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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:19 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:19 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13943-0.txt b/13943-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7e7a58 --- /dev/null +++ b/13943-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7270 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13943 *** + +THE POCKET LIBRARY +OF +ENGLISH LITERATURE + +Edited by GEORGE SAINTSBURY + + +A collection, in separate volumes, partly of extracts from +long books, partly of short pieces, by the same writer, on the +same subject, or of the same class. + +Vol I.--Tales of Mystery. + II.--Political Verse. + III.--Defoe's Minor Novels. + IV.--Political Pamphlets. + V.--Seventeenth Century Lyrics. + VI.--Elizabethan and Jacobean Pamphlets. + + + + +POLITICAL PAMPHLETS + + +EDITED BY +GEORGE SAINTSBURY + + +LONDON +PERCIVAL AND CO. +1892 + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. (By George Savile, Marquess of Halifax) + +II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS. (By Daniel Defoe) + +III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. (By Jonathan Swift) +To the Tradesmen, Shop-Keepers, Farmers, and Common-People in general, +of the Kingdom of Ireland; concerning the Brass half-pence coined by +Mr. Wood + +A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer, upon occasion of a Paragraph in +his News-Paper of August 1, 1724, relating to Mr. Wood's Half-pence + +IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. (By the Right Honourable +Edmund Burke) + +V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. (By Sydney Smith) + +VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW. (By William Cobbett) + +VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. (By Sir Walter Scott) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +It is sometimes thought, and very often said, that political writing, +after its special day is done, becomes more dead than any other kind +of literature, or even journalism. I do not know whether my own +judgment is perverted by the fact of a special devotion to the +business, but it certainly seems to me that both the thought and the +saying are mistakes. Indeed, a rough-and-ready refutation of them is +supplied by the fact that, in no few cases, political pieces have +entered into the generally admitted stock of the best literary things. +If they are little read, can we honestly say that other things in the +same rank are read much more? And is there not the further plea, by no +means contradictory, nor even merely alternative, that the best +examples of them are, as a rule, merged in huge collected 'Works,' or, +in the case of authors who have not attained to that dignity, simply +inaccessible to the general? At any rate my publishers have consented +to let me try the experiment of gathering certain famous things of the +sort in this volume, and the public must decide. + +I do not begin very early, partly because examples of the Elizabethan +political pamphlet, or what supplied its place, will be given in +another volume of the series exclusively devoted to the pamphlet +literature of the reigns of Eliza and our James, partly for a still +better reason presently to be explained. On the other hand, though +another special volume is devoted to Defoe, the immortal _Shortest Way +with the Dissenters_ is separated from the rest of his work, and given +here. Most of the contents, however, represent authors not otherwise +represented in the series, and though very well known indeed by name, +less read than quoted. The suitableness of the political pamphlet, +both by size and self-containedness, for such a volume as this, needs +no justification except that which it, like everything else, must +receive, by being put to the proof of reading. + +There is no difficulty in showing, with at least sufficient critical +exactness, why it is not possible or not desirable to select examples +from very early periods even of strictly modern history. The causes +are in part the same as those which delayed the production of really +capital political verse (which has been treated in another volume), +but they are not wholly the same. The Martin Marprelate pamphlets are +strictly political; so are many things earlier, later, and +contemporary with them, by hands known and unknown, great and small, +skilled and unskilled; so are some even in the work of so great a man +as Bacon. But very many things were wanting to secure the conditions +necessary to the perfect pamphlet. There was not the political +freedom; there was not the public; there was not the immediate object; +there was not, last and most of all, the style. Political utterances +under a more or less despotic, or, as the modern euphemism goes, +'personal' government, were almost necessarily those of a retained +advocate, who expected his immediate reward, on the one hand; or of a +rebel, who stood to make his account with office if he succeeded, or +with savage punishment if he failed, on the other. A distant prospect +of impeachment, of the loss of ears, hands, or life if the tide turns, +is a stimulant to violence rather than to vigour. I do not think, +however, that this is the most important factor in the problem. +Parliamentary government, with a limited franchise of tolerably +intelligent voters, a party system, and newspapers comparatively +undeveloped, may not suit an ideally perfect _politeia_, but it is +the very hotbed in which to nourish the pamphlet. There is also a +style, as there is a time, for all things; and no style could be so +well suited for the pamphlet as the balanced, measured, pointed, and +polished style which Dryden and Tillotson and Temple brought in during +the third quarter of the seventeenth century, and which did not go out +of fashion till the second quarter of the nineteenth. We have indeed +seen pamphlets proper exercising considerable influence in quite +recent times; but in no instance that I can remember has this been due +to any literary merits, and I doubt whether even the bare fact will be +soon or often renewed in our days. The written word--the written word +of condensed, strengthened, spirited literature--has lost much, if not +all, of its force with an enormously increased electorate, and a +bewildering multiplicity of print and speech of all kinds. + +Whatever justice these reasonings may have or may lack, the facts +speak for themselves, as facts intelligently regarded have a habit of +doing. The first pamphlets proper of great literary merit and great +political influence are those of Halifax in the first movement of real +party struggle during the reign of Charles the Second; the last which +unite the same requisites are those of Scott on the eve of the first +Reform Bill. The leaflet and circular war of the anti-Corn Law League +must be ruled out as much as Mr. Gladstone's _Bulgarian Horrors_. + +This leaves us a period of almost exactly a hundred and fifty years, +during which the kind, whether in good or bad examples, was of +constant influence; while its best instances enriched literature with +permanent masterpieces in little. I do not think that any moderately +instructed person will find much difficulty in comprehending the +specimens here given. I am sure that no moderately intelligent one +will fail, with a very little trouble, to take delight in them. I do +not know whether an artful generaliser could get anything out of the +circumstances in which the best of them grew; I should say myself that +nothing more than the system of government, the conditions of the +electorate and the legislature, and the existence from time to time of +a superheated state in political feeling, can or need be collected. In +some respects, to my own taste, the first of these examples is also +the best. To Halifax full justice has never been done, for we have had +no capable historian of the late seventeenth century but Macaulay, and +Halifax's defect of fervour as a Jacobite was more than made up to +Macaulay by his defect of fervour as a Williamite. As for the moderns, +I have myself more than once failed to induce editors of 'series' to +give Halifax a place. Yet Macaulay himself has been fairer to the +great Trimmer than to most persons with whom he was not in full +sympathy. The weakness of Halifax's position is indeed obvious. When +you run first to one side of the boat and then to the other, you have +ten chances of sinking to one of trimming her. To hold fast to one +party only, and to keep that from extremes, is the only secret, and it +is no great disgrace to Halifax, that in the very infancy of the party +and parliamentary system, he did not perceive it. But this hardly +interferes at all with the excellence of his pamphlets. The polished +style, the admirable sense, the subdued and yet ever present wit, the +avoidance of excessive cleverness (the one thing that the average +Briton will not stand), the constant eye on the object, are +unmistakable. They are nearly as forcible as Dryden's political and +controversial prefaces, which are pamphlets themselves in their way, +and they excel them in knowledge of affairs, in urbanity, in +adaptation to the special purpose. In all these points they resemble +more than anything else the pamphlets of Paul Louis Courier, and +there can be no higher praise than this. + +No age in English history was more fertile in pamphlets than the +reigns of William and of Anne. Some men of real distinction +occasionally contributed to them, and others (such as Ferguson and +Maynwaring) obtained such literary notoriety as they possess by their +means. The total volume of the kind produced during the quarter of a +century between the Revolution and the accession of George the First +would probably fill a considerable library. But the examples which +really deserve exhumation are very few, and I doubt whether any can +pretend to vie with the masterpieces of Defoe and Swift. Both these +great writers were accomplished practitioners in the art, and the +characteristics of both lent themselves with peculiar yet strangely +different readiness to the work. They addressed, indeed, different +sections of what was even then the electorate. Defoe's unpolished +realism and his exact adaptation of tone, thought, taste, and fancy to +the measure of the common Englishman were what chiefly gave him a +hearing. Swift aimed and flew higher, but also did not miss the lower +mark. No one has ever doubted that Johnson's depreciation of _The +Conduct of the Allies_ was half special perversity (for he was always +unjust to Swift), half mere humorous paradox. For there was much more +of this in the doctor's utterances than his admirers, either in his +own day or since, have always recognised, or have sometimes been +qualified by Providence to recognise. As for the _Drapier's Letters_ I +can never myself admire them enough, and they seem to me to have been +on the whole under-rather than over-valued by posterity. + +The 'Great Walpolian Battle' and the attacks on Bute and other +favourite ministers were very fertile in the pamphlet, but already +there were certain signs of alteration in its character. Pulteney and +Walpole's other adversaries had already glimmerings of the newspaper +proper, that is to say, of the continual dropping fire rather than the +single heavy broadside; to adopt a better metaphor still, of a +regimental and professional soldiery rather than of single volunteer +champions. The _Letters of Junius_, which for some time past have been +gradually dropping from their former somewhat undue pride of place +(gained and kept as much by the factitious mystery of their origin as +by anything else) to a station more justly warranted, are no doubt +themselves pamphlets of a kind; but they are separated from pamphlets +proper not less by their contents than by their form and continuity. +The real difference is this, that the pamphlet, though often if not +always personal enough, should always and generally does affect at +least to discuss a general question of principle or policy, whereas +Junius is always personal first, and very generally last also. On the +other hand, Burke, whether his productions be called Speeches or +Letters, Thoughts or Reflections, is always a pamphleteer in heart and +soul, in form and matter. If the resemblance of his pamphlets to +speeches gives the force and fire, it is certain that the resemblance +of his speeches to pamphlets accounts for that 'dinner-bell' effect of +his which has puzzled some people and shocked others. Burke always +argued the point, if he only argued one side of it, and it is the +special as it is the saving grace of the pamphlet that it must, or at +least should, be an argument, and not merely an invective or an +innuendo, a sermon or a lampoon. + +Sydney Smith belonged both to the old school and the new. He was both +pamphleteer and journalist; but he kept the form and even to some +extent the style of his pamphlets and his articles well apart. I may +seem likely to have some difficulty in admitting the claim of Cobbett +after disallowing that of Junius under the definition just given, but +I have no very great fear of being unable to making it good. Much as +Cobbett disliked persons, and crotchety as he was in his dislikes, +they were always dislikes of principle in the bottom. The singular +Tory-Radicalism which Cobbett exhibited, and which has made some rank +him unduly low, was no doubt partly due to accidents of birth and +education, and to narrowness of intellectual form. But boroughmongering +after all was a Whig rather than a Tory institution, and Cobbett's +hatred of it, as well as that desire for the maintenance of a kind of +manufacturing yeomanry (not wholly different from the later ideal of +Mr. William Morris,) which was his other guiding principle throughout, +was by no means alien from pure Toryism. His work in relation to Reform, +moreover, is unmistakable--as unmistakable as is that of Sydney Smith, +who precedes him here, with regard to Catholic Emancipation. I should +have voted and written against both these things had I lived then; but +this does not make me enjoy Cobbett or Sydney any the less. + +As for the latest example I have selected, it is a crucial one. The +_Letters of Malachi Malagrowther_ come from a man who is not often +rated high as a political thinker, even by those who sympathise with +his political views. But here as elsewhere the politician, no less +than the poet, the critic, the historian, bears the penalty of the +pre-eminent greatness of the novelist. Nothing is more uncritical than +to regard Scott as a mere sentimentalist in politics, and I cannot +think that any competent judge can do so after reading _Malagrowther_, +even after reading Scott's own Diary and letters on the subject. As he +there explains, he was not greatly carried, as a rule, to interest +himself in the details of politics. As both Lockhart and he admit, he +might not have been so interested even at this juncture had it not +been for the chagrin at his own misfortunes, which, nobly and +stoically repressed as it was, required some issue. But his general +principle on this occasion was clear; it can be thoroughly apprehended +and appreciated even by an Englishman of Englishmen. It was thoroughly +justified by the event, and, I may perhaps be permitted to observe, +ran exactly contrary to a sentiment rather widely adopted of late. No +man, whether in public writings or private conduct, could be more set +than Scott was against a spurious Scotch particularism. He even earned +from silly Scots maledictions for the chivalrous justice he dealt to +England in _The Lord of the Isles_, and the common-sense justice he +dealt to her in the mouth of Bailie Jarvie. But he was not more +staunch for the political Union than he was for the preservation of +minor institutions, manners, and character; and the proposed +interference with Scotch banking seemed to him to be one of the things +tending to make good Scotchmen, as he bluntly told Croker, 'damned +mischievous Englishmen.' Therefore he arose and spoke, and though he +averted the immediate attempt, yet the prophecies which he uttered +were amply fulfilled in other ways after the Reform Bill. + +These, then, are the principles on which I have selected the pieces +that follow (some minor reasons for the particular choices being given +in the special introductions):--That they should be pamphlets proper +(_Malachi_ appeared first in a newspaper, but that was a sign of the +time chiefly, and the numbers of Cobbett's _Register_ were practically +independent pieces); that they should deal with special subjects of +burning political, and not merely personal, interest; and that they +should either directly or in the long-run have exercised an actual +determining influence on the course of politics and history. This last +point is undoubted in the case of the examples from Halifax, Swift, +Burke (who more than any one man pointed and steeled the resistance +of England to Jacobin tyranny), and Scott; it was less immediate, but +scarcely more dubious in those of Defoe, Cobbett, and Sydney Smith. +And so in all humility I make my bow as introducer once more to the +English public of these Seven Masters of English political writing. + + + + +I.--'LETTER TO A DISSENTER' + +BY GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUESS OF HALIFAX + + +(_There is no doubt that Halifax's work deserves to rank first in a +collection of political pamphlets. He signed none; it was indeed +almost impossible for a prominent person in the State then safely or +decently to do so, and different attributions were made at the time of +some of them, as of the _Character of a Trimmer_ to Coventry, and of +this _Letter_ (this 'masterly little tract,' as Macaulay justly calls +it) to Temple. But shortly after his death all were published as his +unchallenged, and there never has been any doubt of their authorship +in the minds of good judges. Four of them are so good that extrinsic +reasons have to be brought in for preferring one to the other. The +_Character of a Trimmer_ is rather too long for my scheme; the _Anatomy +of an Equivalent_ is too technical, and requires too much illustration +and exegesis; the _Cautions for Choice of Members of Parliament_, +though practically valuable to the present day, is a little too +general. The _Letter to a Dissenter_ escapes all these objections. It +is brief, it is thoroughly to the point, it is comprehensible almost +without note or comment to any one who remembers the broad fact that +by his Declaration of Indulgence James the Second attempted to detach, +and almost succeeded in detaching, the Dissenters from their common +cause with the Church in opposing his enfranchisement of the Roman +Catholics, and his preferment of them to great offices. As for its +author, his most eminent acts are written in the pages of the +universally read historian above quoted. But he was in reality more of +a Tory than it suited Macaulay to represent him, though he gloried in +the name of Trimmer, and certainly showed what is called in modern +political slang a 'crossbench mind' not only during the madness of the +Popish plot, during the greater madness of James's assaults on the +Church, the Constitution, and private rights, but also (after the +Revolution) towards William of Orange. Born about 1630 he died in +April 1695, leaving the fame, unjustified by any samples in those +unreported days, of the greatest orator of his time, a reputation as a +wit which was partly inherited by his grandson, Chesterfield, and the +small volume of _Miscellanies_, on which we here draw. The pamphlet +itself appeared in April 1687._) + + + + +A LETTER TO A DISSENTER, UPON OCCASION OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE GRACIOUS +DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE + + +Sir--Since addresses are in fashion, give me leave to make one to you. +This is neither the effect of fear, interest, or resentment; therefore +you may be sure it is sincere: and for that reason it may expect to be +kindly received. Whether it will have power enough to convince, +dependeth upon the reasons of which you are to judge; and upon your +preparation of mind, to be persuaded by truth, whenever it appeareth +to you. It ought not to be the less welcome for coming from a friendly +hand, one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of +opinion, and who will not let his thoughts for the public be so tied +or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants as to stifle +the charity, which besides all other arguments, is at this time become +necessary to preserve us. + +I am neither surprised nor provoked, to see that in the condition you +were put into by the laws, and the ill circumstances you lay under, by +having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your charge, you were +desirous to make yourselves less uneasy and obnoxious to authority. +Men who are sore, run to the nearest remedy with too much haste to +consider all the consequences: grains of allowance are to be given, +where nature giveth such strong influences. When to men under +sufferings it offereth ease, the present pain will hardly allow time +to examine the remedies; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a +fair audience from our mind, whilst so possessed, till the smart is a +little allayed. + +I do not know whether the warmth that naturally belongeth to new +friendships, may not make it a harder task for me to persuade you. It +is like telling lovers, in the beginning of their joys, that they will +in a little time have an end. Such an unwelcome style doth not easily +find credit. But I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new +passion, but that you will hear still; and therefore I am also under +the less discouragement, when I offer to your consideration two +things. The _first_ is, the cause you have to suspect your new +friends. The _second_, the duty incumbent upon you, in Christianity +and prudence, not to hazard the public safety, neither by desire of +ease nor of revenge. + +To the _first_. Consider that notwithstanding the smooth language +which is now put on to engage you, these new friends did not make you +their choice, but their refuge. They have ever made their first +courtships to the Church of England, and when they were rejected +there, they made their application to you in the second place. The +instances of this might be given in all times. I do not repeat them, +because whatsoever is unnecessary must be tedious; the truth of this +assertion being so plain as not to admit a dispute. You cannot +therefore reasonably flatter yourselves that there is any inclination +to you. They never pretended to allow you any quarter, but to usher in +liberty for themselves under that shelter. I refer you to Mr. +Coleman's Letters, and to the Journals of Parliament, where you may be +convinced, if you can be so mistaken as to doubt; nay, at this very +hour they can hardly forbear, in the height of their courtship, to let +fall hard words of you. So little is nature to be restrained; it will +start out sometimes, disdaining to submit to the usurpation of art and +interest. + +This alliance, between liberty and infallibility, is bringing together +the two most contrary things that are in the world. The Church of Rome +doth not only dislike the allowing liberty, but by its principles it +cannot do it. Wine is not more expressly forbid to the Mahometans, +than giving heretics liberty to the Papists. They are no more able to +make good their vows to you, than men married before, and their wife +alive, can confirm their contract with another. The continuance of +their kindness would be a habit of sin, of which they are to repent; +and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms than their +promise to destroy you. You are therefore to be hugged now, only that +you may be the better squeezed at another time. There must be +something extraordinary when the Church of Rome setteth up bills, and +offereth plaisters, for tender consciences. By all that hath hitherto +appeared, her skill in chirurgery lieth chiefly in a quick hand to cut +off limbs; but she