings--it is +tempered with many alleviations, many comforts. Every attempt to fly +from it, and to refuse the very terms of our existence, becomes much +more truly a curse; and heavier pains and penalties fall upon those who +would elude the tasks which are put upon them by the great Master +Workman of the world, who, in his dealings with his creatures, +sympathizes with their weakness, and speaking of a creation wrought by +mere will out of nothing, speaks of six days of LABOUR and one of REST. +I do not call a healthy young man, cheerful in his mind, and vigorous in +his arms, I cannot call such a man POOR; I cannot pity my kind as a +kind, merely because they are men. This affected pity only tends to +dissatisfy them with their condition, and to teach them to seek +resources where no resources are to be found, in something else than +their own industry, and frugality, and sobriety. Whatever may be the +intention (which, because I do not know, I cannot dispute) of those who +would discontent mankind by this strange pity, they act towards us, in +the consequences, as if they were our worst enemies. + + +STATE CONSECRATED BY THE CHURCH. + +I beg leave to speak of our church establishment, which is the first of +our prejudices, not a prejudice destitute of reason, but involving in it +profound and extensive wisdom. I speak of it first. It is first, and +last, and midst in our minds. For, taking ground on that religious +system, of which we are now in possession, we continue to act on the +early received and uniformly continued sense of mankind. That sense not +only, like a wise architect, hath built up the august fabric of states, +but like a provident proprietor, to preserve the structure from +profanation and ruin, as a sacred temple purged from all the impurities +of fraud, and violence, and injustice, and tyranny, hath solemnly and +for ever consecrated the commonwealth, and all that officiate in it. +This consecration is made, that all who administer in the government of +men, in which they stand in the person of God himself, should have high +and worthy notions of their function and destination; that their hope +should be full of immortality; that they should not look to the paltry +pelf of the moment, nor to the temporary and transient praise of the +vulgar, but to a solid, permanent existence, in the permanent part of +their nature, and to a permanent fame and glory, in the example they +leave as a rich inheritance to the world. + +Such sublime principles ought to be infused into persons of exalted +situations; and religious establishments provided, that may continually +revive and enforce them. Every sort of moral, every sort of civil, every +sort of politic institution, aiding the rational and natural ties that +connect the human understanding and affections to the divine, are not +more than necessary, in order to build up that wonderful structure, Man; +whose prerogative it is, to be in a great degree a creature of his own +making; and who, when made as he ought to be made, is destined to hold +no trivial place in the creation. But whenever man is put over men, as +the better nature ought ever to preside, in that case more particularly, +he should as nearly as possible be approximated to his perfection. + +The consecration of the state, by a state religious establishment, is +necessary also to operate with a wholesome awe upon free citizens; +because in order to secure their freedom, they must enjoy some +determinate portion of power. To them therefore a religion connected +with the state, and with their duty towards it, becomes even more +necessary than in such societies, where the people, by the terms of +their subjection, are confined to private sentiments, and the management +of their own family concerns. All persons possessing any portion of +power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they +act in trust; and that they are to account for their conduct in that +trust to the one great Master, Author, and Founder of society. This +principle ought even to be more strongly impressed upon the minds of +those who compose the collective sovereignty, than upon those of single +princes. Without instruments, these princes can do nothing. Whoever uses +instruments, in finding helps, finds also impediments. Their power is +therefore by no means complete; nor are they safe in extreme abuse. Such +persons, however elevated by flattery, arrogance, and self-opinion, must +be sensible that whether covered or not by positive law, in some way or +other they are accountable even here for the abuse of their trust. If +they are not cut off by a rebellion of their people, they may be +strangled by the very janissaries kept for their security against all +other rebellion. Thus we have seen the king of France sold by his +soldiers for an increase of pay. But where popular authority is absolute +and unrestrained, the people have an infinitely greater, because a far +better founded, confidence in their own power. They are themselves, in a +great measure, their own instruments. They are nearer to their objects. +Besides, they are less under responsibility to one of the greatest +controlling powers on earth, the sense of fame and estimation. The share +of infamy, that is likely to fall to the lot of each individual in +public acts, is small indeed; the operation of opinion being in the +inverse ratio to the number of those who abuse power. Their own +approbation of their own acts has to them the appearance of a public +judgment in their favour. A perfect democracy is therefore the most +shameless thing in the world. As it is the most shameless, it is also +the most fearless. No man apprehends in his person that he can be made +subject to punishment. Certainly the people at large never ought: for as +all punishments are for example towards the conservation of the people +at large, the people at large can never become the subject of punishment +by any human hand. (Quicquid multis peccatur inultum.) It is therefore +of infinite importance that they should not be suffered to imagine that +their will, any more than that of kings, is the standard of right and +wrong. They ought to be persuaded that they are full as little entitled, +and far less qualified, with safety to themselves, to use any arbitrary +power whatsoever; that therefore they are not, under a false show of +liberty, but in truth, to exercise an unnatural, inverted domination, +tyranically to exact from those who officiate in the state, not an +entire devotion to their interest, which is their right, but an abject +submission to their occasional will; extinguishing thereby, in all those +who serve them, all moral principle, all sense of dignity, all use of +judgment, and all consistency of character; whilst by the very same +process they give themselves up a proper, a suitable, but a most +contemptible prey to the servile ambition of popular sycophants, or +courtly flatterers. + + +FATE OF LOUIS XVIII. + +Let those who have the trust of political or of natural authority +ever keep watch against the desperate enterprises of innovation: let +even their benevolence be fortified and armed. They have before their +eyes the example of a monarch, insulted, degraded, confined, deposed; +his family dispersed, scattered, imprisoned; his wife insulted to his +face like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all populace; +himself three times dragged by these wretches in an infamous triumph; +his children torn from him, in violation of the first right of +nature, and given into the tuition of the most desperate and impious +of the leaders of desperate and impious clubs; his revenues +dilapidated and plundered; his magistrates murdered; his clergy +proscribed, persecuted, famished; his nobility degraded in their +rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives in their persons; his +armies corrupted and ruined; his whole people impoverished, +disunited, dissolved; whilst through the bars of his prison, and +amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the tumult of two +conflicting factions, equally wicked and abandoned, who agree in +principles, in dispositions, and in objects, but who tear each other +to pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining their common +end; the one contending to preserve for a while his name, and his +person, the more easily to destroy the royal authority--the other +clamouring to cut off the name, the person, and the monarchy +together, by one sacrilegious execution. All this accumulation of +calamity, the greatest that ever fell upon one man, has fallen upon +his head, because he had left his virtues unguarded by caution; +because he was not taught that, where power is concerned, he who will +confer benefits must take security against ingratitude. + + +NOBILITY. + +All this violent cry against the nobility I take to be a mere work of +art. To be honoured and even privileged by the laws, opinions, and +inveterate usages of our country, growing out of the prejudice of ages, +has nothing to provoke horror and indignation in any man. Even to be too +tenacious of those privileges is not absolutely a crime. The strong +struggle in every individual to preserve possession of what he has found +to belong to him, and to distinguish him, is one of the securities +against injustice and despotism implanted in our nature. It operates as +an instinct to secure property, and to preserve communities in a settled +state. What is there to shock in this? Nobility is a graceful ornament +to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society. +Omnes boni nobilitati semper favemus, was the saying of a wise and good +man. It is indeed one sign of a liberal and benevolent mind to incline +to it with some sort of partial propensity. He feels no ennobling +principle in his own heart who wishes to level all the artificial +institutions which have been adopted for giving a body to opinion, and +permanence to fugitive esteem. It is a sour, malignant, envious +disposition, without taste for the reality, or for any image or +representation of virtue, that sees with joy the unmerited fall of what +had long flourished in splendour and in honour. I do not like to see +anything destroyed; any void produced in society; any ruin on the face +of the land. It was therefore with no disappointment or dissatisfaction +that my inquiries and observations did not present to me any +incorrigible vices in the noblesse of France, or any abuse which could +not be removed by a reform very short of abolition. Your noblesse did +not deserve punishment: but to degrade is to punish. + +It was with the same satisfaction I found that the result of my inquiry +concerning your clergy was not dissimilar. It is no soothing news to my +ears, that great bodies of men are incurably corrupt. It is not with +much credulity I listen to any when they speak evil of those whom they +are going to plunder. I rather suspect that vices are feigned or +exaggerated when profit is looked for in their punishment. An enemy is a +bad witness; a robber is a worse. Vices and abuses there were +undoubtedly in that order, and must be. It was an old establishment, and +not frequently revised. But I saw no crimes in the individuals that +merited confiscation of their substance, nor those cruel insults and +degradations, and that unnatural persecution, which have been +substituted in the place of meliorating regulation. + +If there had been any just cause for this new religious persecution, the +atheistic libellers, who act as trumpeters to animate the populace to +plunder, do not love anybody so much as not to dwell with complacence on +the vices of the existing clergy. This they have not done. They find +themselves obliged to rake into the histories of former ages (which they +have ransacked with a malignant and profligate industry) for every +instance of oppression and persecution which has been made by that body +or in its favour, in order to justify, upon very iniquitous, because +very illogical, principles of retaliation, their own persecutions and +their own cruelties. After destroying all other genealogies and family +distinctions, they invent a sort of pedigree of crimes. It is not very +just to chastise men for the offences of their natural ancestors: but to +take the fiction of ancestry in a corporate succession as a ground for +punishing men who have no relation to guilty acts, except in names and +general descriptions, is a sort of refinement in injustice belonging to +the philosophy of this enlightened age. The Assembly punishes men, many, +if not most, of whom abhor the violent conduct of ecclesiastics in +former times as much as their present persecutors can do, and who would +be as loud and as strong in the expression of that sense, if they were +not well aware of the purposes for which all this declamation is +employed. Corporate bodies are immortal for the good of the members, but +not for their punishment. Nations themselves are such corporations. As +well might we in England think of waging inexpiable war upon all +Frenchmen for the evils which they have brought upon us in the several +periods of our mutual hostilities. You might, on your part, think +yourselves justified in falling upon all Englishmen on account of the +unparalleled calamities brought upon the people of France by the unjust +invasions of our Henries and our Edwards. Indeed, we should be mutually +justified in this exterminatory war upon each other, full as much as you +are in the unprovoked persecution of your present countrymen, on account +of the conduct of men of the same name in other times. + + +LEGISLATION AND REPUBLICANS. + +The legislators who framed the ancient republics knew that their +business was too arduous to be accomplished with no better apparatus +than the metaphysics of an undergraduate, and the mathematics and +arithmetic of an exciseman. They had to do with men, and they were +obliged to study human nature. They had to do with citizens, and they +were obliged to study the effects of those habits which are communicated +by the circumstances of civil life. They were sensible that the +operation of this second nature on the first produced a new combination; +and thence arose many diversities amongst men, according to their birth, +their education, their professions, the periods of their lives, their +residence in towns or in the country, their several ways of acquiring +and of fixing property, and according to the quality of the property +itself, all which rendered them as it were so many different species of +animals. From hence they thought themselves obliged to dispose their +citizens into such classes, and to place them in such situations in the +state as their peculiar habits might qualify them to fill, and to allot +to them such appropriated privileges as might secure to them what their +specific occasions required, and which might furnish to each description +such force as might protect it in the conflict caused by the diversity +of interests that must exist, and must contend, in all complex society; +for the legislator would have been ashamed that the coarse husbandman +should well know how to assort and to use his sheep, horses, and oxen, +and should have enough of common sense not to abstract and equalize them +all into animals, without providing for each kind an appropriate food, +care, and employment; whilst he, the economist, disposer, and shepherd +of his own kindred, subliming himself into an airy metaphysician, was +resolved to know nothing of his flocks but as men in general. It is for +this reason that Montesquieu observed, very justly, that in their +classification of the citizens, the great legislators of antiquity made +the greatest display of their powers, and even soared above themselves. +It is here that your modern legislators have gone deep into the negative +series, and sunk even below their own nothing. As the first sort of +legislators attended to the different kinds of citizens, and combined +them into one commonwealth, the others, the metaphysical and +alchemistical legislators, have taken the directly contrary course. They +have attempted to confound all sorts of citizens, as well as they could, +into one homogeneous mass; and then they divided this their amalgama +into a number of incoherent republics. They reduce men to loose +counters, merely for the sake of simple telling, and not to figures +whose power is to arise from their place in the table. The elements of +their own metaphysics might have taught them better lessons. The troll +of their categorical table might have informed them that there was +something else in the intellectual world besides SUBSTANCE and QUANTITY. +They might learn from the catechism of metaphysics that there were eight +heads more, in every complex deliberation, which they have never thought +of; though these, of all the ten, are the subjects on which the skill of +man can operate anything at all. So far from this able disposition of +some of the old republican legislators, which follows with a solicitous +accuracy the moral conditions and propensities of men, they have leveled +and crushed together all the orders which they found, even under the +coarse, unartificial arrangement of the monarchy, in which mode of +government the classing of the citizens is not of so much importance as +in a republic. It is true, however, that every such classification, if +properly ordered, is good in all forms of government; and composes a +strong barrier against the excesses of despotism, as well as it is the +necessary means of giving effect and permanence to a republic. For want +of something of this kind, if the present project of a republic should +fail, all securities to a moderated freedom fail along with it; all the +indirect restraints which mitigate despotism are removed; insomuch that +if monarchy should ever again obtain an entire ascendancy in France, +under this or under any other dynasty, it will probably be, if not +voluntarily tempered at setting out by the wise and virtuous counsels of +the prince, the most completely arbitrary power that has ever appeared +on earth. This is to play a most desperate game. + + +PRINCIPLE OF STATE-CONSECRATION. + +But one of the first and most leading principles on which the +commonwealth and the laws are consecrated, is lest the temporary +possessors and life-renters in it, unmindful of what they have received +from their ancestors, or of what is due to their posterity, should act +as if they were the entire masters; that they should not think it +amongst their rights to cut off the entail, or commit waste on the +inheritance, by destroying at their pleasure the whole original fabric +of their society; hazarding to leave to those who come after them a ruin +instead of an habitation--and teaching these successors as little to +respect their contrivances, as they had themselves respected the +institutions of their forefathers. By this unprincipled facility of +changing the state as often, and as much, and in as many ways, as there +are floating fancies or fashions, the whole chain and continuity of the +commonwealth would be broken. No one generation could link with the +other. Men would become little better than the flies of a summer. + +And first of all, the science of jurisprudence, the pride of the human +intellect, which, with all its defects, redundancies, and errors, is the +collected reason of ages, combining the principles of original justice +with the infinite variety of human concerns, as a heap of old exploded +errors, would be no longer studied. Personal self-sufficiency and +arrogance (the certain attendants upon all those who have never +experienced a wisdom greater than their own) would usurp the tribunal. +Of course no certain laws, establishing invariable grounds of hope and +fear, would keep the actions of men in a certain course, or direct them +to a certain end. Nothing stable in the modes of holding property, or +exercising function, could form a solid ground on which any parent could +speculate in the education of his offspring, or in a choice for their +future establishment in the world. No principles would be early worked +into the habits. As soon as the most able instructor had completed his +laborious course of institution, instead of sending forth his pupil, +accomplished in a virtuous discipline, fitted to procure him attention +and respect in his place in society, he would find everything altered; +and that he had turned out a poor creature to the contempt and derision +of the world, ignorant of the true grounds of estimation. Who would +insure a tender and delicate sense of honour to beat almost with the +first pulses of the heart, when no man could know what would be the test +of honour in a nation, continually varying the standard of its coin? No +part of life would retain its acquisitions. Barbarism with regard to +science and literature, unskilfulness with regard to arts and +manufactures, would infallibly succeed to the want of a steady education +and settled principle; and thus the commonwealth itself would, in a few +generations, crumble away, be disconnected into the dust and powder of +individuality, and at length dispersed to all the winds of heaven. To +avoid therefore the evils of inconstancy and versatility, ten thousand +times worse than those of obstinacy and the blindest prejudice, we have +consecrated the state, that no man should approach to look into its +defects or corruptions but with due caution; that he should never dream +of beginning its reformation by its subversion; that he should approach +to the faults of the state as to the wounds of a father, with pious awe, +and trembling solicitude. By this wise prejudice we are taught to look +with horror on those children of their country, who are prompt rashly to +hack that aged parent in pieces, and put him into the kettle of +magicians, in hopes that by their poisonous weeds, and wild +incantations, they may regenerate the paternal constitution, and +renovate their father's life. + + +BRITISH STABILITY. + +Four hundred years have gone over us; but I believe we are not +materially changed since that period. Thanks to our sullen resistance to +innovation, thanks to the cold sluggishness of our national character, +we still bear the stamp of our forefathers. We have not (as I conceive) +lost the generosity and dignity of thinking of the fourteenth century; +nor as yet have we subtilized ourselves into savages. We are not the +converts of Rousseau; we are not the disciples of Voltaire; Helvetius +has made no progress amongst us. Atheists are not our preachers; madmen +are not our lawgivers. We know that WE have made no discoveries; and we +think that no discoveries are to be made in morality; nor many in the +great principles of government, nor in the ideas of liberty; which were +understood long before we were born, altogether as well as they will be +after the grave has heaped its mould upon our presumption, and the +silent tomb shall have imposed its law on our pert loquacity. In England +we have not yet been completely embowelled of our natural entrails; we +still feel within us, and we cherish and cultivate, those inbred +sentiments which are the faithful guardians, the active monitors of our +duty, the true supporters of all liberal and manly morals. We have not +been drawn and trussed, in order that we may be filled, like stuffed +birds in a museum, with chaff and rags and paltry blurred shreds of +paper about the rights of man. We preserve the whole of our feelings +still native and entire, unsophisticated by pedantry and infidelity. We +have real hearts of flesh and blood beating in our bosoms. We fear God; +we look up with awe to kings; with affection to parliaments; with duty +to magistrates; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. +Why? Because when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is NATURAL +to be so affected; because all other feelings are false and spurious, +and tend to corrupt our minds, to vitiate our primary morals, to render +us unfit for rational liberty; and by teaching us a servile, licentious, +and abandoned insolence, to be our low sport for a few holidays, to make +us perfectly fit for, and justly deserving of, slavery, through the +whole course of our lives. + +You see, sir, that in this enlightened age I am bold enough to confess, +that we are generally men of untaught feelings; that instead of casting +away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable +degree, and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because +they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted, and the more +generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid +to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; +because we suspect that the stock in each man is small, and that the +individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and +capital of nations and of ages. Many of our men of speculation, instead +of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the +latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and +they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice, +with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and +to leave nothing but the naked reason; because prejudice, with its +reason, has a motive to give action to that reason, and an affection +which will give it permanence. Prejudice is of ready application to the +emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom +and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of +decision, sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man's +virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just +prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature. + + +LITERARY ATHEISTS. + +The literary cabal had some years ago formed something like a regular +plan for the destruction of the Christian religion. This object they +pursued with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only +in the propagators of some system of piety. They were possessed with +a spirit of proselytism in the most fanatical degree; and from +thence, by an easy progress, with the spirit of persecution according +to their means. What was not to be done towards their great end by +any direct or immediate act, might be wrought by a longer process +through the medium of opinion. To command that opinion, the first +step is to establish a dominion over those who direct it. They +contrived to possess themselves, with great method and perseverance, +of all the avenues to literary fame. Many of them indeed stood high +in the ranks of literature and science. The world had done them +justice; and in favour of general talents forgave the evil tendency +of their peculiar principles. This was true liberality; which they +returned by endeavouring to confine the reputation of sense, +learning, and taste to themselves or their followers. I will venture +to say that this narrow, exclusive spirit has not been less +prejudicial to literature and to taste, than to morals and true +philosophy. Those atheistical fathers have a bigotry of their own; +and they have learnt to talk against monks with the spirit of a monk. +But in some things they are men of the world. The resources of +intrigue are called in to supply the defects of argument and wit. To +this system of literary monopoly was joined an unremitting industry +to blacken and discredit in every way, and by every means, all those +who did not hold to their faction. To those who have observed the +spirit of their conduct, it has long been clear that nothing was +wanted but the power of carrying the intolerance of the tongue and of +the pen into a persecution which would strike at property, liberty, +and life. + +The desultory and faint persecution carried on against them, more from +compliance with form and decency, than with serious resentment, neither +weakened their strength, nor relaxed their efforts. The issue of the +whole was, that, what with opposition, and what with success, a violent +and malignant zeal, of a kind hitherto unknown in the world, had taken +an entire possession of their minds, and rendered their whole +conversation, which otherwise would have been pleasing and instructive, +perfectly disgusting. A spirit of cabal, intrigue, and proselytism, +pervaded all their thoughts, words, and actions. And, as controversial +zeal soon turns its thoughts on force, they began to insinuate +themselves into a correspondence with foreign princes; in hopes, through +their authority, which at first they flattered, they might bring about +the changes they had in view. To them it was indifferent whether these +changes were to be accomplished by the thunderbolt of despotism, or by +the earthquake of popular commotion. The correspondence between this +cabal and the late king of Prussia, will throw no small light upon the +spirit of all their proceedings. For the same purpose for which they +intrigued with princes, they cultivated, in a distinguished manner, the +monied interest of France; and partly through the means furnished by +those whose peculiar offices gave them the most extensive and certain +means of communication, they carefully occupied all the avenues to +opinion. + +Writers, especially when they act in a body, and with one direction, +have great influence on the public mind; the alliance, therefore, of +these writers with the monied interest, had no small effect in removing +the popular odium and envy which attended that species of wealth. These +writers, like the propagators of all novelties, pretended to a great +zeal for the poor, and the lower orders, whilst in their satires they +rendered hateful, by every exaggeration, the faults of courts, of +nobility, and of priesthood. They became a sort of demagogues. They +served as a link to unite, in favour of one object, obnoxious wealth to +restless and desperate poverty. + + +CITY OF PARIS. + +The second material of cement for their new republic is the +superiority of the city of Paris: and this I admit is strongly +connected with the other cementing principle of paper circulation and +confiscation. It is in this part of the project we must look for the +cause of the destruction of all the old bounds of provinces and +jurisdictions, ecclesiastical and secular, and the dissolution of all +ancient combinations of things, as well as the formation of so many +small unconnected republics. The power of the city of Paris is +evidently one great spring of all their politics. It is through the +power of Paris, now become the centre and focus of jobbing, that the +leaders of this faction direct, or rather command, the whole +legislative and the whole executive government. Everything therefore +must be done which can confirm the authority of that city over the +other republics. Paris is compact; she has an enormous strength, +wholly disproportioned to the force of any of the square republics; +and this strength is collected and condensed within a narrow compass. +Paris has a natural and easy connection of its parts, which will not +be affected by any scheme of a geometrical constitution, nor does it +much signify whether its proportion of representation be more or +less, since it has the whole draft of fishes in its drag-net. The +other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces, and +separated from all their habitual means, and even principles of +union, cannot, for some time at least, confederate against her. +Nothing was to be left in all the subordinate members, but weakness, +disconnection, and confusion. To confirm this part of the plan, the +Assembly has lately come to a resolution, that no two of their +republics shall have the same commander-in-chief. + +To a person who takes a view of the whole, the strength of Paris, thus +formed, will appear a system of general weakness. It is boasted that the +geometrical policy has been adopted, that all local ideas should be +sunk, and that the people should be no longer Gascons, Picards, Bretons, +Normans; but Frenchmen, with one country, one heart, and one Assembly. +But instead of being all Frenchmen, the greater likelihood is, that the +inhabitants of that region will shortly have no country. No man ever was +attached by a sense of pride, partiality, or real affection, to a +description of square measurements. He never will glory in belonging to +the Chequer No. 71, or to any other badge-ticket. We begin our public +affections in our families. No cold relation is a zealous citizen. We +pass on to our neighbourhoods, and our habitual provincial connections. +These are inns and resting-places. Such divisions of our country as have +been formed by habit, and not by a sudden jerk of authority, were so +many little images of the great country in which the heart found +something which it could fill. The love to the whole is not extinguished +by this subordinate partiality. Perhaps it is a sort of elemental +training to those higher and more large regards, by which alone men come +to be affected, as with their own concern, in the prosperity of a +kingdom so extensive as that of France. In that general territory +itself, as in the old name of provinces, the citizens are interested +from old prejudices and unreasoned habits, and not on account of the +geometric properties of its figure. The power and pre-eminence of Paris +does certainly press down and hold these republics together as long as +it lasts. But, for the reasons I have already given you, I think it +cannot last very long. + + +PRINCIPLE OF CHURCH PROPERTY. + +Why should the expenditure of a great landed property, which is a +dispersion of the surplus product of the soil, appear intolerable to +you or to me, when it takes its course through the accumulation of +vast libraries, which are the history of the force and weakness of +the human mind; through great collections of ancient records, medals, +and coins, which attest and explain laws and customs; through +paintings and statues, that, by imitating nature, seem to extend the +limits of creation; through grand monuments of the dead, which +continue the regards and connections of life beyond the grave; +through collections of the specimens of nature, which become a +representative assembly of all the classes and families of the world, +that by disposition facilitate, and, by exciting curiosity, open the +avenues to science? If by great permanent establishments, all these +objects of expense are better secured from the inconstant sport of +personal caprice and personal extravagance, are they worse than if +the same tastes prevailed in scattered individuals? Does not the +sweat of the mason and carpenter, who toil in order to partake the +sweat of the peasant, flow as pleasantly and as salubriously, in the +construction and repair of the majestic edifices of religion, as in +the painted booths and sordid sties of vice and luxury; as honourably +and as profitably in repairing those sacred works, which grow hoary +with innumerable years, as on the momentary receptacles of transient +voluptuousness; in opera-houses, and brothels, and gaming-houses, and +club-houses, and obelisks in the Champ de Mars? Is the surplus +product of the olive and the vine worse employed in the frugal +sustenance of persons, whom the fictions of a pious imagination raise +to dignity by construing in the service of God, than in pampering the +innumerable multitude of those who are degraded by being made useless +domestics, subservient to the pride of man? Are the decorations of +temples an expenditure less worthy a wise man, than ribbons, and +laces, and national cockades, and petites maisons, and petits +soupers, and all the innumerable fopperies and follies, in which +opulence sports away the burthen of its superfluity? + +We tolerate even these; not from love of them, but for fear of worse. We +tolerate them, because property and liberty, to a degree, acquire that +toleration. But why proscribe the other, and surely, in every point of +view, the more laudable use of estates? Why, through the violation of +all property, through an outrage upon every principle of liberty, +forcibly carry them from the better to the worse? + +This comparison between the new individuals and the old corps, is made +upon a supposition that no reform could be made in the latter. But, in a +question of reformation, I always consider corporate bodies, whether +sole or consisting of many, to be much more susceptible of a public +direction by the power of the state, in the use of their property, and +in the regulation of modes and habits of life in their members, than +private citizens ever can be, or perhaps ought to be: and this seems to +me a very material consideration for those who undertake anything which +merits the name of a politic enterprise. So far as to the estates of +monasteries. + +With regard to the estates possessed by bishops and canons, and +commendatory abbots, I cannot find out for what reason some landed +estates may not be held otherwise than by inheritance. Can any +philosophic spoiler undertake to demonstrate the positive or the +comparative evil of having a certain, and that too a large, portion of +landed property, passing in succession through persons whose title to it +is, always in theory, and often, in fact, an eminent degree of piety, +morals, and learning; a property, which, by its destination, in their +turn, and on the score of merit, gives to the noblest families +renovation and support, to the lowest the means of dignity and +elevation; a property the tenure to which is the performance of some +duty (whatever value you may choose to set upon that duty), and the +character of whose proprietors demands, at least, an exterior decorum, +and gravity of manners; who are to exercise a generous but temperate +hospitality; part of whose income they are to consider as a trust for +charity; and who, even when they fail in their trust, when they slide +from their character, and degenerate into a mere common secular nobleman +or gentleman, are in no respect worse than those who may succeed them in +their forfeited possessions? Is it better that estates should be held by +those who have no duty, than by those who have one?--by those whose +character and destination point to virtues, than by those who have no +rule and direction in the expenditure of their estates but their own +will and appetite? Nor are these estates held altogether in the +character or with the evils supposed inherent in mortmain. They pass +from hand to hand with a more rapid circulation than any other. No +excess is good; and therefore too great a proportion of landed property +may be held officially for life: but it does not seem to me of material +injury to any commonwealth, that there should exist some estates that +have a chance of being acquired by other means than the previous +acquisition of money. + + +PARSIMONY NOT ECONOMY. + +I beg leave to tell him, that mere parsimony is not economy. It is +separable in theory from it; and in fact it may, or it may not, be a +PART of economy, according to circumstances. Expense, and great expense, +may be an essential part in true economy. If parsimony were to be +considered as one of the kinds of that virtue, there is, however, +another and a higher economy. Economy is a distributive virtue, and +consists not in saving, but in selection. Parsimony requires no +providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no +judgment. Mere instinct, and that not an instinct of the noblest kind, +may produce this false economy in perfection. The other economy has +larger views. It demands a discriminating judgment, and a firm, +sagacious mind. It shuts one door to impudent importunity, only to open +another, and a wider, to unpresuming merit. If none but meritorious +service or real talent were to be rewarded, this nation has not wanted, +and this nation will not want, the means of rewarding all the service it +ever will receive, and encouraging all the merit it ever will produce. +No state, since the foundation of society, has been impoverished by that +species of profusion. Had the economy of selection and proportion been +at all times observed, we should not now have had an overgrown duke of +Bedford, to oppress the industry of humble men, and to limit, by the +standard of his own conceptions, the justice, the bounty, or, if he +pleases, the charity of the crown. + + +MAJESTY OF THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. + +I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbours the example +of the British constitution, than to take models from them for the +improvement of our own. In the former they have got an invaluable +treasure. They are not, I think, without some causes of apprehension and +complaint; but these they do not owe to their constitution, but to their +own conduct. I think our happy situation owing to our constitution; but +owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly; owing, in a great +measure, to what we have left standing in our several reviews and +reformations, as well as to what we have altered or superadded. Our +people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and +independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation. I +would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should +be to preserve. I should be led to my remedy by a great grievance. In +what I did, I should follow the example of our ancestors. I would make +the reparation as nearly as possible in the style of the building. A +politic caution, a guarded circumspection, a moral rather than a +complexional timidity, were among the ruling principles of our +forefathers in their most decided conduct. Not being illuminated with +the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so +abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance +and fallibility of mankind. He that had made them thus fallible, +rewarded them for having in their conduct attended to their nature. Let +us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune, or to +retain their bequests. Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve +what they have left; and, standing on the firm ground of the British +constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to +follow in their desperate flights the aeronauts of France. + +I have told you candidly my sentiments. I think they are not likely to +alter yours. I do not know that they ought. You are young; you cannot +guide, but must follow the fortune of your country. But hereafter they +may be of some use to you, in some future form which your commonwealth +may take. In the present it can hardly remain; but before its final +settlement it may be obliged to pass, as one of our poets says, "through +great varieties of untried being," and in all its transmigrations to be +purified by fire and blood. + + +DUTY NOT BASED ON WILL. + +I cannot too often recommend it to the serious consideration of all +men, who think civil society to be within the province of moral +jurisdiction, that if we owe to it any duty, it is not subject to our +will. Duties are not voluntary. Duty and will are even contradictory +terms. Now, though civil society might be at first a voluntary act +(which in many cases it undoubtedly was), its continuance is under a +permanent, standing covenant, co-existing with the society; and it +attaches upon every individual of that society, without any formal +act of his own. This is warranted by the general practice, arising +out of the general sense of mankind. Men without their choice derive +benefits from that association; without their choice they are +subjected to duties in consequence of these benefits; and without +their choice they enter into a virtual obligation as binding as any +that is actual. Look through the whole of life and the whole system +of duties. Much the strongest moral obligations are such as were +never the results of our option. I allow, that if no supreme ruler +exists, wise to form, and potent to enforce, the moral law, there is +no sanction to any contract, virtual or even actual, against the will +of prevalent power. On that hypothesis, let any set of men be strong +enough to set their duties at defiance, and they cease to be duties +any longer. We have but this one appeal against irresistible power-- + + "Si genus humanum et mortalia temnitis arma, + At sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi." + +Taking it for granted that I do not write to the disciples of the +Parisian philosophy, I may assume, that the awful Author of our being is +the Author of our place in the order of existence; and that, having +disposed and marshalled us by a divine tactic, not according to our +will, but according to his, he has, in and by that disposition, +virtually subjected us to act the part which belongs to the place +assigned us. We have obligations to mankind at large, which are not in +consequence of any special voluntary pact. They arise from the relation +of man to man, and the relation of man to God, which relations are not +matters of choice. On the contrary, the force of all the pacts which we +enter into with any particular person, or number of persons, amongst +mankind, depends upon those prior obligations. In some cases the +subordinate relations are voluntary, in others they are necessary--but +the duties are all compulsive. When we marry, the choice is voluntary, +but the duties are not matter of choice. They are dictated by the nature +of the situation. Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come +into the world. The instincts which give rise to this mysterious process +of nature are not of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to +us, perhaps unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able +perfectly to comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents +may not be consenting to their moral relation; but consenting or not, +they are bound to a long train of burthensome duties towards those with +whom they have never made a convention of any sort. Children are not +consenting to their relation, but their relation, without their actual +consent, binds them to its duties; or rather it implies their consent, +because the presumed consent of every rational creature is in unison +with the predisposed order of things. Men come in that manner into a +community with the social state of their parents, endowed with all the +benefits, loaded with all the duties, of their situation. If the social +ties and ligaments, spun out of those physical relations which are the +elements of the commonwealth, in most cases begin, and alway continue, +independently of our will, so, without any stipulation on our own part, +are we bound by that relation called our country, which comprehends (as +it has been well said) "all the charities of all." Nor are we left +without powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and grateful to us, +as it is awful and coercive. It consists, in a great measure, in the +ancient order into which we are born. We may have the same geographical +situation, but another country; as we may have the same country in +another soil. The place that determines our duty to our country is a +social, civil relation. + + +ECCLESIASTICAL CONFISCATION. + +The confiscators truly have made some allowance to their victims from +the scraps and fragments of their own tables, from which they have +been so harshly driven, and which have been so bountifully spread for +a feast to the harpies of usury. But to drive men from independence +to live on alms is itself great cruelty. That which might be a +tolerable condition to men in one state of life, and not habituated +to other things, may, when all these circumstances are altered, be a +dreadful revolution; and one to which a virtuous mind would feel pain +in condemning any guilt, except that which would demand the life of +the offender. But to many minds this punishment of DEGRADATION and +INFAMY is worse than death. Undoubtedly it is an infinite aggravation +of this cruel suffering, that the persons who were taught a double +prejudice in favour of religion, by education and by the place they +held in the administration of its functions, are to receive the +remnants of the property as alms from the profane and impious hands +of those who had plundered them of all the rest; to receive (if they +are at all to receive) not from the charitable contributions of the +faithful, but from the insolent tenderness of known and avowed +atheism, the maintenance of religion, measured out to them on the +standard of the contempt in which it is held; and for the purpose of +rendering those who receive the allowance vile, and of no estimation, +in the eyes of mankind. + +But this act of seizure of property, it seems, is a judgment in law, and +not a confiscation. They have, it seems, found out in the academies of +the Palais Royal and the Jacobins, that certain men had no right to the +possessions which they held under law, usage, the decisions of courts, +and the accumulated prescription of a thousand years. They say that +ecclesiastics are fictitious persons, creatures of the state, whom at +pleasure they may destroy, and of course limit and modify in every +particular; that the goods they possess are not properly theirs, but +belong to the state which created the fiction; and we are therefore not +to trouble ourselves with what they may suffer in their natural feelings +and natural persons, on account of what is done towards them in this +their constructive character. Of what import is it under what names you +injure men, and deprive them of the just emoluments of a profession, in +which they were not only permitted but encouraged by the state to +engage; and upon the supposed certainty of which emoluments they had +formed the plan of their lives, contracted debts, and led multitudes to +an entire dependence upon them? + +You do not imagine, sir, that I am going to compliment this miserable +distinction of persons with any long discussion. The arguments of +tyranny are as contemptible as its force is dreadful. Had not your +confiscators, by their early crimes, obtained a power which secures +indemnity to all the crimes of which they have since been guilty, or +that they can commit, it is not the syllogism of the logician, but the +lash of the executioner, that would have refuted a sophistry which +becomes an accomplice of theft and murder. The sophistic tyrants of +Paris are loud in their declamations against the departed regal tyrants, +who in former ages have vexed the world. They are thus bold, because +they are safe from the dungeons and iron cages of their old masters. +Shall we be more tender of the tyrants of our own time, when we see them +acting worse tragedies under our eyes? shall we not use the same liberty +that they do, when we can use it with the same safety? when to speak +honest truth only requires a contempt of the opinion of those whose +actions we abhor? + + +MORAL OF HISTORY. + +We do not draw the moral lessons we might from history. On the contrary, +without care it may be used to vitiate our minds and to destroy our +happiness. In history a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, +drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and +infirmities of mankind. It may, in the perversion, serve for a magazine, +furnishing offensive and defensive weapons for parties in church and +state, and supplying the means of keeping alive, or reviving, +dissensions and animosities, and adding fuel to civil fury. History +consists, for the greater part, of the miseries brought upon the world +by pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, lust, sedition, hypocrisy, +ungoverned zeal, and all the train of disorderly appetites which shake +the public with the same + + --"troublous storms that toss + The private state, and render life unsweet." + +These vices are the CAUSES of those storms. Religion, morals, laws, +prerogatives, privileges, liberties, rights of men, are the PRETEXTS. +The pretexts are always found in some specious appearance of a real +good. You would not secure men from tyranny and sedition, by rooting out +of the mind the principles to which these fraudulent pretexts apply? If +you did, you would root out everything that is valuable in the human +breast. As these are the pretexts, so the ordinary actors and +instruments in great public evils are kings, priests, magistrates, +senates, parliaments, national assemblies, judges, and captains. You +would not cure the evil by resolving that there should be no more +monarchs, nor ministers of state, nor of the gospel; no interpreters of +law; no general officers; no public councils. You might change the +names. The things in some shape must remain. A certain quantum of power +must always exist in the community, in some hands, and under some +appellation. Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names; +to the causes of evil which are permanent, not to the occasional organs +by which they act, and the transitory modes in which they appear. +Otherwise you will be wise historically,--a fool in practice. Seldom +have two ages the same fashion in their pretexts and the same modes of +mischief. Wickedness is a little more inventive. Whilst you are +discussing fashion, the fashion is gone by. The very same vice assumes a +new body. The spirit transmigrates; and, far from losing its principle +of life by the change of its appearance, it is renovated in its new +organs with the fresh vigour of a juvenile activity. It walks abroad, it +continues its ravages, whilst you are gibbeting the carcase, or +demolishing the tomb. You are terrifying yourselves with ghosts and +apparitions, whilst your house is the haunt of robbers. It is thus with +all those who, attending only to the shell and husk of history, think +they are waging war with intolerance, pride, and cruelty, whilst, under +colour of abhorring the ill principles of antiquated parties, they are +authorizing and feeding the same odious vices in different factions, and +perhaps in worse. + + +USE OF DEFECTS IN HISTORY. + +Not that I derogate from the use of history. It is a great improver +of the understanding, by showing both men and affairs in a great +variety of views. From this source much political wisdom may be +learned; that is, may be learned as habit, not as precept; and as an +exercise to strengthen the mind, as furnishing materials to enlarge +and enrich it, not as a repertory of cases and precedents for a +lawyer: if it were, a thousand times better would it be that a +statesman had never learned to read--vellem nescirent literas. This +method turns their understanding from the object before them, and +from the present exigencies of the world, to comparisons with former +times, of which, after all, we can know very little, and very +imperfectly; and our guides, the historians, who are to give us their +true interpretation, are often prejudiced, often ignorant, often +fonder of system than of truth. Whereas, if a man with reasonably +good parts and natural sagacity, and not in the leading-strings of +any master, will look steadily on the business before him, without +being diverted by retrospect and comparison, he may be capable of +forming a reasonably good judgment of what is to be done. There are +some fundamental points in which nature never changes--but they are +few and obvious, and belong rather to morals than to politics. But so +far as regards political matter, the human mind and human affairs are +susceptible of infinite modifications, and of combinations wholly new +and unlooked for. Very few, for instance, could have imagined that +property, which has been taken for natural dominion, should, through +the whole of a vast kingdom, lose all its importance and even its +influence. This is what history or books of speculation could hardly +have taught us. How many could have thought, that the most complete +and formidable revolution in a great empire should be made by men of +letters, not as subordinate instruments and trumpeters of sedition, +but as the chief contrivers and managers, and in a short time as the +open administrators and sovereign rulers? Who could have imagined +that atheism could produce one of the most violently operative +principles of fanaticism? Who could have imagined that, in a +commonwealth in a manner cradled in war, and in extensive and +dreadful war, military commanders should be of little or no account? +That the Convention should not contain one military man of name? That +administrative bodies in a state of the utmost confusion, and of but +a momentary duration, and composed of men with not one imposing part +of character, should be able to govern the country and its armies +with an authority which the most settled senates, and the most +respected monarchs, scarcely ever had in the same degree? This, for +one, I confess I did not foresee, though all the rest was present to +me very early, and not out of my apprehension even for several years. + + +SOCIAL CONTRACT. + +Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere +occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure--but the state ought +not to be considered nothing better than a partnership agreement in a +trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some other such low +concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and to be +dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other +reverence; because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to +the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a +partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in +every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership +cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not +only between those who are living, but between those who are living, +those who are dead, and those who are to be born. Each contract of each +particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of +eternal society, linking the lower with the higher natures, connecting +the visible and invisible world, according to a fixed compact sanctioned +by the inviolable oath which holds all physical and all moral natures +each in their appointed place. This law is not subject to the will of +those, who by an obligation above them, and infinitely superior, are +bound to submit their will to that law. The municipal corporations of +that universal kingdom are not morally at liberty at their pleasure, and +on their speculations of a contingent improvement, wholly to separate +and tear asunder the bands of their subordinate community, and to +dissolve it into an unsocial, uncivil, unconnected chaos of elementary +principles. It is the first and supreme necessity only, a necessity that +is not chosen, but chooses, a necessity paramount to deliberation, that +admits no discussion, and demands no evidence, which alone can justify a +resort to anarchy. This necessity is no exception to the rule; because +this necessity itself is a part too of that moral and physical +disposition of things to which man must be obedient by consent of force: +but if that which is only submission to necessity should be made the +object of choice, the law is broken, nature is disobeyed, and the +rebellious are outlawed, cast forth, and exiled from this world of +reason, and order, and peace, and virtue, and fruitful penitence, into +the antagonist world of madness, discord, vice, confusion, and +unavailing sorrow. + + +PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHTS. + +The crown has considered me after long service; the crown has paid the +duke of Bedford by advance. He has had a long credit for any service +which he may perform hereafter. He is secure, and long may he be secure, +in his advance, whether he performs any services or not. But let him +take care how he endangers the safety of that constitution which secures +his own utility or his own insignificance; or how he discourages those +who take up even puny arms to defend an order of things which, like the +sun of heaven, shines alike on the useful and the worthless. His grants +are engrafted on the public law of Europe, covered with the awful hoar +of innumerable ages. They are guarded by the sacred rules of +prescription, found in that full treasury of jurisprudence from which +the jejuneness and penury of our municipal law has, by degrees, been +enriched and strengthened. This prescription I had my share (a very full +share) in bringing to its perfection. The duke of Bedford will stand as +long as prescriptive law endures; as long as the great stable laws of +property, common to us with all civilized nations, are kept in their +integrity, and without the smallest intermixture of laws, maxims, +principles, or precedents, of the grand revolution. They are secure +against all changes but one. The whole revolutionary system, institutes, +digest, code, novels, text, gloss, comment, are not only not the same, +but they are the very reverse, and the reverse fundamentally, of all the +laws, on which civil life has hitherto been upheld in all the +governments of the world. The learned professors of the rights of man +regard prescription not as a title to bar all claim, set up against all +possession, but they look on prescription as itself a bar against the +possessor and proprietor. They hold an immemorial possession to be no +more than a long-continued, and therefore an aggravated injustice. + +Such are THEIR ideas, such THEIR religion, and such THEIR law. But as to +OUR country and OUR race, as long as the well-compacted structure of our +church and state, the sanctuary, the holy of holies of that ancient law, +defended by reverence, defended by power, a fortress at once and a +temple, shall stand inviolate on the brow of the British Sion; as long +as the British monarchy, not more limited than fenced by the orders of +the state, shall, like the proud Keep of Windsor, rising in the majesty +of proportion, and girt with the double belt of its kindred and coeval +towers,--as long as this awful structure shall oversee and guard the +subjected land--so long the mounds and dykes of the low, fat Bedford +Level will have nothing to fear from all the pickaxes of all the +levellers of France. As long as our sovereign lord the king, and his +faithful subjects, the lords and commons of this realm,--the triple +cord, which no man can break; the solemn, sworn, constitutional +frank-pledge of this nation; the firm guarantees of each other's being, +and each other's rights; the joint and several securities, each in its +place and order, for every kind and every quality, of property and of +dignity:--as long as these endure, so long the duke of Bedford is safe: +and we are all safe together--the high from the blights of envy and the +spoliations of rapacity; the low from the iron hand of oppression and +the insolent spurn of contempt. Amen! and so be it: and so it will be,-- + + "Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum + Accolet; imperiumque pater Romanus habebit." + + +MADNESS OF INNOVATION. + +Novelty is not the only source of zeal. Why should not a Maccabeus +and his brethren arise to assert the honour of the ancient law, and +to defend the temple of their forefathers, with as ardent a spirit as +can inspire any innovator to destroy the monuments of the piety and +the glory of ancient ages? It is not a hazarded assertion, it is a +great truth, that when once things are gone out of their ordinary +course, it is by acts out of the ordinary course they can alone be +re-established. Republican spirit can only be combated by a spirit of +the same nature: of the same nature, but informed with another +principle, and pointing to another end. I would persuade a +resistance, both to the corruption and to the reformation that +prevails. It will not be the weaker, but much the stronger, for +combating both together. A victory over real corruptions would enable +us to baffle the spurious and pretended reformations. I would not +wish to excite, or even to tolerate, that kind of evil spirit which +invokes the powers of hell to rectify the disorders of the earth. No! +I would add my voice with better, and I trust, more potent charms, to +draw down justice and wisdom and fortitude from heaven, for the +correction of human vice, and the recalling of human error from the +devious ways into which it has been betrayed. I would wish to call +the impulses of individuals at once to the aid and to the control of +authority. By this, which I call the true republican spirit, +paradoxical as it may appear, monarchies alone can be rescued from +the imbecility of courts and the madness of the crowd. This +republican spirit would not suffer men in high place to bring ruin on +their country and on themselves. It would reform, not by destroying, +but by saving, the great, the rich, and the powerful. Such a +republican spirit, we perhaps fondly conceive to have animated the +distinguished heroes and patriots of old, who knew no mode of policy +but religion and virtue. These they would have paramount to all +constitutions; they would not suffer monarchs, or senates, or popular +assemblies, under pretences of dignity, or authority, or freedom, to +shake off those moral riders which reason has appointed to govern +every sort of rude power. These, in appearance loading them by their +weight, do by that pressure augment their essential force. The +momentum is increased by the extraneous weight. It is true in moral, +as it is in mechanical science. It is true, not only in the draught, +but in the race. These riders of the great, in effect, hold the reins +which guide them in their course, and wear the spur that stimulates +them to the goals of honour and of safety. The great must submit to +the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to +the dominion of the great. + + "Dis te minorem quod geris imperas." + +This is the feudal tenure which they cannot alter. + + +THE STATE, ITS OWN REVENUE. + +The revenue of the state is the state. In effect all depends upon it, +whether for support or for reformation. The dignity of every occupation +wholly depends upon the quantity and the kind of virtue that may be +exerted in it. As all great qualities of the mind which operate in +public, and are not merely suffering and passive, require force for +their display, I had almost said for their unequivocal existence, the +revenue, which is the spring of all power, becomes in its administration +the sphere of every active virtue. Public virtue, being of a nature +magnificent and splendid, instituted for great things, and conversant +about great concerns, requires abundant scope and room, and cannot +spread and grow under confinement, and in circumstances straitened, +narrow, and sordid. Through the revenue alone the body politic can act +in its true genius and character, and therefore it will display just as +much of its collective virtue, and as much of that virtue which may +characterize those who move it, and are, as it were, its life and +guiding principle, as it is possessed of a just revenue. For from hence +not only magnanimity, and liberality, and beneficence, and fortitude, +and providence, and the tutelary protection of all good arts, derive +their food, and the growth of their organs, but continence, and +self-denial, and labour, and vigilance, and frugality, and whatever else +there is in which the mind shows itself above the appetite, are nowhere +more in their proper element than in the provision and distribution of +the public wealth. It is therefore not without reason that the science +of speculative and practical finance, which must take to its aid so many +auxiliary branches of knowledge, stands high in the estimation, not only +of the ordinary sort, but of the wisest and best men; and as this +science has grown with the progress of its object, the prosperity and +improvement of nations has generally increased with the increase of +their revenues; and they will both continue to grow and flourish, as +long as the balance between what is left to strengthen the efforts of +individuals, and what is collected for the common efforts of the state, +bear to each other a due reciprocal proportion, and are kept in a close +correspondence and communication. + + +METAPHYSICAL DEPRAVITY. + +These philosophers are fanatics; independent of any interest, which +if it operated alone would make them much more tractable, they are +carried with such a headlong rage towards every desperate trial, that +they would sacrifice the whole human race to the slightest of their +experiments. I am better able to enter into the character of this +description of men than the noble duke can be. I have lived long and +variously in the world. Without any considerable pretensions to +literature in myself, I have aspired to the love of letters. I have +lived for a great many years in habitudes with those who professed +them. I can form a tolerable estimate of what is likely to happen +from a character chiefly dependent for fame and fortune on knowledge +and talent, as well in its morbid and perverted state as in that +which is sound and natural. Naturally, men so formed and finished are +the first gifts of Providence to the world. But when they have once +thrown off the fear of God, which was in all ages too often the case, +and the fear of men, which is now the case, and when in that state +they come to understand one another, and to act in corps, a more +dreadful calamity cannot arise out of hell to scourge mankind. +Nothing can be conceived more hard than the heart of a thorough-bred +metaphysician. It comes nearer to the cold malignity of a wicked +spirit than to the frailty and passion of a man. It is like that of +the principle of evil himself, incorporeal, pure, unmixed, +dephlegmated, defecated evil. It is no easy operation to eradicate +humanity from the human breast. What Shakespeare calls "the +compunctious visitings of nature," will sometimes knock at their +hearts, and protest against their murderous speculations. But they +have a means of compounding with their nature. Their humanity is not +dissolved. They only give it a long prorogation. They are ready to +declare, that they do not think two thousand years too long a period +for the good that they pursue. It is remarkable, that they never see +any way to their projected good but by the road of some evil. Their +imagination is not fatigued with the contemplation of human suffering +through the wild waste of centuries added to centuries of misery and +desolation. Their humanity is at their horizon--and, like the +horizon, it always flies before them. The geometricians and the +chemists bring the one from the dry bones of their diagrams, and the +other from the soot of their furnaces, dispositions that make them +worse than indifferent about those feelings and habitudes which are +the supports of the moral world. Ambition is come upon them suddenly; +they are intoxicated with it, and it has rendered them fearless of +the danger which may from thence arise to others or to themselves. +These philosophers consider men in their experiments no more than +they do mice in an air-pump, or in a recipient of mephitic gas. +Whatever his grace may think of himself, they look upon him, and +everything that belongs to him, with no more regard than they do upon +the whiskers of that little long-tailed animal, that has been long +the game of the grave, demure, insidious, spring-nailed, +velvet-pawed, green-eyed philosophers, whether going upon two legs or +upon four. + + +PERSONAL AND ANCESTRAL CLAIMS. + +I really am at a loss to draw any sort of parallel between the public +merits of his grace, by which he justifies the grants he holds, and +these services of mine, on the favourable construction of which I have +obtained what his grace so much disapproves. In private life, I have not +at all the honour of acquaintance with the noble duke. But I ought to +presume, and it costs me nothing to do so, that he abundantly deserves +the esteem and love of all who live with him. But as to public service, +why truly it would not be more ridiculous for me to compare myself in +rank, in fortune, in splendid descent, in youth, strength, or figure, +with the duke of Bedford, than to make a parallel between his services +and my attempts to be useful to my country. It would not be gross +adulation, but uncivil irony, to say, that he has any public merit of +his own to keep alive the idea of the services by which his vast landed +pensions were obtained. My merits, whatever they are, are original and +personal; his are derivative. It is his ancestor, the original +pensioner, that has laid up this inexhaustible fund of merit, which +makes his grace so very delicate and exceptious about the merit of all +other grantees of the crown. Had he permitted me to remain in quiet, I +should have said, 'Tis his estate; that's enough. It is his by law; what +have I to do with it or its history? He would naturally have said on his +side, 'Tis this man's fortune. He is as good now as my ancestor was two +hundred and fifty years ago. I am a young man with very old pensions: he +is an old man with very young pensions,--that's all. Why will his grace, +by attacking me, force me reluctantly to compare my little merit with +that which obtained from the crown those prodigies of profuse donation +by which he tramples on the mediocrity of humble and laborious +individuals? I would willingly leave him to the herald's college, which +the philosophy of the sans culottes (prouder by far than all the +Garters, and Norroys, and Clarencieux, and Rouge Dragons, that ever +pranced in a procession of what his friends call aristocrats and +despots) will abolish with contumely and scorn. These historians, +recorders, and blazoners of virtues and arms, differ wholly from that +other description of historians, who never assign any act of politicians +to a good motive. These gentle historians, on the contrary, dip their +pens in nothing but the milk of human kindness. They seek no further for +merit than the preamble of a patent, or the inscription of a tomb. With +them every man created a peer is first a hero ready made. They judge of +every man's capacity for office by the offices he has filled; and the +more offices, the more ability. Every general-officer with them is a +Marlborough; every statesman a Burleigh; every judge a Murray or a +Yorke. They who, alive, were laughed at or pitied by all their +acquaintance, make as good a figure as the best of them in the pages of +Guillim, Edmondson, and Collins. + + +MONASTIC AND PHILOSOPHIC SUPERSTITION. + +But the institutions savour of superstition in their very principle; and +they nourish it by a permanent and standing influence. This I do not +mean to dispute; but this ought not to hinder you from deriving from +superstition itself any resources which may thence be furnished for the +public advantage. You derive benefits from many dispositions and many +passions of the human mind, which are of as doubtful a colour, in the +moral eye, as superstition itself. It was your business to correct and +mitigate everything which was noxious in this passion, as in all the +passions. But is superstition the greatest of all possible vices? In its +possible excess I think it becomes a very great evil. It is, however, a +moral subject; and of course admits of all degrees and all +modifications. Superstition is the religion of feeble minds; and they +must be tolerated in an intermixture of it, in some trifling or some +enthusiastic shape or other, else you will deprive weak minds of a +resource found necessary to the strongest. The body of all true religion +consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the +world; in a confidence in his declarations, and in imitation of his +perfections. The rest is our own. It may be prejudicial to the great +end; it may be auxiliary. Wise men, who as such are not ADMIRERS (not +admirers at least of the munera terrae), are not violently attached to +these things, nor do they violently hate them. Wisdom is not the most +severe corrector of folly. They are the rival follies, which mutually +wage so unrelenting a war; and which make so cruel a use of their +advantages, as they can happen to engage the immoderate vulgar, on the +one side, or the other, in their quarrels. Prudence would be neuter; but +if, in the contention between fond attachment and fierce antipathy +concerning things in their nature not made to produce such heats, a +prudent man were obliged to make a choice of what errors and excesses of +enthusiasm he would condemn or bear, perhaps he would think the +superstition which builds, to be more tolerable than that which +demolishes; that which adorns a country, than that which deforms it; +that which endows, than that which plunders; that which disposes to +mistaken beneficence, than that which stimulates to real injustice; that +which leads a man to refuse to himself lawful pleasures, than that which +snatches from others the scanty subsistence of their self-denial. Such, +I think, is very nearly the state of the question between the ancient +founders of monkish superstition, and the superstition of the pretended +philosophers of the hour. + + +DIFFICULTY AND WISDOM OF CORPORATE REFORM. + +There are moments in the fortune of states when particular men are +called to make improvements by great mental exertion. In those +moments, even when they seem to enjoy the confidence of their prince +and country, and to be invested with full authority, they have not +always apt instruments. A politician, to do great things, looks for a +POWER, what our workmen call a PURCHASE; and if he finds that power, +in politics as in mechanics, he cannot be at a loss to apply it. In +the monastic institutions, in my opinion, was found a great POWER for +the mechanism of politic benevolence. There were revenues with a +public direction; there were men wholly set apart and dedicated to +public purposes, without any other than public ties and public +principles; men without the possibility of converting the estate of +the community into a private fortune; men denied to self-interests, +whose avarice is for some community; men to whom personal poverty is +honour, and implicit obedience stands in the place of freedom. In +vain shall a man look to the possibility of making such things when +he wants them. The winds blow as they list. These institutions are +the products of enthusiasm; they are the instruments of wisdom. +Wisdom cannot create materials; they are the gifts of nature or of +chance; her pride is in the use. The perennial existence of bodies +corporate and their fortunes are things particularly suited to a man +who has long views; who meditates designs that require time in +fashioning, and which propose duration when they are accomplished. He +is not deserving to rank high, or even to be mentioned in the order +of great statesmen, who, having obtained the command and direction of +such a power as existed in the wealth, the discipline, and the habits +of such corporations, as those which you have rashly destroyed, +cannot find any way of converting it to the great and lasting benefit +of his country. On the view of this subject, a thousand uses suggest +themselves to a contriving mind. To destroy any power, growing wild +from the rank productive force of the human mind, is almost +tantamount, in the moral world, to the destruction of the apparently +active properties of bodies in the material. It would be like the +attempt to destroy (if it were in our competence to destroy) the +expansive force of fixed air in nitre, or the power of steam, or of +electricity, or of magnetism. These energies always existed in +nature, and they were always discernible. They seemed, some of them +unserviceable, some noxious, some no better than a sport to children; +until contemplative ability, combining with practic skill, tamed +their wild nature, subdued them to use, and rendered them at once the +most powerful and the most tractable agents, in subservience to the +great views and designs of men. Did fifty thousand persons, whose +mental and whose bodily labour you might direct, and so many hundred +thousand a year of a revenue, which was neither lazy nor +superstitious, appear too big for your abilities to wield? Had you no +way of using the men but by converting monks into pensioners? Had you +no way of turning the revenue to account but through the improvident +resource of a spendthrift sale? If you were thus destitute of mental +funds, the proceeding is in its natural course. Your politicians do +not understand their trade; and therefore they sell their tools. + + +DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER OF ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM. + +"Protestantism of the English Church," very indefinite, because the term +PROTESTANT, which you apply, is too general for the conclusions which +one of your accurate understanding would wish to draw from it; and +because a great deal of argument will depend on the use that is made of +that term. It is NOT a fundamental part of the settlement at the +Revolution, that the state should be protestant without ANY +QUALIFICATION OF THE TERM. With a qualification it is unquestionably +true; not in all its latitude. With the qualification, it was true +before the Revolution. Our predecessors in legislation were not so +irrational (not to say impious) as to form an operose ecclesiastical +establishment, and even to render the state itself in some degree +subservient to it, when their religion (if such it might be called) was +nothing but a mere NEGATION of some other--without any positive idea +either of doctrine, discipline, worship, or morals, in the scheme which +they professed themselves, and which they imposed upon others, even +under penalties and incapacities.--No! no! This never could have been +done even by reasonable atheists. They who think religion of no +importance to the state, have abandoned it to the conscience or caprice +of the individual; they make no provision for it whatsoever, but leave +every club to make, or not, a voluntary contribution towards its +support, according to their fancies. This would be consistent. The other +always appeared to me to be a monster of contradiction and absurdity. It +was for that reason that, some years ago, I strenuously opposed the +clergy who petitioned, to the number of about three hundred, to be freed +from the subscription to the thirty-nine articles, without proposing to +substitute any other in their place. There never has been a religion of +the state (the few years of the Parliament only excepted), but that of +THE ESPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND; the Episcopal Church of England, +before the Reformation, connected with the see of Rome, since then, +disconnected and protesting against some of her doctrines, and against +the whole of her authority, as binding in our national church: nor did +the fundamental laws of this kingdom (in Ireland it has been the same) +ever know, at any period, any other church AS AN OBJECT OF +ESTABLISHMENT; or in that light, any other protestant religion. Nay, our +protestant TOLERATION itself at the Revolution, and until within a few +years, required a signature of thirty-six, and a part of the +thirty-seventh, out of the thirty-nine articles. So little idea had they +at the Revolution of ESTABLISHING Protestantism indefinitely, that they +did not indefinitely TOLERATE it under that name. I do not mean to +praise that strictness, where nothing more than merely religious +toleration is concerned. Toleration, being a part of moral and political +prudence, ought to be tender and large. A tolerant government ought not +to be too scrupulous in its investigations; but may bear without blame, +not only very ill-grounded doctrines, but even many things that are +positively vices, where they are adulta et praevalida. The good of the +commonwealth is the rule which rides over the rest; and to this every +other must completely submit. + + +FICTITIOUS LIBERTY. + +A brave people will certainly prefer liberty accompanied with a virtuous +poverty to a depraved and wealthy servitude. But before the price of +comfort and opulence is paid, one ought to be pretty sure it is real +liberty which is purchased, and that she is to be purchased at no other +price. I shall always, however, consider that liberty as very equivocal +in her appearance, which has not wisdom and justice for her companions, +and does not lead prosperity and plenty in her train. + + +FRENCH IGNORANCE OF ENGLISH CHARACTER. + +When I assert anything else, as concerning the people of England, I +speak from observation, not from authority; but I speak from the +experience I have had in a pretty extensive and mixed communication +with the inhabitants of this kingdom, of all descriptions and ranks, +and after a course of attentive observation, begun in early life, and +continued for nearly forty years. I have often been astonished, +considering that we are divided from you but by a slender dyke of +about twenty-four miles, and that the mutual intercourse between the +two countries has lately been very great, to find how little you seem +to know of us. I suspect that this is owing to your forming a +judgment of this nation from certain publications, which do, very +erroneously, if they do at all, represent the opinions and +dispositions generally prevalent in England. The vanity, +restlessness, petulance, and spirit of intrigue, of several petty +cabals, who attempt to hide their total want of consequence in bustle +and noise, and puffing, and mutual quotation of each other, makes you +imagine that our contemptuous neglect of their abilities is a general +mark of acquiescence in their opinions. No such thing, I assure you. +Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring +with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, +reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are +silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the +only inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in +number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, +shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of +the hour. + + +THE "PEOPLE," AND "OMNIPOTENCE" OF PARLIAMENT. + +When the supreme authority of the people is in question, before we +attempt to extend or to confine it, we ought to fix in our minds, with +some degree of distinctness, an idea of what it is we mean when we say +the PEOPLE. + +In a state of RUDE nature there is no such thing as a people. A number +of men in themselves have no collective capacity. The idea of a people +is the idea of a corporation. It is wholly artificial; and made like all +other legal fictions by common agreement. What the particular nature of +that agreement was, is collected from the form into which the particular +society has been cast. Any other is not THEIR covenant. When men, +therefore, break up the original compact or agreement, which gives its +corporate form and capacity to a state, they are no longer a people; +they have no longer a corporate existence; they have no longer a legal, +coactive force to bind within, nor a claim to be recognised abroad. They +are a number of vague, loose individuals, and nothing more. With them +all is to begin again. Alas! they little know how many a weary step is +to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass, which has a +true, politic personality. + +We hear much from men, who have not acquired their hardness of assertion +from the profundity of their thinking, about the omnipotence of a +MAJORITY, in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath taken +place in France. But amongst men so disbanded, there can be no such +thing as majority or minority; or power in any one person to bind +another. The power of acting by a majority, which the gentlemen +theorists seem to assume so readily, after they have violated the +contract out of which it has arisen (if at all it existed), must be +grounded on two assumptions; first, that of an incorporation produced by +unanimity; and, secondly, an unanimous agreement, that the act of a mere +majority (say of one) shall pass with them and with others as the act of +the whole. + +We are so little affected by things which are habitual, that we consider +this idea of the decision of a MAJORITY as if it were a law of our +original nature; but such constructive whole, residing in a part only, +is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been +or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation. Out of +civil society nature knows nothing of it; nor are men, even when +arranged according to civil order, otherwise than by very long training, +brought at all to submit to it. The mind is brought far more easily to +acquiesce in the proceedings of one man, or a few, who act under a +general procuration for the state, than in the vote of a victorious +majority in councils, in which every man has his share in the +deliberation. For there the beaten party are exasperated and soured by +the previous contention, and mortified by the conclusive defeat. This +mode of decision, where wills may be so nearly equal, where, according +to circumstances, the smaller number may be the stronger force, and +where apparent reason may be all upon one side, and on the other little +else than impetuous appetite; all this must be the result of a very +particular and special convention, confirmed afterwards by long habits +of obedience, by a sort of discipline in society, and by a strong hand, +vested with stationary, permanent power, to enforce this sort of +constructive general will. What organ it is that shall declare the +corporate mind is so much a matter of positive arrangement, that several +states, for the validity of several of their acts, have required a +proportion of voices much greater than that of a mere majority. These +proportions are so entirely governed by convention, that in some cases +the minority decides. + + +MAGNANIMITY OF ENGLISH PEOPLE. + +I do not accuse the people of England. As to the great majority of +the nation, they have done whatever in their several ranks, and +conditions, and descriptions, was required of them by their relative +situations in society; and from those the great mass of mankind +cannot depart, without the subversion of all public order. They look +up to that government which they obey that they may be protected. +They ask to be led and directed by those rulers whom Providence and +the laws of their country have set over them, and under their +guidance to walk in the ways of safety and honour. They have again +delegated the greatest trust which they have to bestow to those +faithful representatives who made their true voice heard against the +disturbers and destroyers of Europe. They suffered, with unapproving +acquiescence, solicitations which they had in no shape desired, to an +unjust and usurping power whom they had never provoked, and whose +hostile menaces they did not dread. When the exigencies of the public +service could only be met by their voluntary zeal, they started forth +with an ardour which out-stripped the wishes of those who had injured +them by doubting whether it might not be necessary to have recourse +to compulsion. They have, in all things, reposed an enduring, but not +an unreflecting, confidence. That confidence demands a full return, +and fixes a responsibility on the ministers entire and undivided. The +people stands acquitted, if the war is not carried on in a manner +suited to its objects. If the public honour is tarnished, if the +public safety suffers any detriment, the ministers, not the people, +are to answer it, and they alone. Its armies, its navies, are given +to them without stint or restriction. Its treasures are poured out at +their feet. Its constancy is ready to second all their efforts. They +are not to fear a responsibility for acts of manly adventure. The +responsibility which they are to dread is, lest they should show +themselves unequal to the expectation of a brave people. The more +doubtful may be the constitutional and economical questions upon +which they have received so marked a support, the more loudly they +are called upon to support this great war, for the success of which +their country is willing to supersede considerations of no slight +importance. Where I speak of responsibility, I do not mean to exclude +that species of it which the legal powers of the country have a right +finally to exact from those who abuse a public trust; but high as +this is, there is a responsibility which attaches on them, from which +the whole legitimate power of this kingdom cannot absolve them: there +is a responsibility to conscience and to glory; a responsibility to +the existing world, and to that posterity which men of their eminence +cannot avoid for glory or for shame; a responsibility to a tribunal +at which not only ministers, but kings and parliaments, but even +nations themselves, must one day answer. + + +TRUE BASIS OF CIVIL SOCIETY. + +We know, and what is better, we feel inwardly, that religion is the +basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort. +In England we are so convinced of this, that there is no rust of +superstition with which the accumulated absurdity of the human mind +might have crusted it over in the course of ages, that ninety-nine in a +hundred of the people of England would not prefer to impiety. We shall +never be such fools as to call in an enemy to the substance of any +system to remove its corruptions, to supply its defects, or to perfect +its construction. If our religious tenets should ever want a further +elucidation, we shall not call on atheism to explain them. We shall not +light up our temple from that unhallowed fire. It will be illuminated +with other lights. It will be perfumed with other incense than the +infectious stuff which is imported by the smugglers of adulterated +metaphysics. If our ecclesiastical establishment should want a revision, +it is not avarice or rapacity, public or private, that we shall employ +for the audit, or receipt, or application of its consecrated revenue. +Violently condemning neither the Greek nor the Armenian, nor, since +heats are subsided, the Roman system of religion, we prefer the +Protestant; not because we think it has less of the Christian religion +in it, but because, in our judgment, it has more. We are Protestants, +not from indifference, but from zeal. We know, and it is our pride to +know, that man is by his constitution a religious animal; that atheism +is against, not only our reason, but our instincts; and that it cannot +prevail long. But if, in the moment of riot, and in a drunken delirium +from the hot spirit drawn out of the alembic of hell, which in France is +now so furiously boiling, we should uncover our nakedness, by throwing +off that Christian religion which has hitherto been our boast and +comfort, and one great source of civilization amongst us, and among many +other nations, we are apprehensive (being well aware that the mind will +not endure a void) that some uncouth, pernicious, and degrading +superstition might take place of it. + + +ROUSSEAU. + +It is undoubtedly true, though it may seem paradoxical, but in general, +those who are habitually employed in finding and displaying faults, are +unqualified for the work of reformation; because their minds are not +only unfurnished with patterns of the fair and good, but by habit they +come to take no delight in the contemplation of those things. By hating +vices too much, they come to love men too little. It is therefore not +wonderful that they should be indisposed and unable to serve them. From +hence arises the complexional disposition of some of your guides to pull +everything in pieces. At this malicious game they display the whole of +their quadrimanous activity. As to the rest, the paradoxes of eloquent +writers, brought forth purely as a sport of fancy, to try their talents, +to rouse attention and excite surprise, are taken up by these gentleman, +not in the spirit of the original authors, as means of cultivating their +taste and improving their style. These paradoxes become with them +serious grounds of action, upon which they proceed in regulating the +most important concerns of the state. Cicero ludicrously describes Cato +as endeavouring to act, in the commonwealth, upon the school paradoxes, +which exercised the wits of the junior students in the Stoic philosophy. +If this was true of Cato, these gentlemen copy after him in the manner +of some persons who lived about his time--pede nudo Catonem. Mr. Hume +told me that he had from Rousseau himself the secret of his principles +of composition. That acute, though eccentric observer, had perceived, +that to strike and interest the public, the marvellous must be produced; +that the marvellous of the heathen mythology had long since lost its +effects; that giants, magicians, fairies, and heroes of romance which +succeeded, had exhausted the portion of credulity which belonged to +their age; that now nothing was left to a writer but that species of the +marvellous which might still be produced, and with as great an effect as +ever, though in another way; that is, the marvellous in life, in +manners, in characters, and in extraordinary situations, giving rise to +new and unlooked-for strokes in politics and morals. I believe, that +were Rousseau alive, and in one of his lucid intervals, he would be +shocked at the practical frenzy of his scholars, who in their paradoxes +are servile imitators, and even in their incredulity discover an +implicit faith. + + +MORAL HEROES. + +Mankind has no title to demand that we should be slaves to their +guilt and insolence; or that we should serve them in spite of +themselves. Minds, sore with the poignant sense of insulted virtue, +filled with high disdain against the pride of triumphant baseness, +often have it not in their choice to stand their ground. Their +complexion (which might defy the rack) cannot go through such a +trial. Something very high must fortify men to that proof. But when I +am driven to comparison, surely I cannot hesitate for a moment to +prefer to such men as are common, those heroes who, in the midst of +despair, perform all the tasks of hope; who subdue their feelings to +their duties; who, in the cause of humanity, liberty, and honour, +abandon all the satisfactions of life, and every day incur a fresh +risk of life itself. Do me the justice to believe that I never can +prefer any fastidious virtue (virtue still) to the unconquered +perseverance, to the affectionate patience of those who watch day and +night by the bedside of their delirious country, who, for their love +to that dear and venerable name, bear all the disgusts and all the +buffets they receive from their frantic mother. Sir, I do look on you +as true martyrs; I regard you as soldiers who act far more in the +spirit of our Commander-in-Chief and the Captain of our salvation, +than those who have left you; though I must first bolt myself very +thoroughly, and know that I could do better, before I can censure +them. I assure you, sir, that, when I consider your unconquerable +fidelity to your sovereign, and to your country; the courage, +fortitude, magnanimity, and long-suffering of yourself, and the Abbe +Maury, and of Mr. Cazales, and of many worthy persons of all orders +in your Assembly, I forget, in the lustre of these great qualities, +that on your side has been displayed an eloquence so rational, manly, +and convincing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever excelled. +But your talents disappear in my admiration of your virtues. + + +KINGDOM OF FRANCE. + +When I consider the face of the kingdom of France; the multitude and +opulence of her cities; the useful magnificence of her spacious +high-roads and bridges; the opportunity of her artificial canals and +navigations, opening the conveniences of maritime communication through +a solid continent of so immense an extent; when I turn my eyes to the +stupendous works of her ports and harbours, and to her whole naval +apparatus, whether for war or trade; when I bring before my view the +number of her fortifications, constructed with so bold and masterly a +skill, and made and maintained at so prodigious a charge, presenting an +armed front and impenetrable barrier to her enemies upon every side; +when I recollect how very small a part of that extensive region is +without cultivation, and to what complete perfection the culture of many +of the best productions of the earth have been brought in France; when I +reflect on the excellence of her manufactures and fabrics, second to +none but ours, and in some particulars not second; when I contemplate +the grand foundations of charity, public and private; when I survey the +state of all the arts that beautify and polish life; when I reckon the +men she has bred for extending her fame in war, her able statesmen, the +multitude of her profound lawyers and theologians, her philosophers, her +critics, her historians and antiquaries, her poets and her orators, +sacred and profane; I behold in all this something which awes and +commands the imagination, which checks the mind on the brink of +precipitate and indiscriminate censure, and which demands that we should +very seriously examine, what and how great are the latent vices that +could authorize us at once to level so specious a fabric with the +ground. I do not recognise in this view of things, the despotism of +Turkey. Nor do I discern the character of a government that has been, on +the whole, so oppressive, or so corrupt, or so negligent, as to be +utterly UNFIT FOR ALL REFORMATION. I must think such a government well +deserved to have its excellences heightened, its faults corrected, and +its capacities improved into a British constitution. + + +GRIEVANCE AND OPINION. + +This shows, in my opinion, how very quick and awakened all men ought +to be who are looked up to by the public, and who deserve that +confidence, to prevent a surprise on their opinions, when dogmas are +spread, and projects pursued, by which the foundations of society may +be affected. Before they listen even to moderate alterations in the +government of their country, they ought to take care that principles +are not propagated for that purpose, which are too big for their +object. Doctrines limited in their present application, and wide in +their general principles, are never meant to be confined to what they +at first pretend. If I were to form a prognostic of the effect of the +present machinations on the people, from their sense of any grievance +they suffer under this constitution, my mind would be at ease. But +there is a wide difference between the multitude, when they act +against their government from a sense of grievance, or from zeal for +some opinions. When men are thoroughly possessed with that zeal, it +is difficult to calculate its force. It is certain that its power is +by no means in exact proportion to its reasonableness. It must always +have been discoverable by persons of reflection, but it is now +obvious to the world, that a theory concerning government may become +as much a cause of fanaticism as a dogma in religion. There is a +boundary to men's passions when they act from feeling; none when they +are under the influence of imagination. Remove a grievance, and, when +men act from feeling, you go a great way towards quieting a +commotion. But the good or bad conduct of a government, the +protection men have enjoyed, or the oppression they have suffered, +under it, are of no sort of moment when a faction, proceeding upon +speculative grounds, is thoroughly heated against its form. When a +man is, from system, furious against monarchy or episcopacy, the good +conduct of the monarch or the bishop has no other effect than further +to irritate the adversary. He is provoked at it, as furnishing a plea +for preserving the thing which he wishes to destroy. His mind will +be heated as much by the sight of a sceptre, a mace, or a verge, as +if he had been daily bruised and wounded by these symbols of +authority. Mere spectacles, mere names, will become sufficient causes +to stimulate the people to war and tumult. + + +PERPLEXITY AND POLICY. + +Let us not deceive ourselves: we are at the beginning of great troubles. +I readily acknowledge that the state of public affairs is infinitely +more unpromising than at the period I have just now alluded to; and the +position of all the powers of Europe, in relation to us, and in relation +to each other, is more intricate and critical beyond all comparison. +Difficult indeed is our situation. In all situations of difficulty men +will be influenced in the part they take, not only by the reason of the +case, but by the peculiar turn of their own character. The same ways to +safety do not present themselves to all men, nor to the same men in +different tempers. There is a courageous wisdom; there is also a false, +reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear. Under +misfortunes it often happens that the nerves of the understanding are so +relaxed, the pressing peril of the hour so completely confounds all the +faculties, that no future danger can be properly provided for, can be +justly estimated, can be so much as fully seen. The eye of the mind is +dazzled and vanquished. An abject distrust of ourselves, an extravagant +admiration of the enemy, present us with no hope but in a compromise +with his pride, by a submission to his will. This short plan of policy +is the only counsel which will obtain a hearing. We plunge into a dark +gulf with all the rash precipitation of fear. The nature of courage is, +without a question, to be conversant with danger: but in the palpable +night of their terrors, men under consternation suppose, not that it is +the danger, which, by a sure instinct, calls out the courage to resist +it, but that it is the courage which produces the danger. They therefore +seek for a refuge from their fears in the fears themselves, and consider +a temporizing meanness as the only source of safety. + +The rules and definitions of prudence can rarely be exact; never +universal. I do not deny, that, in small, truckling states, a timely +compromise with power has often been the means, and the only means, of +drawling out their puny existence: but a great state is too much envied, +too much dreaded, to find safety in humiliation. To be secure, it must +be respected. Power, and eminence, and consideration, are things not to +be begged. They must be commanded: and they who supplicate for mercy +from others, can never hope for justice through themselves. What justice +they are to obtain, as the alms of an enemy, depends upon his character; +and that they ought well to know before they implicitly confide. + + +HISTORICAL INSTRUCTION. + +Such is the effect of the perversion of history, by those, who, for +the same nefarious purposes, have perverted every other part of +learning. But those who will stand upon that elevation of reason, +which places centuries under our eye, and brings things to the true +point of comparison, which obscures little names, and effaces the +colours of little parties, and to which nothing can ascend but the +spirit and moral quality of human actions, will say to the teachers +of the Palais Royal,--the cardinal of Lorraine was the murderer of +the sixteenth century, you have the glory of being the murderers in +the eighteenth; and this is the only difference between you. But +history, in the nineteenth century, better understood, and better +employed, will, I trust, teach a civilized posterity to abhor the +misdeeds of both these barbarous ages. It will teach future priests +and magistrates not to retaliate upon the speculative and inactive +atheists of future times, the enormities committed by the present +practical zealots and furious fanatics of that wretched error, which, +in its quiescent state, is more than punished, whenever it is +embraced. It will teach posterity not to make war upon either +religion or philosophy, for the abuse which the hypocrites of both +have made of the two most valuable blessings conferred upon us by the +bounty of the universal Patron, who in all things eminently favours +and protects the race of man. + + +MONTESQUIEU. + +Place, for instance, before your eyes, such a man as Montesquieu. Think +of a genius not born in every country, or every time; a man gifted by +nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye; with a judgment prepared with +the most extensive erudition; with an herculean robustness of mind, and +nerves not to be broken with labour; a man who could spend twenty years +in one pursuit. Think of a man, like the universal patriarch in Milton +(who had drawn up before him in his prophetic vision the whole series of +the generations which were to issue from his loins), a man capable of +placing in review, after having brought together from the east, the +west, the north, and the south, from the coarseness of the rudest +barbarism to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes +of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing, +measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory, +and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things, +all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound +reasoners in all times! Let us then consider, that all these were but so +many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with +no national prejudice, with no domestic affection, to admire, and to +hold out to the admiration of mankind, the constitution of England! And +shall we Englishmen revoke to such a suit? Shall we, when so much more +than he has produced remains still to be understood and admired, instead +of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our +teachers men incapable of being taught, whose only claim to know is, +that they have never doubted; from whom we can learn nothing but their +own indocility; who would teach us to scorn what in the silence of our +hearts we ought to adore? + + +ARTICLES, AND SCRIPTURE. + +If you will have religion publicly practised and publicly taught, you +must have a power to say what that religion will be, which you will +protect and encourage; and to distinguish it by such marks and +characteristics, as you in your wisdom shall think fit. As I said +before, your determination may be unwise in this as in other matters; +but it cannot be unjust, hard, or oppressive, or contrary to the liberty +of any man, or in the least degree exceeding your province. + +It is therefore as a grievance fairly none at all, nothing but what is +essential not only to the order, but to the liberty of the whole +community. The petitioners are so sensible of the force of these +arguments, that they do admit of one subscription, that is, to the +Scripture. I shall not consider how forcibly this argument militates +with their whole principle against subscription as an usurpation on the +rights of Providence: I content myself with submitting to the +consideration of the house, that, if that rule were once established, it +must have some authority to enforce the obedience; because you well +know, a law without a sanction will be ridiculous. Somebody must sit in +judgment on his conformity; he must judge on the charge; if he judges, +he must ordain execution. These things are necessary consequences one of +the other; and then this judgment is an equal and a superior violation +of private judgment; the right of private judgment is violated in a much +greater degree than it can be by any previous subscription. You come +round again to subscription, as the best and easiest method; men must +judge of his doctrine, and judge definitively; so that either his test +is nugatory, or men must first or last prescribe his public +interpretation of it. + + +PROBLEM OF LEGISLATION. + +It is one of the finest problems in legislation, and what has often +engaged my thoughts whilst I followed that profession, "What the state +ought to take upon itself to direct by the public wisdom, and what it +ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual +discretion." Nothing, certainly, can be laid down on the subject that +will not admit of exceptions, many permanent, some occasional. But the +clearest line of distinction which I could draw, whilst I had my chalk +to draw any line, was this; that the state ought to confine itself to +what regards the state, or the creatures of the state;--namely, the +exterior establishment of its religion; its magistracy; its revenue; its +military force by sea and land; the corporations that owe their +existence to its fiat; in a word, to everything that is TRULY AND +PROPERLY public; to the public peace, to the public safety, to the +public order, to the public prosperity. In its preventive police it +ought to be sparing of its efforts, and to employ means, rather few, +unfrequent, and strong, than many and frequent, and, of course, as they +multiply their puny politic race, and dwindle, small and feeble. +Statesmen who know themselves will, with the dignity which belongs to +wisdom, proceed only in this the superior orb and first mover of their +duty steadily, vigilantly, severely, courageously: whatever remains +will, in a manner, provide for itself. But as they descend from the +state to a province, from a province to a parish, and from a parish to a +private house, they go on accelerated in their fall. They CANNOT do the +lower duty; and, in proportion as they try it, they will certainly fail +in the higher. They ought to know the different departments of things; +what belongs to laws, and what manners alone can regulate. To these, +great politicians may give a leaning, but they cannot give a law. + + +ORDER, LABOUR, AND PROPERTY. + +To tell the people that they are relieved by the dilapidation of +their public estate, is a cruel and insolent imposition. Statesmen, +before they valued themselves on the relief given to the people by +the destruction of their revenue, ought first to have carefully +attended to the solution of this problem:--Whether it be more +advantageous to the people to pay considerably, and to gain in +proportion; or to gain little or nothing, and to be disburthened of +all contribution? My mind is made up to decide in favour of the first +proposition. Experience is with me, and, I believe, the best opinions +also. To keep a balance between the power of acquisition on the part +of the subject, and the demands he is to answer on the part of the +state, is the fundamental part of the skill of a true politician. The +means of acquisition are prior in time and in arrangement. Good order +is the foundation of all good things. To be enabled to acquire, the +people, without being servile, must be tractable and obedient. The +magistrate must have his reverence, the laws their authority. The +body of the people must not find the principles of natural +subordination by art rooted out of their minds. They must respect +that property of which they cannot partake. They must labour to +obtain what by labour can be obtained; and when they find, as they +commonly do, the success disproportioned to the endeavour, they must +be taught their consolation in the final proportions of eternal +justice. Of this consolation whoever deprives them, deadens their +industry, and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all +conservation. He that does this is the cruel oppressor, the merciless +enemy of the poor and wretched; at the same time that by his wicked +speculations he exposes the fruits of successful industry, and the +accumulations of fortune, to the plunder of the negligent, the +disappointed, and the unprosperous. + + +REGICIDAL LEGISLATURE. + +This strange law is not made for a trivial object, not for a single +port, or for a single fortress, but for a great kingdom; for the +religion, the morals, the laws, the liberties, the lives and fortunes of +millions of human creatures, who without their consent, or that of their +lawful government, are, by an arbitrary act of this regicide and +homicide government, which they call a law, incorporated into their +tyranny. + +In other words, their will is the law, not only at home, but as to the +concerns of every nation. Who has made that law but the regicide +republic itself, whose laws, like those of the Medes and Persians, they +cannot alter or abrogate, or even so much as take into consideration? +Without the least ceremony or compliment, they have sent out of the +world whole sets of laws and lawgivers. They have swept away the very +constitutions under which the legislators acted, and the laws were made. +Even the fundamental sacred rights of man they have not scrupled to +profane. They have set this holy code at naught with ignominy and scorn. +Thus they treat all their domestic laws and constitutions, and even what +they had considered as a law of nature; but whatever they have put their +seal on for the purposes of their ambition, and the ruin of their +neighbours, this alone is invulnerable, impassible, immortal. Assuming +to be masters of everything human and divine, here, and here alone, it +seems they are limited, "cooped and cabined in;" and this omnipotent +legislature finds itself wholly without the power of exercising its +favourite attribute, the love of peace. In other words, they are +powerful to usurp, impotent to restore; and equally by their power and +their impotence they aggrandize themselves, and weaken and impoverish +you and all other nations. + + +GOVERNMENT NOT TO BE RASHLY CENSURED. + +The PURPOSE for which the abuses of government are brought into view, +forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them. The +complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of +an enemy. The charge of abuses on the late monarchy of France was not +intended to lead to its reformation, but to justify its destruction. +They, who have raked into all history for the faults of kings, and who +have aggravated every fault they have found, have acted consistently; +because they acted as enemies. No man can be a friend to a tempered +monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself. He, who at the +present time, is favourable, or even fair, to that system, must act +towards it as towards a friend with frailties, who is under the +prosecution of implacable foes. I think it a duty, in that case, not to +inflame the public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration +of his faults. It is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects, +or to cast them into the shade, and industriously to bring forward any +good qualities that he may happen to possess. But when the man is to be +amended, and by amendment to be preserved, then the line of duty takes +another direction. When his safety is effectually provided for, it then +becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all the +energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid +colours, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit. Thus I think +with regard to individuals; thus I think with regard to ancient and +respected governments and orders of men. A spirit of reformation is +never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered +the means of destruction. + + +ETIQUETTE. + +Etiquette, if I understand rightly the term, which in any extent is +of modern usage, had its original application to those ceremonial and +formal observances practised at courts, which had been established by +long usage, in order to preserve the sovereign power from the rude +intrusion of licentious familiarity, as well as to preserve majesty +itself from a disposition to consult its ease at the expense of its +dignity. The term came afterwards to have a greater latitude, and to +be employed to signify certain formal methods used in the +transactions between sovereign states. + +In the more limited, as well as in the larger sense of the term, without +knowing what the etiquette is, it is impossible to determine whether it +is a vain and captious punctilio, or a form necessary to preserve +decorum in character and order in business. I readily admit, that +nothing tends to facilitate the issue of all public transactions more +than a mutual disposition in the parties treating to waive all ceremony. +But the use of this temporary suspension of the recognised modes of +respect consists in its being mutual, and in the spirit of conciliation, +in which all ceremony is laid aside. On the contrary, when one of the +parties to a treaty intrenches himself up to the chin in these +ceremonies, and will not on his side abate a single punctilio, and that +all the concessions are upon one side only, the party so conceding does +by this act place himself in a relation of inferiority, and thereby +fundamentally subverts that equality which is of the very essence of all +treaty. + + +ANCIENT ESTABLISHMENTS. + +Old establishments are tried by their effects. If the people are happy, +united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to +be good, from whence good is derived. In old establishments, various +correctives have been found for their aberrations from theory. Indeed, +they are the results of various necessities and expediencies. They are +not often constructed after any theory; theories are rather drawn from +them. In them we often see the end best obtained, where the means seem +not perfectly reconcilable to what we may fancy was the original scheme. +The means taught by experience may be better suited to political ends +than those contrived in the original project. They again re-act upon the +primitive constitution; and sometimes improve the design itself, from +which they seem to have departed. I think all this might be curiously +exemplified in the British constitution. At worst, the errors and +deviations of every kind in reckoning are found and computed, and the +ship proceeds in her course. This is the case of old establishments; but +in a new and merely theoretic system, it is expected that every +contrivance shall appear, on the face of it, to answer its ends; +especially where the projectors are no way embarrassed with an endeavour +to accommodate the new building to an old one, either in the walls or on +the foundations. + + +SENTIMENT AND POLICY. + +Never was there a jar or discord between genuine sentiment and sound +policy. Never, no never, did Nature say one thing and Wisdom say +another. Nor are sentiments of elevation in themselves turgid and +unnatural. Nature is never more truly herself than in her grandest +form. The Apollo of Belvedere (if the universal robber has yet left +him at Belvedere) is as much in nature as any figure from the pencil +of Rembrandt, or any clown in the rustic revels of Teniers. Indeed, +it is when a great nation is in great difficulties that minds must +exalt themselves to the occasion, or all is lost. Strong passion, +under the direction of a feeble reason, feeds a low fever, which +serves only to destroy the body that entertains it. But vehement +passion does not always indicate an infirm judgment. It often +accompanies, and actuates, and is even auxiliary to a powerful +understanding; and when they both conspire and act harmoniously, +their force is great to destroy disorder within, and to repel injury +from abroad. If ever there was a time that calls on us for no vulgar +conception of things, and for exertions in no vulgar strain, it is +the awful hour that Providence has now appointed to this nation. +Every little measure is a great error; and every great error will +bring on no small ruin. Nothing can be directed above the mark that +we must aim at: everything below it is absolutely thrown away. + + +PATRIOTISM. + +I have little to recommend my opinions but long observation and much +impartiality. 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. They come from one, almost the whole of whose +public exertions has been a struggle for the liberty of others; from one +in whose breast no anger durable or vehement has ever been kindled, but +by what he considered as tyranny; and who snatches from his share in the +endeavours which are used by good men to discredit opulent oppression, +the hours he has employed on your affairs; and who in so doing persuades +himself he has not departed from his usual office: they come from one +who desires honours, distinctions, and emoluments, but little, and who +expects them not at all; who has no contempt for fame, and no fear of +obloquy; who shuns contention, though he will hazard an opinion; who +would preserve consistency by varying his means to secure the unity of +his end; and, when the equipoise of the vessel in which he sails may be +endangered by overloading it upon one side, is desirous of carrying the +small weight of his reasons to that which may preserve its equipoise. + + +NECESSITY, A RELATIVE TERM. + +The only excuse to be made for all our mendicant diplomacy is the same +as in the case of all other mendicancy;--namely, that it has been +founded on absolute necessity. This deserves consideration. Necessity, +as it has no law, so it has no shame: but moral necessity is not like +metaphysical, or even physical. In that category it is a word of loose +signification, and conveys different ideas to different minds. To the +low-minded, the slightest necessity becomes an invincible necessity. +"The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way, and I shall be +devoured in the streets." But when the necessity pleaded is not in the +nature of things, but in the vices of him who alleges it, the whining +tones of commonplace beggarly rhetoric produce nothing but indignation; +because they indicate a desire of keeping up a dishonourable existence, +without utility to others, and without dignity to itself; because they +aim at obtaining the dues of labour without industry; and by frauds +would draw from the compassion of others what men ought to owe to their +own spirit and their own exertions. + + +KING JOHN AND THE POPE. + +He began with exacting an oath from the king, by which, without showing +the extent of his design, he engaged him to everything he could ask. +John swore to submit to the legate in all things relating to his +excommunication. And first he was obliged to accept Langton as +archbishop; then to restore the monks of Canterbury, and other deprived +ecclesiastics, and to make them a full indemnification for all their +losses. And now, by these concessions, all things seemed to be perfectly +settled. The cause of the quarrel was entirely removed. But when the +king expected for so perfect a submission a full absolution, the legate +began a laboured harangue on his rebellion, his tyranny, and the +innumerable sins he had committed; and in conclusion declared, that +there was no way left to appease God and the Church but to resign his +crown to the Holy See, from whose hands he should receive it purified +from all pollutions, and hold it for the future by homage, and an annual +tribute. John was struck motionless at a demand so extravagant and +unexpected. He knew not on which side to turn. If he cast his eyes +toward the coast of France, he there saw his enemy Philip, who +considered him as a criminal as well as an enemy, and who aimed not only +at his crown but his life, at the head of an innumerable multitude of +fierce people, ready to rush in upon him. If he looked at his own army, +he saw nothing there but coldness, disaffection, uncertainty, distrust, +and a strength, in which he knew not whether he ought most to confide or +fear. On the other hand, the papal thunders, from the wounds of which he +was still sore, were leveled full at his head. He could not look +steadily at these complicated difficulties; and truly it is hard to say +what choice he had, if any choice were left to kings in what concerns +the independence of their crown. Surrounded, therefore, with these +difficulties; and that all his late humiliations might not be rendered +as ineffectual as they were ignominious, he took the last step; and, in +the presence of a numerous assembly of his peers and prelates, who +turned their eyes from this mortifying sight, formally resigned his +crown to the pope's legate; to whom at the same time he did homage, and +paid the first fruits of his tribute. Nothing could be added to the +humiliation of the king upon this occasion, but the insolence of the +legate, who spurned the treasure with his foot, and let the crown remain +a long time on the ground before he restored it to the degraded owner. + +In this proceeding the motives of the king may be easily discovered; but +how the barons of the kingdom, who were deeply concerned, suffered, +without any protestation, the independency of the crown to be thus +forfeited, is mentioned by no historian of that time. In civil tumults +it is astonishing how little regard is paid by all parties to the honour +or safety of their country. The king's friends were probably induced to +acquiesce by the same motives that had influenced the king. His enemies, +who were the most numerous, perhaps saw his abasement with pleasure, as +they knew this action might be one day employed against him with effect. +To the bigots it was enough, that it aggrandized the pope. It is, +perhaps, worthy of observation, that the conduct of Pandulph towards +King John bore a very great affinity to that of the Roman consuls to the +people of Carthage in the last Punic war; drawing them from concession +to concession, and carefully concealing their design, until they made it +impossible for the Carthaginians to resist. Such a strong resemblance +did the same ambition produce in such distant times; and it is far from +the sole instance, in which we may trace a similarity between the spirit +and conduct of the former and latter Rome in their common design on the +liberties of mankind. + + +CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCE. + +The balance between consumption and production makes price. The market +settles, and alone can settle, that price. Market is the meeting and +conference of the CONSUMER and PRODUCER, when they mutually discover +each other's wants. Nobody, I believe, has observed with any reflection +what market is, without being astonished at the truth, the correctness, +the celerity, the general equity, with which the balance of wants is +settled. They, who wish the destruction of that balance, and would fain +by arbitrary regulation decree, that defective production should not be +compensated by increased price, directly lay their AXE to the root of +production itself. + + +"PRIESTS OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN." + +His Grace, like an able orator, as he is, begins with giving me a +great deal of praise for talents which I do not possess. He does this +to entitle himself, on the credit of this gratuitous kindness, to +exaggerate my abuse of the parts which his bounty, and not that of +nature, has bestowed upon me. In this, too, he has condescended to +copy Mr. Erskine. These priests (I hope they will excuse me; I mean +priests of the rights of man) begin by crowning me with their flowers +and their fillets, and bedewing me with their odours, as a preface to +the knocking me on the head with their consecrated axes. I have +injured, say they, the constitution; and I have abandoned the Whig +party and the Whig principles that I professed. I do not mean, my +dear sir, to defend myself against his Grace. I have not much +interest in what the world shall think or say of me; as little has +the world an interest in what I shall think or say of any one in it; +and I wish that his Grace had suffered an unhappy man to enjoy, in +his retreat, the melancholy privileges of obscurity and sorrow. At +any rate, I have spoken, and I have written, on the subject. If I +have written or spoken so poorly as to be quite forgot, a fresh +apology will not make a more lasting impression. "I must let the tree +lie as it falls." Perhaps I must take some shame to myself. I confess +that I have acted on my own principles of government, and not on +those of his Grace, which are, I dare say, profound and wise; but +which I do not pretend to understand. As to the party to which he +alludes, and which has long taken its leave of me, I believe the +principles of the book which he condemns are very conformable to the +opinions of many of the most considerable and most grave in that +description of politicians. A few indeed, who, I admit, are equally +respectable in all points, differ from me, and talk his Grace's +language. I am too feeble to contend with them. They have the field +to themselves. There are others, very young and very ingenious +persons, who form, probably, the largest part of what his Grace, I +believe, is pleased to consider as that party. Some of them were not +born into the world, and all of them were children, when I entered +into that connection. I give due credit to the censorial brow, to the +broad phylacteries, and to the imposing gravity, of those magisterial +rabbins and doctors in the cabala of political science. I admit that +"wisdom is as the gray hair to man, and that learning is like +honourable old age." But, at a time when liberty is a good deal +talked of, perhaps I might be excused, if I caught something of the +general indocility. It might not be surprising, if I lengthened my +chain a link or two, and in an age of relaxed discipline, gave a +trifling indulgence to my own notions. If that could be allowed, +perhaps I might sometimes (by accident, and without an unpardonable +crime) trust as much to my own very careful, and very laborious, +though, perhaps, somewhat purblind disquisitions, as to their +soaring, intuitive, eagle-eyed authority. But the modern liberty is a +precious thing. It must not be profaned by too vulgar an use. It +belongs only to the chosen few, who are born to the hereditary +representation of the whole democracy, and who leave nothing at all, +no, not the offal, to us poor outcasts of the plebeian race. + + +"HIS GRACE." + +Amongst those gentlemen who came to authority, as soon, or sooner than +they came of age, I do not mean to include his Grace. With all those +native titles to empire over our minds which distinguish the others, he +has a large share of experience. He certainly ought to understand the +British constitution better than I do. He has studied it in the +fundamental part. For one election I have seen, he has been concerned in +twenty. Nobody is less of a visionary theorist; nobody has drawn his +speculations more from practice. No peer has condescended to superintend +with more vigilance the declining franchises of the poor commons. "With +thrice great Hermes he has outwatched the bear." Often have his candles +been burned to the snuff, and glimmered and stunk in the sockets, whilst +he grew pale at his constitutional studies; long sleepless nights has he +wasted; long, laborious, shiftless journeys has he made, and great sums +has he expended in order to secure the purity, the independence, and the +sobriety of elections, and to give a check, if possible, to the ruinous +charges that go nearly to the destruction of the right of election +itself. Amidst these his labours, his Grace will be pleased to forgive +me, if my zeal, less enlightened to be sure than his by midnight lamps +and studies, has presumed to talk too favourably of this constitution, +and even to say something sounding like approbation of that body which +has the honour to reckon his Grace at the head of it. Those, who dislike +this partiality, or, if his Grace pleases, this flattery of mine, have a +comfort at hand. I may be refuted and brought to shame by the most +convincing of all refutations--a practical refutation. Every individual +peer for himself may show that I was ridiculously wrong: the whole body +of those noble persons may refute me for the whole corps. If they +please, they are more powerful advocates against themselves, than a +thousand scribblers like me can be in their favour. If I were even +possessed of those powers which his Grace, in order to heighten my +offence, is pleased to attribute to me, there would be little +difference. The eloquence of Mr. Erskine might save Mr.-- from the +gallows, but no eloquence could save Mr. Jackson from the effects of his +own potion. + + +SPECULATION AND HISTORY. + +I shall not live to behold the unravelling of the intricate plot which +saddens and perplexes the awful drama of Providence now acting on the +moral theatre of the world. Whether for thought or for action, I am at +the end of my career. You are in the middle of yours. In what part of +its orbit the nation, with which we are carried along, moves at this +instant, it is not easy to conjecture. It may, perhaps, be far advanced +in its aphelion.--But when to return? + +Not to lose ourselves in the infinite void of the conjectural world, our +business is with what is likely to be affected, for the better or the +worse, by the wisdom or weakness of our plans. In all speculations upon +men and human affairs, it is of no small moment to distinguish things of +accident from permanent causes, and from effects that cannot be altered. +It is not every irregularity in our movement that is a total deviation +from our course. I am not quite of the mind of those speculators who +seem assured that, necessarily, and by the constitution of things, all +states have the same periods of infancy, manhood, and decrepitude that +are found in the individuals who compose them. Parallels of this sort +rather furnish similitudes to illustrate or to adorn, than supply +analogies from whence to reason. The objects which are attempted to be +forced into an analogy are not found in the same classes of existence. +Individuals are physical beings subject to laws universal and +invariable. The immediate cause acting in these laws may be obscure; the +general results are subjects of certain calculation. But commonwealths +are not physical but moral essences. They are artificial combinations, +and, in their proximate efficient cause, the arbitrary productions of +the human mind. We are not yet acquainted with the laws which +necessarily influence the stability of that kind of work made by that +kind of agent. There is not in the physical order (with which they do +not appear to hold any assignable connection) a distinct cause by which +any of those fabrics must necessarily grow, flourish, or decay; nor, in +my opinion, does the moral world produce anything more determinate on +that subject than what may serve as an amusement (liberal, indeed, and +ingenious, but still only an amusement) for speculative men. I doubt +whether the history of mankind is yet complete enough, if ever it can be +so, to furnish grounds for a sure theory on the internal causes which +necessarily affect the fortune of a state. I am far from denying the +operation of such causes: but they are infinitely uncertain and much +more obscure, and much more difficult to trace, than the foreign causes +that tend to raise, to depress, and sometimes to overwhelm, a community. +It is often impossible in these political inquiries to find any +proportion between the apparent force of any moral causes we may assign +and their known operation. We are therefore obliged to deliver up that +operation to mere chance, or, more piously (perhaps, more rationally), +to the occasional interposition and irresistible hand of the Great +Disposer. We have seen states of considerable duration, which for ages +have remained nearly as they have begun, and could hardly be said to ebb +or flow. Some appear to have spent their vigour at their commencement. +Some have blazed out in their glory a little before their extinction. +The meridian of some has been the most splendid. Others, and they the +greatest number, have fluctuated, and experienced at different periods +of their existence a great variety of fortune. At the very moment when +some of them seemed plunged in unfathomable abysses of disgrace and +disaster, they have suddenly emerged. They have begun a new course and +opened a new reckoning; and, even in the depths of their calamity, and +on the very ruins of their country, have laid the foundations of a +towering and durable greatness. All this has happened without any +apparent previous change in the general circumstances which had brought +on their distress. The death of a man at a critical juncture, his +disgust, his retreat, his disgrace, have brought innumerable calamities +on a whole nation. A common soldier, a child, a girl at the door of an +inn, have changed the face of fortune, and almost of nature. + +Such, and often influenced by such causes, has commonly been the fate of +monarchies of long duration. They have their ebbs and their flows. This +has been eminently the fate of the monarchy of France. There have been +times in which no power has ever been brought so low. Few have ever +flourished in greater glory. By turns elevated and depressed, that power +had been, on the whole, rather on the increase; and it continued not +only powerful but formidable to the hour of the total ruin of the +monarchy. This fall of the monarchy was far from being preceded by any +exterior symptoms of decline. The interior were not visible to every +eye; and a thousand accidents might have prevented the operation of what +the most clear-sighted were not able to discern, nor the most provident +to divine. A very little time before its dreadful catastrophe there was +a kind of exterior splendour in the situation of the Crown, which +usually adds to government strength and authority at home. The Crown +seemed then to have obtained some of the most splendid objects of state +ambition. None of the continental powers of Europe were the enemies of +France. They were all either tacitly disposed to her, or publicly +connected with her; and in those who kept the most aloof there was +little appearance of jealousy; of animosity there was no appearance at +all. The British nation, her great preponderating rival; she had +humbled; to all appearance she had weakened; certainly had endangered, +by cutting off a very large, and by far the most growing part of her +empire. In that its acme of human prosperity and greatness, in the high +and palmy state of the monarchy of France, it fell to the ground without +a struggle. It fell without any of those vices in the monarch which have +sometimes been the causes of the fall of kingdoms, but which existed, +without any visible effect on the state, in the highest degree in many +other princes; and, far from destroying their power, had only left some +slight stains on their character. The financial difficulties were only +pretexts and instruments of those who accomplished the ruin of that +monarchy. They were not the causes of it. + +Deprived of the old government, deprived in a manner of all government, +France, fallen as a monarchy, to common speculators might have appeared +more likely to be an object of pity or insult, according to the +disposition of the circumjacent powers, than to be the scourge and +terror of them all: but out of the tomb of the murdered monarchy in +France has arisen a vast, tremendous unformed spectre, in a far more +terrific guise than any which ever yet have overpowered the imagination +and subdued the fortitude of man. Going straight forward to its end, +unappalled by peril, unchecked by remorse, despising all common maxims +and all common means, that hideous phantom overpowered those who could +not believe it was possible she could at all exist, except on the +principles which habit rather than nature had persuaded them were +necessary to their own particular welfare, and to their own ordinary +modes of action. But the constitution of any political being, as well as +that of any physical being, ought to be known, before one can venture to +say what is fit for its conservation, or what is the proper means of its +power. The poison of other states is the food of the new republic. That +bankruptcy, the very apprehension of which is one of the causes assigned +for the fall of the monarchy, was the capital on which she opened her +traffic with the world. + + +LABOUR AND WAGES. + +In the case of the farmer and the labourer, their interests are +always the same, and it is absolutely impossible that their free +contracts can be onerous to either party. It is the interest of the +farmer, that his work should be done with effect and celerity: and +that cannot be, unless the labourer is well fed, and otherwise found +with such necessaries of animal life, according to his habitudes, as +may keep the body in full force, and the mind gay and cheerful. For +of all the instruments of his trade, the labour of man (what the +ancient writers have called the instrumentum vocale) is that on which +he is most to rely for the repayment of his capital. The other two, +the semivocale in the ancient classification, that is, the working +stock of cattle, and the instrumentum mutum, such as carts, ploughs, +spades, and so forth, though not all inconsiderable in themselves, +are very much inferior in utility or in expense; or, without a given +portion of the first, are nothing at all. For, in all things +whatever, the mind is the most valuable and the most important; and +in this scale the whole of agriculture is in a natural and just +order; the beast is as an informing principle to the plough and cart; +the labourer is as reason to the beast; and the farmer is as a +thinking and presiding principle to the labourer. An attempt to break +this chain of subordination in any part is equally absurd; but the +absurdity is the most mischievous in practical operation, where it is +the most easy, that is, where it is the most subject to an erroneous +judgment. + +It is plainly more the farmer's interest that his men should thrive, +than that his horses should be well fed, sleek, plump, and fit for use, +or than that his waggons and ploughs should be strong, in good repair, +and fit for service. + +On the other hand, if the farmer cease to profit of the labourer, and +that his capital is not continually manured and fructified, it is +impossible that he should continue that abundant nutriment, and +clothing, and lodging, proper for the protection of the instruments he +employs. + +It is therefore the first and fundamental interest of the labourer, that +the farmer should have a full incoming profit on the product of his +labour. The proposition is self-evident, and nothing but the malignity, +perverseness, and ill-governed passions of mankind, and particularly the +envy they bear to each other's prosperity, could prevent their seeing +and acknowledging it, with thankfulness to the benign and wise Disposer +of all things, who obliges men, whether they will or not, in pursuing +their own selfish interests, to connect the general good with their own +individual success. + +But who are to judge what that profit and advantage ought to be? +Certainly no authority on earth. It is a matter of convention dictated +by the reciprocal conveniences of the parties, and indeed by their +reciprocal necessities.--But, if the farmer is excessively +avaricious?--why so much the better--the more he desires to increase his +gains, the more interested is he in the good condition of those upon +whose labour his gains must principally depend. + +I shall be told by the zealots of the sect of regulation, that this may +be true, and may be safely committed to the convention of the farmer and +the labourer, when the latter is in the prime of his youth, and at the +time of his health and vigour, and in ordinary times of abundance. But +in calamitous seasons, under accidental illness, in declining life, and +with the pressure of a numerous offspring, the future nourishers of the +community, but the present drains and blood-suckers of those who produce +them, what is to be done? When a man cannot live and maintain his family +by the natural hire of his labour, ought it not to be raised by +authority? + +On this head I must be allowed to submit, what my opinions have ever +been; and somewhat at large. And, first, I premise that labour is, as I +have already intimated, a commodity, and, as such, an article of trade. +If I am right in this notion, then labour must be subject to all the +laws and principles of trade, and not to regulation foreign to them, and +that may be totally inconsistent with those principles and those laws. +When any commodity is carried to market, it is not the necessity of the +vender, but the necessity of the purchaser, that raises the price. The +extreme want of the seller has rather (by the nature of things with +which we shall in vain contend) the direct contrary operation. If the +goods at market are beyond the demand, they fall in their value; if +below it, they rise. The impossibility of the subsistence of a man, who +carries his labour to a market, is totally beside the question in his +way of viewing it. The only question is, what is it worth to the buyer? + +But if the authority comes in and forces the buyer to a price, who is +this in the case (say) of a farmer who buys the labour of ten or twelve +labouring men, and three or four handicrafts, what is it, but to make an +arbitrary division of his property among them? + +The whole of his gains, I say it with the most certain conviction, never +do amount anything like in value to what he pays to his labourers and +artificers, so that a very small advance upon what ONE man pays to MANY +may absorb the whole of what he possesses, and amount to an actual +partition of all his substance among them. A perfect equality will +indeed be produced;--that is to say, equal want, equal wretchedness, +equal beggary, and on the part of the petitioners, a woeful, helpless, +and desperate disappointment. Such is the event of all compulsory +equalizations. They pull down what is above. They never raise what is +below: and they depress high and low together beneath the level of what +was originally the lowest. + +If a commodity is raised by authority above what it will yield with a +profit to the buyer, that commodity will be the less dealt in. If a +second blundering interposition be used to correct the blunder of the +first, and an attempt is made to force the purchase of the commodity (of +labour for instance), the one of these two things must happen, either +that the forced buyer is ruined, or the price of the product of the +labour, in that proportion, is raised. Then the wheel turns round, and +the evil complained of falls with aggravated weight on the complainant. +The price of corn, which is the result of the expense of all the +operations of husbandry taken together, and for some time continued, +will rise on the labourer, considered as a consumer. The very best will +be, that he remains where he was. But if the price of the corn should +not compensate the price of labour, what is far more to be feared, the +most serious evil, the very destruction of agriculture itself, is to be +apprehended. + +Nothing is such an enemy to accuracy of judgment as a coarse +discrimination: a want of such classification and distribution as the +subject admits of. Increase the rate of wages to the labourer, say the +regulators--as if labour was but one thing, and of one value. But this +very broad, generic term, LABOUR, admits, at least, of two or three +specific descriptions: and these will suffice, at least, to let +gentlemen discern a little the necessity of proceeding with caution in +their coercive guidance of those whose existence depends upon the +observance of still nicer distinctions and subdivisions than commonly +they resort to in forming their judgments on this very enlarged part of +economy. + +The labourers in husbandry may be divided: 1st, into those who are able +to perform the full work of a man; that is, what can be done by a person +from twenty-one years of age to fifty. I know no husbandry-work (mowing +hardly excepted) that is not equally within the power of all persons +within those ages, the more advanced fully compensating by knack and +habit what they lose in activity. Unquestionably, there is a good deal +of difference between the value of one man's labour and that of another, +from strength, dexterity, and honest application. But I am quite sure, +from my best observation, that any given five men will, in their total, +afford a proportion of labour equal to any other five within the periods +of life I have stated; that is, that among such five men there will be +one possessing all the qualifications of a good workman, one bad, and +the other three middling, and approximating to the first and the last. +So that in so small a platoon as that of even five, you will find the +full complement of all that five men CAN earn. Taking five and five +throughout the kingdom, they are equal: therefore, an error with regard +to the equalization of their wages by those who employ five, as farmers +do at the very least, cannot be considerable. 2ndly. Those who are able +to work, but not the complete task of a day-labourer. This class is +infinitely diversified, but will aptly enough fall into principal +divisions. MEN, from the decline, which after fifty becomes every year +more sensible to the period of debility and decrepitude, and the +maladies that precede a final dissolution. WOMEN, whose employment on +husbandry is but occasional, and who differ more in effective labour one +from another, than men do, on account of gestation, nursing, and +domestic management, over and above the difference they have in common +with men in advancing, in stationary, and in declining life. CHILDREN, +who proceed on the reverse order, growing from less to greater utility, +but with a still greater disproportion of nutriment to labour than is +found in the second of these subdivisions: as is visible to those who +will give themselves the trouble of examining into the interior economy +of a poor-house. + +This inferior classification is introduced to show, that laws +prescribing, or magistrates exercising, a very stiff and often +inapplicable rule, or a blind and rash discretion, never can provide the +just proportions between earning and salary on the one hand, and +nutriment on the other: whereas interest, habit, and the tacit +convention, that arise from a thousand nameless circumstances, produce a +TACT that regulates without difficulty, what laws and magistrates cannot +regulate at all. The first class of labour wants nothing to equalize it; +it equalizes itself. The second and third are not capable of any +equalization. + +But what if the rate of hire to the labourer comes far short of his +necessary subsistence, and the calamity of the time is so great as to +threaten actual famine? Is the poor labourer to be abandoned to the +flinty heart and griping hand of base self-interest, supported by the +sword of law, especially when there is reason to suppose that the very +avarice of farmers themselves has concurred with the errors of +government to bring famine on the land? + + +A COMPLETE REVOLUTION. + +Before this of France, the annals of all time have not furnished an +instance of a COMPLETE revolution. That Revolution seems to have +extended even to the constitution of the mind of man. It has this of +wonderful in it, that it resembles what Lord Verulam says of the +operations of nature. It was perfect, not only in its elements and +principles, but in all its members and its organs from the very +beginning. The moral scheme of France furnishes the only pattern ever +known, which they who admire will INSTANTLY resemble. It is indeed an +inexhaustible repertory of one kind of examples. In my wretched +condition, though hardly to be classed with the living, I am not safe +from them. They have tigers to fall upon animated strength. They have +hyaenas to prey upon carcasses. The national menagerie is collected by +the first physiologists of the time; and it is defective in no +description of savage nature. They pursue even such as me, into the +obscurest retreats, and haul them before their revolutionary tribunals. +Neither sex, nor age,--nor the sanctuary of the tomb, is sacred to them. +They have so determined a hatred to all privileged orders, that they +deny even to the departed the sad immunities of the grave. They are not +wholly without an object. Their turpitude purveys to their malice; and +they unplumb the dead for bullets to assassinate the living. If all +revolutionists were not proof against all caution, I should recommend it +to their consideration, that no persons were ever known in history, +either sacred or profane, to vex the sepulchre, and, by their sorceries, +to call up the prophetic dead, with any other event, than the prediction +of their own disastrous fate.--"Leave me, oh leave me to repose!" + + +BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA. + +The British government in India being a subordinate and delegated +power, it ought to be considered as a fundamental principle in such a +system, that it is to be preserved in the strictest obedience to the +government at home. Administration in India, at an immense distance +from the seat of the supreme authority; intrusted with the most +extensive powers; liable to the greatest temptations; possessing the +amplest means of abuse; ruling over a people guarded by no distinct +or well-ascertained privileges, whose language, manners, and radical +prejudices render not only redress, but all complaint on their part, +a matter of extreme difficulty; such an administration, it is +evident, never can be made subservient to the interests of Great +Britain, or even tolerable to the natives, but by the strictest +rigour in exacting obedience to the commands of the authority +lawfully set over it. + + +MONEY AND SCIENCE. + +My exertions, whatever they have been, were such as no hopes of +pecuniary reward could possibly excite; and no pecuniary compensation +can possibly reward them. Between money and such services, if done by +abler men than I am, there is no common principle of comparison: they +are quantities incommensurable. Money is made for the comfort and +convenience of animal life. It cannot be a reward for what mere animal +life must indeed sustain, but never can inspire. With submission to his +Grace, I have not had more than sufficient. As to any noble use, I trust +I know how to employ, as well as he, a much greater fortune than he +possesses. In a more confined application, I certainly stand in need of +every kind of relief and easement much more than he does. When I say I +have not received more than I deserve, is this the language I hold to +majesty? No! Far, very far, from it! Before that presence, I claim no +merit at all. Everything towards me is favour, and bounty. One style to +a gracious benefactor; another to a proud and insulting foe. + +His Grace is pleased to aggravate my guilt, by charging my acceptance of +his majesty's grant as a departure from my ideas, and the spirit of my +conduct with regard to economy. If it be, my ideas of economy were false +and ill-founded. But they are the Duke of Bedford's ideas of economy I +have contradicted, and not my own. If he means to allude to certain +bills brought in by me on a message from the throne in 1782, I tell him, +that there is nothing in my conduct that can contradict either the +letter or the spirit of those acts. Does he mean the Pay-office Act? I +take it for granted he does not. The act to which he alludes, is, I +suppose, the Establishment Act. I greatly doubt whether his Grace has +ever read the one or the other. The first of these systems cost me, with +every assistance which my then situation gave me, pains incredible. I +found an opinion common through all the offices, and general in the +public at large, that it would prove impossible to reform and methodize +the office of paymaster-general. I undertook it, however; and I +succeeded in my undertaking. Whether the military service, or whether +the general economy of our finances, have profited by that act, I leave +to those who are acquainted with the army, and with the treasury, to +judge. + + +POLITICAL AXIOMS. + +I. + +Of all things, an indiscreet tampering with the trade of provisions is +the most dangerous, and it is always worst in the time when men are most +disposed to it: that is, in the time of scarcity. Because there is +nothing on which the passions of men are so violent, and their judgment +so weak, and on which there exists such a multitude of ill-founded +popular prejudices. + +II. + +The great use of government is as a restraint; and there is no +restraint which it ought to put upon others, and upon itself too, +rather than that which is imposed on the fury of speculating under +circumstances of irritation. The number of idle tales, spread about +by the industry of faction, and by the zeal of foolish +good-intention, and greedily devoured by the malignant credulity of +mankind, tends infinitely to aggravate prejudices, which, in +themselves, are more than sufficiently strong. In that state of +affairs, and of the public with relation to them, the first thing +that government owes to us, the people, is INFORMATION; the next is +timely coercion:--the one to guide our judgment; the other to +regulate our tempers. + +III. + +To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of government. +It would be a vain presumption in statesmen to think they can do it. The +people maintain them, and not they the people. It is in the power of +government to prevent much evil; it can do very little positive good in +this, or perhaps in anything else. It is not only so of the state and +statesmen, but of all the classes and descriptions of the rich--they are +the pensioners of the poor, and are maintained by their superfluity. +They are under an absolute, hereditary, and indefeasible dependence on +those who labour, and are miscalled the poor. + +IV. + +The labouring people are only poor, because they are numerous. Numbers +in their nature imply poverty. In a fair distribution among a vast +multitude none can have much. That class of dependent pensioners called +the rich is so extremely small, that if all their throats were cut, and +a distribution made of all they consume in a year, it would not give a +bit of bread and cheese for one night's supper to those who labour, and +who in reality feed both the pensioners and themselves. + +V. + +But the throats of the rich ought not to be cut, nor their magazines +plundered; because in their persons they are trustees for those who +labour, and their hoards are the banking-houses of these latter. Whether +they mean it or not, they do, in effect, execute their trust--some with +more, some with less, fidelity and judgment. But, on the whole, the duty +is performed, and everything returns, deducting some very trifling +commission and discount, to the place from whence it arose. When the +poor rise to destroy the rich, they act as wisely for their own purposes +as when they burn mills, and throw corn into the river, to make bread +cheap. + +VI. + +When I say, that we of the people ought to be informed, inclusively I +say, we ought not to be flattered; flattery is the reverse of +instruction. The POOR in that case would be rendered as improvident as +the rich, which would not be at all good for them. + +VII. + +Nothing can be so base and so wicked as the political canting language, +"The labouring POOR." Let compassion be shown in action, the more the +better, according to every man's ability; but let there be no +lamentation of their condition. It is no relief to their miserable +circumstances; it is only an insult to their miserable understandings. +It arises from a total want of charity, or a total want of thought. Want +of one kind was never relieved by want of any other kind. Patience, +labour, sobriety, frugality, and religion, should be recommended to +them; all the rest is downright FRAUD. It is horrible to call them "The +ONCE HAPPY labourer." + +VIII. + +Whether what may be called the moral or philosophical happiness of the +laborious classes is increased or not, I cannot say. The seat of that +species of happiness is in the mind; and there are few data to ascertain +the comparative state of the mind at any two periods. Philosophical +happiness is to want little. Civil or vulgar happiness is to want much, +and to enjoy much. IX. + +If the happiness of the animal man (which certainly goes somewhere +towards the happiness of the rational man) be the object of our +estimate, then I assert without the least hesitation, that the condition +of those who labour (in all descriptions of labour, and in all +gradations of labour, from the highest to the lowest inclusively) is on +the whole extremely meliorated, if more and better food is any standard +of melioration. They work more, it is certain, but they have the +advantage of their augmented labour; yet whether that increase of labour +be on the whole a GOOD or an EVIL, is a consideration that would lead us +a great way, and is not for my present purpose. But as to the fact of +the melioration of their diet, I shall enter into the detail of proof +whenever I am called upon: in the mean time, the known difficulty of +contenting them with anything but bread made of the finest flour, and +meat of the first quality, is proof sufficient. + +X. + +I further assert, that even under all the hardships of the last year, +the labouring people did, either out of their direct gains, or from +charity (which it seems is now an insult to them), in fact, fare better +than they did in seasons of common plenty, fifty or sixty years ago; or +even at the period of my English observation, which is about forty-four +years. I even assert, that full as many in that class as ever were known +to do it before continued to save money; and this I can prove, so far as +my own information and experience extend. + +XI. + +It is not true that the rate of wages has not increased with the nominal +price of provisions. I allow it has not fluctuated with that price, nor +ought it; and the squires of Norfolk had dined when they gave it as +their opinion, that it might or ought to rise and fall with the market +of provisions. The rate of wages in truth has no DIRECT relation to that +price. Labour is a commodity like every other, and rises or falls +according to the demand. This is in the nature of things; however, the +nature of things has provided for their necessities. Wages have been +twice raised in my time: and they bear a full proportion or even a +greater than formerly, to the medium of provision during the last bad +cycle of twenty years. They bear a full proportion to the result of +their labour. If we were wildly to attempt to force them beyond it, the +stone which we had forced up the hill would only fall back upon them in +a diminished demand, or what indeed is the far lesser evil, an +aggravated price, of all the provisions which are the result of their +manual toil. + +XII. + +There is an implied contract, much stronger than any instrument or +article of agreement between the labourer in any occupation and his +employer--that the labour, so far as that labour is concerned, shall be +sufficient to pay to the employer a profit on his capital, and a +compensation for his risk; in a word, that the labour shall produce an +advantage equal to the payment. Whatever is above that, is a direct TAX; +and if the amount of that tax be left to the will and pleasure of +another, it is an ARBITRARY TAX. + + +DISAPPOINTED AMBITION. + +The true cause of his drawing so shocking a picture is no more than +this, and it ought rather to claim our pity than excite our +indignation;--he finds himself out of power; and this condition is +intolerable to him. The same sun which gilds all nature, and +exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed +ambition. It is something that rays out of darkness, and inspires +nothing but gloom and melancholy. Men in this deplorable state of mind +find a comfort in spreading the contagion of their spleen. They find an +advantage too; for it is a general popular error to imagine the loudest +complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. If +such persons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves, +they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the +consequences. + + +DIFFICULTY AN INSTRUCTOR. + +Their purpose everywhere seems to have been to evade and slip aside from +DIFFICULTY. This it has been the glory of the great masters in all the +arts to confront, and to overcome; and when they had overcome the first +difficulty, to turn it into an instrument for new conquests over new +difficulties; thus to enable them to extend the empire of their science; +and even to push forward, beyond the reach of their original thoughts, +the landmarks of the human understanding itself. Difficulty is a severe +instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental Guardian +and Legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, as he loves +us better too. Pater ipse colendi haud facilem esse viam voluit. He that +wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our +antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty obliges +us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to +consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be +superficial. It is the want of nerves of understanding for such a task, +it is the degenerate fondness for tricking short-cuts, and little +fallacious facilities, that has in so many parts of the world created +governments with arbitrary powers. They have created the late arbitrary +monarchy of France; they have created the arbitrary republic of Paris. +With them defects in wisdom are to be supplied by the plenitude of +force. They get nothing by it. Commencing their labours on a principle +of sloth, they have the common fortune of slothful men. The +difficulties, which they rather had eluded than escaped, meet them again +in their course; they multiply and thicken on them; they are involved, +through a labyrinth of confused detail, in an industry without limit, +and without direction; and, in conclusion, the whole of their work +becomes feeble, vicious, and insecure. + +It is this inability to wrestle with difficulty which has obliged the +arbitrary Assembly of France to commence their schemes of reform with +abolition and total destruction. But is it in destroying and pulling +down that skill is displayed? Your mob can do this as well at least as +your assemblies. The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more +than equal to that task. Rage and phrensy will pull down more in half an +hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a +hundred years. The errors and defects of old establishments are visible +and palpable. It calls for little ability to point them out; and where +absolute power is given, it requires but a word wholly to abolish the +vice and the establishment together. The same lazy but restless +disposition, which loves sloth and hates quiet, directs these +politicians, when they come to work for supplying the place of what they +have destroyed. To make everything the reverse of what they have seen, +is quite as easy as to destroy. No difficulties occur in what has never +been tried. Criticism is almost baffled in discovering the defects of +what has not existed; and eager enthusiasm and cheating hope have all +the wide field of imagination, in which they may expatiate with little +or no opposition. + + +SOVEREIGN JURISDICTIONS. + +With regard to the sovereign jurisdictions, I must observe, Sir, that +whoever takes a view of this kingdom in a cursory manner will imagine, +that he beholds a solid, compacted, uniform system of monarchy; in +which all inferior jurisdictions are but as rays diverging from one +centre. But on examining it more nearly, you find much eccentricity and +confusion. It is not a monarchy in strictness. But, as in the Saxon +times this country was an heptarchy, it is now a strange sort of +PENTARCHY. It is divided into five several distinct principalities, +besides the supreme. There is indeed this difference from the Saxon +times, that as in the itinerant exhibitions of the stage, for want of a +complete company, they are obliged to throw a variety of parts on their +chief performer; so our sovereign condescends himself to act not only +the principal, but all the subordinate, parts in the play. He +condescends to dissipate the royal character, and to trifle with those +light, subordinate, lacquered sceptres in those hands that sustain the +ball representing the world, or which wield the trident that commands +the ocean. Cross a brook, and you lose the king of England; but you +have some comfort in coming again under his majesty, though "shorn of +his beams," and no more than prince of Wales. Go to the north, and you +find him dwindled to a duke of Lancaster; turn to the west of that +north, and he pops upon you in the humble character of earl of Chester. +Travel a few miles on, the earl of Chester disappears; and the king +surprises you again as count palatine of Lancaster. If you travel +beyond Mount Edgecombe, you find him once more in his incognito, and he +is duke of Cornwall. So that, quite fatigued and satiated with this +dull variety, you are infinitely refreshed when you return to the +sphere of his proper splendour, and behold your amiable sovereign in +his true, simple, undisguised, native character of majesty. + + +PRUDERY OF FALSE REFORM. + +Every one must remember that the cabal set out with the most astonishing +prudery, both moral and political. Those, who in a few months after +soused over head and ears into the deepest and dirtiest pits of +corruption, cried out violently against the indirect practices in the +electing and managing of parliaments, which had formerly prevailed. This +marvellous abhorrence which the court had suddenly taken to all +influence, was not only circulated in conversation through the kingdom, +but pompously announced to the public, with many other extraordinary +things, in a pamphlet which had all the appearance of a manifesto +preparatory to some considerable enterprise. Throughout it was a satire, +though in terms managed and decent enough, on the politics of the former +reign. It was indeed written with no small art and address. + +In this piece appeared the first dawning of the new system; there first +appeared the idea (then only in speculation) of SEPARATING THE COURT +FROM THE ADMINISTRATION; of carrying everything from national connection +to personal regards; and of forming a regular party for that purpose, +under the name of KING'S MEN. + +To recommend this system to the people, a perspective view of the court, +gorgeously painted, and finely illuminated from within, was exhibited to +the gaping multitude. Party was to be totally done away, with all its +evil works. Corruption was to be cast down from court, as Ate was from +heaven. Power was thenceforward to be the chosen residence of public +spirit; and no one was to be supposed under any sinister influence, +except those who had the misfortune to be in disgrace at court, which +was to stand in lieu of all vices and all corruptions. A scheme of +perfection to be realized in a monarchy far beyond the visionary +republic of Plato. The whole scenery was exactly disposed to captivate +those good souls, whose credulous morality is so invaluable a treasure +to crafty politicians. Indeed there was wherewithal to charm everybody, +except those few who are not much pleased with professions of +supernatural virtue, who know of what stuff such professions are made, +for what purposes they are designed, and in what they are sure +constantly to end. Many innocent gentlemen, who had been talking prose +all their lives without knowing anything of the matter, began at last to +open their eyes upon their own merits, and to attribute their not having +been lords of the treasury and lords of trade many years before, merely +to the prevalence of party, and to the ministerial power, which had +frustrated the good intentions of the court in favour of their +abilities. Now was the time to unlock the sealed fountain of royal +bounty, which had been infamously monopolized and huckstered, and to let +it flow at large upon the whole people. The time was come to restore +royalty to its original splendour. + + +EXAGGERATION. + +If a few puny libellers, acting under a knot of factious politicians, +without virtue, parts, or character (such they are constantly +represented by these gentlemen), are sufficient to excite this +disturbance, very perverse must be the disposition of that people +amongst whom such a disturbance can be excited by such means. It is +besides no small aggravation of the public misfortune, that the +disease, on this hypothesis, appears to be without remedy. If the +wealth of the nation be the cause of its turbulence, I imagine it is +not proposed to introduce poverty, as a constable to keep the peace. If +our dominions abroad are the roots which feed all this rank luxuriance +of sedition, it is not intended to cut them off in order to famish the +fruit. If our liberty has enfeebled the executive power, there is no +design, I hope, to call in the aid of despotism, to fill up the +deficiencies of law. Whatever may be intended, these things are not +yet professed. We seem therefore to be driven to absolute despair: for +we have no other materials to work upon but those out of which God has +been pleased to form the inhabitants of this island. If these be +radically and essentially vicious, all that can be said is, that those +men are very unhappy, to whose fortune or duty it falls to administer +the affairs of this untoward people. I hear it indeed sometimes +asserted, that a steady perseverance in the present measures, and a +rigorous punishment of those who oppose them, will in course of time +infallibly put an end to these disorders. But this, in my opinion, is +said without much observation of our present disposition, and without +any knowledge at all of the general nature of mankind. If the matter of +which this nation is composed be so very fermentable as these gentlemen +describe it, leaven never will be wanting to work it up, as long as +discontent, revenge, and ambition, have existence in the world. +Particular punishments are the cure for accidental distempers in the +state; they inflame rather than allay those heats which arise from the +settled mismanagement of the government, or from a natural +indisposition in the people. It is of the utmost moment not to make +mistakes in the use of strong measures; and firmness is then only a +virtue when it accompanies the most perfect wisdom. In truth, +inconstancy is a sort of natural corrective of folly and ignorance. + + +TACTICS OF CABAL. + +It is a law of nature, that whoever is necessary to what we have made +our object, is sure, in some way, or in some time or other, to become +our master. All this, however, is submitted to, in order to avoid that +monstrous evil of governing in concurrence with the opinion of the +people. For it seems to be laid down as a maxim, that a king has some +sort of interest in giving uneasiness to his subjects: that all who are +pleasing to them, are to be of course disagreeable to him: that as soon +as the persons who are odious at court are known to be odious to the +people, it is snatched at as a lucky occasion of showering down upon +them all kinds of emoluments and honours. None are considered as +well?wishers to the crown, but those who advised to some unpopular +course of action; none capable of serving it, but those who are obliged +to call at every instant upon all its power for the safety of their +lives. None are supposed to be fit priests in the temple of government, +but the persons who are compelled to fly into it for sanctuary. Such is +the effect of this refined project; such is ever the result of all the +contrivances, which are used to free men from the servitude of their +reason and from the necessity of ordering their affairs according to +their evident interests. These contrivances oblige them to run into a +real and ruinous servitude, in order to avoid a supposed restraint that +might be attended with advantage. + + +GOVERNMENT, RELATIVE, NOT ABSOLUTE. + +I never govern myself--no rational man