is the worst at healing of any that ever pretended +to it. + +To come so quick from another extreme is such an unnatural motion that +you ought to be upon your guard. The other day you were Sons of +Belial; now you are Angels of Light. This is a violent change, and it +will be fit for you to pause upon it before you believe it. If your +features are not altered, neither is their opinion of you, whatever +may be pretended. Do you believe less than you did that there is +idolatry in the Church of Rome? Sure you do not. See, then, how they +treat, both in words and writing, those who entertain that opinion. +Conclude from hence, how inconsistent their favour is with this single +article, except they give you a dispensation for this too, and not by +a _non obstante_, secure you that they will not think the worse of +you. + +Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of +paradoxes. Popery now is the only friend to liberty, and the known +enemy to persecution. The men of Taunton and Tiverton are above all +other eminent for Loyalty. The Quakers, from being declared by the +Papists not to be Christians, are now made favourites, and taken into +their particular protection; they are on a sudden grown the most +accomplished men of the kingdom in good breeding, and give thanks with +the best grace in double-refined language. So that I should not +wonder, though a man of that persuasion, in spite of his hat, should +be Master of the Ceremonies. Not to say harsher words, these are such +very new things, that it is impossible not to suspend our belief, till +by a little more experience, we may be informed whether they are +realities or apparitions. We have been under shameful mistakes, if +these opinions are true; but for the present we are apt to be +incredulous, except that we could be convinced that the priest's words +in this case too are able to make such a sudden and effectual change; +and that their power is not limited to the Sacrament, but that it +extendeth to alter the nature of all other things, as often as they +are so disposed. + +Let me now speak of the instruments of your friendship, and then leave +you to judge whether they do not afford matter of suspicion. No +sharpness is to be mingled, where healing only is intended; so nothing +will be said to expose particular men, how strong soever the +temptation may be, or how clear the proofs to make it out. A word or +two in general, for your better caution, shall suffice. Suppose then, +for argument's sake, that the mediators of this new alliance should +be such as have been formerly employed in treaties of the same kind, +and there detected to have acted by order, and to have been empowered +to give encouragements and rewards. Would not this be an argument to +suspect them? + +If they should plainly be under engagements to one side, their +arguments to the other ought to be received accordingly. Their fair +pretences are to be looked upon as a part of their commission, which +may not improbably give them a dispensation in the case of truth, when +it may bring a prejudice upon the service of those by whom they are +employed. + +If there should be men, who having formerly had means and authority to +persuade by secular arguments, have, in pursuance of that power, +sprinkled money among the Dissenting ministers; and if those very men +should now have the same authority, practise the same methods, and +disburse where they cannot otherwise persuade; it seemeth to me to be +rather an evidence than a presumption of the deceit. + +If there should be ministers amongst you, who by having fallen under +temptations of this kind, are in some sort engaged to continue their +frailty, by the awe they are in lest it should be exposed; the +persuasions of these unfortunate men must sure have the less force, +and their arguments, though never so specious, are to be suspected, +when they come from men who have mortgaged themselves to severe +creditors, that expect a rigorous observance of the contract, let it +be never so unwarrantable. If these, or any others, should at this +time preach up anger and vengeance against the Church of England; may +it not without injustice be suspected that a thing so plainly out of +season springeth rather from corruption than mistake; and that those +who act this choleric part, do not believe themselves, but only pursue +higher directions, and endeavour to make good that part of their +contract, which obligeth them, upon a forfeiture, to make use of their +enflaming eloquence? They might apprehend their wages would be +retrenched if they should be moderate: and therefore, whilst violence +is their interest, those who have not the same arguments have no +reason to follow such a partial example. + +If there should be men, who by the load of their crimes against the +Government, have been bowed down to comply with it against their +conscience; who by incurring the want of a pardon, have drawn upon +themselves a necessity of an entire resignation, such men are to be +lamented, but not to be believed. Nay, they themselves, when they have +discharged their unwelcome talk, will be inwardly glad that their +forced endeavours do not succeed, and are pleased when men resist +their insinuations; which are far from being voluntary or sincere, but +are squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so obnoxious. + +If, in the height of this great dearness, by comparing things, it +should happen that at this instant there is much a surer friendship +with those who are so far from allowing liberty that they allow no +living to a Protestant under them--let the scene lie in what part of +the world it will, the argument will come home, and sure it will +afford sufficient ground to suspect. Apparent contradictions must +strike us; neither nature nor reason can digest them. Self-flattery, +and the desire to deceive ourselves, to gratify present appetite, with +all their power, which is great, cannot get the better of such broad +conviction, as some things carry along with them. Will you call these +vain and empty suspicions? Have you been at all times so void of fears +and jealousies, as to justify your being so unreasonably valiant in +having none upon this occasion? Such an extraordinary courage at this +unseasonable time, to say no more, is too dangerous a virtue to be +commended. + +If then, for these and a thousand other reasons, there is cause to +suspect, sure your new friends are not to dictate to you, or advise +you. For instance: the Addresses that fly abroad every week, and +murder us with _another to the same_; the first draughts are made by +those who are not very proper to be secretaries to the Protestant +Religion: and it is your part only to write them out fairer again. + +Strange! that you, who have been formerly so much against _set +forms_, should now be content the priests should indite for you. The +nature of thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being pleased or +obliged; they grow in the heart, and from thence show themselves +either in looks, speech, writing, or action. No man was ever thankful +because he was bid to be so, but because he had, or thought he had +some reason for it. If then there is cause in this case to pay such +extravagant acknowledgments, they will flow naturally, without taking +such pains to procure them; and it is unkindly done to tire all the +Post-horses with carrying circular letters, to solicit that which +would be done without any trouble or constraint. If it is really in +itself such a favour, what needeth so much pressing men to be +thankful, and with such eager circumstances, that where persuasions +cannot delude, threatenings are employed to fright them into a +compliance? Thanks must be voluntary, not only unconstrained but +unsolicited, else they are either trifles or snares, that either +signify nothing or a great deal more than is intended by those that +give them. If an inference should be made, that whosoever thanketh the +King for his Declaration, is by that engaged to justify it in point of +law; it is a greater stride than I presume all those care to make who +are persuaded to address. It shall be supposed that all the thankers +will be repealers of the Test, whenever a Parliament shall meet; such +an expectation is better prevented before than disappointed +afterwards; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal +is not to do anything that may give a colour to the mistake. These +bespoken thanks are little less improper than love-letters that were +solicited by the lady to whom they are to be directed: so that, +besides the little ground there is to give them, the manner of getting +them doth extremely lessen their value. It might be wished that you +would have suppressed your impatience, and have been content, for the +sake of religion, to enjoy it within yourselves, without the liberty +of a public exercise, till a Parliament had allowed it; but since that +could not be, and that the articles of some amongst you have made use +of the well-meant zeal of the generality to draw them into this +mistake, I am so far from blaming you with that sharpness, which +perhaps the matter in strictness would bear, that I am ready to err on +the side of the more gentle construction. + +There is a great difference between enjoying quietly the advantages of +an act irregularly done by others, and the going about to support it +against the laws in being. The law is so sacred that no trespass +against it is to be defended; yet frailties may in some measure be +excused when they cannot be justified. The desire of enjoying liberty, +from which men have been so long restrained, may be a temptation that +their reason is not at all times able to resist. If in such a case +some objections are leapt over, indifferent men will be more inclined +to lament the occasion than to fall too hard upon the fault, whilst it +is covered with the apology of a good intention. But where, to rescue +yourselves from the severity of one law, you give a blow to all the +laws, by which your religion and liberty are to be protected; and +instead of silently receiving the benefit of this indulgence, you set +up for advocates to support it, you become voluntary aggressors, and +look like counsel retained by the prerogative against your old friend +Magna Charta, who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under +your displeasure. + +If the case then should be, that the price expected from you for this +liberty is giving up your right in the laws, sure you will think twice +before you go any further in such a losing bargain. After giving +thanks for the breach of one law, you lose the right of complaining of +the breach of all the rest; you will not very well know how to defend +yourselves when you are pressed; and having given up the question when +it was for your advantage, you cannot recall it when it shall be to +your prejudice. If you will set up at one time a power to help you, +which at another time, by parity of reason, shall be made use of to +destroy you, you will neither be pitied nor relieved against a +mischief which you draw upon yourselves by being so unreasonably +thankful. It is like calling in auxiliaries to help, who are strong +enough to subdue you. In such a case your complaints will come too +late to be heard, and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of +compassion. + +If you think, for your excuse, to expound your thanks, so as to +restrain them to this particular case; others, for their ends, will +extend them further: and in these differing interpretations, that +which is backed by authority will be the most likely to prevail; +especially when, by the advantage you have given them, they have in +truth the better of the argument, and that the inferences from your +own concessions are very strong and express against you. This is so +far from being a groundless supposition, that there was a late +instance of it in the last session of Parliament, in the House of +Lords, where the first thanks, though things of course, were +interpreted to be the approbation of the King's whole speech, and a +restraint from the further examination of any