ever did govern himself--by +abstractions and universals. I do not put abstract ideas wholly out of +any question, because I well know, that under that name I should +dismiss principles; and that without the guide and light of sound, +well-understood principles, all reasonings in politics, as in +everything else, would be only a confused jumble of particular facts +and details, without the means of drawing out any sort of theoretical +or practical conclusion. A statesman differs from a professor in an +university: the latter has only the general view of society; the +former--the statesmen--has a number of circumstances to combine with +those general ideas, and to take into his consideration. Circumstances +are infinite, are infinitely combined; are variable and transient; he +who does not take them into consideration is not erroneous, but stark +mad--dat operam ut cum ratione insaniat--he is metaphysically mad. A +statesman, never losing sight of principles, is to be guided by +circumstances; and judging contrary to the exigencies of the moment he +may ruin his country for ever. + +I go on this ground, that government, representing the society, has a +general superintending control over all the actions, and over all the +publicly propagated doctrines of men, without which it never could +provide adequately for all the wants of society; but then it is to use +this power with an equitable discretion, the only bond of sovereign +authority. For it is not, perhaps, so much by the assumption of unlawful +powers, as by the unwise or unwarrantable use of those which are most +legal, that governments oppose their true end and object; for there is +such a thing as tyranny as well as usurpation. You can hardly state to +me a case, to which legislature is the most confessedly competent, in +which, if the rules of benignity and prudence are not observed, the most +mischievous and oppressive things may not be done. So that after all, it +is a moral and virtuous discretion, and not any abstract theory of +right, which keeps governments faithful to their ends. Crude, +unconnected truths are in the world of practice what falsehoods are in +theory. + +A reasonable, prudent, provident, and moderate coercion may be a means +of preventing acts of extreme ferocity and rigour; for by propagating +excessive and extravagant doctrines, such extravagant disorders take +place, as require the most perilous and fierce corrections to oppose +them. It is not morally true, that we are bound to establish in every +country that form of religion which in OUR minds is most agreeable to +truth, and conduces most to the eternal happiness of mankind. In the +same manner it is not true that we are, against the conviction of our +own judgment, to establish a system of opinions and practises directly +contrary to those ends, only because some majority of the people, told +by the head, may prefer it. No conscientious man would willingly +establish what he knew to be false and mischievous in religion, or in +anything else. No wise man, on the contrary, would tyrannically set up +his own sense so as to reprobate that of the great prevailing body of +the community, and pay no regard to the established opinions and +prejudices of mankind or refuse to them the means of securing a +religious instruction suitable to these prejudices. A great deal depends +on the state in which you find men. + + +GENERAL VIEWS. + +The foundations on which obedience to governments is founded, are not +to be constantly discussed. That we are here, supposes the discussion +already made and the dispute settled. We must assume the rights of what +represents the public to control the individual, to make his will and +his acts to submit to their will, until some intolerable grievance +shall make us know that it does not answer its end, and will submit +neither to reformation nor restraint. Otherwise we should dispute all +the points of morality before we can punish a murderer, robber, and +adulterer; we should analyze all society. Dangers by being despised +grow great; so they do by absurd provision against them. Stulti est +dixisse non putaram. Whether an early discovery of evil designs, an +early declaration, and an early precaution against them, be more wise +than to stifle all inquiry about them, for fear they should declare +themselves more early than otherwise they would, and therefore +precipitate the evil--all this depends on the reality of the danger. Is +it only an unbookish jealousy, as Shakspeare calls it? It is a question +of fact. Does a design against the constitution of this country exist? +If it does, and if it is carried on with increasing vigour and activity +by a restless faction, and if it receives countenance by the most +ardent and enthusiastic applauses of its object, in the great council +of this kingdom, by men of the first parts, which this kingdom +produces, perhaps by the first it has ever produced, can I think that +there is no danger? If there be danger, must there be no precaution at +all against it? If you ask whether I think the danger urgent and +immediate, I answer, thank God, I do not. The body of the people is yet +sound, the constitution is in their hearts, while wicked men are +endeavouring to put another into their heads. But if I see the very +same beginnings, which have commonly ended in great calamities, I ought +to act as if they might produce the very same effects. Early and +provident fear is the mother of safety; because in that state of things +the mind is firm and collected, and the judgment unembarrassed. But +when the fear, and the evil feared, come on together, and press at once +upon us, deliberation itself is ruinous, which saves upon all other +occasions; because when perils are instant, it delays decision; the man +is in a flutter, and in a hurry, and his judgment is gone, as the +judgment of the deposed king of France and his ministers was gone, if +the latter did not premeditately betray him. He was just come from his +usual amusement of hunting, when the head of the column of treason and +assassination was arrived at his house. Let not the king, let not the +prince of Wales, be surprised in this manner. Let not both houses of +parliament be led in triumph along with him, and have law dictated to +them by the constitutional, the revolution, and the Unitarian +societies. These insect reptiles, whilst they go on only caballing and +toasting, only fill us with disgust; if they get above their natural +size, and increase the quantity, whilst they keep the quality, of their +venom, they become objects of the greatest terror. A spider in his +natural size is only a spider, ugly and loathsome; and his flimsy net +is only fit for catching flies. But, good God! suppose a spider as +large as an ox, and that he spread cables about us, all the wilds of +Africa would not produce anything so dreadful-- + + "Quale portentum neque militaris + Daunia in latis alit esculetis, + Nec Jubae tellus generat leonum + Arida nutrix." + +Think of them, who dare menace in the way they do in their present +state, what would they do if they had power commensurate to their +malice. God forbid I ever should have a despotic master; but if I must, +my choice is made. I will have Louis XVI. rather than Monsieur Bailly, +or Brissot, or Chabot; rather George III., or George IV., than Dr. +Priestley or Dr. Kippis, persons who would not load a tyrannous power by +the poisoned taunts of a vulgar, low-bred insolence. I hope we have +still spirit enough to keep us from the one or the other. The +contumelies of tyranny are the worst parts of it. + + +MAGNITUDE IN BUILDING. + +To the sublime in building, greatness of dimension seems requisite; for +on a few parts, and those small, the imagination cannot rise to any +idea of infinity. No greatness in the manner can effectually compensate +for the want of proper dimensions. There is no danger of drawing men +into extravagant designs by this rule; it carries its own caution along +with it. Because too great a length in buildings destroys the purpose +of greatness, which it was intended to promote; the perspective will +lessen it in height as it gains in length, and will bring it at last to +a point; turning the whole figure into a sort of triangle, the poorest +in its effect of almost any figure that can be presented to the eye. I +have ever observed, that colonnades and avenues of trees of a moderate +length were, without comparison, far grander than when they were +suffered to run to immense distances. A true artist should put a +generous deceit on the spectators, and effect the noblest designs by +easy methods. Designs that are vast only by their dimensions, are +always the sign of a common and low imagination. No work of art can be +great, but as it deceives; to be otherwise is the prerogative of nature +only. A good eye will fix the medium betwixt an excessive length or +height (for the same objection lies against both), and a short or +broken quantity: and perhaps it might be ascertained to a tolerable +degree of exactness, if it was my purpose to descend far into the +particulars of any art. + + +SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE. + +The second branch of the social passions is that which administers to +SOCIETY IN GENERAL. With regard to this, I observe, that society, merely +as society, without any particular heightenings, gives us no positive +pleasure in the enjoyment; but absolute and entire SOLITUDE, that is, +the total and perpetual exclusion from all society, is as great a +positive pain as can almost be conceived. Therefore in the balance +between the pleasure of general SOCIETY, and the pain of absolute +solitude, PAIN is the predominant idea. But the pleasure of any +particular social enjoyment outweighs very considerably the uneasiness +caused by the want of that particular enjoyment; so that the strongest +sensations relative to the habitudes of PARTICULAR SOCIETY are +sensations of pleasure. Good company, lively conversations, and the +endearments of friendship, fill the mind with great pleasure; a +temporary solitude, on the other hand, is itself agreeable. This may +perhaps prove that we are creatures designed for contemplation as well +as action; since solitude as well as society has its pleasures; as from +the former observation we may discern, that an entire life of solitude +contradicts the purposes of our being, since death itself is scarcely an +idea of more terror. + + +EAST-INDIA BILL AND COMPANY. + +I therefore freely admit to the East-India their claim to exclude their +fellow-subjects from the commerce of half the globe. I admit their claim +to administer an annual territorial revenue of seven millions sterling; +to command an army of sixty thousand men; and to dispose (under the +control of a sovereign, imperial discretion, and with the due observance +of the natural and local law) of the lives and fortunes of thirty +millions of their fellow-creatures. All this they possess by charter, +and by acts of parliament (in my opinion), without a shadow of +controversy. + +Those who carry the rights and claims of the company the furthest do not +contend for more than this; and all this I freely grant. But granting +all this, they must grant to me, in my turn, that all political power +which is set over men, and that all privilege claimed or exercised in +exclusion of them, being wholly artificial, and for so much a derogation +from the natural quality of mankind at large, ought to be some way or +other exercised ultimately for their benefit. + +If this is true with regard to every species of political dominion, and +every description of commercial privilege, none of which can be +original, self-derived rights, or grants for the mere private benefit of +the holders, then such rights, or privileges, or whatever else you +choose to call them, are all in the strictest sense a TRUST; and it is +of the very essence of every trust to be rendered ACCOUNTABLE; and even +totally to CEASE, when it substantially varies from the purposes for +which alone it could have a lawful existence. + +This I conceive, Sir, to be true of trusts of power vested in the +highest hands, and of such as seem to hold of no human creature. But +about the application of this principle to subordinate, DERIVATIVE +trusts, I do not see how a controversy can be maintained. To whom then +would I make the East-India Company accountable? Why, to parliament, to +be sure; to parliament, from which their trust was derived; to +parliament, which alone is capable of comprehending the magnitude of its +object, and its abuse; and alone capable of an effectual legislative +remedy. The very charter, which is held out to exclude parliament from +correcting malversation with regard to the high trust vested in the +company, is the very thing which at once gives a title and imposes on us +a duty to interfere with effect, wherever power and authority +originating from ourselves are perverted from their purposes, and become +instruments of wrong and violence. If parliament, Sir, had nothing to do +with this charter, we might have some sort of Epicurean excuse to stand +aloof, indifferent spectators of what passes in the company's name in +India and in London. But if we are the very cause of the evil, we are in +a special manner engaged to the redress; and for us passively to bear +with oppressions committed under the sanction of our own authority, is +in truth and reason for this house to be an active accomplice in the +abuse. + +That the power, notoriously, grossly abused, has been bought from us is +very certain. But this circumstance, which is urged against the bill, +becomes an additional motive for our interference; lest we should be +thought to have sold the blood of millions of men, for the base +consideration of money. We sold, I admit, all that we had to sell; that +is, our authority, not our control. We had not a right to make a market +of our duties. + +I ground myself therefore on this principle--that if the abuse is +proved, the contract is broken, and we re-enter into all our rights; +that is, into the exercise of all our duties. Our own authority is +indeed as much a trust originally, as the company's authority is a trust +derivatively; and it is the use we make of the resumed power that must +justify or condemn us in the resumption of it. When we have perfected +the plan laid before us by the right honourable mover, the world will +then see what it is we destroy, and what it is we create. By that test +we stand or fall; and by that test I trust that it will be found in the +issue, that we are going to supersede a charter abused to the full +extent of all the powers which it could abuse, and exercised in the +plenitude of despotism, tyranny, and corruption; and that in one and the +same plan, we provide a real chartered security for the RIGHTS OF MEN, +cruelly violated under that charter. + +This bill, and those connected with it, are intended to form the magna +charta of Hindostan. Whatever the treaty of Westphalia is to the liberty +of the princes and free cities of the empire, and to the three religions +there professed; whatever the great charter, the statute of tallege, the +petition of right, and the declaration of right, are to Great Britain, +these bills are to the people of India. Of this benefit, I am certain, +their condition is capable; and when I know that they are capable of +more, my vote shall most assuredly be for our giving to the full extent +of their capacity of receiving; and no charter of dominion shall stand +as a bar in my way to their charter of safety and protection. + +The strong admission I have made of the company's rights (I am conscious +of it) binds me to do a great deal. I do not presume to condemn those +who argue a priori, against the propriety of leaving such extensive +political powers in the hands of a company of merchants. I know much is, +and much more may be, said against such a system. But, with my +particular ideas and sentiments, I cannot go that way to work. I feel an +insuperable reluctance in giving my hand to destroy any established +institution of government, upon a theory, however plausible it may be. +My experience in life teaches me nothing clear upon the subject. I have +known merchants with the sentiments and the abilities of great +statesmen; and I have seen persons in the rank of statesmen, with the +conceptions and characters of pedlars. Indeed, my observation has +furnished me with nothing that is to be found in any habits of life or +education, which tends wholly to disqualify men for the functions of +government, but that by which the power of exercising those functions is +very frequently obtained, I mean a spirit and habits of low cabal and +intrigue; which I have never, in one instance, seen united with a +capacity for sound and manly policy. To justify us in taking the +administration of their affairs out of the hands of the East-India +Company, on my principles, I must see several conditions. 1st. The +object affected by the abuse should be great and important. 2nd. The +abuse affecting this great object ought to be a great abuse. 3rd. It +ought to be habitual, and not accidental. 4th. It ought to be utterly +incurable in the body as it now stands constituted. All this ought to be +made as visible to me as the light of the sun, before I should strike +off an atom of their charter. + + +PARLIAMENTS AND ELECTIONS. + +All are agreed, that parliaments should not be perpetual; the only +question is, what is the most convenient time for their duration? On +which there are three opinions. We are agreed, too, that the term ought +not to be chosen most likely in its operation to spread corruption, and +to augment the already overgrown influence of the Crown. On these +principles I mean to debate the question. It is easy to pretend a zeal +for liberty. Those, who think themselves not likely to be encumbered +with the performance of their promises, either from their known +inability, or total indifference about the performance, never fail to +entertain the most lofty ideas. They are certainly the most specious, +and they cost them neither reflection to frame, nor pains to modify, nor +management to support. The task is of another nature to those, who mean +to promise nothing that it is not in their intention, or may possibly be +in their power, to perform; to those, who are bound and principled no +more to delude the understandings than to violate the liberty of their +fellow-subjects. Faithful watchmen we ought to be over the rights and +privileges of the people. But our duty, if we are qualified for it as we +ought, is to give them information, and not to receive it from them; we +are not to go to school to them to learn the principles of law and +government. In doing so, we should not dutifully serve, but we should +basely and scandalously betray, the people, who are not capable of this +service by nature, nor in any instance called to it by the constitution. +I reverentially look up to the opinion of the people, and with an awe +that is almost superstitious. I should be ashamed to show my face before +them, if I changed my ground, as they cried up or cried down men, or +things, or opinions; if I wavered and shifted about with every change, +and joined in it, or opposed, as best answered any low interest or +passion; if I held them up hopes, which I knew I never intended, or +promised what I well knew I could not perform. Of all these things they +are perfect sovereign judges, without appeal; but as to the detail of +particular measures, or to any general schemes of policy, they have +neither enough of speculation in the closet, nor of experience in +business, to decide upon it. They can well see whether we are tools of a +court, or their honest servants. Of that they can well judge; and I +wish, that they always exercised their judgment; but of the particular +merits of a measure I have other standards.**** That the frequency of +elections proposed by this bill has a tendency to increase the power and +consideration of the electors, not lessen corruptibility, I do most +readily allow; so far it is desirable; this is what it has, I will tell +you now what it has not: 1st. It has no sort of tendency to increase +their integrity and public spirit, unless an increase of power has an +operation upon voters in elections, that it has in no other situation in +the world, and upon no other part of mankind. 2nd. This bill has no +tendency to limit the quantity of influence in the Crown, to render its +operation more difficult, or to counteract that operation, which it +cannot prevent, in any way whatsoever. It has its full weight, its full +range, and its uncontrolled operation on the electors exactly as it had +before. 3rd. Nor, thirdly, does it abate the interest or inclination of +ministers to apply that influence to the electors: on the contrary, it +renders it much more necessary to them, if they seek to have a majority +in parliament to increase the means of that influence, and redouble +their diligence, and to sharpen dexterity in the application. The whole +effect of the bill is therefore the removing the application of some +part of the influence from the elected to the electors, and further to +strengthen and extend a court interest already great and powerful in +boroughs; here to fix their magazines and places of arms, and thus to +make them the principal, not the secondary theatre of their manoeuvres +for securing a determined majority in parliament. I believe nobody will +deny, that the electors are corruptible. They are men; it is saying +nothing worse of them; many of them are but ill informed in their minds, +many feeble in their circumstances, easily over-reached, easily seduced. +If they are many, the wages of corruption are the lower; and would to +God it were not rather a contemptible and hypocritical adulation than a +charitable sentiment to say, that there is already no debauchery, no +corruption, no bribery, no perjury, no blind fury, and interested +faction among the electors in many parts of this kingdom: nor is it +surprising, or at all blamable, in that class of private men, when they +see their neighbours aggrandised, and themselves poor and virtuous +without that eclat or dignity, which attends men in higher situations. + +But admit it were true, that the great mass of the electors were too +vast an object for court influence to grasp, or extend to, and that in +despair they must abandon it; he must be very ignorant of the state of +every popular interest, who does not know, that in all the corporations, +all the open boroughs, indeed in every district of the kingdom, there is +some leading man, some agitator, some wealthy merchant, or considerable +manufacturer, some active attorney, some popular preacher, some +money-lender, etc. etc. who is followed by the whole flock. This is the +style of all free countries. + + "--Multum in Fabia valet hic, valet ille Velina; + Cuilibet hic fasces dabit eripietque curule." + +These spirits, each of which informs and governs his own little orb, are +neither so many, nor so little powerful, nor so incorruptible, but that +a minister may, as he does frequently, find means of gaining them, and +through them all their followers. To establish, therefore, a very +general influence among electors will no more be found an impracticable +project, than to gain an undue influence over members of parliament. +Therefore I am apprehensive, that this bill, though it shifts the place +of the disorder, does by no means relieve the constitution. I went +through almost every contested election in the beginning of this +parliament, and acted as a manager in very many of them; by which, +though as at a school of pretty severe and rugged discipline, I came to +have some degree of instruction concerning the means, by which +parliamentary interests are in general procured and supported. + +Theory, I know, would suppose, that every general election is to the +representative a day of judgment, in which he appears before his +constituents to account for the use of the talent, with which they +intrusted him, and for the improvement he has made of it for the public +advantage. It would be so, if every corruptible representative were to +find an enlightened and incorruptible constituent. But the practice and +knowledge of the world will not suffer us to be ignorant, that the +constitution on paper is one thing, and in fact and experience is +another. We must know, that the candidate, instead of trusting at his +election to the testimony of his behaviour in parliament, must bring the +testimony of a large sum of money, the capacity of liberal expense in +entertainments, the power of serving and obliging the rulers of +corporations, of winning over the popular leaders of political clubs, +associations, and neighbourhoods. It is ten thousand times more +necessary to show himself a man of power, than a man of integrity, in +almost all the elections with which I have been acquainted. Elections, +therefore, become a matter of heavy expense; and if contests are +frequent, to many they will become a matter of an expense totally +ruinous, which no fortunes can bear; but least of all the landed +fortunes, encumbered as they often, indeed as they mostly, are with +debts, with portions, with jointures; and tied up in the hands of the +possessor by the limitations of settlement. It is a material, it is in +my opinion a lasting, consideration in all the questions concerning +election. Let no one think the charges of elections a trivial matter. +The charge therefore of elections ought never to be lost sight of in a +question concerning their frequency; because the grand object you seek +is independence. Independence of mind will ever be more or less +influenced by independence of fortune; and if, every three years, the +exhausting sluices of entertainments, drinkings, open houses, to say +nothing of bribery, are to be periodically drawn up and renewed;--if +government-favours, for which now, in some shape or other, the whole +race of men are candidates, are to be called for upon every occasion, I +see that private fortunes will be washed away, and every, even to the +least, trace of independence borne down by the torrent. I do not +seriously think this constitution, even to the wrecks of it, could +survive five triennial elections. If you are to fight the battle, you +must put on the armour of the ministry; you must call in the public, to +the aid of private, money. The expense of the last election has been +computed (and I am persuaded that it has not been over-rated) at +1,500,000 pounds;--three shillings in the pound more in the land tax. +About the close of the last parliament, and the beginning of this, +several agents for boroughs went about, and I remember well, that it was +in every one of their mouths--"Sir, your election will cost you three +thousand pounds, if you are independent; but if the ministry supports +you, it may be done for two, and perhaps for less;" and, indeed, the +thing spoke itself. Where a living was to be got for one, a commission +in the army for another, a lift in the navy for a third, and +custom-house offices scattered about without measure or number, who +doubts but money may be saved? The treasury may even add money; but +indeed it is superfluous. A gentleman of two thousand a year, who meets +another of the same fortune, fights with equal arms; but if to one of +the candidates you add a thousand a-year in places for himself, and a +power of giving away as much among others, one must, or there is no +truth in arithmetical demonstration, ruin his adversary, if he is to +meet him and to fight with him every third year. It will be said, I do +not allow for the operation of character; but I do; and I know it will +have its weight in most elections; perhaps it may be decisive in some. +But there are few in which it will be prevent great expenses. + +The destruction of independent fortunes will be the consequence on the +part of the candidate. What will be the consequence of triennial +corruption, triennial drunkenness, triennial idleness, triennial +law-suits, litigations, prosecutions, triennial phrensy, of society +dissolved, industry interrupted, ruined; of those personal hatreds, that +will never be suffered to soften; those animosities and feuds, which +will be rendered immortal; those quarrels, which are never to be +appeased; morals vitiated and gangrened to the vitals? I think no stable +and useful advantages were ever made by the money got at elections by +the voter, but all he gets is doubly lost to the public; it is money +given to diminish the general stock of the community, which is in the +industry of the subject. I am sure, that it is a good while before he or +his family settle again to their business. Their heads will never cool; +the temptations of elections will be for ever glittering before their +eyes. They will all grow politicians; every one, quitting his business, +will choose to enrich himself by his vote. They will all take the +gauging-rod; new places will be made for them; they will run to the +custom-house quay, their looms and ploughs will be deserted. + +So was Rome destroyed by the disorders of continual elections, though +those of Rome were sober disorders. They had nothing but faction, +bribery, bread, and stage plays, to debauch them. We have the +inflammation of liquor superadded, a fury hotter than any of them. There +the contest was only between citizen and citizen; here you have the +contest of ambitious citizens on one side, supported by the Crown, to +oppose to the efforts (let it be so) of private and unsupported ambition +on the other. Yet Rome was destroyed by the frequency and charge of +elections, and the monstrous expense of an unremitted courtship to the +people. I think, therefore, the independent candidate and elector may +each be destroyed by it; the whole body of the community be an infinite +sufferer; and a vitious ministry the only gainer. + + +RELIGION AND MAGISTRACY. + +In a Christian commonwealth the church and the state are one and the +same thing, being different integral parts of the same whole. For the +church has been always divided into two parts, the clergy and the +laity; of which the laity is as much an essential integral part, and +has as much its duties and privileges, as the clerical member; and in +the rule, order, and government of the church has its share. Religion +is so far, in my opinion, from being out of the province of the duty of +a Christian magistrate, that it is, and it ought to be, not only his +care, but the principal thing in his care; because it is one of the +great bonds of human society; and its object the supreme good, the +ultimate end and object of man himself. The magistrate, who is a man, +and charged with the concerns of men, and to whom very specially +nothing human is remote and indifferent, has a right and a duty to +watch over it with an unceasing vigilance, to protect, to promote, to +forward it by every rational, just, and prudent means. It is +principally his duty to prevent the abuses, which grow out of every +strong and efficient principle, that actuates the human mind. As +religion is one of the bonds of society, he ought not to suffer it to +be made the pretext of destroying its peace, order, liberty, and its +security. Above all, he ought strictly to look to it when men begin to +form new combinations, to be distinguished by new names, and especially +when they mingle a political system with their religious opinions, true +or false, plausible or implausible. + +It is the interest, and it is the duty, and because it is the interest +and the duty, it is the right of government to attend much to opinions; +because, as opinions soon combine with passions, even when they do not +produce them, they have much influence on actions. Factions are formed +upon opinions; which factions become in effect bodies corporate in the +state;--nay, factions generate opinions in order to become a centre of +union, and to furnish watch-words to parties; and this may make it +expedient for government to forbid things in themselves innocent and +neutral. I am not fond of defining with precision what the ultimate +rights of the sovereign supreme power in providing for the safety of the +commonwealth may be, or may not extend to. It will signify very little +what my notions, or what their own notions, on the subject may be; +because, according to the exigence, they will take, in fact, the steps +which seem to them necessary for the preservation of the whole; for as +self-preservation in individuals is the first law of nature, the same +will prevail in societies, who will, right or wrong, make that an object +paramount to all other rights whatsoever. + + +PERSECUTION, FALSE IN THEORY. + +The bottom of this theory of persecution is false. It is not permitted +to us to sacrifice the temporal good of any body of men to our own ideas +of the truth and falsehood of any religious opinions. By making men +miserable in this life, they counteract one of the great ends of +charity; which is, inasmuch as in us lies, to make men happy in every +period of their existence, and most in what most depends upon us. But +give to these old persecutors their mistaken principle, in their +reasoning they are consistent, and in their tempers they may be even +kind and good-natured. But whenever a faction would render millions of +mankind miserable, some millions of the race co-existent with +themselves, and many millions in their succession, without knowing, or +so much as pretending to ascertain, the doctrines of their own school +(in which there is much of the lash and nothing of the lesson), the +errors, which the persons in such a faction fall into, are not those +that are natural to human imbecility, nor is the least mixture of +mistaken kindness to mankind an ingredient in the severities they +inflict. The whole is nothing but pure and perfect malice. It is, +indeed, a perfection in that kind belonging to beings of a higher order +than man, and to them we ought to leave it. This kind of persecutors, +without zeal, without charity, know well enough, that religion, to pass +by all questions of the truth or falsehood of any of its particular +systems (a matter I abandon to the theologians on all sides), is a +source of great comfort to us mortals in this our short but tedious +journey through the world. They know, that to enjoy this consolation, +men must believe their religion upon some principle or other, whether of +education, habit, theory, or authority. When men are driven from any of +those principles, on which they have received religion, without +embracing with the same assurance and cordiality some other system, a +dreadful void is left in their minds, and a terrible shock is given to +their morals. They lose their guide, their comfort, their hope. None but +the most cruel and hard-hearted of men, who had banished all natural +tenderness from their minds, such as those beings of iron, the atheists, +could bring themselves to any persecution like this. Strange it is, but +so it is, that men, driven by force from their habits in one mode of +religion, have, by contrary habits, under the same force, often quietly +settled in another. They suborn their reason to declare in favour of +their necessity. Man and his conscience cannot always be at war. If the +first races have not been able to make a pacification between the +conscience and the convenience, their descendants come generally to +submit to the violence of the laws, without violence to their minds. + + +IRISH LEGISLATION. + +The legislature of Ireland, like all legislatures, ought to frame its +laws to suit the people and the circumstances of the country, and not +any longer to make it their whole business to force the nature, the +temper, and the inveterate habits of a nation to a conformity to +speculative systems concerning any kind of laws. Ireland has an +established government, and a religion legally established, which are to +be preserved. It has a people, who are to be preserved too, and to be +led by reason, principle, sentiment, and interest to acquiesce in that +government. Ireland is a country under peculiar circumstances. The +people of Ireland are a very mixed people; and the quantities of the +several ingredients in the mixture are very much disproportioned to each +other. Are we to govern this mixed body as if it were composed of the +most simple elements, comprehending the whole in one system of +benevolent legislation; or are we not rather to provide for the several +parts according to the various and diversified necessities of the +heterogeneous nature of the mass? Would not common reason and common +honesty dictate to us the policy of regulating the people in the several +descriptions of which they are composed, according to the natural ranks +and classes of an orderly civil society, under a common protecting +sovereign, and under a form of constitution favourable at once to +authority and to freedom; such as the British constitution boasts to be, +and such as it is, to those who enjoy it? + + +HENRY OF NAVARRE. + +I have observed the affectation which, for many years past, has +prevailed in Paris even to a degree perfectly childish, of idolizing +the memory of your Henry the Fourth. If anything could put any one out +of humour with that ornament to the kingly character, it would be this +overdone style of insidious panegyric. The persons who have worked this +engine the most busily are those who have ended their panegyrics in +dethroning his successor and descendant; a man, as good natured, at the +least, as Henry the Fourth; altogether as fond of his people; and who +has done infinitely more to correct the ancient vices of the state than +that great monarch did, or we are sure he ever meant to do. Well it is +for his panegyrists that they have not him to deal with. For Henry of +Navarre was a resolute, active, and politic prince. He possessed indeed +great humanity and mildness; but a humanity and mildness that never +stood in the way of his interests. He never sought to be loved without +putting himself first in a condition to be feared. He used soft +language with determined conduct. He asserted and maintained his +authority in the gross, and distributed his acts of concession only in +the detail. He spent the income of his prerogative nobly; but he took +care not to break in upon the capital; never abandoning for a moment +any of the claims which he made under the fundamental laws, nor sparing +to shed the blood of those who opposed him, often in the field, +sometimes upon the scaffold. Because he knew how to make his virtues +respected by the ungrateful, he has merited the praises of those, whom +if they had lived in his time, he would have shut up in the Bastile, +and brought to punishment along with the regicides whom he hanged after +he had famished Paris into a surrender. + + +TEST ACTS. + +In a discussion which took place in the year 1790, Mr. Burke declared +his intention, in case the motion for repealing the Test Acts had been +agreed to, of proposing to substitute the following test in the room of +what was intended to be repealed. "I, A.B. do, in the presence of God, +sincerely profess and believe, that a religious establishment in this +state is not contrary to the law of God, or disagreeable to the law of +nature, or to the true principles of the Christian religion, or that it +is noxious to the community; and I do sincerely promise and engage, +before God, that I never will, by any conspiracy, contrivance, or +political device whatever, attempt, or abet others in any attempt, to +subvert the constitution of the church of England, as the same is now by +law established, and that I will not employ any power or influence, +which I may derive from any office corporate, or any other office which +I hold, or shall hold, under his majesty, his heirs and successors, to +destroy and subvert the same; or, to cause members to be elected into +any corporation, or into parliament, give my vote in the election of any +member or members of parliament, or into any office, for or on account +of their attachment to any other or different religious opinions or +establishments, or with any hope, that they may promote the same to the +prejudice of the established church; but will dutifully and peaceably +content myself with my private liberty of conscience, as the same is +allowed by law. + +"So help me God." + + +WHAT FACTION OUGHT TO TEACH. + +If, however, you could find out these pedigrees of guilt, I do not think +the difference would be essential. History records many things, which +ought to make us hate evil actions; but neither history, nor morals, nor +policy, can teach us to punish innocent men on that account. What lesson +does the iniquity of prevalent factions read to us? It ought to lesson +us into an abhorrence of the abuse of our own power in our own day; when +we hate its excesses so much in other persons and in other times. To +that school true statesmen ought to be satisfied to leave mankind. They +ought not to call from the dead all the discussions and litigations +which formerly inflamed the furious factions, which had torn their +country to pieces; they ought not to rake into the hideous and +abominable things, which were done in the turbulent fury of an injured, +robbed, and persecuted people, and which were afterwards cruelly +revenged in the execution, and as outrageously and shamefully +exaggerated in the representation, in order, a hundred and fifty years +after, to find some colour for justifying them in the eternal +proscription and civil excommunication of a whole people. + + +GRIEVANCES BY LAW. + +This business appears in two points of view. 1. Whether it is a matter +of grievance. 2. Whether it is within our province to redress it with +propriety and prudence. Whether it comes properly before us on a +petition upon matter of grievance, I would not inquire too curiously. I +know, technically speaking, that nothing agreeable to law can be +considered as a grievance. But an over-attention to the rules of any +act does sometimes defeat the ends of it, and I think it does so in +this parliamentary act, as much at least as in any other. I know many +gentlemen think, that the very essence of liberty consists in being +governed according to law; as if grievances had nothing real and +intrinsic; but I cannot be of that opinion. Grievances may subsist by +law. Nay, I do not know whether any grievance can be considered as +intolerable until it is established and sanctified by law. If the act +of toleration were not perfect, if there were a complaint of it, I +would gladly consent to amend it. But when I heard a complaint of a +pressure on religious liberty, to my astonishment, I find that there +was no complaint whatsoever of the insufficiency of the act of King +William, nor any attempt to make it more sufficient. The matter +therefore does not concern toleration, but establishment; and it is not +the rights of private conscience that are in question, but the +propriety of the terms, which are proposed by law as a title to public +emoluments; so that the complaint is not, that there is not toleration +of diversity in opinion, but that diversity in opinion is not rewarded +by bishoprics, rectories, and collegiate stalls. When gentlemen +complain of the subscription as matter of grievance, the complaint +arises from confounding private judgment, whose rights are anterior to +law, and the qualifications, which the law creates for its own +magistracies, whether civil or religious. To take away from men their +lives, their liberty, or their property, those things, for the +protection of which society was introduced, is great hardship and +intolerable tyranny; but to annex any condition you please to benefits, +artificially created, is the most just, natural, and proper thing in +the world. When e novo you form an arbitrary benefit, an advantage, +pre-eminence, or emolument, not by nature, but institution, you order +and modify it with all the power of a creator over his creature. Such +benefits of institution are royalty, nobility, priesthood; all of which +you may limit to birth; you might prescribe even shape and stature. The +Jewish priesthood was hereditary. Founders' kinsmen have a preference +in the election of Fellows in many colleges of our universities; the +qualifications at All Souls are, that they should be--optime nati, bene +vestiti, mediocriter docti. + +By contending for liberty in the candidate for orders, you take away the +liberty of the elector, which is the people; that is, the state. If they +can choose, they may assign a reason for their choice; if they can +assign a reason, they may do it in writing, and prescribe it as a +condition; they may transfer their authority to their representatives, +and enable them to exercise the same. In all human institutions a great +part, almost all regulations, are made from the mere necessity of the +case, let the theoretical merits of the question be what they will. For +nothing happened at the reformation, but what will happen in all such +revolutions. When tyranny is extreme, and abuses of government +intolerable, men resort to the rights of nature to shake it off. When +they have done so, the very same principle of necessity of human +affairs, to establish some other authority, which shall preserve the +order of this new institution, must be obeyed, until they grow +intolerable; and you shall not be suffered to plead original liberty +against such an institution. See Holland, Switzerland. + +If you will have religion publicly practised and publicly taught, you +must have a power to say what that religion will be which you will +protect and encourage; and to distinguish it by such marks and +characteristics, as you in your wisdom shall think fit. As I said +before, your determination may be unwise in this as in other matters, +but it cannot be unjust, hard, or oppressive, or contrary to the liberty +of any man, or in the least degree exceeding your province. + +It is therefore as a grievance fairly none at all, nothing but what is +essential not only to the order, but to the liberty, of the whole +community. + + +REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS. + +In France you are now in the crisis of a revolution, and in the +transit from one form of government to another--you cannot see that +character of men exactly in the same situation in which we see it in +this country. With us it is militant; with you it is triumphant; and +you know how it can act when its power is commensurate to its will. I +would not be supposed to confine those observations to any +description of men, or to comprehend all men of any description +within them--No! far from it. I am as incapable of that injustice, as +I am of keeping terms with those who profess principles of extremes; +and who, under the name of religion, teach little else than wild and +dangerous politics. The worst of these politics of revolution is +this: they temper and harden the breast, in order to prepare it for +the desperate strokes which are sometimes used in extreme occasions. +But as these occasions may never arrive, the mind receives a +gratuitous taint; and the moral sentiments suffer not a little, when +no political purpose is served by the depravation. This sort of +people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man, +that they have totally forgotten his nature. Without opening one new +avenue to the understanding, they have succeeded in stopping up those +that lead to the heart. They have perverted in themselves, and in +those that attend to them, all the well-placed sympathies of the +human breast. + +This famous sermon of the Old Jewry breathes nothing but this spirit +through all the political part. Plots, massacres, assassinations, seem +to some people a trivial price for obtaining a revolution. A cheap, +bloodless reformation, a guiltless liberty, appear flat and vapid to +their taste. There must be a great change of scene; there must be a +magnificent stage effect; there must be a grand spectacle to rouse the +imagination, grown torpid with the lazy enjoyment of sixty years' +security, and the still unanimating repose of public prosperity. The +preacher found them all in the French revolution. This inspires a +juvenile warmth through his whole frame. His enthusiasm kindles as he +advances; and when he arrives at his peroration it is in a full blaze. +Then viewing, from the Pisgah of his pulpit, the free, moral, happy, +flourishing, and glorious state of France, as in a bird-eye landscape of +a promised land, he breaks out into rapture. + + +TOLERATION BECOME INTOLERANT. + +When any dissenters, or any body of people, come here with a petition, +it is not the number of people, but the reasonableness of the request, +that should weigh with the house. A body of dissenters come to this +house, and say, Tolerate us--we desire neither the parochial advantage +of tithes, nor dignities, nor the stalls of your cathedrals. No! let the +venerable orders of the hierarchy exist with all their advantages. And +shall I tell them, I reject your just and reasonable petition, not +because it shakes the church, but because there are others, while you +lie grovelling upon the earth, that will kick and bite you? Judge which +of these descriptions of men comes with a fair request--that, which +says, Sir, I desire liberty for my own, because I trespass on no man's +conscience;--or the other, which says, I desire that these men should +not be suffered to act according to their consciences, though I am +tolerated to act according to mine. But I sign a body of articles, which +is my title to toleration; I sign no more, because more are against my +conscience. But I desire that you will not tolerate these men, because +they will not go so far as I, though I desire to be tolerated, who will +not go as far as you. No, imprison them, if they come within five miles +of a corporate town, because they do not believe what I do in point of +doctrines. Shall I not say to these men, "Arrangez-vous, canaille?" You, +who are not the predominant power, will not give to others the +relaxation, under which you are yourself suffered to live. I have as +high an opinion of the doctrines of the church as you. I receive them +implicitly, or I put my own explanation on them, or take that which +seems to me to come best recommended by authority. There are those of +the dissenters, who think more rigidly of the doctrine of the articles +relative to predestination, than others do. They sign the article +relative to it ex animo, and literally. Others allow a latitude of +construction. These two parties are in the church, as well as among the +dissenters; yet in the church we live quietly under the same roof. I do +not see why, as long as Providence gives us no further light into this +great mystery, we should not leave things as the Divine wisdom has left +them. But suppose all these things to me to be clear (which Providence +however seems to have left obscure), yet whilst dissenters claim a +toleration in things which, seeming clear to me, are obscure to them, +without entering into the merit of the articles, with what face can +these men say, Tolerate us, but do not tolerate them? Toleration is good +for all, or it is good for none. + +The discussion this day is not between establishment on one hand, and +toleration on the other, but between those, who being tolerated +themselves, refuse toleration to others. That power should be puffed up +with pride, that authority should degenerate into rigour, if not +laudable, is but too natural. But this proceeding of theirs is much +beyond the usual allowance to human weakness; it not only is shocking to +our reason, but it provokes our indignation. Quid domini facient, audent +cum talia fures? It is not the proud prelate thundering in his +commission court, but a pack of manumitted slaves with the lash of the +beadle flagrant on their backs, and their legs still galled with their +fetters, that would drive their brethren into that prison-house from +whence they have just been permitted to escape. If, instead of puzzling +themselves in the depths of the Divine counsels, they would turn to the +mild morality of the Gospel, they would read their own condemnation:--O +thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst +me: shouldest not thou also have compassion on thy fellow-servant, even +as I had pity on thee? + + +WILKES AND RIGHT OF ELECTION. + +In the last session, the corps called the "king's friends" made a hardy +attempt, all at once, TO ALTER THE RIGHT OF ELECTION ITSELF; to put it +into the power of the House of Commons to disable any person +disagreeable to them from sitting in parliament, without any other rule +than their own pleasure; to make incapacities, either general for +descriptions of men, or particular for individuals; and to take into +their body, persons who avowedly never been chosen by the majority of +legal electors, nor agreeably to any known rule of law. + +The arguments upon which this claim was founded and combated, are not my +business here. Never has a subject been more amply and more learnedly +handled, nor upon one side, in my opinion, more satisfactorily; they who +are not convinced by what is already written would not receive +conviction THOUGH ONE AROSE FROM THE DEAD. + +I too have thought on this subject: but my purpose here, is only to +consider it as a part of the favourite project of government; to observe +on the motives which led to it; and to trace its political consequences. + +A violent rage for the punishment of Mr. Wilkes was the pretence of the +whole. This gentleman, by setting himself strongly in opposition to the +court cabal, had become at once an object of their persecution, and of +the popular favour. The hatred of the court party pursuing, and the +countenance of the people protecting him, it very soon became not at all +a question on the man, but a trial of strength between the two parties. +The advantage of the victory in this particular contest was the present, +but not the only, nor by any means the principal, object. Its operation +upon the character of the House of Commons was the great point in view. +The point to be gained by the cabal was this; that a precedent should be +established, tending to show, THAT THE FAVOUR OF THE PEOPLE WAS NOT SO +SURE A ROAD AS THE FAVOUR OF THE COURT EVEN TO POPULAR HONOURS AND +POPULAR TRUSTS. A strenuous resistance to every appearance of lawless +power; a spirit of independence carried to some degree of enthusiasm; an +inquisitive character to discover, and a bold one to display, every +corruption and every error of government; these are the qualities which +recommend a man to a seat in the House of Commons, in open and merely +popular elections. An indolent and submissive disposition; a disposition +to think charitably of all the actions of men in power, and to live in a +mutual intercourse of favours with them; an inclination rather to +countenance a strong use of authority, than to bear any sort of +licentiousness on the part of the people; these are unfavourable +qualities in an open election for members of parliament. The instinct +which carries the people towards the choice of the former, is justified +by reason; because a man of such a character, even in its exorbitances, +does not directly contradict the purposes of a trust, the end of which +is a control on power. The latter character, even when it is not in its +extreme, will execute this trust but very imperfectly; and, if deviating +to the least excess, will certainly frustrate instead of forwarding the +purposes of a control on government. But when the House of Commons was +to be new modelled, is principle was not only to be changed but +reversed. Whilst any errors committed in support of power were left to +the law, with every advantage of favourable construction, of mitigation, +and finally of pardon: all excesses on the side of liberty, or in +pursuit of popular favour, or in defence of popular rights and +privileges, were not only to be punished by the rigour of the known law, +but by a DISCRETIONARY proceeding, which brought on THE LOSS OF THE +POPULAR OBJECT ITSELF. Popularity was to be rendered, if not directly +penal, at least highly dangerous. The favour of the people might lead +even to a disqualification of representing them. Their odium might +become, strained through the medium of two or three constructions, the +means of sitting as the trustee of all that was dear to them. This is +punishing the offence in the offending part. Until this time, the +opinion of the people, through the power of an assembly, still in some +sort popular, led to the greatest honours and emoluments in the gift of +the crown. Now the principle is reversed; and the favour of the court is +the only sure way of obtaining and holding those honours which ought to +be in the disposal of the people. + +It signifies very little how this matter may be quibbled away. Example, +the only argument of effect in civil life, demonstrates the truth of my +proposition. Nothing can alter my opinion concerning the pernicious +tendency of this example, until I see some man for his indiscretion in +the support of power, for his violent and intemperate servility, +rendered incapable of sitting in parliament. For as it now stands, the +fault of overstraining popular qualities, and, irregularly if you +please, asserting popular privileges, has led to disqualification; the +opposite fault never has produced the slightest punishment. Resistance +to power has shut the door of the House of Commons to one man; +obsequiousness and servility, to none. + +Not that I would encourage popular disorder, or any disorder. But I +would leave such offences to the law, to be punished in measure and +proportion. The laws of this country are for the most part constituted, +and wisely so, for the general ends of government, rather than for the +preservation of our particular liberties. Whatever, therefore, is done +in support of liberty, by persons not in public trust, or not acting +merely in that trust, is liable to be more or less out of the ordinary +course of the law; and the law itself is sufficient to animadvert upon +it with great severity. Nothing indeed can hinder that severe letter +from crushing us, except the temperaments it may receive from a trial by +jury. But if the habit prevail OF GOING BEYOND THE LAW, and superseding +this judicature, of carrying offences, real or supposed, into the +legislative bodies, who shall establish themselves into COURTS OF +CRIMINAL EQUITY (so THE STAR CHAMBER has been called by Lord Bacon), all +the evils of the STAR CHAMBER are revived. A large and liberal +construction in ascertaining offences, and a discretionary power in +punishing them, is the idea of CRIMINAL EQUITY; which is in truth a +monster in jurisprudence. It signifies nothing whether a court for this +purpose be a committee of council, or a house of commons, or a house of +lords; the liberty of the subject will be equally subverted by it. The +true end and purpose of that house of parliament which entertains such a +jurisdiction, will be destroyed by it. I will not believe, what no other +man living believes, that Mr. Wilkes was punished for the indecency of +his publications, or the impiety of his ransacked closet. If he had +fallen in a common slaughter of libellers and blasphemers, I could well +believe that nothing more was meant than was pretended. But when I see, +that, for years together, full as impious, and perhaps more dangerous, +writings to religion, and virtue, and order, have not been punished, nor +their authors discountenanced; that the most audacious libels on royal +majesty have passed without notice; that the most treasonable invectives +against the laws, liberties, and constitution of the country, have not +met with the slightest animadversion; I must consider this as a shocking +and shameless pretence. Never did an envenomed scurrility against +everything sacred and civil, public and private, rage through the +kingdom with such a furious and unbridled licence. All this while the +peace of the nation must be shaken, to ruin one libeller, and to tear +from the populace a single favourite. + +Nor is it that vice merely skulks in an obscure and contemptible +impunity. Does not the public behold with indignation, persons not only +generally scandalous in their lives, but the identical persons who, by +their society, their instruction, their example, their encouragement, +have drawn this man into the very faults which have furnished the cabal +with a pretence for his persecution, loaded with every kind of favour, +honour, and distinction, which a court can bestow? Add but the crime of +servility (the foedum crimen servitutis) to every other crime, and the +whole mass is immediately transmuted into virtue, and becomes the just +subject of reward and honour. When therefore I reflect upon this method +pursued by the cabal in distributing rewards and punishments, I must +conclude that Mr. Wilkes is the object of persecution, not on account of +what he has done in common with others who are the objects of reward, +but for that in which he differs from many of them: that he is pursued +for the spirited dispositions which are blended with his vices; for his +unconquerable firmness, for his resolute, indefatigable, strenuous +resistance against oppression. + +In this case, therefore, it was not the man that was to be punished, nor +his faults that were to be discountenanced. Opposition to acts of power +was to be marked by a kind of civil proscription. The popularity which +should arise from such an opposition was to be shown unable to protect +it. The qualities by which court is made to the people, were to render +every fault inexpiable, and every error irretrievable. The qualities by +which court is made to power, were to cover and to sanctify everything. +He that will have a sure and honourable seat in the House of Commons, +must take care how he adventures to cultivate popular qualities; +otherwise he may remember the old maxim, Breves et infaustos populi +Romani amores. If, therefore, a pursuit of popularity expose a man to +greater dangers than a disposition to servility, the principle which is +the life and soul of popular elections will perish out of the +constitution. + + +ROCKINGHAM AND CONWAY. + +It is now given out for the usual purposes, by the usual emissaries, +that Lord Rockingham did not consent to the repeal of this act until he +was bullied into it by Lord Chatham; and the reporters have gone so far +as publicly to assert, in a hundred companies, that the honourable +gentleman under the gallery, who proposed the repeal in the American +committee, had another set of resolutions in his pocket directly the +reverse of those he moved. These artifices of a desperate cause are at +this time spread abroad, with incredible care, in every part of the +town, from the highest to the lowest companies; as if the industry of +the circulation were to make amends for the absurdity of the report. +Sir, whether the noble lord is of a complexion to be bullied by Lord +Chatham, or by any man, I must submit to those who know him. I confess, +when I look back to that time, I consider him as placed in one of the +most trying situations in which, perhaps, any man ever stood. In the +House of Peers there were very few of the ministry, out of the noble +lord's own particular connection (except Lord Egmont, who acted, as far +as I could discern, an honourable and manly part), that did not look to +some other future arrangement, which warped his politics. There were in +both houses new and menacing appearances, that might very naturally +drive any other, than a most resolute minister, from his measure or from +his station. The household troops openly revolted. The allies of +ministry (those, I mean, who supported some of their measures, but +refused responsibility for any) endeavoured to undermine their credit, +and to take ground that must be fatal to the success of the very cause +which they would be thought to countenance. The question of the repeal +was brought on by ministry in the committee of this house, in the very +instant when it was known that more than one court negotiation was +carrying on with the heads of the opposition. Everything, upon every +side, was full of traps and mines. Earth below shook; heaven above +menaced; all the elements of ministerial safety were dissolved. It was +in the midst of this chaos of plots and counterplots; it was in the +midst of this complicated warfare against public opposition and private +treachery, that the firmness of that noble person was put to the proof. +He never stirred from his ground: no, not an inch. He remained fixed and +determined, in principle, in measure, and in conduct. He practised no +managements. He secured no retreat. He sought no apology. + +I will likewise do justice, I ought to do it, to the honourable +gentlemen who led us in this house. Far from the duplicity wickedly +charged on him, he acted his part with alacrity and resolution. We all +felt inspired by the example he gave us, down even to myself, the +weakest in that phalanx. I declare for one, I knew well enough (it could +not be concealed from anybody) the true state of things; but, in my +life, I never came with so much spirits into this house. It was a time +for a MAN to act in. We had powerful enemies, but we had faithful and +determined friends; and a glorious cause. We had a great battle to +fight, but we had the means of fighting; not as now, when our arms are +tied behind us. We did fight that day, and conquer. + +I remember, Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the situation of the +honourable gentleman (General Conway.) who made the motion for the +repeal; in that crisis when the whole trading interest of this empire, +crammed into your lobbies, with a trembling and anxious expectation, +waited, almost to a winter's return of light, their fate from your +resolutions. When, at length, you had determined in their favour, and +your doors, thrown open, showed them the figure of their deliverer in +the well-earned triumph of his important victory, from the whole of that +grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of gratitude and +transport. They jumped upon him like children on a long-absent father. +They clung about him as captives about their redeemer. All England, all +America joined to his applause. Nor did he seem insensible to the best +of all earthly rewards, the love and admiration of his fellow-citizens. +HOPE ELEVATED, AND JOY BRIGHTENED HIS CREST. I stood near him; and his +face, to use the expression of the scripture of the first martyr, "his +face was as if it had been the face of an angel." I do not know how +others feel; but if I had stood in that situation, I never would have +exchanged it for all that kings in their profusion could bestow. I did +hope that that day's danger and honour would have been a bond to hold us +all together for ever. But, alas! that, with other pleasing visions, is +long since vanished. + +Sir, this act of supreme magnanimity has been represented, as if it had +been a measure of an administration, that having no scheme of their own, +took a middle line, pilfered a bit from one side and a bit from the +other. Sir, they took NO middle lines. They differed fundamentally from +the schemes of both parties; but they preserved the objects of both. +They preserved the authority of Great Britain. They made the Declaratory +Act; they repealed the Stamp Act. They did both FULLY; because the +Declaratory Act was without QUALIFICATION; and the repeal of the Stamp +Act TOTAL. This they did in the situation I have described. + + +POLITICS IN THE PULPIT. + +It is plain that the mind of this POLITICAL preacher was at the time big +with some extraordinary design; and it is very probable that the +thoughts of his audience, who understood him better than I do, did all +along run before him in his reflection, and in the whole train of +consequences to which it led. Before I read that sermon, I really +thought I had lived in a free country; and it was an error I cherished, +because it gave me a greater liking to the country I lived in. I was +indeed aware, that a jealous, ever-waking vigilance, to guard the +treasure of our liberty, not only from invasion, but from decay and +corruption, was our best wisdom, and our first duty. However, I +considered that treasure rather as a possession to be secured, than as a +prize to be contended for. I did not discern how the present time came +to be so very favourable to all EXERTIONS in the cause of freedom. The +present time differs from any other only by the circumstance of what is +doing in France. If the example of that nation is to have an influence +on this, I can easily conceive why some of their proceedings which have +an unpleasant aspect, and are not quite reconcilable to humanity, +generosity, good faith, and justice, are palliated with so much milky +good-nature towards the actors, and born with so much heroic fortitude +towards the sufferers. It is certainly not prudent to discredit the +authority of an example we mean to follow. But allowing this, we are led +to a very natural question:--What is that cause of liberty, and what are +those exertions in its favour, to which the example of France is so +singularly auspicious? Is our monarchy to be annihilated, with all the +laws, all the tribunals, and all the ancient corporations of the +kingdom? Is every land-mark of the country to be done away in favour of +a geometrical and arithmetical constitution? Is the House of Lords to be +voted useless? Is episcopacy to be abolished? Are the church lands to be +sold to Jews and jobbers; or given to bribe new-invented municipal +republics into a participation in sacrilege? Are all the taxes to be +voted grievances, and the revenue reduced to a patriotic contribution, +or patriotic presents? Are silver shoe-buckles to be substituted in the +place of the land-tax and the malt-tax, for the support of the naval +strength of this kingdom? Are all orders, ranks, and distinctions to be +confounded, that out of universal anarchy, joined to national +bankruptcy, three or four thousand democracies should be formed into +eighty-three, and that they may all, by some sort of unknown attractive +power, be organized into one? For this great end is the army to be +seduced from its discipline and its fidelity, first by every kind of +debauchery, and then by the terrible precedent of a donative in the +increase of pay? Are the curates to be secluded from their bishops, by +holding out to them the delusive hope of a dole out of the spoils of +their own order? Are the citizens of London to be drawn from their +allegiance by feeding them at the expense of their fellow-subjects? Is a +compulsory paper currency to be substituted in the place of the legal +coin of this kingdom? Is what remains of the plundered stock of public +revenue to be employed in the wild project of maintaining two armies to +watch over and to fight with each other? If these are the ends and means +of the Revolution Society, I admit they are well assorted; and France +may furnish them for both with precedents in point. I see that your +example is held out to shame us. I know that we are supposed a dull, +sluggish race, rendered passive by finding our situation tolerable, and +prevented by a mediocrity of freedom from ever attaining to its full +perfection. Your leaders in France began by affecting to admire, almost +to adore, the British constitution; but, as they advanced, they came to +look upon it with a sovereign contempt. The friends of your National +Assembly amongst us have full as mean an opinion of what was formerly +thought the glory of their country. The Revolution Society has +discovered that the English nation is not free. They are convinced that +the inequality in our representation is a"defect in our constitution SO +GROSS AND PALPABLE, as to make it excellent chiefly in FORM and THEORY." +(Discourse on the Love of our Country, 3rd edition page 39.) That a +representation in the legislature of a kingdom is not only the basis of +all constitutional liberty in it, but of "ALL LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT; +that without it a GOVERNMENT is nothing but a USURPATION;"--that "when +the representation is PARTIAL, the kingdom possesses liberty only +PARTIALLY; and if extremely partial it gives only a SEMBLANCE; and if +not only extremely partial, but corruptly chosen, it becomes a +NUISANCE." Dr. Price considers this inadequacy of representation as our +FUNDAMENTAL GRIEVANCE; and though, as to the corruption of this +semblance of representation, he hopes it is not yet arrived to its full +perfection of depravity, he fears that "nothing will be done towards +gaining for us this ESSENTIAL BLESSING, until some GREAT ABUSE OF POWER +again provokes our resentment, or some GREAT CALAMITY again alarms our +fears, or perhaps till the acquisition of a PURE AND EQUAL +REPRESENTATION BY OTHER COUNTRIES, whilst we are MOCKED with the SHADOW, +kindles our shame." To this he subjoins a note in these words. "A +representation chosen chiefly by the treasury, and a FEW thousands of +the DREGS of the people, who are generally paid for their votes." + +You will smile here at the consistency of those democratists, who, when +they are not on their guard, treat the humbler part of the community +with the greatest contempt, whilst, at the same time, they pretend to +make them the depositories of all power. It would require a long +discourse to point out to you the many fallacies that lurk in the +generality and equivocal nature of the terms "inadequate +representation." I shall only say here, in justice to that old-fashioned +constitution, under which we have long prospered, that our +representation has been found perfectly adequate to all the purposes for +which a representation of the people can be desired or devised. I defy +the enemies of our constitution to show the contrary. To detail the +particulars in which it is found so well to promote its ends, would +demand a treatise on our practical constitution. I state here the +doctrine of the revolutionists, only that you and others may see, what +an opinion these gentlemen entertain of the constitution of their +country, and why they seem to think that some great abuse of power, or +some great calamity, as giving a chance for the blessing of a +constitution according to their ideas, would be much palliated to their +feelings; you see WHY THEY are so much enamoured of your fair and equal +representation, which being once obtained, the same effects might +follow. You see they consider our House of Commons as only "a +semblance," "a form," "a theory," "a shadow," "a mockery," perhaps "a +nuisance." + + +WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. + +There is nothing more memorable in history than the actions, +fortunes, and character of this great man; whether we consider the +grandeur of the plans he formed, the courage and wisdom with which +they were executed, or the splendour of that success, which, adorning +his youth, continued without the smallest reserve to support his age +even to the last moments of his life. He lived above seventy years, +and reigned within ten years as long as he lived: sixty over his +dukedom, above twenty over England; both of which he acquired or kept +by his own magnanimity, with hardly any other title than he derived +from his arms; so that he might be reputed, in all respects, as happy +as the highest ambition, the most fully gratified, can make a man. +The silent inward satisfactions of domestic happiness he neither had +nor sought. He had a body suited to the character of his mind, erect, +firm, large, and active; whilst to be active was a praise; a +countenance stern, and which became command. Magnificent in his +living, reserved in his conversation, grave in his common deportment, +but relaxing with a wise facetiousness, he knew how to relieve his +mind and preserve his dignity; for he never forfeited by a personal +acquaintance that esteem he had acquired by his great actions. +Unlearned in books, he formed his understanding by the rigid +discipline of a large and complicated experience. He knew men much, +and therefore generally trusted them but little; but when he knew any +man to be good, he reposed in him an entire confidence, which +prevented his prudence from degenerating into a vice. He had vices in +his composition, and great ones; but they were the vices of a great +mind: ambition, the malady of every extensive genius; and avarice, +the madness of the wise: one chiefly actuated his youth; the other +governed his age. The vices of young and light minds, the joys of +wine, and the pleasures of love, never reached his aspiring nature. +The general run of men he looked on with contempt, and treated with +cruelty when they opposed him. Nor was the rigour of his mind to be +softened but with the appearance of extraordinary fortitude in his +enemies, which, by a sympathy congenial to his own virtues, always +excited his admiration, and insured his mercy. So that there were +often seen in this one man, at the same time, the extremes of a +savage cruelty, and a generosity, that does honour to human nature. +Religion, too, seemed to have a great influence on his mind from +policy, or from better motives; but his religion was displayed in the +regularity with which he performed his duties, not in the submission +he showed to its ministers, which was never more than what good +government required. Yet his choice of a counsellor and favourite was +not, according to the mode of the time, out of that order, and a +choice that does honour to his memory. This was Lanfranc, a man of +great learning for the times, and extraordinary piety. He owed his +elevation to William; but, though always inviolably faithful, he +never was the tool or flatterer of the power which raised him; and +the greater freedom he showed, the higher he rose in the confidence +of his master. By mixing with the concerns of state he did not lose +his religion and conscience, or make them the covers or instruments +of ambition; but tempering the fierce policy of a new power by the +mild lights of religion, he became a blessing to the country in which +he was promoted. The English owed to the virtue of this stranger, and +the influence he had on the king, the little remains of liberty they +continued to enjoy; and at last such a degree of his confidence, as +in some sort counterbalanced the severities of the former part of his +reign. + + +KING ALFRED. + +When Alfred had once more reunited the kingdoms of his ancestors, he +found the whole face of things in the most desperate condition; there +was no observance of law and order; religion had no force; there was no +honest industry; the most squalid poverty, and the grossest ignorance, +had overspread the whole kingdom. Alfred at once enterprised the cure of +all these evils. To remedy the disorders in the government, he revived, +improved, and digested all the Saxon institutions; insomuch that he is +generally honoured as the founder of our laws and constitution. +(Historians, copying after one another, and examining little, have +attributed to this monarch the institution of juries; an institution +which certainly did never prevail amongst the Saxons. They have likewise +attributed to him the distribution of England into shires, hundreds, and +tithings, and of appointing officers over these divisions. But it is +very obvious that the shires were never settled upon any regular plan, +nor are they the result of any single design. But these reports, however +ill imagined, are a strong proof of the high veneration in which this +excellent prince has always been held; as it has been thought that the +attributing these regulations to him would endear them to the nation. He +probably settled them in such an order, and made such reformations in +his government, that some of the institutions themselves, which he +improved, have been attributed to him; and indeed there was one work of +his, which serves to furnish us with a higher idea of the political +capacity of that great man than any of these fictions. He made a general +survey and register of all the property in the kingdom, who held it, and +what it was distinctly; a vast work for an age of ignorance and time of +confusion, which has been neglected in more civilized nations and +settled times. It was called the "Roll of Winton," and served as a model +of a work of the same kind made by William the Conqueror.) The shire he +divided into hundreds; the hundreds into tithings; every freeman was +obliged to be entered into some tithing, the members of which were +mutually bound for each other for the preservation of the peace, and the +avoiding theft and rapine. For securing the liberty of the subject, he +introduced the method of giving bail, the most certain fence against the +abuses of power. It has been observed, that the reigns of weak princes +are times favourable to liberty; but the wisest and bravest of all the +English princes is the father of their freedom. This great man was even +jealous of the privileges of his subjects; and as his whole life was +spent in protecting them, his last will breathes the same spirit, +declaring, that he had left his people as free as their own thoughts. He +not only collected with great care a complete body of laws, but he wrote +comments on them for the instruction of his judges, who were in general +by the misfortune of the time ignorant; and if he took care to correct +their ignorance, he was rigorous towards their corruption. He inquired +strictly into their conduct; he heard appeals in person; he held his +Wittena-Gemotes, or parliaments, frequently, and kept every part of his +government in health and vigour. + +Nor was he less solicitous for the defence, than he had shown himself +for the regulation, of his kingdom. He nourished with particular care +the new naval strength, which he had established; he built forts and +castles in the most important posts; he settled beacons to spread an +alarm on the arrival of an enemy; and ordered his militia in such a +manner, that there was always a great power in readiness to march, well +appointed and well disciplined. But that a suitable revenue might not be +wanting for the support of his fleets and fortifications, he gave great +encouragement to trade; which by the piracies on the coasts, and the +rapine and injustice exercised by the people within, had long become a +stranger to this island. + +In the midst of these various and important cares, he gave a peculiar +attention to learning, which by the rage of the late wars had been +entirely extinguished in his kingdom. "Very few there were (says this +monarch) on this side the Humber, that understood their ordinary +prayers; or that were able to translate any Latin book into English; so +few, that I do not remember even one qualified to the southward of the +Thames when I began my reign." To cure this deplorable ignorance, he was +indefatigable in his endeavours to bring into England men of learning in +all branches from every part of Europe; and unbounded in his liberality +to them. He enacted by a law, that every person possessed of two hides +of land should send their children to school until sixteen. Wisely +considering where to put a stop to his love even of the liberal arts, +which are only suited to a liberal condition, he enterprised yet a +greater design than that of forming the growing generation,--to instruct +even the grown; enjoining all his earldormen and sheriffs immediately to +apply themselves to learning or to quit their offices. To facilitate +these great purposes, he made a regular foundation of a university, +which with great reason is believed to have been at Oxford. Whatever +trouble he took to extend the benefits of learning amongst his subjects, +he showed the example himself, and applied to the cultivation of his +mind with unparalleled diligence and success. He could neither read nor +write at twelve years old; but he improved his time in such a manner +that he became one of the most knowing men of his age, in geometry, in +philosophy, in architecture, and in music. He applied himself to the +improvement of his native language; he translated several valuable works +from Latin, and wrote a vast number of poems in the Saxon tongue with a +wonderful facility and happiness. He not only excelled in the theory of +the arts and sciences, but possessed a great mechanical genius for the +executive part; he improved the manner of ship-building, introduced a +more beautiful and commodious architecture, and even taught his +countrymen the art of making bricks, most of the buildings having been +of wood before his time; in a word, he comprehended in the greatness of +his mind the whole of government and all its parts at once; and what is +most difficult to human frailty, was the same time sublime and minute. +Religion, which in Alfred's father was so prejudicial to affairs, +without being in him at all inferior in its zeal and fervour, was of a +more enlarged and noble kind; far from being a prejudice to his +government, it seems to have been the principle that supported him in so +many fatigues, and fed like an abundant source his civil and military +virtues. To his religious exercises and studies he devoted a full third +part of his time. It is pleasant to trace a genius even in its smallest +exertions; in measuring and allotting his time for the variety of +business he was engaged in. According to his severe and methodical +custom, he had a sort of wax candles, made of different colours, in +different proportions, according to the time he allotted to each +particular affair; as he carried these about with him wherever he went, +to make them burn evenly, he invented horn lanthorns. One cannot help +being amazed, that a prince, who lived in such turbulent times, who +commanded personally in fifty-four pitched battles, who had so +disordered a province to regulate, who was not only a legislator but a +judge, and who was continually superintending his armies, his navies, +the traffic of his kingdom, his revenues, and the conduct of all his +officers, could have bestowed so much of his time on religious exercises +and speculative knowledge; but the exertion of all his faculties and +virtues seemed to have given a mutual strength to all of them. Thus all +historians speak of this prince, whose whole history was one panegyric; +and whatever dark spots of human frailty may have adhered to such a +character, they are entirely hid in the splendour of his many shining +qualities and grand virtues, that throw a glory over the obscure period +in which he lived, and which is for no other reason worthy of our +knowledge. + + +DRUIDS. + +The Druids are said to be very expert in astronomy, in geography, and in +all parts of mathematical knowledge. And authors speak, in a very +exaggerated strain, of their excellence in these, and in many other +sciences. Some elemental knowledge I suppose they had; but I can +scarcely be persuaded that their learning was either deep or extensive. +In all countries where Druidism was professed, the youth were generally +instructed by that order; and yet was there little either in the manners +of the people, in their way of life, or their works of art, that +demonstrates profound science, or particularly mathematical skill. +Britain, where their discipline was in its highest perfection, and which +was therefore resorted to by the people of Gaul, as an oracle in +Druidical questions, was more barbarous in all other respects than Gaul +itself, or than any other country then known in Europe. Those piles of +rude magnificence, Stonehenge and Abury, are in vain produced in proof +of their mathematical abilities. These vast structures have nothing +which can be admired, but the greatness of the work; and they are not +the only instances of the great things, which the mere labour of many +hands united, and persevering in their purpose, may accomplish with very +little help from mechanics. This may be evinced by the immense +buildings, and the low state of the sciences, among the original +Peruvians. The Druids were eminent, above all the philosophic lawgivers +of antiquity, for their care in impressing the doctrine of the soul's +immortality on the minds of their people, as an operative and leading +principle. This doctrine was inculcated on the scheme of transmigration, +which some imagine them to have derived from Pythagoras. But it is by no +means necessary to resort to any particular teacher for an opinion which +owes its birth to the weak struggles of unenlightened reason, and to +mistakes natural to the human mind. The idea of the soul's immortality +is indeed ancient, universal, and in a manner inherent in our nature; +but it is not easy for a rude people to conceive any other mode of +existence than one similar to what they had experienced in life; nor any +other world as the scene of such an existence, but this we inhabit, +beyond the bounds of which the mind extends itself with great +difficulty. Admiration, indeed, was able to exalt to heaven a few +selected heroes; it did not seem absurd, that those, who in their mortal +state had distinguished themselves as superior and overruling spirits, +should after death ascend to that sphere, which influences and governs +everything below; or that the proper abode of beings, at once so +illustrious and permanent, should be in that part of nature, in which +they had always observed the greatest splendour and the least mutation. +But on ordinary occasions it was natural some should imagine, that the +dead retired into a remote country, separated from the living by seas or +mountains. It was natural, that some should follow their imagination +with a simplicity still purer, and pursue the souls of men no further +than the sepulchres, in which their bodies had been deposited; whilst +others of deeper penetration, observing that bodies, worn out by age, or +destroyed by accidents, still afforded the materials for generating new +ones, concluded likewise, that a soul being dislodged did not wholly +perish, but was destined, by a similar revolution in nature, to act +again, and to animate some other body. This last principle gave rise to +the doctrine of transmigration; but we must not presume of course, that +where it prevailed it necessarily excluded the other opinions; for it is +not remote from the usual procedure of the human mind, blending, in +obscure matters, imagination and reasoning together, to unite ideas the +most inconsistent. When Homer represents the ghosts of his heroes +appearing at the sacrifices of Ulysses, he supposes them endued with +life, sensation, and a capacity of moving, but he has joined to these +powers of living existence uncomeliness, want of strength, want of +distinction, the characteristics of a dead carcass. This is what the +mind is apt to do; it is very apt to confound the ideas of the surviving +soul and the dead body. The vulgar have always, and still do confound +these very irreconcilable ideas. They lay the scene of apparitions in +churchyards; they habit the ghost in a shroud; and it appears in all the +ghastly paleness of a corpse. A contradiction of this kind has given +rise to a doubt, whether the Druids did in reality hold the doctrine of +transmigration. There is positive testimony, that they did hold it. +There is also testimony as positive, that they buried, or burned with +the dead, utensils, arms, slaves, and whatever might be judged useful to +them, as if they were to be removed into a separate state. They might +have held both these opinions; and we ought not to be surprised to find +error inconsistent. + + +SAXON CONQUEST AND CONVERSION. + +But whatever was the condition of the other parts of Europe, it is +generally agreed that the state of Britain was the worst of all. Some +writers have asserted, that except those who took refuge in the +mountains of Wales and Cornwall, or fled into Armorica, the British race +was, in a manner, destroyed. What is extraordinary, we find England in a +very tolerable state of population in less than two centuries after the +first invasion of the Saxons; and it is hard to imagine either the +transplantation, or the increase, of that single people to have been, in +so short a time, sufficient for the settlement of so great an extent of +country. Others speak of the Britons, not as extirpated, but as reduced +to a state of slavery; and here these writers fix the origin of personal +and predial servitude in England. + +I shall lay fairly before the reader all I have been able to discover +concerning the existence or condition of this unhappy people. That they +were much more broken and reduced than any other nation which had fallen +under the German power, I think may be inferred from two considerations: +first, that in all other parts of Europe the ancient language subsisted +after the conquest, and at length incorporated with that of the +conquerors; whereas in England, the Saxon language received little or no +tincture from the Welsh; and it seems, even among the lowest people, to +have continued a dialect of pure Teutonic to the time in which it was +itself blended with the Norman. Secondly, that on the continent, the +Christian religion, after the northern irruptions, not only remained, +but flourished. It was very early and universally adopted by the ruling +people. In England it was so entirely extinguished, that, when Augustin +undertook his mission, it does not appear that among all the Saxons +there was a single person professing Christianity. The sudden extinction +of the ancient religion and language appears sufficient to show that +Britain must have suffered more than any of the neighbouring nations on +the continent. But it must not be concealed, that there are likewise +proofs, that the British race, though much diminished, was not wholly +extirpated; and that those who remained, were not merely as Britons +reduced to servitude; for they are mentioned as existing in some of the +earlier Saxon laws. In these laws they are allowed a compensation on the +footing of the meaner kind of English; and they are even permitted, as +well as the English, to emerge out of that low rank into a more liberal +condition. This is degradation, but not slavery. (Leges Inae 32 de +Cambrico homine agrum possidente. Id. 54.) The affairs of that whole +period are, however, covered with an obscurity not to be dissipated. The +Britons had little leisure or ability to write a just account of a war +by which they were ruined; and the Anglo-Saxons, who succeeded them, +attentive only to arms, were until their conversion, ignorant of the use +of letters. + +It is on this darkened theatre that some old writers have introduced +those characters and actions, which have afforded such ample matter to +poets, and so much perplexity to historians. This is the fabulous and +heroic age of our nation. After the natural and just representations of +the Roman scene, the stage is again crowded with enchanters, giants, and +all the extravagant images of the wildest and most remote antiquity. No +personage makes so conspicuous a figure in these stories as King Arthur; +a prince, whether of British or Roman origin, whether born on this +island or in Armorica, is uncertain; but it appears that he opposed the +Saxons with remarkable virtue, and no small degree of success, which has +rendered him and his exploits so large an argument of romance, that both +are almost disclaimed by history. Light scarce begins to dawn until the +introduction of Christianity, which, bringing with it the use of +letters, and the arts of civil life, affords at once a juster account of +things and facts that are more worthy of relation; nor is there, indeed, +any revolution so remarkable in the English story. + +The bishops of Rome had for sometime meditated the conversion of the +Anglo-Saxons. Pope Gregory, who is surnamed the Great, affected that +pious design with an uncommon zeal; and he at length found a +circumstance highly favourable to it in the marriage of a daughter of +Charibert, a king of the Franks, to the reining monarch of Kent. This +opportunity induced Pope Gregory to commission Augustin, a monk of +Rheims, and a man of distinguished piety, to undertake this arduous +enterprise. + +It was in the year of Christ 600, and 150 years after the coming of the +first Saxon colonies into England, that Ethelbert, king of Kent, +received intelligence of the arrival in his dominions of a number of men +in a foreign garb, practising several strange and unusual ceremonies, +who desired to be conducted to the king's presence, declaring that they +had things to communicate to him and to his people of the utmost +importance to their eternal welfare. This was Augustin, with forty of +the associates of his mission, who now landed in the Isle of Thanet, the +same place by which the Saxons had before entered, when they extirpated +Christianity. + + +MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY. + +It is no excuse at all for a minister, who at our desire takes a measure +contrary to our safety, that it is our own act. He who does not stay the +hand of suicide, is guilty of murder. On our part, I say, that to be +instructed, is not to be degraded or enslaved. Information is an +advantage to us; and we have a right to demand it. He that is bound to +act in the dark cannot be said to act freely. When it appears evident to +our governors that our desires and our interests are at variance, they +ought not to gratify the former at the expense of the latter. Statesmen +are placed on an eminence, that they may have a larger horizon than we +can possibly command. They have a whole before them, which we can +contemplate only in the parts, and often without the necessary +relations. Ministers are not only our natural rulers but our natural +guides. Reason clearly and manfully delivered, has in itself a mighty +force: but reason in the mouth of legal authority, is, I may fairly say, +irresistible. I admit that reason of state will not, in many +circumstances, permit the disclosure of the true ground of a public +proceeding. In that case silence is manly and it is wise. It is fair to +call for trust when the principle of reason itself suspends its public +use. I take the distinction to be this: The ground of a particular +measure, making a part of a plan, it is rarely proper to divulge; all +the broader grounds of policy, on which the general plan is to be +adopted, ought as rarely to be concealed. They, who have not the whole +cause before them, call them politicians, call them people, call them +what you will, are no judges. The difficulties of the case, as well as +its fair side, ought to be presented. This ought to be done; and it is +all that can be done. When we have our true situation distinctly +presented to us, if then we resolve, with a blind and headlong violence, +to resist the admonitions of our friends, and to cast ourselves into the +hands of our potent and irreconcilable foes, then, and not till then, +the ministers stand acquitted before God and man, for whatever may come. + + +MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS. + +In the change of religion, care was taken to render the transit from +falsehood to truth as little violent as possible. Though the first +proselytes were kings, it does not appear that there was any +persecution. It was a precept of Pope Gregory, under whose auspices this +mission was conducted, that the heathen temples should not be destroyed, +especially where they were well built; but that, first removing the +idols, they should be consecrated anew by holier rites, and to better +purposes (Bed. Hist. Eccl. l. i. c. 30.), in order that the prejudices +of the people might not be too rudely shocked by a declared profanation +of what they had so long held sacred; and that everywhere beholding the +same places, to which they had formerly resorted for religious comfort, +they might be gradually reconciled to the new doctrines and ceremonies +which were there introduced; and as the sacrifices used in the Pagan +worship were always attended with feasting, and consequently were highly +grateful to the multitude, the pope ordered, that oxen should as usual +be slaughtered near the church, and the people indulged in their ancient +festivity. (Id. c. eod.) Whatever popular customs of heathenism were +found to be absolutely not incompatible with Christianity were retained; +and some of them were continued to a very late period. Deer were at a +certain season brought into St. Paul's Church in London, and laid on the +altar (Dugdale's History of St. Paul's.); and this custom subsisted +until the Reformation. The names of some of the church festivals were, +with a similar design, taken from those of the heathen, which had been +celebrated at the same time of the year. Nothing could have been more +prudent than these regulations; they were indeed formed from a perfect +understanding of human nature. + +Whilst the inferior people were thus insensibly led into a better order, +the example and countenance of the great completed the work. For the +Saxon kings and ruling men embraced religion with so signal, and in +their rank so unusual, a zeal, that in many instances they even +sacrificed to its advancement the prime objects of their ambition. +Wulfere, king of the West Saxons, bestowed the Isle of Wight on the king +of Sussex, to persuade him to embrace Christianity. (Bed. Hist. Eccl. l. +iv. c. 13.) This zeal operated in the same manner in favour of their +instructors. The greatest kings and conquerors frequently resigned their +crowns, and shut themselves up in monasteries. When kings became monks, +a high lustre was reflected upon the monastic state, and great credit +accrued to the power of their doctrine, which was able to produce such +extraordinary effects upon persons, over whom religion has commonly the +slightest influence. + +The zeal of the missionaries was also much assisted by their superiority +in the arts of civil life. At their first preaching in Sussex, that +country was reduced to the greatest distress from a drought, which had +continued for three years. The barbarous inhabitants, destitute of any +means to alleviate the famine, in an epidemic transport of despair +frequently united forty and fifty in a body, and joining their hands, +precipitated themselves from the cliffs, and were either drowned or +dashed to pieces on the rocks. Though a maritime people, they knew not +how to fish; and this ignorance probably arose from a remnant of +Druidical superstition, which had forbidden the use of that sort of +diet. In this calamity, Bishop Wilfred, their first preacher, collecting +nets, at the head of his attendants, plunged into the sea; and having +opened this great resource of food, he reconciled the desperate people +to life, and their minds to the spiritual care of those who had shown +themselves so attentive to their temporal preservation. (Bed. Hist. +Eccl. l. iv. c. 13.) The same regard to the welfare of the people +appeared in all their actions. The Christian kings sometimes made +donations to the church of lands conquered from their heathen enemies. +The clergy immediately baptized and manumitted their new vassals. Thus +they endeared to all sorts of men doctrines and teachers, which could +mitigate the rigorous law of conquest; and they rejoiced to see religion +and liberty advancing with an equal progress. Nor were the monks in this +time in anything more worthy of their praise than in their zeal for +personal freedom. In the canon, wherein they provided against the +alienation of their lands, among other charitable exceptions to this +restraint, they particularize the purchase of liberty. (Spelm. Concil. +Page 329.) In their transactions with the great the same point was +always strenuously laboured. When they imposed penance, they were +remarkably indulgent to persons of that rank. But they always made them +purchase the remission of corporal austerity by acts of beneficence. +They urged their powerful penitents to the enfranchisement of their own +slaves, and to the redemption of those which belonged to others; they +directed them to the repair of highways, and to the construction of +churches, bridges, and other works of general utility. (Instauret etiam +Dei ecclesiam; et instauret vias publicas, pontibus super aquas +profundas et super caenosas vias; et manumittat servos suos proprios, et +redimat ab aliis hominibus servos suos ad libertatem.--L. Eccl. Edgari +14.) They extracted the fruits of virtue even from crimes, and whenever +a great man expiated his private offences, he provided in the same act +for the public happiness. The monasteries were then the only bodies +corporate in the kingdom; and if any persons were desirous to perpetuate +their charity by a fund for the relief of the sick or indigent, there +was no other way than to confide this trust to some monastery. The monks +were the sole channel, through which the bounty of the rich could pass +in any continued stream to the poor; and the people turned their eyes +towards them in all their distresses. + +We must observe, that the monks of that time, especially those from +Ireland (Aidanus Finam et Colmanus mirae sanctitatis fuerunt et +parsimoniae. Adeo enim sacerdotes erant illius temporis ab avaritia +immunes, ut nec territoria nisi coacti acciperent.--Hen. Hunting. apud +Decem. l. iii. page 333. Bed. Hist. Eccl. l. iii. c. 26.), who had a +considerable share in the conversion of all the northern parts, did not +show that rapacious desire of riches, which long disgraced, and finally +ruined, their successors. Not only did they not seek, but seemed even to +shun, such donations. This prevented that alarm, which might have arisen +from an early and declared avarice. At this time the most fervent and +holy anchorites retired to places the furthest that could be found from +human concourse and help, to the most desolate and barren situations, +which even from their horror seemed particularly adapted to men who had +renounced the world. Many persons followed them in order to partake of +their instructions and prayers, or to form themselves upon their +example. An opinion of their miracles after their death drew still +greater numbers. Establishments were gradually made. The monastic life +was frugal, and the government moderate. These causes drew a constant +concourse. Sanctified deserts assumed a new face; the marshes were +drained, and the lands cultivated. And as this revolution seemed rather +the effect of the holiness of the place than of any natural causes, it +increased their credit; and every improvement drew with it a new +donation. In this manner the great abbeys of Croyland and Glastonbury, +and many others, from the most obscure beginnings, were advanced to a +degree of wealth and splendour little less than royal. In these rude +ages, government was not yet fixed upon solid principles, and everything +was full of tumult and distraction. As the monasteries were better +secured from violence by their character, than any other places by laws, +several great men, and even sovereign princes, were obliged to take +refuge in convents, who, when by a more happy revolution in their +fortunes they were reinstated in their former dignities, thought they +could never make a sufficient return for the safety they had enjoyed +under the sacred hospitality of these roofs. Not content to enrich them +with ample possessions, that others also might partake of the protection +they had experienced, they formally erected into an asylum those +monasteries, and their adjacent territory. So that all thronged to that +refuge, who were rendered unquiet by their crimes, their misfortunes, or +the severity of their lords; and content to live under a government, to +which their minds were subject, they raised the importance of their +masters by their numbers, their labour, and above all, by an inviolable +attachment. + +The monastery was always the place of sepulture for the greatest lords +and kings. This added to the other causes of reverence a sort of +sanctity, which, in universal opinion, always attends the repositories +of the dead; and they acquired also thereby a more particular protection +against the great and powerful; for who would violate the tomb of his +ancestors, or his own? It was not an unnatural weakness to think, that +some advantage might be derived from lying in holy places, and amongst +holy persons: and this superstition was fomented with the greatest +industry and art. The monks of Glastonbury spread a notion, that it was +almost impossible any person should be damned, whose body lay in their +cemetery. This must be considered as coming in aid of the amplest of +their resources, prayer for the dead. + +But there was no part of their policy, of whatever nature, that procured +to them a greater or juster credit, than their cultivation of learning +and useful arts. For if the monks contributed to the fall of science in +the Roman empire, it is certain, that the introduction of learning and +civility into this northern world is entirely owing to their labours. It +is true, that they cultivated letters only in a secondary way, and as +subsidiary to religion. But the scheme of Christianity is such, that it +almost necessitates an attention to many kinds of learning. For the +Scripture is by no means an irrelative system of moral and divine +truths; but it stands connected with so many histories, and with the +laws, opinions, and manners of so many various sorts of people, and in +such different times, that it is altogether impossible to arrive to any +tolerable knowledge of it, without having recourse to much exterior +inquiry. For which reason the progress of this religion has always been +marked by that of letters. There were two other circumstances at this +time, that contributed no less to the revival of learning. The sacred +writings had not been translated into any vernacular language, and even +the ordinary service of the church was still continued in the Latin +tongue; all, therefore, who formed themselves for the ministry, and +hoped to make any figure in it, were in a manner driven to the study of +the writers of polite antiquity, in order to qualify themselves for +their most ordinary functions. By this means a practice, liable in +itself to great objections, had a considerable share in preserving the +wrecks of literature; and was one means of conveying down to our times +those inestimable monuments, which otherwise, in the tumult of barbarous +confusion on one hand, and untaught piety on the other, must inevitably +have perished. The second circumstance, the pilgrimages of that age, if +considered in itself, was as liable to objection as the former; but it +proved of equal advantage to the cause of literature. A principal object +of these pious journeys was Rome, which contained all the little that +was left in the western world, of ancient learning and taste. The other +great object of those pilgrimages was Jerusalem; this led them into the +Grecian empire, which still subsisted in the East with great majesty and +power. Here the Greeks had not only not discontinued the ancient +studies, but they added to the stock of arts many inventions of +curiosity and convenience that were unknown to antiquity. When, +afterwards, the Saracens prevailed in that part of the world, the +pilgrims had also, by the same means, an opportunity of profiting from +the improvements of that laborious people; and however little the +majority of these pious travellers might have had such objects in their +view, something useful must unavoidably have stuck to them; a few +certainly saw with more discernment, and rendered their travels +serviceable to their country by importing other things besides miracles +and legends. Thus a communication was opened between this remote island +and countries, of which it otherwise could then scarcely have heard +mention made; and pilgrimages thus preserved that intercourse amongst +mankind, which is now formed by politics, commerce, and learned +curiosity. It is not wholly unworthy of observation, that Providence, +which strongly appears to have intended the continual intermixture of +mankind, never leaves the human mind destitute of a principle to effect +it. This purpose is sometimes carried on by a sort of migratory +instinct, sometimes by the spirit of conquest; at one time avarice +drives men from their homes, at another they are actuated by a thirst of +knowledge; where none of these causes can operate, the sanctity of +particular places attracts men from the most distant quarters. It was +this motive which sent thousands in those ages to Jerusalem and Rome; +and now, in a full tide, impels half the world annually to Mecca. + +By those voyages, the seeds of various kinds of knowledge and +improvement were at different times imported into England. They were +cultivated in the leisure and retirement of monasteries; otherwise they +could not have been cultivated at all: for it was altogether necessary +to draw certain men from the general rude and fierce society, and wholly +to set a bar between them and the barbarous life of the rest of the +world, in order to fit them for study, and the cultivation of arts and +science. Accordingly, we find everywhere, in the first institutions for +the propagation of knowledge amongst any people, that those, who +followed it, were set apart and secluded from the mass of the community. + +The great ecclesiastical chair of this kingdom, for near a century, was +filled by foreigners; they were nominated by the popes, who were in that +age just or politic enough to appoint persons of a merit in some degree +adequate to that important charge. Through this series of foreign and +learned prelates, continual accessions were made to the originally +slender stock of English literature. The greatest and most valuable of +these accessions was made in the time and by the care of Theodorus, the +seventh archbishop of Canterbury. He was a Greek by birth; a man of a +high ambitious spirit, and of a mind more liberal, and talents better +cultivated, than generally fell to the lot of the western prelates. He +first introduced the study of his native language into this island. He +brought with him a number of valuable books in many faculties; and +amongst them a magnificent copy of the works of Homer; the most ancient +and best of poets, and the best chosen to inspire a people, just +initiated into letters, with an ardent love, and with a true taste for +the sciences. Under his influence a school was formed at Canterbury; and +thus the other great fountain of knowledge, the Greek tongue, was opened +in England in the year of our Lord 669. + + +COMMON LAW AND MAGNA CHARTA. + +The common law, as it then prevailed in England, was in a great measure +composed of some remnants of the old Saxon customs, joined to the feudal +institutions brought in at the Norman conquest. And it is here to be +observed, that the constitutions of Magna Charta are by no means a +renewal of the laws of St. Edward, or the ancient Saxon laws, as our +historians and law-writers generally, though very groundlessly, assert. +They bear no resemblance, in any particular, to the laws of St. Edward, +or to any other collection of these ancient institutions. Indeed, how +should they? The object of Magna Charta is the correction of the feudal +policy, which was first introduced, at least in any regular form, at the +Conquest, and did not subsist before it. It may be further observed, +that in the preamble to the Great Charter it is stipulated, that the +barons shall HOLD the liberties, there granted TO THEM AND THEIR HEIRS, +from THE KING AND HIS HEIRS; which shows, that the doctrine of an +unalienable tenure was always uppermost in their minds. Their idea even +of liberty was not (if I may use the expression) perfectly free; and +they did not claim to possess their privileges upon any natural +principle or independent bottom, but, just as they held their lands, +from the king. This is worthy of observation. By the feudal law all +landed property is, by a feigned conclusion, supposed to be derived, and +therefore to be mediately or immediately held, from the Crown. If some +estates were so derived, others were certainly procured by the same +original title of conquest, by which the crown itself was acquired; and +the derivation from the king could in reason only be considered as a +fiction of law. But its consequent rights being once supposed, many real +charges and burthens grew from a fiction made only for the preservation +of subordination; and in consequence of this, a great power was +exercised over the persons and estates of the tenants. The fines on the +succession to an estate, called in the feudal language "Reliefs," were +not fixed to any certainty; and were therefore frequently made so +excessive, that they might rather be considered as redemptions, or new +purchases, than acknowledgments of superiority and tenure. With respect +to that most important article of marriage, there was, in the very +nature of the feudal holding, a great restraint laid upon it. It was of +importance to the lord, that the person, who received the feud, should +be submissive to him; he had therefore a right to interfere in the +marriage of the heiress, who inherited the feud. This right was carried +further than the necessity required; the male heir himself was obliged +to marry according to the choice of his lord: and even widows, who had +made one sacrifice to the feudal tyranny, were neither suffered to +continue in the widowed state, nor to choose for themselves the partners +of their second bed. In fact, marriage was publicly set up to sale. The +ancient records of the exchequer afford many instances where some women +purchased, by heavy fines, the privilege of a single life; some the free +choice of a husband; others the liberty of rejecting some person +particularly disagreeable. And, what may appear extraordinary, there are +not wanting examples, where a woman has fined in a considerable sum, +that she might not be compelled to marry a certain man; the suitor on +the other hand has outbid her; and solely by offering more for the +marriage than the heiress could to prevent it, he carried his point +directly and avowedly against her inclinations. Now, as the king claimed +no right over his immediate tenants, that they did not exercise in the +same, or in a more oppressive manner over their vassals, it is hard to +conceive a more general and cruel grievance than this shameful market, +which so universally outraged the most sacred relations among mankind. +But the tyranny over women was not over with the marriage. As the king +seized into his hands the estate of every deceased tenant in order to +secure his relief, the widow was driven often by a heavy composition to +purchase the admission to her dower, into which it should seem she could +not enter without the king's consent. + +All these were marks of a real and grievous servitude. The Great Charter +was made not to destroy the root, but to cut short the overgrown +branches, of the feudal service; first, in moderating, and in reducing +to a certainty, the reliefs, which the king's tenants paid on succeeding +to their estate according to their rank; and secondly, in taking off +some of the burthens, which had been laid on marriage, whether +compulsory or restrictive, and thereby preventing that shameful market, +which had been made in the persons of heirs, and the most sacred things +amongst mankind. + +There were other provisions made in the Great Charter, that went deeper +than the feudal tenure, and affected the whole body of the civil +government. A great part of the king's revenue then consisted in the +fines and amercements, which were imposed in his courts. A fine was paid +there for liberty to commence, or to conclude a suit. The