part of it, though never +so much disliked; and it was with difficulty obtained, not to be +excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty prerogative of +dispensing, merely by this innocent and usual piece of good manners, +by which no such thing could possibly be intended. + +This showeth that some bounds are to be put to your good breeding, and +that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be +ventured upon a compliment. Now that you have for some time enjoyed +the benefit of the end, it is time for you to look into the danger of +the means. The same reason that made you desirous to get liberty must +make you solicitous to preserve it, so that the next thought will +naturally be, not to engage yourself beyond retreat; and to agree so +far with the principles of all religion, as not to rely upon a +death-bed repentance. + +There are certain periods of time, which being once past, make all +cautions ineffectual, and all remedies desperate. Our understandings +are apt to be hurried on by the first heats, which, if not restrained +in time, do not give us leave to look back till it is too late. +Consider this in the case of your anger against the Church of England, +and take warning by their mistake in the same kind, when after the +late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of +your rough usage to them in other times, that it made them forget +their interest and sacrifice it to their revenge. + +Either you will blame this proceeding in them, and for that reason not +follow it; or, if you allow it, you have no reason to be offended with +them; so that you must either dismiss your anger or lose your excuse; +except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of +your morality and understanding. + +If you had now to do with those rigid prelates who made it a matter of +conscience to give you the least indulgence, but kept you at an +uncharitable distance, and even to your most reasonable scruples +continued stiff and inexorable, the argument might be fairer on your +side; but since the common danger has so laid open that mistake, that +all the former haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished, and +that it hath turned the spirit of persecution into a spirit of peace, +charity, and condescension; shall this happy change only affect the +Church of England? And are you so in love with separation as not to be +moved by this example? It ought to be followed, were there no other +reason than that it is virtue; but when, besides that, it is become +necessary to your preservation, it is impossible to fail the having +its effect upon you. + +If it should be said that the Church of England is never humble but +when she is out of power, and therefore loseth the right of being +believed when she pretendeth to it: the answer is, _first_, It would +be an uncharitable objection, and very much mistimed; an unseasonable +triumph, not only ungenerous but unsafe: so that in these respects it +cannot be urged without scandal, even though it could be said with +truth. _Secondly_, This is not so in fact, and the argument must fall, +being built upon a false foundation; for whatever may be told you at +this very hour, and in the heat and glare of your perfect sunshine, +the Church of England can in a moment bring clouds again, and turn +the royal thunder upon your heads, blow you off the stage with a +breath, if she would give but a smile or a kind word; the least +glimpse of her compliance would throw you back into the state of +suffering, and draw upon you all the arrears of severity which have +accrued during the time of this kindness to you; and yet the Church of +England, with all her faults, will not allow herself to be rescued by +such unjustifiable means, but chooseth to bear the weight of power +rather than lie under the burden of being criminal. + +It cannot be said that she is unprovoked: books and letters come out +every day to call for answers, yet she will not be stirred. From the +supposed authors and the style, one would swear they were undertakers, +and had made a contract to fall out with the Church of England. There +are lashes in every address, challenges to draw the pen in every +pamphlet. In short, the fairest occasions in the world given to +quarrel; but she wisely distinguisheth between the body of Dissenters, +whom she will suppose to act, as they do, with no ill intent, and +these small skirmishers, picked and sent out to piqueer, and to begin +a fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the +advantage of the Church of Rome. + +This conduct is so good, that it will be scandalous not to applaud it. +It is not equal dealing to blame our adversaries for doing ill, and +not commend them when they do well. + +To hate them because they are persecuted, and not to be reconciled to +them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the +advantages that can be gained by a criminal compliance, is a principle +no sort of Christians can own, since it would give an objection to +them never to be answered. + +Think a little who they were that promoted your former persecutions, +and then consider how it will look to be angry with the instruments, +and at the same time to make a league with the authors of your +sufferings. + +Have you enough considered what will be expected from you? Are you +ready to stand in every borough by virtue of a _congé d'élire_, and +instead of election be satisfied if you are returned? + +Will you, in parliament, justify the dispensing power, with all its +consequences, and repeal the test, by which you will make way for the +repeal of all the laws that were made to preserve your religion, and +to enact others that shall destroy it? + +Are you disposed to change the liberty of debate into the merit of +obedience; and to be made instruments to repeal or enact laws, when +the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles? + +Are you so linked to your new friends as to reject any indulgence a +parliament shall offer you, if it shall not be so comprehensive as to +include the Papists in it? + +Consider that the implied conditions of your new treaty are no less +than that you are to do everything you are desired, without examining; +and that for this pretended liberty of conscience, your real freedom +is to be sacrificed; your former faults hang like chains still about +you, you are let loose only upon bail; the first act of non-compliance +sendeth you to gaol again. + +You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the legality +of this power which you are to justify, since the being so very +earnest to get it established by a law, and the doing such very hard +things in order, as they think, to obtain it, is a clear evidence that +they do not think that the single power of the Crown is in this case a +good foundation; especially when this is done under a prince so very +tender of the rights of sovereignty that he would think it a +diminution to his prerogative, where he conceiveth it strong enough to +go alone, to call in the legislative help to strengthen and support +it. + +You have formerly blamed the Church of England, and not without +reason, for going so far as they did in their compliance; and yet so +soon as they stopped, you see they are not only deserted, but +prosecuted. Conclude, then, from this example, that you must either +break off your friendship or resolve to have no bounds in it. If they +do succeed in their design, they will leave you first: if they do, you +must either leave them, when it will be too late for your safety, or +else, after the squeaziness of starting at a surplice, you must be +forced to swallow Transubstantiation. + +Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were +Trimmers for enduring you; and now, by a sudden turn, you are become +the favourites. Do not deceive yourselves; it is not the nature of +lasting plants thus to shoot up in a night; you may look gay and green +for a little time, but you want a root to give you a continuance. It +is not so long since, as to be forgotten, that the maxim was, It is +impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBEL. Consider at this time in +France, even the new converts are so far from being employed that they +are disarmed; their sudden change maketh them still to be distrusted, +notwithstanding that they are reconciled; what are you to expect then +from your dear friends, to whom, whenever they shall think fit to +throw you off again, you have in other times given such arguments for +their excuse? + +Besides all this you act very unskilfully against your visible +interest, if you throw away the advantages of which you can hardly +fail in the next probable Revolution. Things tend naturally to what +you would have, if you would let them alone, and not by an +unseasonable activity lose the influences of your good star, which +promiseth you everything that is prosperous. + +The Church of England, convinced of its error in being severe to you; +the Parliament, whenever it meeteth sure to be gentle to you; the next +heir, bred in the country which you have so often quoted for a pattern +of indulgence; a general agreement of all thinking men, that we must +no more cut ourselves off from the Protestants abroad, but rather +enlarge the foundations upon which we are to build our defences +against the common enemy; so that in truth, all things seem to +conspire to give you ease and satisfaction, if by too much haste to +anticipate your good fortune you do not destroy it. + +The Protestants have but one article of human strength to oppose the +power which is now against them, and that is not to lose the advantage +of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided. + +We all agree in our duty to our prince; our objections to his belief +do not hinder us from seeing his virtues; and our not complying with +his religion hath no effect upon our allegiance. We are not to be +laughed out of our passive obedience, and the doctrine of +non-resistance, though even those who perhaps owe the best part of +their security to that principle are apt to make a jest of it. + +So that if we give no advantage by the fatal mistake of misapplying +our anger, by the natural course of things this danger will pass away +like a shower of hail; fair weather will succeed, as lowering as the +sky now looketh, and all this by a plain and easy receipt. Let us be +still, quiet, and undivided, firm at the same time to our religion, +our loyalty, and our laws; and so long as we continue this method it +is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose +the bet; except the Church of Rome, which hath been so long barren of +miracles, should now, in her declining age, be brought to bed of one +that would outdo the best she can brag of in her legend. + +To conclude, the short question will be, Whether you will join with +those who must in the end run the same fate with you? If Protestants +of all sorts, in their behaviour to one another, have been to blame, +they are upon more equal terms, and, for that very reason, it is +fitter for them now to be reconciled. Our disunion is not only a +reproach, but a danger to us. Those who believe in modern miracles +have more right, or at least more excuse, to neglect all secular +caution; but for us, it is as justifiable to have no religion as +wilfully to throw away the human means of preserving it.--I am, Dear +Sir, your most affectionate humble Servant, T.W. + + + + +II.