punishment of +offences by fine was discretionary; and this discretionary power had +been very much abused. But by Magna Charta things were so ordered, that +a delinquent might be punished, but not ruined, by a fine or amercement, +because the degree of his offence, and the rank he held, were to be +taken into consideration. His freehold, his merchandise, and those +instruments, by which he obtained his livelihood, were made sacred from +such impositions. A more grand reform was made with regard to the +administration of justice. The kings in those days seldom resided long +in one place, and their courts followed their persons. This erratic +justice must have been productive of infinite inconvenience to the +litigants. It was now provided, that civil suits, called COMMON PLEAS, +should be fixed to some certain place. Thus one branch of jurisdiction +was separated from the king's court, and detached from his person. They +had not yet come to that maturity of jurisprudence as to think this +might be made to extend to criminal law also; and that the latter was an +object of still greater importance. But even the former may be +considered as a great revolution. A tribunal, a creature of mere law, +independent of personal power, was established, and this separation of a +king's authority from his person was a matter of vast consequence +towards introducing ideas of freedom, and confirming the sacredness and +majesty of laws. + +But the grand article, and that which cemented all the parts of the +fabric of liberty, was this: "that no freeman shall be taken or +imprisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or banished, or in any wise +destroyed, but by judgment of his peers." + +There is another article of nearly as much consequence as the former, +considering the state of the nation at that time, by which it is +provided, that the barons shall grant to their tenants the same +liberties which they had stipulated for themselves. This prevented the +kingdom from degenerating into the worst imaginable government, a feudal +aristocracy. The English barons were not in the condition of those great +princes, who had made the French monarchy so low in the preceding +century; or like those, who reduced the imperial power to a name. They +had been brought to moderate bounds by the policy of the first and +second Henrys, and were not in a condition to set up for petty +sovereigns by an usurpation equally detrimental to the Crown and the +people. They were able to act only in confederacy; and this common cause +made it necessary to consult the common good, and to study popularity by +the equity of their proceedings. This was a very happy circumstances to +the growing liberty. + + +EUROPE AND THE NORMAN INVASION. + +Before the period of which we are going to treat, England was little +known or considered in Europe. Their situation, their domestic +calamities, and their ignorance, circumscribed the views and politics of +the English within the bounds of their own island. But the Norman +conqueror threw down all these barriers. The English laws, manners, and +maxims, were suddenly changed; the scene was enlarged; and the +communication with the rest of Europe being thus opened, has been +preserved ever since in a continued series of wars and negotiations. +That we may therefore enter more fully into the matters which lie before +us, it is necessary that we understand the state of the neighbouring +continent at the time when this island first came to be interested in +its affairs. + +The northern nations, who had overrun the Roman empire, were at first +rather actuated by avarice than ambition, and were more intent upon +plunder than conquest; they were carried beyond their original purposes, +when they began to form regular governments, for which they had been +prepared by no just ideas of legislation. For a long time, therefore, +there was little of order in their affairs, or foresight in their +designs. The Goths, the Burgundians, the Franks, the Vandals, the Suevi, +after they had prevailed over the Roman empire, by turns prevailed over +each other in continual wars, which were carried on upon no principles +of a determinate policy, entered into upon motives of brutality and +caprice, and ended as fortune and rude violence chanced to prevail. +Tumult, anarchy, confusion, overspread the face of Europe; and an +obscurity rests upon the transactions of that time, which suffers us to +discover nothing but its extreme barbarity. + +Before this cloud could be dispersed, the Saracens, another body of +barbarians from the south, animated by a fury not unlike that, which +gave strength to the northern irruptions, but heightened by enthusiasm, +and regulated by subordination and uniform policy, began to carry their +arms, their manners, and religion into every part of the universe. Spain +was entirely overwhelmed by the torrent of their armies; Italy, and the +islands, were harassed by their fleets, and all Europe alarmed by their +vigorous and frequent enterprises. Italy, who had so long sat the +mistress of the world, was by turns the slave of all nations. The +possession of that fine country was hotly disputed between the Greek +emperor and the Lombards, and it suffered infinitely by that contention. +Germany, the parent of so many nations, was exhausted by the swarms she +had sent abroad. However, in the midst of this chaos there were +principles at work, which reduced things to a certain form, and +gradually unfolded a system, in which the chief movers and main springs +were the papal and the imperial powers; the aggrandisement or diminution +of which have been the drift of almost all the politics, intrigues, and +wars, which have employed and distracted Europe to this day. + +From Rome the whole western world had received its Christianity. She was +the asylum of what learning had escaped the general desolation; and even +in her ruins she preserved something of the majesty of her ancient +greatness. On these accounts she had a respect and a weight, which +increased every day amongst a simple religious people, who looked but a +little way into the consequences of their actions. The rudeness of the +world was very favourable for the establishment of an empire of opinion. +The moderation with which the popes at first exerted this empire, made +its growth unfelt until it could no longer be opposed. And the policy of +later popes, building on the piety of the first, continually increased +it; and they made use of every instrument but that of force. They +employed equally the virtues and the crimes of the great; they favoured +the lust of kings for absolute authority, and the desire of subjects for +liberty; they provoked war, and mediated peace; and took advantage of +every turn in the minds of men, whether of a public or private nature, +to extend their influence, and push their power from ecclesiastical to +civil; from subjection to independency; from independency to empire. + +France had many advantages over the other parts of Europe. The Saracens +had no permanent success in that country. The same hand, which expelled +those invaders, deposed the last of a race of heavy and degenerate +princes, more like eastern monarchs than German leaders, and who had +neither the force to repel the enemies of their kingdom, nor to assert +their own sovereignty. This usurpation placed on the throne princes of +another character; princes, who were obliged to supply their want of +title by the vigour of their administration. The French monarch had need +of some great and respected authority to throw a veil over his +usurpation, and to sanctify his newly-acquired power by those names and +appearances, which are necessary to make it respectable to the people. +On the other hand, the pope, who hated the Grecian empire, and equally +feared the success of the Lombards, saw with joy this new star arise in +the north, and gave it the sanction of his authority. Presently after he +called it to his assistance. Pepin passed the Alps, relieved the pope, +and invested him with the dominion of a large country in the best part +of Italy. + +Charlemagne pursued the course which was marked out for him, and put an +end to the Lombard kingdom, weakened by the policy of his father, and +the enmity of the popes, who never willingly saw a strong power in +Italy. Then he received from the hand of the pope the imperial crown, +sanctified by the authority of the Holy See, and with it the title of +emperor of the Romans; a name venerable from the fame of the old empire, +and which was supposed to carry great and unknown prerogatives; and thus +the empire rose again out of its ruins in the West; and what is +remarkable, by means of one of those nations which had helped to destroy +it. If we take in the conquests of Charlemagne, it was also very near as +extensive as formerly; though its constitution was altogether different, +as being entirely on the northern model of government. + +From Charlemagne the pope received in return an enlargement and a +confirmation of his new territory. Thus the papal and imperial powers +mutually gave birth to each other. They continued for some ages, and, in +some measure, still continue closely connected, with a variety of +pretensions upon each other, and on the rest of Europe. Though the +imperial power had its origin in France, it was soon divided into two +branches, the Gallic and the German. The latter alone supported the +title of empire; but the power being weakened by this division, the +papal pretensions had the greater weight. The pope, because he first +revived the imperial dignity, claimed a right of disposing of it, or at +least of giving validity to the election of the emperor. The emperor, on +the other hand, remembering the rights of those sovereigns, whose title +he bore, and how lately the power, which insulted him with such demands, +had arisen from the bounty of his predecessors, claimed the same +privileges in the election of a pope. The claims of both were somewhat +plausible; and they were supported, the one by force of arms, and the +other by ecclesiastical influence, powers which in those days were very +nearly balanced. Italy was the theatre upon which this prize was +disputed. In every city the parties in favour of each of the opponents +were not far from an equality in their numbers and strength. Whilst +these parties disagreed in the choice of a master, by contending for a +choice in their subjection, they grew imperceptibly into freedom, and +passed through the medium of faction and anarchy into regular +commonwealths. Thus arose the republics of Venice, of Genoa, of +Florence, Sienna, and Pisa, and several others. These cities, +established in this freedom, turned the frugal and ingenious spirit +contracted in such communities to navigation and traffic; and pursuing +them with skill and vigour, whilst commerce was neglected and despised +by the rustic gentry of the martial governments, they grew to a +considerable degree of wealth, power, and civility. + +The Danes, who in this latter time preserved the spirit and the numbers +of the ancient Gothic people, had seated themselves in England, in the +Low Countries, and in Normandy. They passed from thence to the southern +part of Europe, and in this romantic age gave rise in Sicily and Naples +to a new kingdom, and a new line of princes. + +All the kingdoms on the continent of Europe were governed nearly in the +same form; from whence arose a great similitude in the manners of their +inhabitants. The feodal discipline extended itself everywhere, and +influenced the conduct of the courts, and the manners of the people, +with its own irregular martial spirit. Subjects, under the complicated +laws of a various and rigorous servitude, exercised all the prerogatives +of sovereign power. They distributed justice, they made war and peace at +pleasure. The sovereign, with great pretensions, had but little power; +he was only a greater lord among great lords, who profited of the +differences of his peers; therefore no steady plan could be well +pursued, either in war or peace. This day a prince seemed irresistible +at the head of his numerous vassals, because their duty obliged them to +war, and they performed this duty with pleasure. The next day saw this +formidable power vanish like a dream, because this fierce undisciplined +people had no patience, and the time of the feudal service was contained +within very narrow limits. It was therefore easy to find a number of +persons at all times ready to follow any standard, but it was hard to +complete a considerable design, which required a regular and continued +movement. This enterprising disposition in the gentry was very general, +because they had little occupation or pleasure but in war; and the +greatest rewards did then attend personal valour and prowess. All that +professed arms, became in some sort on an equality. A knight was the +peer of a king; and men had been used to see the bravery of private +persons opening a road to that dignity. The temerity of adventurers was +much justified by the ill order of every state, which left it a prey to +almost any who should attack it with sufficient vigour. Thus, little +checked by any superior power, full of fire, impetuosity, and ignorance, +they longed to signalize themselves wherever an honourable danger called +them; and wherever that invited, they did not weigh very deliberately +the probability of success. The knowledge of this general disposition in +the minds of men will naturally remove a great deal of our wonder at +seeing an attempt, founded on such slender appearances of right, and +supported by a power so little proportioned to the undertaking as that +of William, so warmly embraced and so generally followed, not only by +his own subjects, but by all the neighbouring potentates. The counts of +Anjou, Bretagne, Ponthieu, Boulogne, and Poictou, sovereign princes; +adventurers from every quarter of France, the Netherlands, and the +remotest parts of Germany, laying aside their jealousies and enmities to +one another, as well as to William, ran with an inconceivable ardour +into this enterprise; captivated with the splendour of the object, which +obliterated all thoughts of the uncertainty of the event. William kept +up this fervour by promises of large territories to all his allies and +associates in the country to be reduced by their united efforts. But +after all it became equally necessary to reconcile to his enterprise the +three great powers, of whom we have just spoken, whose disposition must +have had the most influence on his affairs. + +His feudal lord the king of France was bound by his most obvious +interests to oppose the further aggrandisement of one already too potent +for a vassal; but the king of France was then a minor; and Baldwin, earl +of Flanders, whose daughter William had married, was regent of the +kingdom. This circumstance rendered the remonstrance of the French +council against his design of no effect; indeed the opposition of the +council itself was faint; the idea of having a king under vassalage to +their crown might have dazzled the more superficial courtiers; whilst +those, who thought more deeply, were unwilling to discourage an +enterprise, which they believed would probably end in the ruin of the +undertaker. The emperor was in his minority, as well as the king of +France; but by what arts the duke prevailed upon the imperial council to +declare in his favour, whether or no by an idea of creating a balance to +the power of France, if we can imagine that any such idea then +subsisted, is altogether uncertain; but it is certain, that he obtained +leave for the vassals of the empire to engage in his service, and that +he made use of this permission. The pope's consent was obtained with +still less difficulty. William had shown himself in many instances a +friend to the church, and a favourer of the clergy. On this occasion he +promised to improve those happy beginnings in proportion to the means he +should acquire by the favour of the Holy See. It is said that he even +proposed to hold his new kingdom as a fief from Rome. The pope, +therefore, entered heartily into his interests; he excommunicated all +those that should oppose his enterprise, and sent him, as a means of +ensuring success, a consecrated banner. + + +ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN. + +That Britain was first peopled from Gaul, we are assured by the best +proofs: proximity of situation, and resemblance in language and +manners. Of the time in which this event happened, we must be +contented to remain in ignorance, for we have no monuments. But we +may conclude that it was a very ancient settlement, since the +Carthaginians found this island inhabited when they traded hither for +tin; as the Phoenicians, whose tracks they followed in this commerce, +are said to have done long before them. It is true, that when we +consider the short interval between the universal deluge and that +period, and compare it with the first settlement of men at such a +distance from this corner of the world, it may seem not easy to +reconcile such a claim to antiquity with the only authentic account +we have of the origin and progress of mankind; especially as in those +early ages the whole face of nature was extremely rude and +uncultivated; when the links of commerce, even in the countries first +settled, were few and weak; navigation imperfect; geography unknown; +and the hardships of travelling excessive. But the spirit of +migration, of which we have now only some faint ideas, was then +strong and universal; and it fully compensated all these +disadvantages. Many writers indeed imagine, that these migrations, so +common in the primitive times, were caused by the prodigious increase +of people beyond what their several territories could maintain. But +this opinion, far from being supported, is rather contradicted by the +general appearance of things in that early time, when in every +country vast tracts of land were suffered to lie almost useless in +morasses and forests. Nor is it, indeed, more countenanced by the +ancient modes of life, no way favourable to population. I apprehend +that these first settled countries, so far from being overstocked +with inhabitants, were rather thinly peopled; and that the same +causes, which occasioned that thinness, occasioned also those +frequent migrations, which make so large a part of the first history +of almost all nations. For in these ages men subsisted chiefly by +pasturage or hunting. These are occupations which spread the people +without multiplying them in proportion; they teach them an extensive +knowledge of the country, they carry them frequently and far from +their homes, and weaken those ties which might attach them to any +particular habitation. + +It was in a great degree from this manner of life, that mankind became +scattered in the earliest times over the whole globe. But their peaceful +occupations did not contribute so much to that end, as their wars, which +were not the less frequent and violent because the people were few, and +the interests for which they contended of but small importance. Ancient +history has furnished us with many instances of whole nations, expelled +by invasion, falling in upon others, which they have entirely +overwhelmed; more irresistible in their defeat and ruin than in their +fullest prosperity. The rights of war were then exercised with great +inhumanity. A cruel death, or a servitude scarcely less cruel, was the +certain fate of all conquered people; the terror of which hurried men +from habitations to which they were but little attached, to seek +security and repose under any climate, that however in other respects +undesirable, might afford them refuge from the fury of their enemies. +Thus the bleak and barren regions of the north, not being peopled by +choice, were peopled as early, in all probability, as many of the milder +and more inviting climates of the southern world, and thus, by a +wonderful disposition of the Divine Providence, a life of hunting, which +does not contribute to increase, and war, which is the great instrument +in the destruction of men, were the two principal causes of their being +spread so early and so universally over the whole earth. From what is +very commonly known of the state of North America, it need not be said, +how often, and to what distance, several of the nations on that +continent are used to migrate; who, though thinly scattered, occupy an +immense extent of country. Nor are the causes of it less obvious--their +hunting life, and their inhuman wars. + +Such migrations, sometimes by choice, more frequently from necessity, +were common in the ancient world. Frequent necessities introduced a +fashion, which subsisted after the original causes. For how could it +happen, but from some universally established public prejudice, which +always overrules and stifles the private sense of men, that a whole +nation should deliberately think it a wise measure to quit their country +in a body, that they might obtain in a foreign land a settlement, which +must wholly depend upon the chance of war? Yet this resolution was +taken, and actually pursued by the entire nation of the Helvetii, as it +is minutely related by Caesar. The method of reasoning which led them to +it, must appear to us at this day utterly inconceivable; they were far +from being compelled to this extraordinary migration by any want of +subsistence at home; for it appears that they raised without difficulty +as much corn in one year as supported them for two; they could not +complain of the barrenness of such a soil. + +This spirit of migration, which grew out of the ancient manners and +necessities, and sometimes operated like a blind instinct, such as +actuates birds of passage, is very sufficient to account for the early +habitation of the remotest parts of the earth; and in some sort also +justifies that claim which has been so fondly made by almost all nations +to great antiquity. Gaul, from whence Britain was originally peopled, +consisted of three nations; the Belgae towards the north; the Celtae in +the middle countries; and the Aquitani to the south. Britain appears to +have received its people only from the two former. From the Celtae were +derived the most ancient tribes of the Britons, of which the most +considerable were called Brigantes. The Belgae, who did not even settle +in Gaul until after Britain had been peopled by colonies from the +former, forcibly drove the Brigantes into the inland countries, and +possessed the greatest part of the coast, especially to the south and +west. These latter, as they entered the island in a more improved age, +brought with them the knowledge and practice of agriculture, which +however only prevailed in their own countries; the Brigantes still +continued their ancient way of life by pasturage and hunting. In this +respect alone they differed; so that what we shall say in treating of +their manners is equally applicable to both. And though the Britons were +further divided into an innumerable multitude of lesser tribes and +nations, yet all being the branches of these two stocks, it is not to +our purpose to consider them more minutely. + +Britain was in the time of Julius Caesar, what it is at this day in +climate and natural advantages, temperate, and reasonably fertile. But +destitute of all those improvements, which in a succession of ages it +has received from ingenuity, from commerce, from riches and luxury, it +then wore a very rough and savage appearance. The country, forest or +marsh; the habitations, cottages; the cities, hiding-places in woods; +the people, naked, or only covered with skins; their sole employment, +pasturage and hunting. They painted their bodies for ornament or terror, +by a custom general among all savage nations; who being passionately +fond of show and finery, and having no object but their naked bodies on +which to exercise this disposition, have in all times painted or cut +their skins, according to their ideas of ornament. They shaved the beard +on the chin; that on the upper lip was suffered to remain, and grow to +an extraordinary length, to favour the martial appearance, in which they +placed their glory. They were in their natural temper not unlike the +Gauls; impatient, fiery, inconstant, ostentatious, boastful, fond of +novelty; and like all barbarians, fierce, treacherous, and cruel. Their +arms were short javelins, small shields of a slight texture, and great +cutting swords with a blunt point, after the Gaulish fashion. + +Their chiefs went to battle in chariots, not unartfully contrived, nor +unskilfully managed. I cannot help thinking it something extraordinary, +and not easily to be accounted for, that the Britons should have been so +expert in the fabric of those chariots, when they seem utterly ignorant +in all other mechanic arts: but thus it is delivered to us. They had +also horse, though of no great reputation in their armies. Their foot +was without heavy armour; it was no firm body; nor instructed to +preserve their ranks, to make their evolutions, or to obey their +commanders; but in tolerating hardships, in dexterity of forming +ambuscades (the art military of savages), they are said to have +excelled. A natural ferocity, and an impetuous onset, stood them in the +place of discipline. + + +PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS. + +Public prosecutions are become little better than schools for +treason; of no use but to improve the dexterity of criminals in the +mystery of evasion; or to show with what complete impunity men may +conspire against the commonwealth; with what safety assassins may +attempt its awful head. Everything is secure, except what the laws +have made sacred; everything is tameness and languor that is not fury +and faction. Whilst the distempers of a relaxed fibre prognosticate +and prepare all the morbid force of convulsion in the body of the +state, the steadiness of the physician is overpowered by the very +aspect of the disease. The doctor of the constitution, pretending to +underrate what he is not able to contend with, shrinks from his own +operation. He doubts and questions the salutary but critical terrors +of the cautery and the knife. He takes a poor credit even from his +defeat, and covers impotence under the mask of lenity. He praises the +moderation of the laws, as, in his hands, he sees them baffled and +despised. Is all this, because in our day the statutes of the kingdom +are not engrossed in as firm a character, and imprinted in as black +and legible a type as ever? No! the law is a clear, but it is a dead +letter. Dead and putrid, it is insufficient to save the state, but +potent to infect and to kill. Living law, full of reason, and of +equity and justice (as it is, or it should not exist), ought to be +severe and awful too; or the words of menace, whether written on the +parchment roll of England, or cut into the brazen tablet of Rome, +will excite nothing but contempt. How comes it, that in all the state +prosecutions of magnitude, from the Revolution to within these two or +three years, the Crown has scarcely ever retired disgraced and +defeated from its courts? Whence this alarming change? By a +connection easily felt, and not impossible to be traced to its cause, +all the parts of the state have their correspondence and consent. +They who bow to the enemy abroad, will not be of power to subdue the +conspirator at home. It is impossible not to observe, that, in +proportion as we approximate to the poisonous jaws of anarchy, the +fascination grows irresistible. In proportion as we are attracted +towards the focus of illegality, irreligion, and desperate +enterprise, all the venomous and blighting insects of the state are +awakened into life. The promise of the year is blasted, and +shrivelled and burned up before them. Our most salutary and most +beautiful institutions yield nothing but dust and smut; the harvest +of our law is no more than stubble. It is in the nature of these +eruptive diseases in the state to sink in by fits, and re-appear. But +the fuel of the malady remains; and in my opinion is not in the +smallest degree mitigated in its malignity, though it waits the +favourable moment of a freer communication with the source of +regicide to exert and to increase its force. + +Is it that the people are changed, that the commonwealth cannot be +protected by its laws? I hardly think it. On the contrary, I conceive +that these things happen because men are not changed, but remain always +what they always were; they remain what the bulk of us ever must be, +when abandoned to our vulgar propensities, without guide, leader, or +control; that is, made to be full of a blind elevation in prosperity; to +despise untried dangers; to be overpowered with unexpected reverses; to +find no clue in a labyrinth of difficulties, to get out of a present +inconvenience with any risk of future ruin; to follow and to bow to +fortune; to admire successful though wicked enterprise, and to imitate +what we admire; to contemn the government which announces danger from +sacrilege and regicide, whilst they are only in their infancy and their +struggle, but which finds nothing that can alarm in their adult state, +and in the power and triumph of those destructive principles. In a mass +we cannot be left to ourselves. We must have leaders. If none will +undertake to lead us right, we shall find guides who will contrive to +conduct us to shame and ruin. + + +TRUE NATURE OF A JACOBIN WAR. + +As to me, I was always steadily of opinion, that this disorder was not +in its nature intermittent. I conceived that the contest, once begun, +could not be laid down again, to be resumed at our discretion; but that +our first struggle with this evil would also be our last. I never +thought we could make peace with the system; because it was not for the +sake of an object we pursued in rivalry with each other, but with the +system itself, that we were at war. As I understood the matter, we were +at war not with its conduct, but with its existence; convinced that its +existence and its hostility were the same. + +The faction is not local or territorial. It is a general evil. Where it +least appears in action, it is still full of life. In its sleep it +recruits its strength, and prepares its exertion. Its spirit lies deep +in the corruption of our common nature. The social order which restrains +it, feeds it. It exists in every country in Europe; and among all orders +of men in every country, who look up to France as to a common head. The +centre is there. The circumference is the world of Europe wherever the +race of Europe may be settled. Everywhere else the faction is militant; +in France it is triumphant. In France is the bank of deposit, and the +bank of circulation, of all the pernicious principles that are forming +in every state. It will be a folly scarcely deserving of pity, and too +mischievous for contempt, to think of restraining it in any other +country whilst it is predominant there. War, instead of being the cause +of its force, has suspended its operation. It has given a reprieve, at +least, to the Christian world. The true nature of a Jacobin war, in the +beginning, was, by most of the Christian powers, felt, acknowledged, and +even in the most precise manner declared. In the joint manifesto, +published by the emperor and the king of Prussia, on the 4th of August, +1792, it is expressed in the clearest terms, and on principles which +could not fail, if they had adhered to them, of classing those monarchs +with the first benefactors of mankind. This manifesto was published, as +they themselves express it, "to lay open to the present generation, as +well as to posterity, their motives, their intentions, and the +DISINTERESTEDNESS of their personal views; taking up arms for the +purpose of preserving social and political order amongst all civilized +nations, and to secure to EACH state its religion, happiness, +independence, territories, and real constitution."--"On this ground, +they hoped that all empires and all states would be unanimous; and +becoming the firm guardians of the happiness of mankind, that they could +not fail to unite their efforts to rescue a numerous nation from its own +fury, to preserve Europe from the return of barbarism, and the universe +from the subversion and anarchy with which it was threatened." The whole +of that noble performance ought to be read at the first meeting of any +congress, which may assemble for the purpose of pacification. In that +peace "these powers expressly renounce all views of personal +aggrandisement," and confine themselves to objects worthy of so +generous, so heroic, and so perfectly wise and politic an enterprise. It +was to the principles of this confederation, and to no other, that we +wished our sovereign and our country to accede, as a part of the +commonwealth of Europe. To these principles, with some trifling +exceptions and limitations, they did fully accede. (See Declaration, +Whitehall, October 29, 1793.) And all our friends who took office +acceded to the ministry (whether wisely or not), as I always understood +the matter, on the faith and on the principles of that declaration. + +As long as these powers flattered themselves that the menace of force +would produce the effect of force, they acted on those declarations: but +when their menaces failed of success, their efforts took a new +direction. It did not appear to them that virtue and heroism ought to be +purchased by millions of rix-dollars. It is a dreadful truth, but it is +a truth that cannot be concealed; in ability, in dexterity, in the +distinctness of their views, the Jacobins are our superiors. They saw +the thing right from the very beginning. Whatever were the first motives +to the war among politicians, they saw that in its spirit, and for its +objects, it was a CIVIL WAR; and as such they pursued it. It is a war +between the partisans of the ancient, civil, moral, and political order +of Europe, against a sect of fanatical and ambitious atheists which +means to change them all. It is not France extending a foreign empire +over other nations: it is a sect aiming at universal empire, and +beginning with the conquest of France. The leaders of that sect secured +the CENTRE OF EUROPE; and that secured, they knew, that whatever might +be the event of battles and sieges, their CAUSE was victorious. Whether +its territory had a little more or a little less peeled from its +surface, or whether an island or two was detached from its commerce, to +them was of little moment. The conquest of France was a glorious +acquisition. That once well laid as a basis of empire, opportunities +never could be wanting to regain or to replace what had been lost, and +dreadfully to avenge themselves on the faction of their adversaries. +They saw it was a CIVIL WAR. It was their business to persuade their +adversaries that it ought to be a FOREIGN war. The Jacobins everywhere +set up a cry against the new crusade; and they intrigued with effect in +the cabinet, in the field, and in every private society in Europe. Their +task was not difficult. The condition of princes, and sometimes of first +ministers too, is to be pitied. The creatures of the desk, and the +creatures of favour, had no relish for the principles of the +manifestoes. They promised no governments, no regiments, no revenues +from whence emoluments might arise by perquisite or by grant. In truth, +the tribe of vulgar politicians are the lowest of our species. There is +no trade so vile and mechanical as government in their hands. Virtue is +not their habit. They are out of themselves in any course of conduct +recommended only by conscience and glory. A large, liberal, and +prospective view of the interests of states passes with them for +romance; and the principles that recommend it, for the wanderings of a +disordered imagination. The calculators compute them out of their +senses. The jesters and buffoons shame them out of everything grand and +elevated. Littleness in object and in means, to them appears soundness +and sobriety. They think there is nothing worth pursuit, but that which +they can handle; which they can measure with a two-foot rule; which they +can tell upon ten fingers. + +Without the principles of the Jacobins, perhaps without any principles +at all, they played the game of that faction. There was a beaten road +before them. The powers of Europe were armed; France had always appeared +dangerous; the war was easily diverted from France as a faction, to +France as a state. The princes were easily taught to slide back into +their old, habitual course of politics. They were easily led to consider +the flames that were consuming France, not as a warning to protect their +own buildings (which were without any party-wall, and linked by a +contignation into the edifice of France), but as a happy occasion for +pillaging the goods, and for carrying off the materials, of their +neighbour's house. Their provident fears were changed into avaricious +hopes. They carried on their new designs without seeming to abandon the +principles of their old policy. They pretended to seek, or they +flattered themselves that they sought, in the accession of new +fortresses, and new territories, a DEFENSIVE security. But the security +wanted was against a kind of power, which was not so truly dangerous in +its fortresses nor in its territories, as in its spirit and its +principles. They aimed, or pretended to aim, at DEFENDING themselves +against a danger from which there can be no security in any DEFENSIVE +plan. If armies and fortresses were a defence against jacobinism, Louis +the Sixteenth would this day reign a powerful monarch over a happy +people. + +This error obliged them, even in their offensive operations, to adopt a +plan of war, against the success of which there was something little +short of mathematical demonstration. They refused to take any step which +might strike at the heart of affairs. They seemed unwilling to wound the +enemy in any vital part. They acted through the whole, as if they really +wished the conservation of the Jacobin power, as what might be more +favourable than the lawful government to the attainment of the petty +objects they looked for. They always kept on the circumference; and the +wider and remoter the circle was, the more eagerly they chose it as +their sphere of action in this centrifugal war. The plan they pursued, +in its nature demanded great length of time. In its execution, they, who +went the nearest way to work, were obliged to cover an incredible extent +of country. It left to the enemy every means of destroying this extended +line of weakness. Ill success in any part was sure to defeat the effect +of the whole. This is true of Austria. It is still more true of England. +On this false plan, even good fortune, by further weakening the victor, +put him but the further off from his object. + +As long as there was any appearance of success, the spirit of +aggrandisement, and consequently the spirit of mutual jealousy, seized +upon all the coalesced powers. Some sought an accession of territory at +the expense of France, some at the expense of each other, some at the +expense of third parties; and when the vicissitude of disaster took its +turn, they found common distress a treacherous bond of faith and +friendship. The greatest skill conducting the greatest military +apparatus has been employed; but it has been worse than uselessly +employed, through the false policy of the war. The operations of the +field suffered by the errors of the cabinet. If the same spirit +continues when peace is made, the peace will fix and perpetuate all the +errors of the war; because it will be made upon the same false +principle. What has been lost in the field, in the field may be +regained. An arrangement of peace in its nature is a permanent +settlement; it is the effect of counsel and deliberation, and not of +fortuitous events. If built upon a basis fundamentally erroneous, it can +only be retrieved by some of those unforeseen dispensations, which the +all-wise but mysterious Governor of the world sometimes interposes, to +snatch nations from ruin. It would not be pious error, but mad and +impious presumption, for any one to trust in an unknown order of +dispensations, in defiance of the rules of prudence, which are formed +upon the known march of the ordinary providence of God. + + +NATIONAL DIGNITY. + +National dignity in all treaties I do admit is an important +consideration. They have given us a useful hint on that subject: but +dignity, hitherto, has belonged to the mode of proceeding, not to the +matter of a treaty. Never before has it been mentioned as the standard +for rating the conditions of peace; no, never by the most violent of +conquerors. Indemnification is capable of some estimate: dignity has no +standard. It is impossible to guess what acquisitions pride and ambition +may think fit for their DIGNITY. + + +PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT NOT ABSOLUTE, BUT RELATIVE. + +I reprobate no form of government merely upon abstract principles. There +may be situations in which the purely democratic form will become +necessary. There may be some (very few, and very particularly +circumstanced) where it would be clearly desirable. This I do not take +to be the case of France, or of any other great country. Until now, we +have seen no examples of considerable democracies. The ancients were +better acquainted with them. Not being wholly unread in the authors, who +had seen the most of those constitutions, and who best understood them, +I cannot help concurring with their opinion, that an absolute democracy, +no more than absolute monarchy, is to be reckoned among the legitimate +forms of government. They think it rather the corruption and degeneracy, +than the sound constitution of a republic. If I recollect rightly, +Aristotle observes, that a democracy has many striking points of +resemblance with a tyranny. (When I wrote this, I quoted from memory, +after many years had elapsed from my reading the passage. A learned +friend has found it, and it is as follows:-- + +To ethos to auto, kai ampho despotika ton Beltionon, kai ta psephismata, +osper ekei ta epitagmata kai o demagogos kai o kolax, oi autoi kai +analogoi kai malista ekateroi par ekaterois ischuousin, oi men kolakes +para turannois, oi de demagogoi para tois demois tois toioutois.-- + +"The ethical character is the same; both exercise despotism over the +better class of citizens; and decrees are in the one, what ordinances +and arrets are in the other: the demagogue too, and the court favourite, +are not unfrequently the same identical men, and always bear a close +analogy; and these have the principal power, each in their respective +forms of government, favourites with the absolute monarch, and +demagogues with a people such as I have described."--Arist. Politic. +lib. iv. cap 4.) + +Of this I am certain, that in a democracy, the majority of the citizens +is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority, +whenever strong divisions prevail in that kind of polity, as they often +must; and that oppression of the minority will extend to far greater +numbers, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost +ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. In such a +popular persecution, individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable +condition than in any other. Under a cruel prince they have the balmy +compassion of mankind to assuage the smart of their wounds; they have +the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under +their sufferings: but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes, +are deprived of all external consolation. They seem deserted by mankind, +overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species. But admitting +democracy not to have that inevitable tendency to party tyranny, which I +suppose it to have, and admitting it to possess as much good in it when +unmixed, as I am sure it possesses when compounded with other forms; +does monarchy, on its part, contain nothing at all to recommend it? I do +not often quote Bolingbroke, nor have his works in general left any +permanent impression on my mind. He is a presumptuous and a superficial +writer. But he has one observation, which, in my opinion, is not without +depth and solidity. He says, that he prefers a monarchy to other +governments, because you can better ingraft any description of republic +on a monarchy, than anything of monarchy upon the republican forms. I +think him perfectly in the right. The fact is so historically; and it +agrees well with the speculation. + +I know how easy a topic it is to dwell on the faults of departed +greatness. By a revolution in the state, the fawning sycophant of +yesterday is converted into the austere critic of the present hour. But +steady, independent minds, when they have an object of so serious a +concern to mankind as government under their contemplation, will disdain +to assume the part of satirists and declaimers. They will judge of human +institutions as they do of human characters. They will sort out the good +from the evil, which is mixed in mortal institutions, as it is in mortal +men. + + +DECLARATION OF 1793. + +It is not difficult to discern what sort of humanity our government is +to learn from these syren singers. Our government also, I admit with +some reason, as a step towards the proposed fraternity, is required to +abjure the unjust hatred which it bears to this body, of honour and +virtue. I thank God I am neither a minister nor a leader of opposition. +I protest I cannot do what they desire. I could not do it if I were +under the guillotine; or as they ingeniously and pleasantly express it, +"looking out of the little national window." Even at that opening I +could receive none of their light. I am fortified against all such +affections by the declaration of the government, which I must yet +consider as lawful, made on the 29th of October, 1793, and still ringing +in my ears. + +("In their place has succeeded a system destructive of all public order, +maintained by proscriptions, exiles, and confiscations without number; +by arbitrary imprisonment; by massacres which cannot be remembered +without horror; and at length by the execrable murder of a just and +beneficent sovereign, and of the illustrious princess, who, with an +unshaken firmness, has shared all the misfortunes of her royal consort, +his protracted sufferings, his cruel captivity, and ignominious death." +They (the allies) have had to encounter acts of aggression without +pretext, open violation of all treaties, unprovoked declarations of war; +in a word, whatever corruption, intrigue, or violence, could effect for +the purpose, openly avowed, of subverting all the institutions of +society, and of extending over all the nations of Europe that confusion, +which has produced the misery of France."-- "This state of things cannot +exist in France without involving all the surrounding powers in one +common danger, without giving them the right, without imposing it upon +them as a duty, to stop the progress of an evil, which exists only by +the successive violation of all law and all property, and which attacks +the fundamental principles by which mankind is united in the bonds of +civil society."--"The king would impose none other than equitable and +moderate conditions, not such as the expense, the risks, and the +sacrifices of the war might justify; but such as his majesty thinks +himself under the indispensable necessity of requiring, with a view to +these considerations, and still more to that of his own security and of +the future tranquillity of Europe. His majesty desires nothing more +sincerely than thus to terminate a war, which he in vain endeavoured to +avoid, and all the calamities of which, as now experienced by France, +are to be attributed only to the ambition, the perfidy, and the violence +of those, whose crimes have involved their own country in misery, and +disgraced all civilized nations."--"The king promises, on his part, the +suspension of hostilities, friendship, and (as far as the course of +events will allow, of which the will of man cannot dispose) security and +protection to all those who, by declaring for a monarchical form of +government, shall shake off the yoke of sanguinary anarchy; of that +anarchy which has broken all the most sacred bonds of society, dissolved +all the relations of civil life, violated every right, confounded every +duty; which uses the name of liberty to exercise the most cruel tyranny, +to annihilate all property, to seize on all possessions: which founds +its power on the pretended consent of the people, and itself carries +fire and sword through extensive provinces for having demanded their +laws, their religion, and their LAWFUL SOVEREIGN." + +Declaration sent by his majesty's command to the commanders of his +majesty's fleets and armies employed against France, and to his +majesty's ministers employed at foreign courts.) + +This declaration was transmitted not only to our commanders by sea and +land, but to our ministers in every court of Europe. It is the most +eloquent and highly-finished in the style, the most judicious in the +choice of topics, the most orderly in the arrangement, and the most rich +in the colouring, without employing the smallest degree of exaggeration, +of any state paper that has ever yet appeared. An ancient writer, +Plutarch, I think it is, quotes some verses on the eloquence of +Pericles, who is called "the only orator that left stings in the minds +of his hearers." Like his, the eloquence of the declaration, not +contradicting, but enforcing sentiments of the truest humanity, has left +stings that have penetrated more than skin-deep into my mind; and never +can they be extracted by all the surgery of murder, never can the +throbbings they have created be assuaged by all the emolient cataplasms +of robbery and confiscation. I CANNOT love the republic. + + +MORAL DIET. + +To diet a man into weakness and languor, afterwards to give him the +greater strength, has more of the empiric than the rational physician. +It is true that some persons have been kicked into courage; and this is +no bad hint to give to those who are too forward and liberal in +bestowing insults and outrages on their passive companions. But such a +course does not at first view appear a well-chosen discipline to form +men to a nice sense of honour, or a quick resentment of injuries. A long +habit of humiliation does not seem a very good preparative to manly and +vigorous sentiment. It may not leave, perhaps, enough of energy in the +mind fairly to discern what are good terms or what are not. Men low and +dispirited may regard those terms as not at all amiss, which in another +state of mind they would think intolerable: if they grow peevish in this +state of mind, they may be roused, not against the enemy whom they have +been taught to fear, but against the ministry, who are more within their +reach, and who have refused conditions that are not unreasonable, from +power that they have been taught to consider as irresistible. + + +KING WILLIAM'S POLICY. + +His majesty did determine; and did take and pursue his resolution. In +all the tottering imbecility of a new government, and with parliament +totally unmanageable, he persevered. He persevered to expel the fears of +his people by his fortitude--to steady their fickleness by his +constancy--to expand their narrow prudence by his enlarged wisdom--to +sink their factious temper in his public spirit. In spite of his people +he resolved to make them great and glorious; to make England, inclined +to shrink into her narrow self, the arbitress of Europe, the tutelary +angel of the human race. In spite of the ministers, who staggered under +the weight that his mind imposed upon theirs, unsupported as they felt +themselves by the popular spirit, he infused into them his own soul, he +renewed in them their ancient heart, he rallied them in the same cause. +It required some time to accomplish this work. The people were first +gained, and through them their distracted representatives. Under the +influence of King William, Holland had rejected the allurements of every +seduction, and had resisted the terrors of every menace. With Hannibal +at her gates, she had nobly and magnanimously refused all separate +treaty, or anything which might for a moment appear to divide her +affection or her interest, or even to distinguish her in identity from +England. Having settled the great point of the consolidation (which he +hoped would be eternal) of the countries made for a common interest, and +common sentiment, the king, in his message to both houses, calls their +attention to the affairs of the STATES-GENERAL. The House of Lords was +perfectly sound, and entirely impressed with the wisdom and dignity of +the king's proceedings. In answer to the message, which you will observe +was narrowed to a single point (the danger of the States-General), after +the usual professions of zeal for his service, the lords opened +themselves at large. They go far beyond the demands of the message. They +express themselves as follows: "We take this occasion FURTHER to assure +your majesty, that we are sensible of the GREAT AND IMMINENT DANGER TO +WHICH THE STATES-GENERAL ARE EXPOSED. AND WE PERFECTLY AGREE WITH THEM +IN BELIEVING THAT THEIR SAFETY AND OURS ARE SO INSEPARABLY UNITED, THAT +WHATSOEVER IS RUIN TO THE ONE MUST BE FATAL TO THE OTHER. + +"We humbly desire your majesty will be pleased NOT ONLY to made good all +the articles of any FORMER treaties to the States-General, but that you +will enter into a strict league, offensive and defensive, with them, FOR +THEIR COMMON PRESERVATION; AND THAT YOU WILL INVITE INTO IT ALL PRINCES +AND STATES WHO ARE CONCERNED IN THE PRESENT VISIBLE DANGER, ARISING FROM +THE UNION OF FRANCE AND SPAIN. + +"And we further desire your majesty, that you will be pleased to enter +into such alliances with the EMPEROR as your majesty shall think fit, +pursuant to the ends of the treaty of 1689; towards all which we assure +your majesty of our hearty and sincere assistance; not doubting, but +whenever your majesty shall be obliged to be engaged for the defence of +your allies, AND SECURING THE LIBERTY AND QUIET OF EUROPE, Almighty God +will protect your sacred person in so righteous a cause. And that the +unanimity, wealth, and courage, of your subjects will carry your majesty +with honour and success THROUGH ALL THE DIFFICULTIES OF A JUST WAR." + +The House of Commons was more reserved; the late popular disposition was +still in a great degree prevalent in the representative, after it had +been made to change in the constituent body. The principle of the grand +alliance was not directly recognised in the resolution of the Commons, +nor the war announced, though they were well aware the alliance was +formed for the war. However, compelled by the returning sense of the +people, they went so far as to fix the three great immovable pillars of +the safety and greatness of England, as they were then, as they are now, +and as they must ever be to the end of time. They asserted in general +terms the necessity of supporting Holland, of keeping united with our +allies, and maintaining the liberty of Europe; though they restricted +their vote to the succours stipulated by actual treaty. But now they +were fairly embarked, they were obliged to go with the course of the +vessel; and the whole nation, split before into a hundred adverse +factions, with a king at its head evidently declining to his tomb, the +whole nation, lords, commons, and people, proceeded as one body, +informed by one soul. Under the British union, the union of Europe was +consolidated; and it long held together with a degree of cohesion, +firmness, and fidelity, not known before or since in any political +combination of that extent. + +Just as the last hand was given to this immense and complicated machine, +the master workman died: but the work was formed on true mechanical +principles, and it was as truly wrought. It went by the impulse it had +received from the first mover. The man was dead; but the grand alliance +survived in which King William lived and reigned. That heartless and +dispirited people, whom Lord Somers had represented about two years +before as dead in energy and operation, continued that war to which it +was supposed they were unequal in mind, and in means, for nearly +thirteen years. For what have I entered into all this detail? To what +purpose have I recalled your view to the end of the last century? It has +been done to show that the British nation was then a great people--to +point out how and by what means they came to be exalted above the vulgar +level, and to take that lead which they assumed among mankind. To +qualify us for that pre-eminence, we had then a high mind and a +constancy unconquerable; we were then inspired with no flashy passions, +but such as were durable as well as warm, such as corresponded to the +great interests we had at stake. This force of character was inspired, +as all such spirit must ever be, from above. Government gave the +impulse. As well may we fancy, that of itself the sea will swell, and +that without winds the billows will insult the adverse shore, as that +the gross mass of the people will be moved, and elevated, and continue +by a steady and permanent direction to bear upon one point, without the +influence of superior authority, or superior mind. + +This impulse ought, in my opinion, to have been given in this war; and +it ought to have been continued to it at every instant. It is made, if +ever war was made, to touch all the great springs of action in the human +breast. It ought not to have been a war of apology. The minister had, in +this conflict, wherewithal to glory in success; to be consoled in +adversity; to hold high his principle in all fortunes. If it were not +given him to support the falling edifice, he ought to bury himself under +the ruins of the civilized world. All the art of Greece, and all the +pride and power of eastern monarchs, never heaped upon their ashes so +grand a monument. + + +DISTEMPER OF REMEDY. + +This distemper of remedy, grown habitual, relaxes and wears out, by a +vulgar and prostituted use, the spring of that spirit which is to be +exerted on great occasions. It was in the most patient period of Roman +servitude that themes of tyrannicide made the ordinary exercise of boys +at school--cum perimit saevos classis numerosa tyrannos. In the ordinary +state of things, it produces in a country like ours the worst effects, +even on the cause of that liberty which it abuses with the dissoluteness +of an extravagant speculation. Almost all the high-bred republicans of +my time have, after a short space, become the most decided, +thorough-paced courtiers; they soon left the business of a tedious, +moderate, but practical resistance, to those of us whom, in the pride +and intoxication of their theories, they have slighted as not much +better than Tories. Hypocrisy, of course, delights in the most sublime +speculations; for, never intending to go beyond speculation, it costs +nothing to have it magnificent. But even in cases where rather levity +than fraud was to be suspected in these ranting speculations, the issue +has been much the same. These professors, finding their extreme +principles not applicable to cases which call only for a qualified, or, +as I may say, civil, and legal resistance, in such cases employ no +resistance at all. It is with them a war or a revolution, or it is +nothing. Finding their schemes of politics not adapted to the state of +the world in which they live, they often come to think lightly of all +public principle; and are ready, on their part, to abandon for a very +trivial interest what they find of very trivial value. Some indeed are +of more steady and persevering natures; but these are eager politicians +out of parliament, who