--'THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS' + +BY DANIEL DEFOE + + +(_Defoe wrote an enormous number of pamphlets; for great part of his +life he might almost have been described as a pamphleteer pure and +simple. In the vast lists of publications which his biographers and +bibliographers have compiled, partly by industry and partly by +imagination, by far the larger number of entries is of the pamphlet +kind. Indeed, as most people know, Defoe did not take to the +composition of the fiction which has made his name famous till very +late in life. Born in the year 1661, he began pamphleteering when he +was scarcely of age, and continued in that way (with occasional +excursions into work larger in scale, but not very different in style +or matter) for nearly forty years before the publication of _Robinson +Crusoe_. His two most famous and most effective pamphlets were the +so-called _Legion Letter_ and _The Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ +(given here), to which may perhaps be added the _Reasons against War +with France_. All these, with many others, appeared within the +compass of the years 1700-1702. The three together touched upon the +three most burning questions of the late seventeenth and early +eighteenth centuries--parliamentary factiousness, an aggressive policy +abroad, and toleration at home. Little or no annotation is required +for their comprehension, but the reader may amuse himself if he likes +by meditating whether the _Shortest Way_ is irony or not. My own +opinion is that it is not; being a simple statement of the actual +views of the other side. The anecdotic history of the piece--how it +was taken for serious by both sides, was prosecuted by Government, the +author proclaimed, and a reward offered for his detection; how, the +printer and publisher being arrested, Defoe surrendered, was tried, +pleaded guilty, was fined, pilloried, and imprisoned--may be read in +the biographies. His imprisonment lasted till August 1704, when Harley +let him out, and he entered upon a course of rather mysterious service +as a Government free-lance, which was continued under various +ministries, and has not on the whole brought him credit with +posterity. For many years, his remarkable _Review_, a political +journal which he conducted single-handed, served as his chief organ; +but he never gave up writing pamphlets till his death in 1731, though +he never approached either the merit or the effect of that here +given._) + + +Sir Roger L'Estrange tells us a story in his collection of fables, of +the cock and the horses. The cock was gotten to roost in the stable +among the horses, and there being no racks or other conveniences for +him, it seems he was forced to roost upon the ground. The horses +jostling about for room, and putting the cock in danger of his life, +he gives them this grave advice, 'Pray, gentlefolks, let us stand +still, for fear we should tread upon one another.' + +There are some people in the world, who now they are unperched, and +reduced to an equality with other people, and under strong and very +just apprehensions of being further treated as they deserve, begin, +with Æsop's cock, to preach up peace and union, and the Christian +duties of moderation, forgetting that, when they had the power in +their hands, these graces were strangers in their gates. + +It is now near fourteen years that the glory and peace of the purest +and most flourishing Church in the world has been eclipsed, buffeted, +and disturbed by a sort of men whom God in His providence has suffered +to insult over her and bring her down. These have been the days of her +humiliation and tribulation. She has borne with invincible patience +the reproach of the wicked, and God has at last heard her prayers, and +delivered her from the oppression of the stranger. + +And now they find their day is over, their power gone, and the throne +of this nation possessed by a royal, English, true, and ever-constant +member of, and friend to, the Church of England. Now they find that +they are in danger of the Church of England's just resentments; now +they cry out peace, union, forbearance, and charity, as if the Church +had not too long harboured her enemies under her wing, and nourished +the viperous brood till they hiss and fly in the face of the mother +that cherished them. + +No, gentlemen, the time of mercy is past, your day of grace is over; +you should have practised peace, and moderation, and charity, if you +expected any yourselves. + +We have heard none of this lesson for fourteen years past. We have +been huffed and bullied with your Act of Toleration; you have told us +that you are the Church established by law, as well as others; have +set up your canting synagogues at our church doors, and the Church and +members have been loaded with reproaches, with oaths, associations, +abjurations, and what not. Where has been the mercy, the forbearance, +the charity, you have shown to tender consciences of the Church of +England, that could not take oaths as fast as you made them; that +having sworn allegiance to their lawful and rightful King, could not +dispense with that oath, their King being still alive, and swear to +your new hodge-podge of a Dutch Government? These have been turned out +of their livings, and they and their families left to starve; their +estates double taxed to carry on a war they had no hand in, and you +got nothing by. What account can you give of the multitudes you have +forced to comply, against their consciences, with your new sophistical +politics, who, like new converts in France, sin because they cannot +starve? And now the tables are turned upon you; you must not be +persecuted; it is not a Christian spirit. + +You have butchered one king, deposed another king, and made a mock +king of a third, and yet you could have the face to expect to be +employed and trusted by the fourth. Anybody that did not know the +temper of your party would stand amazed at the impudence, as well as +folly, to think of it. + +Your management of your Dutch monarch, whom you reduced to a mere King +of Clouts, is enough to give any future princes such an idea of your +principles as to warn them sufficiently from coming into your +clutches; and God be thanked the Queen is out of your hands, knows +you, and will have a care of you. + +There is no doubt but the supreme authority of a nation has in itself +a power, and a right to that power, to execute the laws upon any part +of that nation it governs. The execution of the known laws of the +land, and that with a weak and gentle hand neither, was all this +fanatical party of this land have ever called persecution; this they +have magnified to a height, that the sufferings of the Huguenots in +France were not to be compared with. Now, to execute the known laws +of a nation upon those who transgress them, after voluntarily +consenting to the making those laws, can never be called persecution, +but justice. But justice is always violence to the party offending, +for every man is innocent in his own eyes. The first execution of the +laws against Dissenters in England was in the days of King James the +First; and what did it amount to truly? The worst they suffered was at +their own request: to let them go to New England and erect a new +colony, and give them great privileges, grants, and suitable powers, +keep them under protection, and defend them against all invaders, and +receive no taxes or revenue from them. This was the cruelty of the +Church of England. Fatal leniency! It was the ruin of that excellent +prince, King Charles the First. Had King James sent all the Puritans +in England away to the West Indies, we had been a national, unmixed +Church; the Church of England had been kept undivided and entire. + +To requite the lenity of the father they take up arms against the son; +conquer, pursue, take, imprison, and at last put to death the anointed +of God, and destroy the very being and nature of government, setting +up a sordid impostor, who had neither title to govern nor +understanding to manage, but supplied that want with power, bloody and +desperate counsels, and craft without conscience. + +Had not King James the First withheld the full execution of the laws, +had he given them strict justice, he had cleared the nation of them, +and the consequences had been plain: his son had never been murdered +by them nor the monarchy overwhelmed. It was too much mercy shown them +was the ruin of his posterity and the ruin of the nation's peace. One +would think the Dissenters should not have the face to believe that we +are to be wheedled and canted into peace and toleration when they know +that they have once requited us with a civil war, and once with an +intolerable and unrighteous persecution for our former civility. + +Nay, to encourage us to be easy with them, it is apparent that they +never had the upper hand of the Church, but they treated her with all +the severity, with all the reproach and contempt that was possible. +What peace and what mercy did they show the loyal gentry of the Church +of England in the time of their triumphant Commonwealth? How did they +put all the gentry of England to ransom, whether they were actually in +arms for the King or not, making people compound for their estates and +starve their families? How did they treat the clergy of the Church of +England, sequestered the ministers, devoured the patrimony of the +Church, and divided the spoil by sharing the Church lands among their +soldiers, and turning her clergy out to starve? Just such measure as +they have meted should be measured them again. + +Charity and love is the known doctrine of the Church of England, and +it is plain she has put it in practice towards the Dissenters, even +beyond what they ought, till she has been wanting to herself, and in +effect unkind to her sons, particularly in the too much lenity of King +James the First, mentioned before. Had he so rooted the Puritans from +the face of the land, which he had an opportunity early to have done, +they had not had the power to vex the Church as since they have done. + +In the days of King Charles the Second how did the Church reward their +bloody doings with lenity and mercy, except the barbarous regicides of +the pretended court of justice? Not a soul suffered for all the blood +in an unnatural war. King Charles came in all mercy and love, +cherished them, preferred them, employed them, withheld the rigour of +the law, and oftentimes, even against the advice of his Parliament, +gave them liberty of conscience; and how did they requite him with the +villanous contrivance to depose and murder him and his successor at +the Rye Plot? + +King James, as if mercy was the inherent quality of the family, began +his reign with unusual favour to them. Nor could their joining with +the Duke of Monmouth against him move him to do himself justice upon +them; but that mistaken prince thought to win them by gentleness and +love, proclaimed an universal liberty to them, and rather +discountenanced the Church of England than them. How they requited him +all the world knows. + +The late reign is too fresh in the memory of all the world to need a +comment; how, under pretence of joining with the Church in redressing +some grievances, they pushed things to that extremity, in conjunction +with some mistaken gentlemen, as to depose the late King, as if the +grievance of the nation could not have been redressed but by the +absolute ruin of the prince. Here is an instance of their temper, +their peace, and charity. To what height they carried themselves +during the reign of a king of their own; how they crept into all +places of trust and profit; how they insinuated into the favour of the +King, and were at first preferred to the highest places in the nation; +how they engrossed the ministry, and above all, how pitifully they +managed, is too plain to need any remarks. + +But particularly their mercy and charity, the spirit of union, they +tell us so much of, has been remarkable in Scotland. If any man would +see the spirit of a Dissenter, let him look into Scotland. There they +made entire conquest of the Church, trampled down the sacred orders, +and suppressed the Episcopal government with an absolute, and, as they +suppose, irretrievable victory, though it is possible they may find +themselves mistaken. Now it would be a very proper question to ask +their impudent advocate, the Observator, pray how much mercy and +favour did the members of the Episcopal Church find in Scotland from +the Scotch Presbyterian Government? and I shall undertake for the +Church of England that the Dissenters shall still receive as much +here, though they deserve but little. + +In a small treatise of the sufferings of the Episcopal clergy in +Scotland, it will appear what usage they met with; how they not only +lost their livings, but in several places were plundered and abused in +their persons; the ministers that could not conform turned out with +numerous families and no maintenance, and hardly charity enough left +to relieve them with a bit of bread. And the cruelties of the parties +are innumerable, and not to be attempted in this short piece. + +And now to prevent the distant cloud which they perceived to hang over +their heads from England, with a true Presbyterian policy they put in +for a union of nations, that England might unite their Church with the +Kirk of Scotland, and their Presbyterian members sit in our House of +Commons, and their Assembly of Scotch canting long-cloaks in our +Convocation. What might have been if our fanatic Whiggish statesmen +continued, God only knows; but we hope we are out of fear of that now. + +It is alleged by some of the faction--and they began to bully us with +it--that if we won't unite with them they will not settle the crown +with us again, but when Her Majesty dies, will choose a king for +themselves. + +If they won't, we must make them, and it is not the first time we have +let them know that we are able. The crowns of these kingdoms have not +so far disowned the right of succession but they may retrieve it +again; and if Scotland thinks to come off from a successive to an +elective state of government, England has not promised not to assist +the right heir and put them into possession without any regard to +their ridiculous settlements. + +These are the gentlemen, these their ways of treating the Church, both +at home and abroad. Now let us examine the reasons they pretend to +give why we should be favourable to them, why we should continue and +tolerate them among us. + +First, they are very numerous, they say; they are a great part of the +nation, and we cannot suppress them. + +To this may be answered:-- + +1. They are not so numerous as the Protestants in France, and yet the +French King effectually cleared the nation of them at once, and we +don't find he misses them at home. But I am not of the opinion they +are so numerous as is pretended; their party is more numerous than +their persons, and those mistaken people of the Church who are misled +and deluded by their wheedling artifices to join with them, make +their party the greater; but these will open their eyes when the +Government shall set heartily about the work, and come off from them, +as some animals, which they say always desert a house when it is +likely to fall. + +2. The more numerous the more dangerous, and therefore the more need +to suppress them; and God has suffered us to bear them as goads in our +sides for not utterly extinguishing them long ago. + +3. If we are to allow them only because we cannot suppress them, then +it ought to be tried whether we can or not; and I am of opinion it is +easy to be done, and could prescribe ways and means, if it were +proper; but I doubt not the Government will find effectual methods for +the rooting the contagion from the face of this land. + +Another argument they use, which is this, that it is a time of war, +and we have need to unite against the common enemy. + +We answer, this common enemy had been no enemy if they had not made +him so. He was quiet, in peace, and no way disturbed or encroached +upon us, and we know no reason we had to quarrel with him. + +But further, we make no question but we are able to deal with this +common enemy without their help; but why must we unite with them +because of the enemy? Will they go over to the enemy if we do not +prevent it by a union with them? We are very well contented they +should, and make no question we shall be ready to deal with them and +the common enemy too, and better without them than with them. + +Besides, if we have a common enemy, there is the more need to be +secure against our private enemies. If there is one common enemy, we +have the less need to have an enemy in our bowels. + +It was a great argument some people used against suppressing the old +money, that it was a time of war, and it was too great a risk for the +nation to run; if we should not master it, we should be undone. And +yet the sequel proved the hazard was not so great but it might be +mastered, and the success was answerable. The suppressing the +Dissenters is not a harder work nor a work of less necessity to the +public. We can never enjoy a settled, uninterrupted union and +tranquillity in this nation till the spirit of Whiggism, faction, and +schism is melted down like the old money. + +To talk of the difficulty is to frighten ourselves with chimeras and +notions of a powerful party, which are indeed a party without power. +Difficulties often appear greater at a distance than when they are +searched into with judgment and distinguished from the vapours and +shadows that attend them. + +We are not to be frightened with it; this age is wiser than that by +all our own experience and theirs too. King Charles the First had +early suppressed this party if he had taken more deliberate measures. +In short, it is not worth arguing to talk of their arms. Their +Monmouths, and Shaftesburys, and Argyles are gone; their Dutch +sanctuary is at an end; Heaven has made way for their destruction, and +if we do not close with the Divine occasion we are to blame ourselves, +and may remember that we had once an opportunity to serve the Church +of England by extirpating her implacable enemies, and having let slip +the minute that Heaven presented, may experimentally complain, _Post +est occasio calva_. + +Here are some popular objections in the way:-- + +As first, the Queen has promised them to continue them in their +tolerated liberty, and has told us she will be a religious observer of +her word. + +What Her Majesty will do we cannot help; but what, as head of the +Church, she ought to do, is another case. Her Majesty has promised to +protect and defend the Church of England, and if she cannot +effectually do that without the destruction of the Dissenters, she +must of course dispense with one promise to comply with another. But +to answer this cavil more effectually: Her Majesty did never promise +to maintain the toleration to the destruction of the Church; but it is +upon supposition that it may be compatible with the well-being and +safety of the Church, which she had declared she would take especial +care of. Now if these two interests clash, it is plain Her Majesty's +intentions are to uphold, protect, defend, and establish the Church, +and this we conceive is impossible. + +Perhaps it may be said that the Church is in no immediate danger from +the Dissenters, and therefore it is time enough. But this is a weak +answer. + +For first, if a danger be real, the distance of it is no argument +against, but rather a spur to quicken us to prevention, lest it be too +late hereafter. + +And secondly, here is the opportunity, and the only one perhaps that +ever the Church had, to secure herself and destroy her enemies. + +The representatives of the nation have now an opportunity; the time is +come which all good men have wished for, that the gentlemen of England +may serve the Church of England. Now they are protected and encouraged +by a Church of England Queen. + +What will you do for your sister in the day that she shall be spoken +for? + +If ever you will establish the best Christian Church in the world; if +ever you will suppress the spirit of enthusiasm; if ever you will free +the nation from the viperous brood that have so long sucked the blood +of their mother; if ever you will leave your posterity free from +faction and rebellion, this is the time. This is the time to pull up +this heretical weed of sedition that has so long disturbed the peace +of our Church and poisoned the good corn. + +But, says another hot and cold objector, this is renewing fire and +faggot, reviving the act _De Heretico Comburendo_; this will be +cruelty in its nature, and barbarous to all the world. + +I answer, it is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but +the poison of their nature makes it a charity to our neighbours to +destroy those creatures, not for any personal injury received, but for +prevention; not for the evil they have done, but the evil they may do. + +Serpents, toads, vipers, etc., are noxious to the body, and poison the +sensitive life; these poison the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare +our children, destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future +felicity, and contaminate the whole mass. + +Shall any law be given to such wild creatures? Some beasts are for +sport, and the huntsmen give them advantages of ground; but some are +knocked on the head by all possible ways of violence and surprise. + +I do not prescribe fire and faggot, but, as Scipio said of Carthage, +_Delenda est Carthago_. They are to be rooted out of this nation, if +ever we will live in peace, serve God, or enjoy our own. As for the +manner, I leave it to those hands who have a right to execute God's +justice on the nation's and the Church's enemies. + +But if we must be frighted from this justice under the specious +pretences and odious sense of cruelty, nothing will be effected: it +will be more barbarous to our own children and dear posterity when +they shall reproach their fathers, as we do ours, and tell us, 'You +had an opportunity to root out this cursed race from the world under +the favour and protection of a true English queen; and out of your +foolish pity you spared them, because, forsooth, you would not be +cruel; and now our Church is suppressed and persecuted, our religion +trampled under foot, our estates plundered, our persons imprisoned and +dragged to jails, gibbets, and scaffolds: your sparing this Amalekite +race is our destruction, your mercy to them proves cruelty to your +poor posterity.' + +How just will such reflections be when our posterity shall fall under +the merciless clutches of this uncharitable generation, when our +Church shall be swallowed up in schism, faction, enthusiasm, and +confusion; when our Government shall be devolved upon foreigners, and +our monarchy dwindled into a republic. + +It would be more rational for us, if we must spare this generation, to +summon our own to a general massacre, and as we have brought them into +the world free, send them out so, and not betray them to destruction +by our supine negligence, and then cry, 'It is mercy.' + +Moses was a merciful, meek man, and yet with what fury did he run +through the camp, and cut the throats of three and thirty thousand of +his dear Israelites that were fallen into idolatry. What was the +reason? It was mercy to the rest to make these examples, to prevent +the destruction of the whole army. + +How many millions of future souls we save from infection and delusion +if the present race of poisoned spirits were purged from the face of +the land! + +It is vain to trifle in this matter, the light, foolish handling of +them by mulcts, fines, etc.,--it is their glory and their advantage. +If the gallows instead of the Counter, and the galleys instead of the +fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, to preach or hear, +there would not be so many sufferers. The spirit of martyrdom is over; +they that will go to church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors would go +to forty churches rather than be hanged. + +If one severe law were made and punctually executed, that whoever was +found at a conventicle should be banished the nation and the preacher +be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale. They would all come +to church, and one age would make us all one again. + +To talk of five shillings a month for not coming to the sacrament, and +one shilling per week for not coming to church, this is such a way of +converting people as never was known; this is selling them a liberty +to transgress for so much money. If it be not a crime, why don't we +give them full license? And if it be, no price ought to compound for +the committing it, for that is selling a liberty to people to sin +against God and the Government. + +If it be a crime of the highest consequence both against the peace and +welfare of the nation, the glory of God, the good of the Church, and +the happiness of the soul, let us rank it among capital offences, and +let it receive a punishment in proportion to it. + +We hang men for trifles, and banish them for things not worth naming; +but an offence against God and the Church, against the welfare of the +world and the dignity of religion, shall be bought off for five +shillings! This is such a shame to a Christian Government that it is +with regret I transmit it to posterity. + +If men sin against God, affront His ordinances, rebel against His +Church, and disobey the precepts of their superiors, let them suffer +as such capital crimes deserve. So will religion flourish, and this +divided nation be once again united. + +And yet the title of barbarous and cruel will soon be taken off from +this law too. I am not supposing that all the Dissenters in England +should be hanged or banished, but, as in cases of rebellions and +insurrections, if a few of the ringleaders suffer, the multitude are +dismissed; so, a few obstinate people being made examples, there is no +doubt but the severity of the law would find a stop in the compliance +of the multitude. + +To make the reasonableness of this matter out of question, and more +unanswerably plain, let us examine for what it is that this nation is +divided into parties and factions, and let us see how they can justify +a separation, or we of the Church of England can justify our bearing +the insults and inconveniences of the party. + +One of their leading pastors, and a man of as much learning as most +among them, in his answer to a pamphlet, entitled 'An Inquiry into the +Occasional Conformity,' has these words, p. 27, 'Do the religion of +the Church and the meeting-houses make two religions? Wherein do they +differ? The substance of the same religion is common to them both; and +the modes and accidents are the things in which only they differ.' P. +28: 'Thirty-nine articles are given us for the summary of our +religion; thirty-six contain the substance of it, wherein we agree; +three the additional appendices, about which we have some +differences.' + +Now, if, as by their own acknowledgment, the Church of England is a +true Church, and the difference between them is only in a few modes +and accidents, why should we expect that they will suffer galleys, +corporeal punishment, and banishment for these trifles? There is no +question but they will be wiser; even their own principles will not +bear them out in it; they will certainly comply with the laws and with +reason; and though at the first severity they may seem hard, the next +age will feel nothing of it; the contagion will be rooted out; the +disease being cured, there will be no need of the operation; but if +they should venture to transgress and fall into the pit, all the world +must condemn their obstinacy, as being without ground from their own +principles. + +Thus the pretence of cruelty will be taken off, and the party actually +suppressed, and the disquiets they have so often brought upon the +nation prevented. + +Their numbers and their wealth make them haughty, and that is so far +from being an argument to persuade us to forbear them, that it is a +warning to us, without any delay, to reconcile them to the unity of +the Church or remove them from us. + +At present, Heaven be praised, they are not so formidable as they have +been, and it is our own fault if ever we suffer them to be so. +Providence and the Church of England seem to join in this particular, +that now the destroyers of the nation's peace may be overturned, and +to this end the present opportunity seems to be put into our hands. + +To this end her present Majesty seems reserved to enjoy the crown, +that the ecclesiastic as well as civil rights of the nation may be +restored by her hand. To this end the face of affairs have received +such a turn in the process of a few months as never has been before; +the leading men of the nation, the universal cry of the people, the +unanimous request of the clergy, agree in this, that the deliverance +of our Church is at hand. For this end has Providence given us such a +Parliament, such a Convocation, such a gentry, and such a Queen as we +never had before. And what may be the consequences of a neglect of +such opportunities? The succession of the crown has but a dark +prospect; another Dutch turn may make the hopes of it ridiculous and +the practice impossible. Be the house of our future princes never so +well inclined, they will be foreigners, and many years will be spent +in suiting the genius of strangers to this crown and the interests of +the nation; and how many ages it may be before the English throne be +filled with so much zeal and candour, so much tenderness and hearty +affection to the Church as we see it now covered with, who can +imagine? + +It is high time, then, for the friends of the Church of England to +think of building up and establishing her in such a manner that she +may be no more invaded by foreigners nor divided by factions, schisms, +and error. + +If this could be done by gentle and easy methods, I should be glad; +but the wound is corroded, the vitals begin to mortify, and nothing +but amputation of members can complete the cure; all the ways of +tenderness and compassion, all persuasive arguments, have been made +use of in vain. + +The humour of the Dissenters has so increased among the people that +they hold the Church in defiance, and the house of God is an +abomination among them; nay, they have brought up their posterity in +such prepossessed aversions to our holy religion that the ignorant mob +think we are all idolaters and worshippers of Baal, and account it a +sin to come within the walls of our churches. + +The primitive Christians were not more shy of a heathen temple or of +meat offered to idols, nor the Jews of swine's flesh, than some of our +Dissenters are of the Church, and the divine service selemnised +therein. + +This obstinacy must be rooted out with the profession of it; while the +generation are less at liberty daily to affront God Almighty and +dishonour His holy worship, we are wanting in our duty to God and our +mother, the Church of England. + +How can we answer it to God, to the Church, and to our posterity, to +leave them entangled with fanaticism, error, and obstinacy in the +bowels of the nation; to leave them an enemy in their streets, that in +time may involve them in the same crimes, and endanger the utter +extirpation of religion in the nation? + +What is the difference betwixt this and being subjected to the power +of the Church of Rome, from whence we have reformed? If one be an +extreme on one hand, and one on another, it is equally destructive to +the truth to have errors settled among us, let them be of what nature +they will. + +Both are enemies of our Church and of our peace; and why should it not +be as criminal to admit an enthusiast as a Jesuit? Why should the +Papist with his seven sacraments be worse than the Quaker with no +sacraments at all? Why should religious houses be more intolerable +than meeting-houses? Alas, the Church of England! What with Popery on +one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified +between two thieves! + +Now let us crucify the thieves. Let her foundations be established +upon the destruction of her enemies. The doors of mercy being always +open to the returning part of the deluded people, let the obstinate be +ruled with the rod of iron. + +Let all true sons of so holy and oppressed a mother, exasperated by +her afflictions, harden their hearts against those who have oppressed +her. + +And may God Almighty put it into the hearts of all the friends of +truth to lift up a standard against pride and Antichrist, that the +posterity of the sons of error may be rooted out from the face of this +land for ever. + + + + +III.--THE 'DRAPIER'S LETTERS' + +(NOS. I AND 2) + +BY JONATHAN SWIFT + + +(_The two pamphlets entitled _The Conduct of the Allies_ and _The +Public Spirit of the Whigs_--which are sometimes considered the +capital examples of the political efforts of Swift's magnificent +genius--were the very Jachin and Boaz of the Tory administration in +the last years of Anne, and the effect of them has been admitted by +such a violent Whig and such a good critic as Jeffrey. They seemed, +however, not wholly suitable for insertion here; first, because of +their length (for one would have occupied nearly a third, the other +nearly a fourth of this volume), and secondly, because the greater +part of each does really, to some extent, underlie the charge brought +against political pamphlets generally, and, being occupied with a +great number of personal and particular matters, requires either much +intimacy with the period or elaborate and probably tedious comparison +and elucidation, to make it intelligible. No such drawback attaches +to the almost more famous _Drapier's Letters_, of which I give the +first and second. They were written at the very zenith of their +author's marvellous powers, and at the time when his _sæva indignatio_ +was heated seven times hotter than usual by the conviction that his +last hope of English promotion was gone. Their circumstances are +simple and well known. Wood had received a patent to coin copper money +for Ireland to the amount of £108,000. Most commentators seem to think +that he would have done this honestly enough; to me the simple fact +that on the revocation of his patent a pension of £3000 a year was +given to him in compensation is proof enough of the contrary. It is +impossible to imagine any honest profit on a transaction of such a +nature to such an amount which could rise to the capital value of such +a pension. That Swift was instigated to take up his pen against the +transaction by private griefs against the Ministry is extremely +probable; that the thing was not a job less so. As before, I must +refer to biographers for the details of the matter; the text is what +interests us here. I shall only remind the reader that Swift was +fifty-seven when the 'Drapier' wrote, that _Gulliver_ appeared about +three years later, and that Swift himself expired--lunatic and +miserable beyond utterance--on the 19th October 1745, twenty-one years +after all Dublin and half England had rung with the boldness and the +triumph of the 'Drapier.'_) + + +I + +TO THE TRADESMEN, SHOP-KEEPERS, FARMERS, AND COMMON-PEOPLE IN GENERAL, +OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND; CONCERNING THE BRASS HALF-PENCE COINED BY +MR. WOOD. + +Brethren, Friends, Countrymen, and Fellow Subjects--What I intend now +to say to you, is, next to your duty to God, and the care of your +salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves, and your children; +your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life entirely +depend upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men, as +Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country, to read this +paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; +which that you may do at the less expence, I have ordered the printer +to sell it at the lowest rate. + +It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no other +intention than to do you good you will not be at the pains to read his +advices: one copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you, which will +be less than a farthing a-piece. It is your folly that you have no +common or general interest in your view, not even the wisest among +you, neither do you know or enquire, or care who are your friends or +who are your enemies. + +About four years ago, a little book was written, to advise all people +to wear the manufactures of this our own dear country: it had no other +design, said nothing against the king or Parliament, or any man, yet +the poor printer was prosecuted two years, with the utmost violence, +and even some weavers themselves, for whose sake it was written, being +upon the jury, found him guilty. This would be enough to discourage +any man from endeavouring to do you good, when you will either neglect +him or fly in his face for his pains, and when he must expect only +danger to himself and loss of money, perhaps to his ruin. + +However, I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest destruction +before your eyes, if you do not behave yourselves as you ought. + +I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact; and then +I will lay before you how you ought to act in common prudence, and +according to the laws of your country. + +The fact is thus, It having been many years since copper half-pence or +farthings were last coined in this kingdom, they have been for some +time very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about under the name of +raps. Several applications were made to England, that we might have +liberty to coin new ones, as in former times we did; but they did not +succeed. At last one Mr. Wood a mean ordinary man, a hard-ware dealer, +procured a patent under his Majesty's Broad Seal to coin fourscore and +ten thousand pounds in copper for this kingdom, which patent however +did not oblige any one here to take them, unless they pleased. Now you +must know, that the half-pence and farthings in England pass for very +little more than they are worth. And if you should beat them to +pieces, and sell them to the brazier, you would not lose above a penny +in a shilling. But Mr. Wood made his half-pence of such base metal, +and so much smaller than the English ones, that the brazier would not +give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of his; so that +this sum of fourscore and ten thousand pounds in good gold and silver, +must be given for trash that will not be worth above eight or nine +thousand pounds real value. But this is not the worst, for Mr. Wood, +when he pleases, may by stealth send over another and another +fourscore and ten thousand pounds, and buy all our goods for eleven +parts in twelve, under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a +dozen of hats for five shillings a-piece, which amounts to three +pounds, and receives the payment in Mr. Wood's coin, he really +receives only the value of five shillings. + +Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood +could have so much interest as to get his Majesty's Broad Seal for so +great a sum of bad money to be sent to this poor country, and that +all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and +let us make our own half-pence, as we used to do. Now I will make that +matter very plain. We are at a great distance from the king's court, +and have nobody there to solicit for us, although a great number of +lords and squires, whose estates are here, and are our countrymen, +spend all their lives and fortunes there. But this same Mr. Wood was +able to attend constantly for his own interest; he is an Englishman +and had great friends, and it seems knew very well where to give money +to those that would speak to others that could speak to the king and +could tell a fair story. And his majesty, and perhaps the great lord +or lords who advised him, might think it was for our country's good; +and so, as the lawyers express it, the king was deceived in his grant, +which often happens in all reigns. And I am sure if his majesty knew +that such a patent, if it should take effect according to the desire +of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin this kingdom, which hath given such +great proofs of its loyalty, he would immediately recall it, and +perhaps show his displeasure to somebody or other: but a word to the +wise is enough. Most of you must have heard, with what anger our +honourable House of Commons receiv'd an account of this Wood's patent. +There were several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proofs that +it was all a wicked cheat from the bottom to the top, and several +smart votes were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to +answer likewise in print, and in so confident a way, as if he were a +better man than our whole Parliament put together. + +This Wood, as soon as his patent was passed, or soon after, sends over +a great many barrels of those half-pence, to Cork and other seaport +towns, and to get them off, offered an hundred pounds in his coin for +seventy or eighty in silver: but the collectors of the king's customs +very honestly refused to take them, and so did almost everybody else. +And since the Parliament hath condemned them, and desired the king +that they might be stopped, all the kingdom do abominate them. + +But Wood is still working under hand to force his half-pence upon us, +and if he can by help of his friends in England prevail so far as to +get an order that the commissioners and collectors of the king's money +shall receive them, and that the army is to be paid with them, then he +thinks his work shall be done. And this is the difficulty you will be +under in such a case: for the common soldier when he goes to the +market or ale-house will offer this money, and if it be refused, +perhaps he will swagger and hector, and threaten to beat the butcher +or ale-wife, or take the goods by force, and throw them the bad +half-pence. In this and the like cases the shop-keeper, or victualler, +or any other tradesman, has no more to do than to demand ten times +the price of his goods if it is to be paid in Wood's money; for +example, twenty pence of that money for a quart of ale, and so in all +things else, and not part with his goods till he gets the money. + +For suppose you go to an ale-house with that base money, and the +landlord gives you a quart for four of these half-pence, what must the +victualler do? His brewer will not be paid in that coin, or if the +brewer should be such a fool, the farmers will not take it from them +for their bere, because they are bound by their leases to pay their +rents in good and lawful money of England, which this is not, nor of +Ireland neither, and the Squire their landlord will never be so +bewitched to take such trash for his land; so that it must certainly +stop somewhere or other, and where-ever it stops it is the same thing, +and we are all undone. + +The common weight of these half-pence is between four and five to an +ounce; suppose five, then three shillings and fourpence will weigh a +pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pounds butter +weight. Now there are many hundred farmers who pay two hundred pound a +year rent. Therefore when one of these farmers comes with his half +year's rent, which is one hundred pound, it will be at least six +hundred pound weight, which is three horses load. + +If a squire has a mind to come to town to buy clothes and wine and +spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter here, he +must bring with him five or six horses loaden with sacks as the +farmers bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach to our +shops, it must be followed by a car loaded with Mr. Wood's money. And +I hope we shall have the grace to take it for no more than it is +worth. + +They say Squire Conolly has sixteen thousand pounds a year; now if he +sends for his rent to town, as it is likely he does, he must have two +hundred and fifty horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or +three great cellars in his house for stowage. But what the bankers +will do I cannot tell. For I am assured that some great bankers keep +by them forty thousand pounds in ready cash, to answer all payments, +which sum, in Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to +carry it. + +For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a pretty +good shop of Irish stuffs and silks, and instead of taking Mr. Wood's +bad copper, I intend to truck with my neighbours the butchers, and +bakers, and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods, and the little +gold and silver I have I will keep by me like my heart's blood till +better times, or till I am just ready to starve, and then I will buy +Mr. Wood's money, as my father did the brass money in K. James's time, +who could buy ten pound of it with a guinea, and I hope to get as +much for a pistole, and so purchase bread from those who will be such +fools as to sell it me. + +These half-pence, if they once pass, will soon be counterfeit, because +it may be cheaply done, the stuff is so base. The Dutch likewise will +probably do the same thing, and send them over to us to pay for our +goods; and Mr. Wood will never be at rest but coin on: so that in some +years we shall have at least five times fourscore and ten thousand +pounds of this lumber. Now the current money of this kingdom is not +reckoned to be above four hundred thousand pounds in all; and while +there is a silver sixpence left, these blood-suckers will never be +quiet. + +When once the kingdom is reduced to such a condition I will tell you +what must be the end: the gentlemen of estates will all turn off their +tenants for want of payment, because, as I told you before, the +tenants are obliged by their leases to pay sterling, which is lawful +current money of England; then they will turn their own farmers, as +too many of them do already, run all into sheep where they can, +keeping only such other cattle as are necessary; then they will be +their own merchants, and send their wool and butter and hides and +linen beyond sea for ready money and wine and spices and silks. They +will keep only a few miserable cottiers. The farmers must rob or beg, +or leave their country. The shop-keepers in this and every other town +must break and starve: for it is the landed man that maintains the +merchant, and shop-keeper, and handicraftsman. + +But when the squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the good +money he gets from abroad he will hoard up to send for England, and +keep some poor tailor or weaver and the like in his own house, who +will be glad to get bread at any rate. + +I should never have done, if I were to tell you all the miseries that +we shall undergo if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this cursed +coin. It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into one +scale, and this sorry fellow Wood into the other, that Mr. Wood should +weigh down this whole kingdom, by which England gets above a million +of good money every year clear into their pockets, and that is more +than the English do by all the world besides. + +But your great comfort is, that, as his majesty's patent does not +oblige you to take this money, so the laws have not given the Crown a +power of forcing the subjects to take what money the king pleases: for +then, by the same reason, we might be bound to take pebble-stones or +cockle-shells, or stamped leather for current coin, if ever we should +happen to live under an ill prince, who might likewise by the same +power make a guinea pass for ten pounds, a shilling for twenty +shillings, and so on, by which he would in a short time get all the +silver and gold of the kingdom into his own hands, and leave us +nothing but brass or leather or what he pleased. Neither is anything +reckoned more cruel or oppressive in the French Government than their +common practice of calling in all their money after they have sunk it +very low, and then coining it a-new at a much higher value, which +however is not the thousandth part so wicked as this abominable +project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects silver for +silver, and gold for gold; but this fellow will not so much as give us +good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a twelfth part +of their worth. + +Having said this much, I will now go on to tell you the judgments of +some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose for your +sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be sure +I went upon good grounds. + +A famous law-book call'd the _Mirrour of Justice_, discoursing of the +articles (or laws) ordained by our ancient kings, declares the law to +be as follows: It was ordained that no king of this realm should +change, impair, or amend the money or make any other money than of +gold or silver without the assent of all the counties, that is, as my +Lord Coke says, without the assent of Parliament. + +This book is very ancient, and of great authority for the time