have little to tempt them to abandon their +favourite projects. They have some change in the Church or State, or +both, constantly in their view. When that is the case, they are always +bad citizens, and perfectly unsure connections. For, considering their +speculative designs as of infinite value, and the actual arrangement of +the state as of no estimation, they are at best indifferent about it. +They see no merit in the good, and no fault in the vicious management of +public affairs; they rather rejoice in the latter, as more propitious to +revolution. They see no merit or demerit in any man, or any action, or +any political principle, any further than as they may forward or retard +their design of change: they therefore take up, one day, the most +violent and stretched prerogative, and another time the wildest +democratic ideas of freedom, and pass from the one to the other without +any sort of regard to cause, to person, or to party. + + +WAR AND WILL OF THE PEOPLE. + +In matters of state, a constitutional competence to act is in many cases +the smallest part of the question. Without disputing (God forbid I +should dispute) the sole competence of the king and the parliament, each +in its province, to decide on war and peace, I venture to say, no war +CAN be long carried on against the will of the people. This war, in +particular, cannot be carried on unless they are enthusiastically in +favour of it. Acquiescence will not do. There must be zeal. Universal +zeal in such a cause, and at such a time as this is, cannot be looked +for; neither is it necessary. Zeal in the larger part carries the force +of the whole. Without this, no government, certainly not our government, +is capable of a great war. None of the ancient regular governments have +wherewithal to fight abroad with a foreign foe, and at home to overcome +repining, reluctance, and chicane. It must be some portentous thing, +like regicide France, that can exhibit such a prodigy. Yet even she, the +mother of monsters, more prolific than the country of old called Ferax +monstrorum, shows symptoms of being almost effete already; and she will +be so, unless the fallow of a peace comes to recruit her fertility. But +whatever may be represented concerning the meanness of the popular +spirit, I, for one, do not think so desperately of the British nation. +Our minds, as I said, are light, but they are not depraved. We are +dreadfully open to delusion and to dejection; but we are capable of +being animated and undeceived. + +It cannot be concealed: we are a divided people. But in divisions, where +a part is to be taken, we are to make a muster of our strength. I have +often endeavoured to compute and to class those who, in any political +view, are to be called the people. Without doing something of this sort +we must proceed absurdly. We should not be much wiser, if we pretended +to very great accuracy in our estimate; but I think, in the calculation +I have made, the error cannot be very material. In England and Scotland, +I compute that those of adult age, not declining in life, of tolerable +leisure for such discussions, and of some means of information, more or +less, and who are above menial dependence (or what virtually is such), +may amount to about four hundred thousand. There is such a thing as a +natural representative of the people. This body is that representative; +and on this body, more than on the legal constituent, the artificial +representative depends. This is the British public; and it is a public +very numerous. The rest, when feeble, are the objects of protection; +when strong, the means of force. They who affect to consider that part +of us in any other light, insult while they cajole us; they do not want +us for counsellors in deliberation, but to list us as soldiers for +battle. + +Of these four hundred thousand political citizens, I look upon +one-fifth, or about eighty thousand, to be pure Jacobins; utterly +incapable of amendment; objects of eternal vigilance, and, when they +break out, of legal constraint. On these, no reason, no argument, no +example, no venerable authority, can have the slightest influence. They +desire a change; and they will have it if they can. If they cannot have +it by English cabal, they will make no sort of scruple of having it by +the cabal of France, into which already they are virtually incorporated. +It is only their assured and confident expectation of the advantages of +French fraternity, and the approaching blessings of regicide +intercourse, that skins over their mischievous dispositions with a +momentary quiet. This minority is great and formidable. I do not know +whether if I aimed at the total overthrow of a kingdom, I should wish to +be encumbered with a larger body of partisans. They are more easily +disciplined and directed than if the number were greater. These, by +their spirit of intrigue, and by their restless agitating activity, are +of a force far superior to their numbers; and, if times grew the least +critical, have the means of debauching or intimidating many of those who +are now sound, as well as of adding to their force large bodies of the +more passive part of the nation. This minority is numerous enough to +make a mighty cry for peace, or for war, or for any object they are led +vehemently to desire. By passing from place to place with a velocity +incredible, and diversifying their character and description, they are +capable of mimicking the general voice. We must not always judge of the +generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation. + + +FALSE POLICY IN OUR FRENCH WAR. + +We have never put forth half the strength which we have exerted in +ordinary wars. In the fatal battles which have drenched the continent +with blood, and shaken the system of Europe to pieces, we have never +had any considerable army of a magnitude to be compared to the least +of those by which, in former times, we so gloriously asserted our +place as protectors, not oppressors, at the head of the great +commonwealth of Europe. We have never manfully met the danger in +front: and when the enemy, resigning to us our natural dominion of +the ocean, and abandoning the defence of his distant possessions to +the infernal energy of the destroying principles which he had planted +there for the subversion of the neighbouring colonies, drove forth, +by one sweeping law of unprecedented despotism, his armed multitudes +on every side, to overwhelm the countries and states which had for +centuries stood the firm barriers against the ambition of France; we +drew back the arm of our military force, which had never been more +than half raised to oppose him. From that time we have been combating +only with the other arm of our naval power; the right arm of England +I admit; but which struck almost unresisted with blows that could +never reach the heart of the hostile mischief. From that time, +without a single effort to regain those outworks, which ever till now +we so strenuously maintained, as the strong frontier of our own +dignity and safety, no less than the liberties of Europe; with but +one feeble attempt to succour those brave, faithful, and numerous +allies, whom, for the first time since the days of our Edwards and +Henrys, we now have in the bosom of France itself; we have been +intrenching, and fortifying, and garrisoning ourselves at home: we +have been redoubling security on security, to protect ourselves from +invasion, which has now become to us a serious object of alarm and +terror. Alas! the few of us who have protracted life in any measure +near to the extreme limits of our short period, have been condemned +to see strange things; new systems of policy, new principles, and not +only new men, but what might appear a new species of men. I believe +that any person who was of age to take a part in public affairs forty +years ago (if the intermediate space of time were expunged from his +memory) would hardly credit his senses, when he should hear from the +highest authority, that an army of two hundred thousand men was kept +up in this island, and that in the neighbouring island there were at +least fourscore thousand more. But when he had recovered from his +surprise on being told of this army, which has not its parallel, what +must be his astonishment to be told again, that this mighty force was +kept up for the mere purpose of an inert and passive defence, and +that in its far greater part, it was disabled by its constitution and +very essence from defending us against an enemy by any one preventive +stroke, or any one operation of active hostility? What must his +reflections be on learning further, that a fleet of five hundred men +of war, the best appointed, and to the full as ably commanded as any +this country ever had upon the sea, was for the greater part employed +in carrying on the same system of unenterprising defence? what must +be the sentiments and feelings of one who remembers the former energy +of England, when he is given to understand that these two islands, +with their extensive and everywhere vulnerable coast, should be +considered as a garrisoned sea-town; what would such a man, what +would any man think, if the garrison of so strange a fortress should +be such, and so feebly commanded, as never to make a sally; and that, +contrary to all which has hitherto been seen in war, an infinitely +inferior army, with the shattered relics of an almost annihilated +navy, ill found and ill manned, may with safety besiege this superior +garrison, and, without hazarding the life of a man, ruin the place, +merely by the menaces and false appearances of an attack? Indeed, +indeed, my dear friend, I look upon this matter of our defensive +system as much the most important of all considerations at this +moment. It has oppressed me with many anxious thoughts, which, more +than any bodily distemper, have sunk me to the condition in which you +know that I am. Should it please Providence to restore to me even the +late weak remains of my strength, I propose to make this matter the +subject of a particular discussion. I only mean here to argue, that +the mode of conducting the war on our part, be it good or bad, has +prevented even the common havoc of war in our population, and +especially among that class whose duty and privilege of superiority +it is to lead the way amidst the perils and slaughter of the field of +battle. + + +MORAL ESSENCE MAKES A NATION. + +Mere locality does not constitute a body politic. Had Cade and his gang +got possession of London, they would not have been the lord mayor, +aldermen, and common council. The body politic of France existed in the +majesty of its throne, in the dignity of its nobility, in the honour of +its gentry, in the sanctity of its clergy, in the reverence of its +magistracy, in the weight and consideration due to its landed property +in the several bailliages, in the respect due to its moveable substance +represented by the corporations of the kingdom. All these particular +moleculae united form the great mass of what is truly the body politic +in all countries. They are so many deposits and receptacles of justice; +because they can only exist by justice. Nation is a moral essence, not a +geographical arrangement, or a denomination of the nomenclator. France, +though out of her territorial possession, exists; because the sole +possible claimant, I mean the proprietary, and the government to which +the proprietary adheres, exists, and claims. God forbid, that if you +were expelled from your house by ruffians and assassins, that I should +call the material walls, doors, and windows of --, the ancient and +honourable family of --. Am I to transfer to the intruders, who, not +content to turn you out naked to the world, would rob you of your very +name, all the esteem and respect I owe to you? The regicides in France +are not France. France is out of her bounds, but the kingdom is the +same. + + +PUBLIC SPIRIT. + +Other great states, having been without any regular, certain course +of elevation or decline, we may hope that the British fortune may +fluctuate also; because the public mind, which greatly influences +that fortune, may have its changes. We are therefore never authorised +to abandon our country to its fate, or to act or advise as if it had +no resource. There is no reason to apprehend, because ordinary means +threaten to fail, that no others can spring up. Whilst our heart is +whole, it will find means, or make them. The heart of the citizen is +a perennial spring of energy to the state. Because the pulse seems to +intermit, we must not presume that it will cease instantly to beat. +The public must never be regarded as incurable. I remember in the +beginning of what has lately been called the Seven Years' War, that +an eloquent writer and ingenious speculator, Dr. Brown, upon some +reverses which happened in the beginning of that war, published an +elaborate philosophical discourse to prove that the distinguishing +features of the people of England have been totally changed, and that +a frivolous effeminacy was become the national character. Nothing +could be more popular than that work. It was thought a great +consolation to us, the light people of this country (who were and are +light, but who were not and are not effeminate), that we had found +the causes of our misfortunes in our vices. Pythagoras could not be +more pleased with his leading discovery. But whilst in that splenetic +mood we amused ourselves in a sour, critical speculation, of which we +were ourselves the objects, and in which every man lost his +particular sense of the public disgrace in the epidemic nature of the +distemper; whilst, as in the Alps, goitre ["i" circumflex] kept +goitre ["i" acute] in countenance; whilst we were thus abandoning +ourselves to a direct confession of our inferiority to France, and +whilst many, very many, were ready to act upon a sense of that +inferiority, a few months effected a total change in our variable +minds. We emerged from the gulf of that speculative despondency, and +were buoyed up to the highest point of practical vigour. Never did +the masculine spirit of England display itself with more energy, nor +ever did its genius soar with a prouder pre-eminence over France, +than at the time when frivolity and effeminacy had been at least +tacitly acknowledged as their national character by the good people +of this kingdom. + + +PROGRESSIVE GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN STATES. + +When I contemplate the scheme on which France is formed, and when I +compare it with these systems, with which it is, and ever must be, in +conflict, those things, which seem as defects in her polity, are the +very things which make me tremble. The states of the Christian world +have grown up to their present magnitude in a great length of time, and +by a great variety of accidents. They have been improved to what we see +them with greater or less degrees of felicity and skill. Not one of them +has been formed upon a regular plan or with any unity of design. As +their constitutions are not systematical, they have not been directed to +any PECULIAR end, eminently distinguished, and superseding every other. +The objects which they embrace are of the greatest possible variety, and +have become in a manner infinite. In all these old countries, the state +has been made to the people, and not the people conformed to the state. +Every state has pursued not only every sort of social advantage, but it +has cultivated the welfare of every individual. His wants, his wishes, +even his tastes, have been consulted. This comprehensive scheme +virtually produced a degree of personal liberty in forms the most +adverse to it. That liberty was found, under monarchies styled absolute, +in a degree unknown to the ancient commonwealths. From hence the powers +of all our modern states meet, in all their movements, with some +obstruction. It is therefore no wonder, that, when these states are to +be considered as machines to operate for some one great end, this +dissipated and balanced force is not easily concentrated, or made to +bear with the whole force of the nation upon one point. + +The British state is, without question, that which pursues the greatest +variety of ends, and is the least disposed to sacrifice any one of them +to another, or to the whole. It aims at taking in the entire circle of +human desires, and securing for them their fair enjoyment. Our +legislature has been ever closely connected, in its most efficient part, +with individual feeling, and individual interest. Personal liberty, the +most lively of these feelings and the most important of these interests, +which in other European countries has rather arisen from the system of +manners and the habitudes of life, than from the laws of the state (in +which it flourished more from neglect than attention), in England, has +been a direct object of government. + +On this principle England would be the weakest power in the whole +system. Fortunately, however, the great riches of this kingdom arising +from a variety of causes, and the disposition of the people, which is as +great to spend as to accumulate, has easily afforded a disposable +surplus that gives a mighty momentum to the state. This difficulty, with +these advantages to overcome it, has called forth the talents of the +English financiers, who, by the surplus of industry poured out by +prodigality, have outdone everything which has been accomplished in +other nations. The present minister has outdone his predecessors; and, +as a minister of revenue, is far above my power of praise. But still +there are cases in which England feels more than several others (though +they all feel) the perplexity of an immense body of balanced advantages, +and of individual demands, and of some irregularity in the whole mass. + +France differs essentially from all those governments, which are formed +without system, which exist by habit, and which are confused with the +multitude, and with the perplexity of their pursuits. What now stands as +government in France is struck out at a heat. The design is wicked, +immoral, impious, oppressive; but it is spirited and daring; it is +systematic; it is simple in its principle; it has unity and consistency +in perfection. + + +PETTY INTERESTS. + +It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the +inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they +do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to +approach them. The petty interests of such gentlemen, the low +conceptions of things, their fears arising from the danger to which the +very arduous and critical situation of public affairs may expose their +places; their apprehensions from the hazards to which the discontents of +a few popular men at elections may expose their seats in parliament; all +these causes trouble and confuse the representations which they make to +ministers of the real temper of the nation. If ministers, instead of +following the great indications of the constitution, proceed on such +reports, they will take the whispers of a cabal for the voice of the +people, and the counsels of imprudent timidity for the wisdom of a +nation. + + +PIUS VII. + +It is not for his Holiness we intend this consolatory declaration of +our own weakness, and of the tyrannous temper of his grand enemy. +That prince has known both the one and the other from the beginning. +The artists of the French revolution had given their very first +essays and sketches of robbery and desolation against his +territories, in a far more cruel "murdering piece" than had ever +entered into the imagination of painter or poet. Without ceremony +they tore from his cherishing arms the possessions which he held for +five hundred years, undisturbed by all the ambition of all the +ambitious monarchs who, during that period, have reigned in France. +Is it to him, in whose wrong we have in our late negotiation ceded +his now unhappy countries near the Rhone, lately amongst the most +flourishing (perhaps the most flourishing for their extent) of all +the countries upon earth, that we are to prove the sincerity of our +resolution to make peace with the republic barbarism? That venerable +potentate and pontiff is sunk deep into the vale of years; he is half +disarmed by his peaceful character; his dominions are more than half +disarmed by a peace of two hundred years, defended as they were, not +by forces, but by reverence; yet in all these straits, we see him +display, amidst the recent ruins and the new defacements of his +plundered capital, along with the mild and decorated piety of the +modern, all the spirit and magnanimity of ancient Rome! Does he, who, +though himself unable to defend them, nobly refused to receive +pecuniary compensations for the protection he owed to his people of +Avignon, Carpentras, and the Venaisin;--does he want proofs of our +good disposition to deliver over that people without any security for +them, or any compensation to their sovereign, to this cruel enemy? +Does he want to be satisfied of the sincerity of our humiliation to +France, who has seen his free, fertile, and happy city and state of +Bologna, the cradle of regenerated law, the seat of sciences and of +arts, so hideously metamorphosed, whilst he was crying to Great +Britain for aid, and offering to purchase that aid at any price? Is +it him, who sees that chosen spot of plenty and delight converted +into a Jacobin ferocious republic, dependent on the homicides of +France? Is it him, who, from the miracles of his beneficent industry, +has done a work which defied the power of the Roman emperors, though +with an enthralled world to labour for them; is it him, who has +drained and cultivated the PONTINE MARSHES, that we are to satisfy of +our cordial spirit of conciliation, with those who, in their equity, +are restoring Holland again to the seas, whose maxims poison more +than the exhalations of the most deadly fens, and who turn all the +fertilities of nature and of art into a howling desert? Is it to him, +that we are to demonstrate the good faith of our submissions to the +cannibal republic; to him who is commanded to deliver into their +hands Ancona and Civita Vecchia, seats of commerce, raised by the +wise and liberal labours and expenses of the present and late +pontiffs; ports not more belonging to the Ecclesiastical State than +to the commerce of Great Britain; thus wresting from his hands the +power of the keys of the centre of Italy, as before they had taken +possession of the keys of the northern part, from the hands of the +unhappy king of Sardinia, the natural ally of England? Is it to him +we are to prove our good faith in the peace which we are soliciting +to receive from the hands of his and our robbers, the enemies of all +arts, all sciences, all civilization, and all commerce? + + +EXTINCTION OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM. + +That day was, I fear, the fatal term of LOCAL patriotism. On that day, I +fear, there was an end of that narrow scheme of relations called our +country, with all its pride, its prejudices, and its partial affections. +All the little quiet rivulets, that watered an humble, a contracted, but +not an unfruitful field, are to be lost in the waste expanse, and +boundless, barren ocean of the homicide philanthropy of France. It is no +longer an object of terror, the aggrandizement of a new power, which +teaches as a professor that philanthropy in their chair; whilst it +propagates by arms, and establishes by conquest, the comprehensive +system of universal fraternity. In what light is all this viewed in a +great assembly? The party which takes the lead there has no longer any +apprehensions, except those that arise from not being admitted to the +closest and most confidential connections with the metropolis of that +fraternity. That reigning party no longer touches on its favourite +subject, the display of those horrors, that must attend the existence of +a power, with such dispositions and principles, seated in the heart of +Europe. It is satisfied to find some loose, ambiguous expressions in its +former declarations, which may set it free from its professions and +engagements. It always speaks of peace with the regicides as a great and +an undoubted blessing; and such a blessing as, if obtained, promises, as +much as any human disposition of things can promise, security and +permanence. It holds out nothing at all definite towards this security. +It only seeks, by a restoration, to some of their former owners, of some +fragments of the general wreck of Europe, to find a plausible plea for a +present retreat from an embarrassing position. As to the future, that +party is content to leave it, covered in a night of the most palpable +obscurity. It never once has entered into a particle of detail of what +our own situation, or that of other powers, must be, under the blessings +of the peace we seek. This defect, to my power, I mean to supply; that +if any persons should still continue to think an attempt at foresight is +any part of the duty of a statesman, I may contribute my trifle to the +materials of his speculation. + +As to the other party, the minority of to?day, possibly the majority of +to-morrow, small in number but full of talents and every species of +energy, which, upon the avowed ground of being more acceptable to +France, is a candidate for the helm of this kingdom, it has never +changed from the beginning. It has preserved a perennial consistency. +This would be a never-failing source of true glory, if springing from +just and right; but it is truly dreadful if it be an arm of Styx, which +springs out of the profoundest depths of a poisoned soil. The French +maxims were by these gentlemen at no time condemned. I speak of their +language in the most moderate terms. There are many who think that they +have gone much further; that they have always magnified and extolled the +French maxims; that not in the least disgusted or discouraged by the +monstrous evils, which have attended these maxims from the moment of +their adoption both at home and abroad, they still continue to predict, +that in due time they must produce the greatest good to the poor human +race. They obstinately persist in stating those evils as matter of +accident; as things wholly collateral to the system. It is observed, +that this party has never spoken of an ally of Great Britain with the +smallest degree of respect or regard; on the contrary, it has generally +mentioned them under opprobrious appellations, and in such terms of +contempt or execration, as never had been heard before, because no such +would have formerly been permitted in our public assemblies. The moment, +however, that any of those allies quitted this obnoxious connection, the +party has instantly passed an act of indemnity and oblivion in their +favour. After this, no sort of censure on their conduct; no imputation +on their character! From that moment their pardon was sealed in a +reverential and mysterious silence. With the gentlemen of this minority, +there is no ally, from one end of Europe to the other, with whom we +ought not to be ashamed to act. The whole college of the states of +Europe is no better than a gang of tyrants. With them all our connexions +were broken off at once. We ought to have cultivated France, and France +alone, from the moment of her revolution. On that happy change, all our +dread of that nation as a power was to cease. She became in an instant +dear to our affections, and one with our interests. All other nations we +ought to have commanded not to trouble her sacred throes, whilst in +labour to bring into a happy birth her abundant litter of constitutions. + + +WALPOLE AND HIS POLICY. + +There has not been in this century any foreign peace or war, in its +origin, the fruit of popular desire; except the war that was made with +Spain in 1739. Sir Robert Walpole was forced into the war by the people, +who were inflamed to this measure by the most leading politicians, by +the first orators, and the greatest poets, of the time. For that war, +Pope sung his dying notes. For that war, Johnson, in more energetic +strains, employed the voice of his early genius. For that war, Glover +distinguished himself in the way in which his muse was the most natural +and happy. The crowd readily followed the politicians in the cry for a +war, which threatened little bloodshed, and which promised victories +that were attended with something more solid than glory. A war with +Spain was a war of plunder. In the present conflict with regicide, Mr. +Pitt has not hitherto had, nor will, perhaps, for a few days have, many +prizes to hold out in the lottery of war, to attempt the lower part of +our character. He can only maintain it by an appeal to the higher; and +to those, in whom that higher part is the most predominant, he must look +the most for his support. Whilst he holds out no inducements to the +wise, nor bribes to the avaricious, he may be forced by a vulgar cry +into a peace ten times more ruinous than the most disastrous war. The +weaker he is in the fund of motives which apply to our avarice, to our +laziness, and to our lassitude, if he means to carry the war to any end +at all, the stronger he ought to be in his addresses to our magnanimity +and to our reason. + +In stating that Walpole was driven by a popular clamour into a measure +not to be justified, I do not mean wholly to excuse his conduct. My time +of observation did not exactly coincide with that event: but I read much +of the controversies then carried on. Several years after the contests +of parties had ceased, the people were amused, and in a degree warmed, +with them. The events of that era seemed then of magnitude, which the +revolutions of our time have reduced to parochial importance; and the +debates, which then shook the nation, now appear of no higher moment +than a discussion in a vestry. When I was very young, a general fashion +told me I was to admire some of the writings against that minister; a +little more maturity taught me as much to despise them. I observed one +fault in his general proceeding. He never manfully put forward the +entire strength of his cause. He temporised, he managed, and, adopting +very nearly the sentiments of his adversaries, he opposed their +inferences. This, for a political commander, is the choice of a weak +post. His adversaries had the better of the argument, as he handled it, +not as the reason and justice of his cause enabled him to manage it. I +say this, after having seen, and with some care examined, the original +documents concerning certain important transactions of those times. They +perfectly satisfied me of the extreme injustice of that war, and of the +falsehood of the colours which, to his own ruin, and guided by a +mistaken policy, he suffered to be daubed over that measure. Some years +after, it was my fortune to converse with many of the principal actors +against that minister, and with those who principally excited that +clamour. None of them, no not one, did in the least defend the measure, +or attempt to justify their conduct. They condemned it as freely as they +would have done in commenting upon any proceeding in history, in which +they were totally unconcerned. Thus it will be. They who stir up the +people to improper desires, whether of peace or war, will be condemned +by themselves. They who weakly yield to them will be condemned by +history. + + +POLITICAL PEACE. + +How a question of peace can be discussed without having them in view, I +cannot imagine. If you or others see a way out of these difficulties, I +am happy. I see, indeed, a fund from whence equivalents will be +proposed. I see it, but I cannot just now touch it. It is a question of +high moment. It opens another Iliad of woes to Europe. + +Such is the time proposed for making A COMMON POLITICAL PEACE; to which +no one circumstance is propitious. As to the grand principle of the +peace, it is left, as if by common consent, wholly out of the question. + +Viewing things in this light, I have frequently sunk into a degree of +despondency and dejection hardly to be described; yet out of the +profoundest depths of this despair, an impulse, which I have in vain +endeavoured to resist, has urged me to raise one feeble cry against this +unfortunate coalition which is formed at home, in order to make a +coalition with France, subversive of the whole ancient order of the +world. No disaster of war, no calamity of season, could ever strike me +with half the horror which I felt from what is introduced to us by this +junction of parties, under the soothing name of peace. We are apt to +speak of a low and pusillanimous spirit as the ordinary cause by which +dubious wars terminated in humiliating treaties. It is here the direct +contrary. I am perfectly astonished at the boldness of character, at the +intrepidity of mind, the firmness of nerve, in those who are able with +deliberation to face the perils of Jacobin fraternity. + +This fraternity is indeed so terrible in its nature, and in its manifest +consequences, that there is no way of quieting our apprehensions about +it, but by totally putting it out of sight, by substituting for it, +through a sort of periphrasis, something of an ambiguous quality, and +describing such a connection under the terms of "THE USUAL RELATIONS OF +PEACE AND AMITY." By this means the proposed fraternity is hustled in +the crowd of those treaties, which imply no change in the public law of +Europe, and which do not upon system affect the interior condition of +nations. It is confounded with those conventions in which matters of +dispute among sovereign powers are compromised, by the taking off a duty +more or less, by the surrender of a frontier town, or a disputed +district, on the one side or the other; by pactions in which the +pretensions of families are settled (as by a conveyancer, making family +substitutions and successions), without any alterations in the laws, +manners, religion, privileges, and customs, of the cities, or +territories, which are the subject of such arrangements. + +All this body of old conventions, composing the vast and voluminous +collection called the corps diplomatique, forms the code or statute law, +as the methodised reasonings of the great publicists and jurists form +the digest and jurisprudence of the Christian world. In these treasures +are to be found the USUAL relations of peace and amity in civilized +Europe; and there the relations of ancient France were to be found +amongst the rest. + +The present system in France is not the ancient France. It is not the +ancient France with ordinary ambition and ordinary means. It is not a +new power of an old kind. It is a new power of a new species. When such +a questionable shape is to be admitted for the first time into the +brotherhood of Christendom, it is not a mere matter of idle curiosity to +consider how far it is in its nature alliable with the rest, or whether +"the relations of peace and amity" with this new state are likely to be +of the same nature with the USUAL relations of the states of Europe. + + +PUBLIC LOANS. + +It is never, therefore, wise to quarrel with the interested views of +men, whilst they are combined with the public interest and promote it: +it is our business to tie the knot, if possible, closer. Resources that +are derived from extraordinary virtues, as such virtues are rare, so +they must be unproductive. It is a good thing for a monied man to pledge +his property on the welfare of his country; he shows that he places his +treasure where his heart is; and, revolving in this circle, we know that +"wherever a man's treasure is, there his heart will be also." For these +reasons, and on these principles, I have been sorry to see the attempts +which have been made, with more good meaning than foresight and +consideration, towards raising the annual interest of this loan by +private contributions. Wherever a regular revenue is established, there +voluntary contribution can answer no purpose, but to disorder and +disturb it in its course. To recur to such aids is, for so much, to +dissolve the community, and to return to a state of unconnected nature. +And even if such a supply should be productive, in a degree commensurate +to its object, it must also be productive of much vexation, and much +oppression. Either the citizens, by the proposed duties, pay their +proportion according to some rate made by public authority, or they do +not. If the law be well made, and the contributions founded on just +proportions, everything superadded by something that is not as regular +as law, and as uniform in its operation, will become more or less out of +proportion. If, on the contrary, the law be not made upon proper +calculation, it is a disgrace to the public wisdom, which fails in skill +to assess the citizen in just measure, and according to his means. But +the hand of authority is not always the most heavy hand. It is obvious, +that men may be oppressed by many ways, besides those which take their +course from the supreme power of the state. Suppose the payment to be +wholly discretionary. Whatever has its origin in caprice, is sure not to +improve in its progress, nor to end in reason. It is impossible for each +private individual to have any measure conformable to the particular +condition of each of his fellow-citizens, or to the general exigencies +of his country. 'Tis a random shot at best. + +When men proceed in this irregular mode, the first contributor is apt to +grow peevish with his neighbours. He is but too well disposed to measure +their means by his own envy, and not by the real state of their +fortunes, which he can rarely know, and which it may in them be an act +of the grossest imprudence to reveal. Hence the odium and lassitude, +with which people will look upon a provision for the public, which is +bought by discord at the expense of social quiet. Hence the bitter +heart-burnings, and the war of tongues, which is so often the prelude to +other wars. Nor is it every contribution, called voluntary, which is +according to the free will of the giver. A false shame, or a false +glory, against his feelings and his judgment, may tax an individual to +the detriment of his family, and in wrong of his creditors. A pretence +of public spirit may disable him from the performance of his private +duties. It may disable him even from paying the legitimate contributions +which he is to furnish according to the prescript of the law; but what +is the most dangerous of all is, that malignant disposition to which +this mode of contribution evidently tends, and which at length leaves +the comparatively indigent to judge of the wealth, and to prescribe to +the opulent, or those whom they conceive to be such, the use they are to +make of their fortunes. From thence it is but one step to the subversion +of all property. + + +HISTORICAL STRICTURES. + +The author does not confine the benefit of the regicide lesson to +kings alone. He has a diffusive bounty. Nobles, and men of property, +will likewise be greatly reformed. They too will be led to a review +of their social situation and duties; "and will reflect, that their +large allotment of worldly advantages is for the aid and benefit of +the whole." Is it then from the fate of Juignie, archbishop of Paris, +or of the cardinal de Rochefoucault, and of so many others, who gave +their fortunes, and, I may say, their very beings, to the poor, that +the rich are to learn, that their "fortunes are for the aid and +benefit of the whole?" I say nothing of the liberal persons of great +rank and property, lay and ecclesiastic, men and women, to whom we +have had the honour and happiness of affording an asylum,--I pass by +these, lest I should never have done, or lest I should omit some as +deserving as any I might mention. Why will the author then suppose, +that the nobles and men of property in France have been banished, +confiscated, and murdered, on account of the savageness and ferocity +of their character, and their being tainted with vices beyond those +of the same order and description in other countries? No judge of a +revolutionary tribunal, with his hands dipped in their blood, and his +maw gorged with their property, has yet dared to assert what this +author has been pleased, by way of a moral lesson, to insinuate. + +Their nobility, and their men of property, in a mass, had the very same +virtues and the very same vices, and in the very same proportions, with +the same description of men in this and in other nations. I must do +justice to suffering honour, generosity, and integrity. I do not know, +that any time, or any country, has furnished more splendid examples of +every virtue, domestic and public. I do not enter into the councils of +Providence: but, humanly speaking, many of these nobles and men of +property, from whose disastrous fate we are, it seems, to learn a +general softening of character, and a revision of our social situations +and duties, appear to me full as little deserving of that fate, as the +author, whoever he is, can be. Many of them, I am sure, were such, as I +should be proud indeed to be able to compare myself with, in knowledge, +in integrity, and in every other virtue. My feeble nature might shrink, +though theirs did not, from the proof; but my reason and my ambition +tell me, that it would be a good bargain to purchase their merits with +their fate. + +For which of his vices did that great magistrate, D'Espremenil, lose his +fortune and his head? What were the abominations of Malesherbes, that +other excellent magistrate, whose sixty years of uniform virtue was +acknowledged, in the very act of his murder, by the judicial butchers, +who condemned him? On account of what misdemeanors was he robbed of his +property, and slaughtered with two generations of his offspring; and the +remains of the third race, with a refinement of cruelty, and lest they +should appear to reclaim the property forfeited by the virtues of their +ancestor, confounded in an hospital with the thousands of those unhappy +foundling infants, who are abandoned, without relation, and without +name, by the wretchedness or by the profligacy of their parents? + +Is the fate of the queen of France to produce this softening of +character? Was she a person so very ferocious and cruel as, by the +example of her death, to frighten us into common humanity? Is there no +way to teach the emperor a softening of character, and a review of his +social situation and duty, but his consent, by an infamous accord with +regicide, to drive a second coach with the Austrian arms through the +streets of Paris, along which, after a series of preparatory horrors, +exceeding the atrocities of the bloody execution itself, the glory of +the imperial race had been carried to an ignominious death? Is this a +lesson of MODERATION to a descendant of Maria Theresa, drawn from the +fate of the daughter of that incomparable woman and sovereign? If he +learns this lesson from such an object, and from such teachers, the man +may remain, but the king is deposed. If he does not carry quite another +memory of that transaction in the inmost recesses of his heart, he is +unworthy to reign; he is unworthy to live. In the chronicle of disgrace +he will have but this short tale told of him, "he was the first emperor +of his house that embraced a regicide: he was the last that wore the +imperial purple."--Far am I from thinking so ill of this august +sovereign, who is at the head of the monarchies of Europe, and who is +the trustee of their dignities and his own. What ferocity of character +drew on the fate of Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis the Sixteenth? +For which of the vices of that pattern of benevolence, of piety, and of +all the virtues, did they put her to death? For which of her vices did +they put to death the mildest of all human creatures, the duchess of +Biron? What were the crimes of those crowds of matrons and virgins of +condition, whom they massacred, with their juries of blood, in prisons +and on scaffolds? What were the enormities of the infant king, whom they +caused, by lingering tortures, to perish in their dungeon, and whom, if +at last they despatched by poison, it was in that detestable crime the +only act of mercy they have ever shown? + +What softening of character is to be had, what review of their social +situations and duties is to be taught, by these examples, to kings, to +nobles, to men of property, to women, and to infants? The royal family +perished, because it was royal. The nobles perished, because they were +noble. The men, women, and children, who had property, because they had +property to be robbed of. The priests were punished, after they had been +robbed of their all, not for their vices, but for their virtues and +their piety, which made them an honour to their sacred profession, and +to that nature, of which we ought to be proud, since they belong to it. +My Lord, nothing can be learned from such examples, except the danger of +being kings, queens, nobles, priests, and children, to be butchered on +account of their inheritance. These are things, at which not vice, not +crime, not folly, but wisdom, goodness, learning, justice, probity, +beneficence, stand aghast. By these examples our reason and our moral +sense are not enlightened, but confounded; and there is no refuge for +astonished and affrighted virtue, but being annihilated in humility and +submission, sinking into a silent adoration of the inscrutable +dispensations of Providence, and flying, with trembling wings, from this +world of daring crimes, and feeble, pusillanimous, half-bred, bastard +justice, to the asylum of another order of things, in an unknown form, +but in a better life. + +Whatever the politician or preacher of September or of October may think +of the matter, it is a most comfortless, disheartening, desolating +example. Dreadful is the example of ruined innocence and virtue, and the +completest triumph of the completest villainy, that ever vexed and +disgraced mankind! The example is ruinous in every point of view, +religious, moral, civil, political. It establishes that dreadful maxim +of Machiavel, that in great affairs men are not to be wicked by halves. +This maxim is not made for a middle sort of beings, who, because they +cannot be angels, ought to thwart their ambition, and not endeavour to +become infernal spirits. It is too well exemplified in the present time, +where the faults and errors of humanity, checked by the imperfect +timorous virtues, have been overpowered by those who have stopped at no +crime. It is a dreadful part of the example, that infernal malevolence +has had pious apologists, who read their lectures on frailties in favour +of crimes; who abandon the weak, and court the friendship of the wicked. +To root out these maxims, and the examples that support them, is a wise +object of years of war. This is that war. This is that moral war. It was +said by old Trivulzio, that the battle of Marignan was the battle of the +giants, that all the rest of the many he had seen were those of the +cranes and pigmies. This is true of the objects, at least, of the +contest. For the greater part of those, which we have hitherto contended +for, in comparison, were the toys of children. + +The October politician is so full of charity and good nature, that he +supposes, that these very robbers and murderers themselves are in a +course of melioration; on what ground I cannot conceive, except on the +long practice of every crime, and by its complete success. He is an +Origenist, and believes in the conversion of the devil. All that runs in +the place of blood in his veins is nothing but the milk of human +kindness. He is as soft as a curd, though, as a politician, he might be +supposed to be made of sterner stuff. He supposes (to use his own +expression) "that the salutary truths, which he inculcates, are making +their way into their bosoms." Their bosom is a rock of granite, on which +falsehood has long since built her stronghold. Poor truth has had a hard +work of it with her little pickaxe. Nothing but gunpowder will do. As a +proof, however, of the progress of this sap of Truth, he gives us a +confession they had made not long before he wrote. "Their fraternity" +(as was lately stated by themselves in a solemn report) "has been the +brotherhood of Cain and Abel, and they have organized nothing but +Bankruptcy and Famine." A very honest confession, truly; and much in the +spirit of their oracle, Rousseau. Yet, what is still more marvellous +than the confession, this is the very fraternity to which our author +gives us such an obliging invitation to accede. There is, indeed, a +vacancy in the fraternal corps; a brother and a partner is wanted. If we +please, we may fill up the place of the butchered Abel; and, whilst we +wait the destiny of the departed brother, we may enjoy the advantages of +the partnership, by entering, without delay, into a shop of ready-made +bankruptcy and famine. These are the douceurs, by which we are invited +to regicide fraternity and friendship. But still our author considers +the confession as a proof, that "truth is making its way into their +bosoms." No! It is not making its way into their bosoms. It has forced +its way into their mouths! The evil spirit, by which they are possessed, +though essentially a liar, is forced, by the tortures of conscience, to +confess the truth: to confess enough for their condemnation, but not for +their amendment. Shakspeare very aptly expresses this kind of +confession, devoid of repentance, from the mouth of a usurper, a +murderer, and a regicide-- + + "We are ourselves compelled, + Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, + To give in evidence." + +Whence is their amendment? Why, the author writes, that, on their +murderous insurrectionary system, their own lives are not sure for an +hour; nor has their power a greater stability. True. They are convinced +of it; and accordingly the wretches have done all they can to preserve +their lives, and to secure their power; but not one step have they taken +to amend the one, or to make a more just use of the other. + + +CONSTITUTION NOT THE PEOPLE'S SLAVE. + +There is one topic upon which I hope I shall be excused in going a +little beyond my design. The factions, now so busy amongst us, in order +to divest men of all love for their country, and to remove from their +minds all duty with regard to the state, endeavour to propagate an +opinion, that the PEOPLE, in forming their commonwealth, have by no +means parted with their power over it. This is an impregnable citadel, +to which these gentlemen retreat whenever they are pushed by the battery +of laws and usages, and positive conventions. Indeed, it is such and of +so great force, that all they have done, in defending their outworks, is +so much time and labour thrown away. Discuss any of their schemes--their +answer is--It is the act of the PEOPLE, and that is sufficient. Are we +to deny to a MAJORITY of the people the right of altering even the whole +frame of their society, if such should be their pleasure? They may +change it, say they, from a monarchy to a republic to?day, and to-morrow +back again from a republic to a monarchy, and so backward and forward as +often as they like. They are masters of the commonwealth; because in +substance they are themselves the commonwealth. The French revolution, +say they, was the act of the majority of the people; and if the majority +of any other people, the people of England for instance, wish to make +the same change, they have the same right. Just the same, undoubtedly. +That is, none at all. Neither the few nor the many have a right to act +merely by their will, in any matter connected with duty, trust, +engagement, or obligation. The constitution of a country being once +settled upon some compact, tacit or expressed, there is no power +existing of force to alter it, without the breach of the covenant, or +the consent of all the parties. Such is the nature of a contract. And +the votes of a majority of the people, whatever their infamous +flatterers may teach in order to corrupt their minds, cannot alter the +moral any more than they can alter the physical essence of things. The +people are not to be taught to think lightly of their engagements to +their governors; else they teach governors to think lightly of their +engagements towards them. In that kind of game in the end the people are +sure to be losers. To flatter them into a contempt of faith, truth, and +justice, is to ruin them; for in these virtues consist their whole +safety. To flatter any man, or any part of mankind, in any description, +by asserting, that in engagements he or they are free whilst any other +human creature is bound, is ultimately to vest the rule of morality in +the pleasure of those who ought to be rigidly submitted to it; to +subject the sovereign reason of the world to the caprices of weak and +giddy men. + +But, as no one of us men can dispense with public or private faith, or +with any other tie of moral obligation, so neither can any number of us. +The number engaged in crimes, instead of turning them into laudable +acts, only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt. I am well +aware that men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme +disrelish to be told of their duty. This is of course, because every +duty is a limitation of some power. Indeed arbitrary power is so much to +the depraved taste of the vulgar, of the vulgar of every description, +that almost all the dissensions, which lacerate the commonwealth, are +not concerning the manner in which it is to be exercised, but concerning +the hands in which it is to be placed. Somewhere they are resolved to +have it. Whether they desire it to be vested in the many or the few, +depends with most men upon the chance which they imagine they themselves +may have of partaking in the exercise of that arbitrary sway, in the one +mode or in the other. + +It is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power. But it is very +expedient that by moral instruction, they should be taught, and by their +civil constitutions they should be compelled, to put many restrictions +upon the immoderate exercise of it, and the inordinate desire. The best +method of obtaining these two great points forms the important, but at +the same time the difficult, problem to the true statesman. He thinks of +the place in which political power is to be lodged, with no other +attention, than as it may render the more or the less practicable, its +salutary restraint, and its prudent direction. For this reason no +legislator, at any period of the world, has willingly placed the seat of +active power in the hands of the multitude: because there it admits of +no control no regulation, no steady direction whatsoever. The people are +the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control +together is contradictory and impossible. + +As the exorbitant exercise of power cannot, under popular sway, be +effectually restrained, the other great object of political arrangement, +the means of abating an excessive desire of it, is in such a state still +worse provided for. The democratic commonwealth is the foodful nurse of +ambition. Under the other forms it meets with many restraints. Whenever, +in states which have had a democratic basis, the legislators have +endeavoured to put restraints upon ambition, their methods were as +violent, as in the end they were ineffectual: as violent indeed as any +the most jealous despotism could invent. The ostracism could not very +long save itself, and much less the state which it was meant to guard, +from the attempts of ambition, one of the natural, inbred, incurable +distempers of a powerful democracy. + + +MODERN "LIGHTS." + +Great lights they say are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke, +instead of shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken +advantage of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him. +It may be so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their +predecessors in another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights.--Hudibras +pleasantly says to them, they + + "Have LIGHTS, where better eyes are blind, + As pigs are said to see the wind." + +The author of the Reflections has HEARD a great deal concerning the +modern lights; but he has not yet had the good fortune to SEE much of +them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of +curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He has +learned nothing from the far greater number of them, than a full +certainty of their shallowness, levity, pride, petulance, presumption, +and ignorance. Where the old authors whom he has read, and the old men +whom he has conversed with, have left him in the dark, he is in the dark +still. If others, however, have obtained any of this extraordinary +light, they will use it to guide them in their researches and their +conduct. I have only to wish, that the nation may be as happy and as +prosperous under the influence of the new light, as it has been in the +sober shade of the old obscurity. + + +REPUBLICS IN THE ABSTRACT. + +In the same debate, Mr. Burke was represented by Mr. Fox as arguing in a +manner which implied that the British constitution could not be +defended, but by abusing all republics ancient and modern. He said +nothing to give the least ground for such a censure. He never abused all +republics. He has never professed himself a friend or an enemy to +republics or to monarchies in the abstract. He thought that the +circumstances and habits of every country, which it is always perilous +and productive of the greatest calamities to force, are to decide upon +the form of its government. There is nothing in his nature, his temper, +or his faculties, which should make him an enemy to any republic modern +or ancient. Far from it. He has studied the form and spirit of republics +very early in life; he has studied them with great attention; and with a +mind undisturbed by affection or prejudice. He is indeed convinced that +the science of government would be poorly cultivated without that study. +But the result in his mind from that investigation has been, and is, +that neither England nor France, without infinite detriment to them, as +well in the event as in the experiment, could be brought into a +republican form; but that everything republican which can be introduced +with safety into either of them, must be built upon a monarchy; built +upon a real, not a nominal, monarchy, AS ITS ESSENTIAL BASIS; that all +such institutions, whether aristocratic or democratic, must originate +from the crown, and in all their proceedings must refer to it; that by +the energy of that main spring alone those republican parts must be set +in action, and from thence must derive their whole legal effect (as +amongst us they actually do), or the whole will fall into confusion. +These republican members have no other point but the crown in which they +can possibly unite. + +This is the opinion expressed in Mr. Burke's book. He has never varied +in that opinion since he came to years of discretion. But surely, if it +any time of his life he had entertained other notions (which however he +has never held or professed to hold), the horrible calamities brought +upon a great people, by the wild attempt to force their country into a +republic, might be more than sufficient to undeceive his understanding, +and to free it for ever from such destructive fancies. He is certain, +that many, even in France, have been made sick of their theories by +their very success in realizing them. + + +AN ENGLISH MONARCH. + +He is a real king, and not an executive officer. If he will not trouble +himself with contemptible details, nor wish to degrade himself by +becoming a party in little squabbles, I am far from sure, that a king of +Great Britain, in whatever concerns him as a king, or indeed as a +rational man, who combines his public interest with his personal +satisfaction, does not possess a more real, solid, extensive power, than +the king of France was possessed of before this miserable revolution. +The direct power of the king of England is considerable. His indirect, +and far more certain power, is great indeed. He stands in need of +nothing towards dignity; of nothing towards splendour; of nothing +towards authority; of nothing at all towards consideration abroad. When +was it that a king of England wanted wherewithal to make him respected, +courted, or perhaps even feared, in every state of Europe? + + +PHYSIOGNOMY. + +The PHYSIOGNOMY has a considerable share in beauty, especially in +that of our own species. The manners give a certain determination to +the countenance; which, being observed to correspond pretty regularly +with them, is capable of joining the effect of certain agreeable +qualities of the mind to those of the body. So that to form a +finished human beauty, and to give it its full influence, the face +must be expressive of such gentle and amiable qualities, as +correspond with the softness, smoothness, and delicacy of the outward +form. + + +THE EYE. + +I have hitherto purposely omitted to speak of the EYE, which has so +great a share in the beauty of the animal creation, as it did not fall +so easily under the foregoing heads, though in fact it is reducible to +the same principles. I think then, that the beauty of the eye consists, +first, in its CLEARNESS; what COLOURED eye shall please most, depends a +good deal on particular fancies; but none are pleased with an eye whose +water (to use that term) is dull and muddy. We are pleased with the eye +in this view, on the principle upon which we like diamonds, clear water, +glass, and such-like transparent substances. Secondly, the motion of the +eye contributes to its beauty, by continually shifting its direction; +but a slow and languid motion is more beautiful than a brisk one; the +latter is enlivening; the former lovely. Thirdly, with regard to the +union of the eye with the neighbouring parts, it is to hold the same +rule that is given of other beautiful ones; it is not to make a strong +deviation from the line of the neighbouring parts; nor to verge into any +exact geometrical figure. Besides all this, the eye affects, as it is +expressive of some qualities of the mind, and its principal power +generally arises from this; so that what we have just said of the +physiognomy is applicable here. + + +ABOLITION AND USE OF PARLIAMENTS. + +According to their invariable course, the framers of your constitution +have begun with the outer abolition of the parliaments. These venerable +bodies, like the rest of the old government, stood in need of reform, +even though there should be no change made in the monarchy. They +required several more alterations to adapt them to the system of a free +constitution. But they had particulars in their constitution, and those +not a few, which deserved approbation from the wise. They possessed one +fundamental excellence,--they were independent. The most doubtful +circumstance attendant on their office, that of its being vendible, +contributed however to this independency of character. They held for +life. Indeed they may be said to have held by inheritance. Appointed by +the monarch, they were considered as nearly out of his power. The most +determined exertions of that authority against them only showed their +radical independence. They composed permanent bodies politic, +constituted to resist arbitrary innovation; and from that corporate +constitution, and from most of their forms, they were well calculated to +afford both certainty and stability to the laws. They had been a safe +asylum to secure these laws, in all the revolutions of humour and +opinion. They had saved that sacred deposit of the country during the +reigns of arbitrary princes, and the struggles of arbitrary factions. +They kept alive the memory and record of the constitution. They were the +great security to private property; which might be said (when personal +liberty had no existence) to be, in fact, as well guarded in France as +in any other country. Whatever is supreme in a state, ought to have, as +much as possible, its judicial authority so constituted as not only not +to depend upon it, but in some sort to balance it. It ought to give a +security to its justice against its power. It ought to make its +judicature, as it were, something exterior to the state. These +parliaments had furnished, not the best certainly, but some considerable +corrective to the excesses and vices of the monarchy. Such an +independent judicature was ten times more necessary when a democracy +became the absolute power of the country. In that constitution, +elective, temporary, local judges, such as you have contrived, +exercising their dependent functions in a narrow society, must be the +worst of all tribunals. In them it will be vain to look for any +appearance of justice towards strangers, towards the obnoxious rich, +towards the minority of routed parties, towards all those who in the +election have supported unsuccessful candidates. It will be impossible +to keep the new tribunals clear of the worst spirit of faction. All +contrivances by ballot we know experimentally to be vain and childish to +prevent a discovery of inclinations. Where they may the best answer the +purposes of concealment, they answer to produce suspicion; and this is a +still more mischievous cause of partiality. + +If the parliaments had been preserved, instead of being dissolved at so +ruinous a change to the nation, they might have served in this new +commonwealth, perhaps not precisely the same (I do not mean an exact +parallel), but nearly the same, purposes as the court and senate of +Areopagus did in Athens; that is, as one of the balances and correctives +to the evils of a light and unjust democracy. Every one knows that this +tribunal was the great stay of that state; every one knows with what a +care it was upheld, and with what a religious awe it was consecrated. +The parliaments were not wholly free from faction, I admit; but this +evil was exterior and accidental, and not so much the vice of their +constitution itself, as it must be in your new contrivance of sexennial +elective judicatories. Several English commend the abolition of the old +tribunals, as supposing that they determined everything by bribery and +corruption. But they have stood the test of monarchic and republican +scrutiny. The court was well disposed to prove corruption on those +bodies when they were dissolved in 1771.--Those who have again dissolved +them would have done the same if they could--but both inquisitions +having failed, I conclude, that gross pecuniary corruption must have +been rather rare amongst them. + +It would have been prudent, along with the parliaments, to preserve +their ancient power of registering, and of remonstrating at least, upon +all the decrees of the National Assembly, as they did upon those which +passed in the time of the monarchy. It would be a means of squaring the +occasional decrees of a democracy to some principles of general +jurisprudence. The vice of the ancient democracies, and one cause of +their ruin, was, that they ruled, as you do, by occasional +decrees,--psephismata. This practice soon broke in upon the tenor and +consistency of the laws; it abated the respect of the people towards +them; and totally destroyed them in the end. + +Your vesting the power of remonstrance, which, in the time of the +monarchy, existed in the parliament of Paris, in your principal +executive officer, whom, in spite of common sense, you persevere in +calling king, is the height of absurdity. You ought never to suffer +remonstrance from him who is to execute. This is to understand neither +counsel nor execution; neither authority nor obedience. The person whom +you call king, ought not to have this power, or he ought to have more. + + +CROMWELL AND HIS CONTRASTS. + +Cromwell, when he attempted to legalize his power, and to settle his +conquered country in a state of order, did not look for dispensers of +justice in the instruments of his usurpation. Quite the contrary. He +sought out, with great solicitude and selection, and even from the party +most opposite to his designs, men of weight and decorum of character; +men unstained with the violence of the times, and with hands not fouled +with confiscation and sacrilege: for he chose an HALE for his chief +justice, though he absolutely refused to take his civic oaths, or to +make any acknowledgment whatsoever of the legality of his government. +Cromwell told this great lawyer, that since he did not approve his +title, all he required of him was, to administer, in a manner agreeable +to his pure sentiments and unspotted character, that justice without +which human society cannot subsist: that it was not his particular +government, but civil order itself, which, as a judge, he wished him to +support. Cromwell knew how to separate the institutions expedient to his +usurpation from the administration of the public justice of his country. +For Cromwell was a man in whom ambition had not wholly suppressed, but +only suspended, the sentiments of religion, and the love (as far as it +could consist with his designs) of fair and honourable reputation. +Accordingly, we are indebted to this act of his for the preservation of +our laws, which some senseless assertors of the rights of men were then +on the point of entirely erasing, as relics of feudality and barbarism. +Besides, he gave in the appointment of that man, to that age, and to all +posterity, the most brilliant example of sincere and fervent piety, +exact justice, and profound jurisprudence. (See Burnet's Life of Hale.) +But these are not the things in which your philosophic usurpers choose +to follow Cromwell. + +One would think, that after an honest and necessary revolution (if they +had a mind that theirs should pass for such) your masters would have +imitated the virtuous policy of those who have been at the head of +revolutions of that glorious character. Burnet tells us, that nothing +tended to reconcile the English nation to the government of King William +so much as the care he took to fill the vacant bishoprics with men who +had attracted the public esteem by their learning, eloquence, and piety, +and, above all, by their known moderation in the state. With you, in +your purifying revolution, whom have you chosen to regulate the church? +Mr. Mirabeau is a fine speaker--and a fine writer,--and a fine--a very +fine man;--but really nothing gave more surprise to everybody here, than +to find him the supreme head of your ecclesiastical affairs. The rest is +of course. Your Assembly addresses a manifesto to France, in which they +tell the people, with an insulting irony, that they have brought the +church to its primitive condition. In one respect their declaration is +undoubtedly true; for they have brought it to a state of poverty and +persecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men (if they +deserve the name), under this new hope and head of the church, been made +bishops for no other merit than having acted as instruments of atheists; +for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs; and +in order to gorge the whole gang of usurers, pedlars, and itinerant +Jew-discounters at the corners of streets, starved the poor of their +Christian flocks, and their own brother pastors? Have not such men been +made bishops to administer in temples, in which (if the patriotic +donations have not already stripped them of their vessels) the +churchwardens ought to take security for the altar-plate, and not so +much as to trust the chalice in their sacrilegious hands, so long as +Jews have assignats on ecclesiastic plunder, to exchange for the silver +stolen from churches? + + +DELICACY. + +An air of robustness and strength is very prejudicial to beauty. An +appearance of DELICACY, and even of fragility, is almost essential to +it. Whoever examines the vegetable or animal creation will find this +observation to be founded in nature. It is not the oak, the ash, or +the elm, or any of the robust trees of the forest, which we consider +as beautiful; they are awful and majestic; their inspire a sort of +reverence. It is the delicate myrtle, it is the orange, it is the +almond, it is the jasmine, it is the vine, which we look on as +vegetable beauties. It is the flowery species, so remarkable for its +weakness and momentary duration, that gives us the liveliest idea of +beauty and elegance. Among animals, the greyhound is more beautiful +than the mastiff; and the delicacy of a gennet, a barb, or an Arabian +horse, is much more amiable than the strength and stability of some +horses of war or carriage. I need here say little of the fair sex, +where I believe the point will be easily allowed me. The beauty of +women is considerably owing to their weakness or delicacy, and is +even enhanced by their timidity, a quality of mind analogous to it. I +would not here be understood to say, that weakness betraying very bad +health has any share in beauty; but the ill effect of this is not +because it is weakness, but because the ill state of health, which +produces such weakness, alters the other conditions of beauty; the +parts in such a case collapse; the bright colour,--the lumen +purpureum juventae, is gone; and the fine variation is lost in +wrinkles, sudden breaks, and right lines. + + +CONFISCATION AND CURRENCY. + +As to the operation of the first (the confiscation and paper currency) +merely as a cement, I cannot deny that these, the one depending on the +other, may for some time compose some sort of cement, if their madness +and folly in the management, and in the tempering of the parts together, +does not produce a repulsion in the very outset. But allowing to the +scheme some coherence and some duration, it appears to me, that if, +after a while, the confiscation should not be found sufficient to +support the paper coinage (as I am morally certain it will not), then, +instead of cementing, it will add infinitely to the dissociation, +distraction, and confusion of these confederate republics, both with +relation to each other, and to the several parts within themselves. But +if the confiscation should so far succeed as to sink the paper currency, +the cement is gone with the circulation. In the mean time its binding +force will be very uncertain, and it will straiten or relax with every +variation in the credit of the paper. + +One thing only is certain in this scheme, which is an effect seemingly +collateral, but direct, I have no doubt, in the minds of those who +conduct this business, that is, its effect in producing an OLIGARCHY in +every one of the republics. A paper circulation, not founded on any real +money deposited or engaged for, amounting already to four-and-forty +millions of English money, and this currency by force substituted in the +place of the coin of the kingdom, becoming thereby the substance of its +revenue, as well as the medium of all its commercial and civil +intercourse, must put the whole of what power, authority, and influence, +is left, in any form whatsoever it may assume, into the hands of the +managers and conductors of this circulation. + +In England we feel the influence of the bank; though it is only the +centre of a voluntary dealing. He knows little indeed of the influence +of money upon mankind, who does not see the force of the management of a +monied concern, which is so much more extensive, and in its nature so +much more depending on the managers than any of ours. But this is not +merely a money concern. There is another member in the system +inseparably connected with this money management. It consists in the +means of drawing out at discretion portions of the confiscated lands for +sale; and carrying on a process of continual transmutation of paper into +land, and of land into paper. When we follow this process in its +effects, we may conceive something of the intensity of the force with +which this system must operate. By this means the spirit of +money-jobbing and speculation goes into the mass of land itself, and +incorporates with it. By this kind of operation, that species of +property becomes (as it were) volatilized; it assumes an unnatural and +monstrous activity, and thereby throws into the hands of the several +managers, principal and subordinate, Parisian and provincial, all the +representative of money, and perhaps a full tenth part of all the land +in France, which has now acquired the worst and most pernicious part of +the evil of a paper circulation,--the greatest possible uncertainty in +its value. They have reversed the Latonian kindness to the landed +property of Delos. They have sent theirs to be blown about, like the +light fragments of a wreck, oras et littora circum. + +The new dealers, being all habitually adventurers, and without any fixed +habits or local predilections, will purchase to job out again, as the +market of paper, or of money, or of land, shall present an advantage. +For though a holy bishop thinks that agriculture will derive great +advantage from the "ENLIGHTENED" usurers who are to purchase the church +confiscations, I, who am not a good, but an old farmer, with great +humility beg leave to tell his late lordship, that usury is not tutor of +agriculture; and if the word "enlightened" be understood according to +the new dictionary, as it always is in your new schools, I cannot +conceive how a man's not believing in God can teach him to cultivate the +earth with the least of any additional skill or encouragement. "Diis +immortalibus sero," said an old Roman, when he held one handle of the +plough, whilst Death held the other. Though you were to join in the +commission all the directors of the two academies to the directors of +the Caisse d'Escompte, an old experienced peasant is worth them all. I +have got more information upon a curious and interesting branch of +husbandry, in one short conversation with an old Carthusian monk, than I +have derived from all the Bank directors that I have ever conversed +with. However, there is no cause for apprehension from the meddling of +money-dealers with rural economy. These gentlemen are too wise in their +generation. At first, perhaps, their tender and susceptible imaginations +may be captivated with the innocent and unprofitable delights of a +pastoral life; but in a little time they will find that agriculture is a +trade much more laborious, and much less lucrative, than that which they +had left. After making its panegyric, they will turn their backs on it +like their great precursor and prototype. They may, like him, begin by +singing "Beatus ille"--but what will be the end? + + "Haec ubi locutus foenerator Alphius, + Jamjam futurus rusticus + Omnem relegit Idibus pecuniam; + Quaerit Calendis ponere." + +They will cultivate the Caisse d'Eglise, under the sacred auspices of +this prelate, with much more profit than its vineyards and its +corn-fields. They will employ their talents according to their habits +and their interests. They will not follow the plough whilst they can +direct treasuries, and govern provinces. + +Your legislators, in everything new, are the very first who have founded +a commonwealth upon gaming, and infused this spirit into it, as its +vital breath. The great object in these politics is to metamorphose +France from a great kingdom into one great play-table: to turn its +inhabitants into a nation of gamesters; to make speculation as extensive +as life; to mix it with all its concerns; and to divert the whole of the +hopes and fears of the people from their usual channels into the +impulses, passions, and superstitions of those who live on chances. They +loudly proclaim their opinion, that this their present system of a +republic cannot possibly exist without this kind of gaming fund; and +that the very thread of its life is spun out of the staple of these +speculations. The old gaming in funds was mischievous enough +undoubtedly; but it was so only to individuals. Even when it had its +greatest extent in the Mississippi and South Sea, it affected but few, +comparatively; where it extends further, as in lotteries, the spirit has +but a single object. But where the law, which in most circumstances +forbids, and in none countenances, gaming, is itself debauched, so as to +reverse its nature and policy, and expressly to force the subject to +this destructive table, by bringing the spirit and symbols of gaming +into the minutest matters, and engaging everybody in it, and in +everything, a more dreadful epidemic distemper of that kind is spread +than yet has appeared in the world. With you a man can neither earn nor +buy his dinner without a speculation. What he receives in the morning +will not have the same value at night. What he is compelled to take as +pay for an old debt will not be received as the same when he comes to +pay a debt contracted by himself; nor will it be the same when by prompt +payment he would avoid contracting any debt at all. Industry must wither +away. Economy must be driven from your country. Careful provision will +have no existence. Who will labour without knowing the amount of his +pay? Who will study to increase what none can estimate? Who will +accumulate, when he does not know the value of what he saves? If you +abstract it from its uses in gaming, to accumulate your paper wealth, +would be not the providence of a man, but the distempered instinct of a +jackdaw. + + +"OMNIPOTENCE OF CHURCH PLUNDER." + +Their fanatical confidence in the omnipotence of church plunder has +induced these philosophers to overlook all care of the public estate, +just as the dream of the philosopher's stone induces dupes, under the +more plausible delusion of the hermetic art, to neglect all rational +means of improving their fortunes. With these philosophic financiers, +this universal medicine made of church mummy is to cure all the evils of +the state. These gentlemen, perhaps, do not believe a great deal in the +miracles of piety; but it cannot be questioned, that they have an +undoubting faith in the prodigies of sacrilege. Is there a debt which +presses them?--Issue assignats. Are compensations to be made, or a +maintenance decreed to those whom they have robbed of their freehold in +their office, or expelled from their profession?--Assignats. Is a fleet +to be fitted out?--Assignats. If sixteen millions sterling of these +assignats, forced on the people, leave the wants of the state as urgent +as ever--issue, says one, thirty millions sterling of assignats--says +another, issue fourscore millions more of assignats. The only difference +among their financial factions is on the greater or the lesser quantity +of assignats to be imposed on the public sufferance. They are all +professors of assignats. Even those, whose natural good sense and +knowledge of commerce, not obliterated by philosophy, furnish decisive +arguments against this delusion conclude their arguments by proposing +the emission of assignats. I suppose they must talk of assignats, as no +other language would be understood. All experience of their inefficacy +does not in the least discourage them. Are the old assignats depreciated +at market? What is the remedy? Issue new assignats.--Mais si maladia +opiniatria, non vult se garire, quid illi facere? assignare--postea +assignare; ensuita assignare. The word is a trifle altered. The Latin of +your present doctors may be better than that of your old comedy; their +wisdom and the variety of their resources are the same. They have not +more notes in their song than the cuckoo; though, far from the softness +of that harbinger of summer and plenty, their voice is as harsh and as +ominous as that of the raven. + + +UGLINESS. + +It may, perhaps, appear like a sort of repetition of what we have before +said, to insist here upon the nature of UGLINESS; as I imagine it to be +in all respects the opposite to those qualities which we have laid down +for the constituents of beauty. But though ugliness be the opposite to +beauty, it is not the opposite to proportion and fitness. For it is +possible that a thing may be very ugly with any proportions, and with a +perfect fitness to any uses. Ugliness I imagine likewise to be +consistent enough with an idea of the sublime. But I would by no means +insinuate that ugliness of itself is a sublime idea, unless united with +such qualities as excite a strong terror. + + +GRACE. + +GRACEFULNESS is an idea not very different from beauty; it consists in +much the same things. Gracefulness is an idea belonging to POSTURE and +MOTION. In both these, to be graceful, it is requisite that there be no +appearance of difficulty; there is required a small inflection of the +body; and a composure of the parts in such a manner, as not to encumber +each other, not to appear divided by sharp and sudden angles. In this +ease, this roundness, this delicacy of attitude and motion, it is that +all the magic of grace consists, and what is called its je ne sais quoi; +as will be obvious to any observer, who considers attentively the Venus +de Medicis, the Antinous, or any statue generally allowed to be graceful +in a high degree. + + +ELEGANCE AND SPECIOUSNESS. + +When any body is composed of parts smooth and polished, without pressing +upon each other, without showing any ruggedness or confusion, and at the +same time affecting some REGULAR SHAPE, I call it ELEGANT. It is closely +allied to the beautiful, differing from it only in this REGULARITY; +which, however, as it makes a very material difference in the affection +produced, may very well constitute another species. Under this head I +rank those delicate and regular works of art, that imitate no +determinate object in nature, as elegant buildings, and pieces of +furniture. When any object partakes of the above-mentioned qualities, +are of those of beautiful bodies, and is withal of great dimensions, it +is full as remote from the idea of mere beauty: I call it FINE or +SPECIOUS. + + +THE BEAUTIFUL IN FEELING. + +The foregoing description of beauty, so far as it is taken in by the +eye, may be greatly illustrated by describing the nature of objects +which produce a similar effect through the touch. This I call the +beautiful in FEELING. It corresponds wonderfully with what causes the +same species of pleasure to the sight. There is a chain in all our +sensations; they are all but different sorts of feelings calculated to +be affected by various sorts of objects, but all to be affected after +the same manner. All bodies that are pleasant to the touch, are so by +the slightness of the resistance they make. Resistance is either to +motion along the surface, or to the pressure of the parts on one +another: if the former be slight, we call the body smooth; if the +latter, soft. The chief pleasure we receive by feeling, is in the one or +the other of these qualities; and if there be a combination of both, our +pleasure is greatly increased. This is so plain, that it is rather more +fit to illustrate other things, than to be illustrated itself by an +example. The next source of pleasure in this sense, as in every other, +is the continually presenting somewhat new; and we find that bodies +which continually vary their surface, are much the most pleasant or +beautiful to the feeling, as any one that pleases may experience. The +third property in such objects is, that though the surface continually +varies its direction, it never varies it suddenly. The application of +anything sudden, even though the impression itself have little or +nothing of violence, is disagreeable. The quick application of a finger +a little warmer or colder than usual, without notice, makes us start; a +slight tap on the shoulder, not expected, has the same effect. Hence it +is that angular bodies, bodies that suddenly vary the direction of the +outline, afford so little pleasure to the feeling. Every such change is +a sort of climbing or falling in miniature; so that squares, triangles, +and other angular figures, are neither beautiful to the sight nor +feeling. Whoever compares his state of mind, on feeling soft, smooth, +variated, unangular bodies, with that in which he finds himself on the +view of a beautiful object, will perceive a very striking analogy in the +effects of both; and which may go a good way towards discovering their +common cause. Feeling and sight, in this respect, differ in but a few +points. The touch takes in the pleasure of softness, which is not +primarily an object of sight; the sight, on the other hand, comprehends +colour, which can hardly be made perceptible to the touch: the touch +again has the advantage in a new idea of pleasure resulting from a +moderate degree of warmth; but the eye triumphs in the infinite extent +and multiplicity of its objects. But there is such a similitude in the +pleasures of these senses, that I am apt to fancy, if it were possible +that one might discern colour by feeling (as it is said some blind men +have done), that the same colours, and the same disposition of +colouring, which are found beautiful to the sight, would be found +likewise most grateful to the touch. But, setting aside conjectures, let +us pass to the other sense: of Hearing. + + +THE BEAUTIFUL IN SOUNDS. + +In this sense we find an equal aptitude to be affected in a soft and +delicate manner; and how far sweet or beautiful sounds agree with our +descriptions of beauty in other senses, the experience of every one must +decide. Milton has described this species of music in one of his +juvenile poems. (L'Allegro.) I need not say that Milton was perfectly +well versed in that art; and that no man had a finer ear, with a happier +manner of expressing the affections of one sense by metaphors taken from +another. The description is as follows:-- + + --"And ever against eating cares, + Lap me in SOFT Lydian airs: + In notes with many a WINDING bout + Of LINKED SWEETNESS LONG DRAWN out; + With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, + The MELTING voice through MAZES running; + UNTWISTING all the chains that tie + The hidden soul of harmony." + +Let us parallel this with the softness, the winding surface, the +unbroken continuance, the easy gradation of the beautiful in other +things; and all the diversities of the several senses, with all their +several affections; will rather help to throw lights from one another to +finish one clear, consistent idea of the whole, than to obscure it by +their intricacy and variety. + +To the above-mentioned description I shall add one or two remarks. The +first is; that the beautiful in music will not bear that loudness and +strength of sounds, which may be used to raise other passions; nor notes +which are shrill or harsh, or deep; it agrees best with such as are +clear, even, smooth, and weak. The second is: that great variety, and +quick transitions from one measure or tone to another, are contrary to +the genius of the beautiful in music. Such transitions often excite +mirth, or other sudden or tumultuous passions; but not that sinking, +that melting, that languor, which is the characteristical effect of the +beautiful as it regards every sense. (I ne'er am merry when I hear sweet +music.--Shakspeare.) The passion excited by beauty is in fact nearer to +a species of melancholy, than to jollity and mirth. I do not here mean +to confine music to any one species of notes, or tones, neither is it an +art in which I can say I have any great skill. My sole design in this +remark is, to settle a consistent idea of beauty. The infinite variety +of the affections of the soul will suggest to a good head, and skilful +ear, a variety of such sounds as are fitted to raise them. It can be no +prejudice to this, to clear and distinguish some few particulars, that +belong to the same class, and are consistent with each other, from the +immense crowd of different, and sometimes contradictory, ideas, that +rank vulgarly under the standard of beauty. And of these it is my +intention to mark such only of the leading points as show the conformity +of the sense of hearing with the other senses, in the article of their +pleasures. + + +BRITISH CHURCH. + +It is something extraordinary, that the only symptom of alarm in the +Church of England should appear in the petition of some dissenters; with +whom, I believe, very few in this house are yet acquainted; and of whom +you know no more than that you are assured by the honourable gentleman, +that they are not Mahometans. Of the Church we know they are not, by the +name that they assume. They are then dissenters. The first symptom of an +alarm comes from some dissenters assembled round the lines of Chatham; +these lines become the security of the Church of England! The honourable +gentleman, in speaking of the lines of Chatham, tells us that they serve +not only for the security of the wooden walls of England, but for the +defence of the Church of England. I suspect the wooden walls of England +secure the lines of Chatham, rather than the lines of Chatham secure the +wooden walls of England. + +Sir, the Church of England, if only defended by this miserable petition +upon your table, must, I am afraid, upon the principles of true +fortification, be soon destroyed. But fortunately her walls, bulwarks, +and bastions, are constructed of other materials than of stubble and +straw; are built up with the strong and stable matter of the gospel of +liberty, and founded on a true, constitutional, legal establishment. +But, Sir, she has other securities; she has the security of her own +doctrines; she has the security of the piety, the sanctity of her own +professors; their learning is a bulwark to defend her; she has the +security of the two universities, not shook in any single battlement, in +any single pinnacle. ... + +But if, after all, this danger is to be apprehended, if you are really +fearful that Christianity will indirectly suffer by this liberty, you +have my free consent; go directly, and by the straight way, and not by a +circuit, in which in your road you may destroy your friends, point your +arms against these men who do the mischief you fear promoting; point +your arms against men, who, not contented with endeavouring to turn your +eyes from the blaze and effulgence of light, by which life and +immortality is so gloriously demonstrated by the Gospel, would even +extinguish that faint glimmering of nature, that only comfort supplied +to ignorant man before this great illumination--them who, by attacking +even the possibility of all revelation, arraign all the dispensations of +Providence to man. These are the wicked dissenters you ought to fear; +these are the people against whom you ought to aim the shafts of law; +these are the men to whom, arrayed in all the terrors of government, I +would say, You shall not degrade us into brutes; these men, these +factious men, as the honourable gentleman properly called them, are the +just objects of vengeance, not the conscientious dissenter; these men, +who would take away whatever ennobles the rank or consoles the +misfortunes of human nature, by breaking off that connection of +observations, of affections, of hopes and fears, which bind us to the +Divinity, and constitute the glorious and distinguishing prerogative of +humanity, that of being a religious creature; against these I would have +the laws rise in all their majesty of terrors, to fulminate such vain +and impious wretches, and to awe them into impotence by the only dread +they can fear or believe, to learn that eternal lesson--Discite +justitiam moniti, et non temnere Divos. + +At the same time that I would cut up the very root of atheism, I would +respect all conscience; all conscience, that is really such, and which +perhaps its very tenderness proves to be sincere. I wish to see the +established Church of England great and powerful; I wish to see her +foundations laid low and deep, that she may crush the giant powers of +rebellious darkness; I would have her head raised up to that heaven to +which she conducts us. I would have her open wide her hospitable gates +by a noble and liberal comprehension; but I would have no breaches in +her wall; I would have her cherish all those who are within, and pity +all those who are without; I would have her a common blessing to the +world, an example, if not an instructor, to those who have not the +happiness to belong to her; I would have her give a lesson of peace to +mankind, that a vexed and wandering generation might be taught to seek +for repose and toleration in the maternal bosom of Christian charity, +and not in the harlot lap of infidelity and indifference. + + +INDEX. + +Abstract views, on the danger of. + +Abstract words, effects of. + +Accumulation a state principle. + +Administration and legislation, on the due balance of. + +Age, our own, on the injustice paid to. + +Alfred the Great, political genius of. +--the promoter of learning. +--his religious character. + +Ambassadors of infamy, their tyranny. + +Ambition, incentives of. +--disappointed, picture of. + +America, great national progress of. +--on her resistance to taxation. +--on her early colonization, and the greatness of her future. + +--on the Protestantism of. +--on the embassy of England to. + +Analogy, on the pleasures of. + +Anarchy contrasted and compared with reformation. + +Architecture, influence of. + +Armed discipline, necessity of. + +Art, on correct judgment in. + +"Articles" of the Church, necessity of the. + +Atheism, atrocious principles of. +--incapable of repentance. + +Atheists, literary, their proselytism and bigotry. + +Attraction, Newton's discovery of the property of. + +Authority, abuses of, dangerous. + +Axioms, political. + +Barons, English, on the restraints imposed upon the. + +Bathurst, Lord, on his recollections of American colonization. + +Beautiful, what constitutes the. +--in feeling, Burke's ideas of. +--in sounds, on our general ideas of. + +Beauty, delicacy essential to. +--female, on the influence of. + +Bedford, duke of, on the royal grants to. +--on his attacks on Mr. Burke. +--reply to "his Grace." + +Bribery, objects and evils of. + +Britain, her war with France vindicated. +--state of, at the time of the Saxon conquest. +--the ancient inhabitants of. + +British dominion in the East Indies, on the extent of. + +British stability, on the principles and duration of. + +Building, on magnitude in, necessary to sublimity. + +Burke, Edmund, his defence of his political principles. +--the design of, in his greatest work. + +Cabal, on the tactics of. + +Candid policy, on the advantages of, to a government. + +Carnatic, dreadful scenes in the. +--war and desolation of the. + +Carnot, the sanguinary tyranny of. + +Character, private, a basis for public confidence. + +Charlemagne, on the conquests of. + +Chatham, Lord, his great qualities. +--his political errors. + +Chivalry, on the moralizing charm of. + +Christian religion, the idea of divinity humanized by the. + +--state of, at the time of the Saxon conquest. + +Christianity, on the profession of. +--means adopted for its early establishment. + +Church of England, its outward dignity defended. +--the state consecrated by the. +--on the "Articles" of the. +--eulogy on the. + +Church and State, on the unity between. +--one and the same in a Christian commonwealth. + +"Church plunder, omnipotence of!" + +Church property, on the existence and preservation of. + +Circumstances, on the nature of. + +Civil freedom a blessing, and not an abstract speculation. + +Civil list, advantages of reform in the. + +Civil rights, on the nature of. + +Civil society, on the true basis of. + +Claims, personal and ancestral. + +Coalitions, false, instability of. + +Colonies, on the art of cementing the ties of. +--on their right to the advantages of the British constitution. +--on their progress. + +Combination, distinct from faction. + +Commerce, one of the great sources of our power. +--on the philosophy of. + +Common law, on its ancient constitution. + +Common Pleas, on the early establishment of. + +Commons. See "House of." + +Commonwealth, on the science of constructing a. + +Comparison, utility and advantages of. + +Concession, on the wisdom of, on the part of a government. + +Confidence of the people, necessity of the. +--political, dangers of. +--public, private character a basis for. +--reciprocal, on the necessity of. + +Confiscation, arising from the paper currency. + +Conservation, progress and principles of. + +Constituents, on the power and control of. + +Constitution of England, liberty its distinguishing feature. +--on the right of the colonies to its advantages. +--not fabricated but inherited. +--majesty of the. +--not the slave of the people. + +Consumption and produce, the balance between settles the price of. + +Contact, on the assimilating power of. + +Contracted views, on the pettiness of. + +Conway, General, eulogy on. + +Corporate reform, on the difficulty and wisdom of. + +Correction, on the principle of, in connection with conservation. + +Corruption, public, evil consequences of. +--cannot be self-reformed. + +Cowardice, political, contemptibility of. + +Credit, national, on the advantages of. + +Cromwell, the government of, contrasted with that of the French revolution. + +Crown, its influence. +--on pensions from the. +--its prerogative. +--on the hereditary succession of the. + +Cruelty, political, reckless oppression of. + +Curiosity, the most superficial of all the affections. + +Danes, their early dominion. + +"Declaration of 1793," against France. + +Deity, contemplation of his attributes. + +Delicacy essential to beauty. + +Democracy, a perfect one the most shameless thing in the world. +--its resemblance to tyranny. + +Democrats, inconsistency of. + +Despotism courts obscurity, and shuns the light. +--on the defective policy of. +--of the age of Louis XIV., a mere gilded tyranny. +--monarchical, preferable to republican. + +D'Espremenil, sacrifice of. + +Difficulty, on contentions with. + +Directory of France, its insolent assumption. + +Dissent, on Dr. Price's preaching the democracy of. + +Dissenters, animadversions on the. + +Distraction, on the evils of. + +Divine power, its influences on the human idea. + +Divinity, our idea of the, humanized by the Christian religion. + +Druids, their knowledge and influence. + +Duty, not based on will. + +East-India Company, on the bill for controlling the political power of. +--See "India." + +Ecclesiastical confiscation, on the injustice of. + +Economy, on the state principles of. +--does not consist of parsimony. +--and public spirit, advantage of. + +Election, on Wilkes's right of. + + +Elections, frequent, on the evil tendency of. +--expenses of. + +Electors, on the conduct and duties of. + +Elegance, Burke's ideas of. + +Elizabeth, Princess, of France, sanguinary treatment of. + +England, on the magnanimity of her people. + +English character, on French ignorance of. + +Establishments, ancient, on the advantages of. + +Eternity little understood. + +Etiquette, on its ancient and modern application. + +Europe, on the state of, in 1789. +--at the time of the Norman invasion. + +European community, on the principles of. + +Exaggeration, evils of. + +Extremes, on the fallacy of. + +Eye, the, its characteristics of beauty. + +Faction, combination distinct from. +--what it ought to teach. + +Falkland Island, fisheries extended to. + +False regret, to be lamented. + +Favouritism of government the cause of popular ferment. + +Female beauty, on the influence of. + +Feudal baronage, the root of our primitive constitution. +--principles, their history and application to modern times. +--changes effected in. +--law, principles of the. + +Fisheries of New England; on the hardy spirit with which they are conducted. + +Flattery, the reverse of instruction. + +Fox, Right Hon. Charles, eulogy on. +--Burke's confidence in. + +France, on the dangers arising from. +--her revolution of 1789. +--frightful scenes of the. +--founded on regicide, Jacobinism, and atheism. +--war with, vindicated. +--reflections on her revolution. +--the existing state of things in, productive of the worst evils. +--on the political and intellectual greatness of. +--the great political changes of. +--revolution of, a complete one. +--early conquests and dominion of. +--declaration of England against, in 1793. +--false policy in our war with. +--historical strictures on. +--atrocities perpetrated in. + +Freedom, a blessing and not an abstract speculation. +--character of just freedom. +--on the conservative progress of. + +French, natural self-destruction of the. + +Gaul, the ancient inhabitants of. + +Gentleman, our civilization dependent on the spirit of a. + +Glory, difficulty the path to. + +God, contemplations of His attributes; +--on the adorable wisdom of. + +Government, on the evils of weakness in. +--on the influence of place in. +--on the advantages of candid policy in. +--virtue and wisdom qualify for. +--not made in virtue of natural rights. +--not to be rashly censured. +--on the duties of. +--principles of, not absolute but relative. +--general views of the foundations of. +--and legislation, matters of reason and judgment. +--favouritism, the cause of popular ferment. + +Gracefulness, on our ideas of. + +Grant, on Burke's acceptance of a. + +Great men, the guide-posts and landmarks of the State. + +Green Cloth, origin of the ancient Court of. + +Grenville, Right Hon. Mr., his great political qualities and character. + +Grievance and opinion, on the different qualities of. + +Grievances by law, on the different views of. + +Henry IV. of France, sovereign qualities of. + +Heroism, moral, on the virtues of. + +"His Grace," Burke's reply to. + +History, on the moral of. +--on the use of defects in. +--on the perversion of. +--speculations on. +--strictures on, as connected with France. + +House of Commons, its nature and functions. +--on the control of the constituency over. +--Mr. Burke's preparation for the. +--its constitution. +--privilege of the. +--contrasted with the National Assembly of France. + +Howard, the philanthropist, his genius and humanity. + +Human ideas, on the influence of divine power on. + +Human nature, on the libellers of. + +Humiliation, on the diplomacy of. + +Hyder Ali, on his formidable military operations in the Carnatic. + +Ideal, definition of the. + +Imagination, unity of. + +Imitation an instructive law. + +Impartiality, appeal to. + +Imperial power, its establishment in Western Europe. + +Impracticable, the, not to be desired. + +India, East, on the territorial extent of British dominion in. +--on its opulence and importance. +--necessity of reforming the government of. +--Hyder Ali's formidable military resistance. +--on the British government in. + +Individual good and public benefit, a comparison of. + +Induction, on the process of. + +Infidels, on the policy of. + +Infinity, little understood. + +Injustice, economy of. + +Innovation, on the madness of. + +Investigation, the best method of teaching. + +Ireland, on the legislation of. + +Ireland and Magna Charta, historical notices of. + +Jacobin peace, on the perils of. + +Jacobin war, on the true nature of a. + +Jacobinism, atrocious principles of. +--ferocity of. + +Jealousy, political, different under different circumstances. + +John, King, on his difficulties with the pope. + +Jurisprudence, on the science of. + +Justice, early reform in the administration of. + +Keppel, Lord, one of the greatest and best men of his age. +--his exalted virtues. + +Kings, the power of, not based on popular choice. + +Labour, on the necessity of. +--on the importance of. +--rises or falls according to the demand. + +Labouring classes poor, because they are numerous. +--on the moral happiness of the. + +"Labouring poor," on the puling jargon respecting the. +--on the canting phraseology of. +--on the melioration of their condition. + +Language, on the moral effects of. + +Laws, when bad, are productive of base subserviency. + +Legislation, on the due balance of, with the administration. +--on the problem of. + +Legislation and government, matters of reason and judgment. + +Legislative capacity, on the limits of. + +Legislators of the ancient republics. + +Legislature of France, regicidal character of the. + +Levellers, moral, the representatives of a servile principle. + +Libellers of human nature, falsity of the term. + +Liberty, its preservation the duty of a member of the House of Commons. +--in what it consists; +--character of just liberty. +--on the abstract theory of. +--on fictitious liberty. + +"Lights," modern, on the petulance and ignorance of. + +Loans, public, on the policy of. + +Louis XVI., on his cruel treatment. +--historical estimate of. +--his mistaken views of society. +--on the fate of. + +Love, a mixed passion. + +Love and dread, their union in religion. + +Low aims and low instruments, the baseness of. + +Magistracy, religious duties of the. + +Magna Charta, Ireland a partaker of. +--the oldest reformation of England. +--on the early constitutions of. + +Magnanimity, on its superiority. + +Malesherbes, atrocious treatment of. + +Man, Nature anticipates the desires of. + +Mankind, ancient state of. + +Manners and morals, correspondent systems of. +--more important than laws. + +Maria Antoinette, her beauty and misfortunes. +--sanguinary treatment of. + +Maria Theresa, her high-minded principles. + +Marriage, feudal restraints on. + +Maxims, false, evils of, when assumed as first principles. + +Measures of government, on judging of the. + +Member of Parliament, difficulties of becoming a good one. + +Metaphysical depravity, on the dangers of. + +Migrations of ancient history. + +Minister of state, what he ought to attempt. + +Ministers, on the responsibility of. + +Missionaries, their early zeal in propagating Christianity. + +Monarch of England, on the sovereign power of the. + +Monastic institutions, on the results of. + +Money and science. + +Monks, their early zeal in the cause of Christianity. + +Montesquieu, on the genius of. + +Moral debasement, a progressive principle. + +Moral diet, on the use of. + +Moral distinctions defined. + +Moral effects resulting from language. + +Moral essence constitutes a nation. + +Moral heroism, on the virtues of. + +Moral instincts, on the sacredness of. + +Moral levelling, a servile principle. + +Nation, moral essence constitutes a. + +National Assembly of France, the House of Commons contrasted with. + +National Assembly, on its philosophic vanity. + +National dignity, importance of, in all treaties. + +Nature, Sir I. Newton's discoveries of the phenomena of. +--anticipates the desires of man. + +Necessity, a relative term. + +Neighbourhood, on the law of. + +Neutrality, on the uncertainty and contemptibility of. + +New England, fisheries of, on the hardy spirit of the. + +Newton, Sir Isaac, his discoveries of the phenomena of nature. + +Nobility a graceful ornament to the civil order. + +Norman invasion, state of Europe and of England at the time of the. + +"Not so bad as we seem," justificatory remarks on. + +Novelty, its effects on the mind. + +Obscure, powerful influence of the. + +Obscurity, courted by despotism and all false religions. + +Office, on the emoluments of. + +Officers, English, on the admirable qualifications of. + +Opinion, on acting from, against the government. + +Opinions, power survives the shock of. + +Oppression, on the voice of. + +Order, the foundation of all things. + +Outcasts, political, on the usual treatment of. + +Painting, influence of. + +Paper currency, confiscation arising from. + +Parental experience, reflections on. + +Paris, on the boasted superiority of. + +Parliament, difficulties of becoming a good member of. +--Mr. Burke's preparation for. +--a deliberative assembly. +--on its identity with the people. +--on the privilege of. +--property more than ability represented in. + +--on the "omnipotence" of. + +Parliamentary prerogative, on the principles of. + +Parliamentary retrospect. + +Parliaments, on the proper period of their duration. +--on the abolition and use of. + +Parsimony is not economy. + +Party, on decorum in. +--character and objects of. +--political connections of. + +Party divisions, inseparable from a free government. + +Party man, character of a, vindicated. + +Patriotic distinction. + +Patriotic services, on the justice of public salary for. + +Patriotism, the true source of public income. +--on the true characteristics of. +--local, on the extinction of. + +Peace, political, on the difficulties of. + +Peers, privileges of the. + +Pensions from the crown the obligations of gratitude, and not the fetters of servility. + +People, on their disputes with their rulers. +--voice of the, to be consulted. +--necessity of securing their confidence. +--on their identity with parliament. +--kingly power not based on their choice. +--on the true meaning of the term. +--war, and will of the. +--the constitution not the slave of the. + +Perplexity, on the political state of. + +Persecution, theory of, its falsity. + +Petty interests, against being influenced by. + +Philosophic vanity of the French National Assembly. + +Physiognomy, on the influence of. + +Pictures represented by words. + +Pilgrimages advantageous to the cause of literature. + +Pius VII., territories of, assailed by France. + +Place the object of party. +--on the influence of, in government. + +Poetry, its dominion over the passions. + +Policy, genuine sentiment not discordant with. +--national. + +Polish revolution, reflections on the. + +Political axioms. + +Political charity, characteristics of. + +Political connections, on the nature of. + + +Political empiricism, its character. + +Political outcasts, on the usual treatment of. + +Politicians, theorizing, on the follies of. + +Politics, without principle. +--remarks on. +--on the state of feeling with regard to. +--in connection with the pulpit. + +Poor, on the folly of their overthrowing the rich. + +Pope, his exactions from King John. + +Popular discontent, on the general prevalence of, in all times. + +Popular opinion, on the fallacy of, as a standard. + +Power, on the tendencies of. +--survives the shock of opinions. + +Practice more certain than theory. + +Prerogative of the crown. +--parliamentary and regal. + +Prescriptive rights, on the justice and necessity of. + +Prevention, principle of, necessary for every political institution. + +Price, Dr., on his preaching the democracy of Dissent. + +"Priests of the Rights of Man." + +Principle, on the absence of, in politics. + +Privilege of Parliament. + +Proscription, the miserable invention of ungenerous ambition. + +Prosecutions, public, little better than schools of treason. + +Protestantism of America. +--English, on the distinctive character of. + +Provisions, danger of tampering with the trade of. +--rate of wages no direct relation to. + +Prudence of timely reform. +--rules and definitions of. + +Public benefit, as compared with individual good. + +Public corruption, evil consequences of. + +Public income, patriotism the true source of. + +Public men, on the libellers of. + +Public spirit united with economy, advantages of. +--a part of our national character. + +Pulpit, politics in the. + +Real and ideal, definition of the. + +Reason and taste, on the standard of. + +Reform, timely, on the prudence of. +--false, on the prudery of. + +Reformation, English, a time of trouble and confusion. +--contrasted and compared with anarchy. + +Reformations in England, principles of the. + +Reformers, on the difficulties of. + +Refusal, productive of a revenue. + +Regal prerogative, on the principles of. + +Regicidal legislature of France. + +Regicide, atrocious principles of. +--the sanguinary ante-chamber of. + +Reliefs, on the ancient customs of. + +Religion, on the union of love and dread in. +--our civilization dependent on the spirit of. +--within the province of a Christian magistrate. +--false, courts obscurity. +--negative, a nullity. + +Remedy, on the distemper of. + +Representatives, on the conduct and duty of. + +Republicanism, on the jargon of. + +Republicans, on the legislation of. + +Republics, on the character of, in the abstract. + +Resignation of the mind. + +Restrictive virtues too high for humanity. + +Retrospect of the memory. +--parliamentary. + +Revenue, refusal productive of a. +--the state its own. +--necessity of its payment. +--on the best mode of raising the. + +Revolution of France, horrors of the. +--Burke's idea of. +--its frightful scenes. +--founded on regicide, Jacobinism, and atheism. +--reflections on. +--causes of the. +--evils of. +--on the politics of the. +--specious justification of. + +Revolution, the Glorious, of England in 1688. +--its objects. +--principles of the. + +Revolution Society, dangerous objects of the. + +Revolutions of France and England compared. + +"Right, Declaration of," its objects. + +"Right, Petition of," on the famous law of. + +Rights, natural and civil. +--prescriptive, on the justice and necessity of. + +Robespierre, on the instruments of his tyranny. + +Rockingham, Lord, vindication of his measures. + +Rome, the great centre of early Christianity in the western world. +--assailed by France. + +Rousseau, philosophic vanity of. +--paradoxical writings of. + +Rulers, on the disputes of the people with. + +Salaries, public, on the justice of, for particular service. + +Santerre, the regicide atrocity of. + +Saracens, irruptions of the. + +Saville, Sir George, his intellectual and moral character. + +Saxon conquests, state of Britain at the time of. +--religious conversion of the Saxons. + +Self-inspection tends to concentrate the forces of the soul. + +Sentiment, genuine, not discordant with sound policy. + +Silence, prudential advantages of. + +Simon, the son of Onias, scriptural panegyric on. + +Smith, Sir Sidney, on his treatment as a French prisoner. + +Social contract, definition of the. + +Society and solitude, on the balance between. + +Solitude a positive pain. + +Sound of words, its effect. + +Sovereign jurisdictions, on the advantage of. + +Speciousness, ideas of. + +Speculation and history, general disquisition on. + +State, the, on the union of the Church with. +--consecrated by the Church. +--the revenue of, its own. + +State-consecration, on the principles of. + +Style, on clearness and strength in. + +Sublime, sources of, and what constitutes the. + +Subserviency, base, bad laws productive of. + +Subsistence, means of, should be certain. + +Superstition, monastic and philosophic. + +Sympathy, on the bond of. +--extensions of. +--its influences. + +Tallien, the regicide atrocity of. + +Taste, philosophy of. +--principles of. +--standard of. + +Taxation, on the principle involved in. +--on the right of. + +Test Acts, Burke's proposed oath on the. + +Theodorus, archbishop of Canterbury, the great promoter of English literature. + +Theory, liability to error in. + +--on the proper use of. + +Toleration, on the intolerancy of. + +Townshend, Right Hon. Charles, his character and great acquirements. + +Truth, on the security of. + +Ugliness, on the nature of. + +Vanity, philosophic, ethics of. + +Venality, dangers of. + +Virtues, the restrictive, almost too high for humanity. + +Visionary, character of the. + +Voice of the people to be consulted. + +Vulgar, conceptions of the. + +Wages, on their connection with labour. + +Walpole, Sir Robert, on the policy of. + +War, on the tremendous consequences of. + +War and will of the people. + +Warning for a nation, founded on the state of public affairs. + +Weakness in government, on the evils of. + +Wealth, on the relation of, to national dignity. + +Wilkes, John, on his right of election to Parliament. + +William the Conqueror, on the sovereign qualities of; +--his policy. + +William III., on his succession to the English crown. +--his vigorous policy against France. + +Words, their power and influence. +--effect of. +--various qualities of. + + + + + +End of PG's Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke + |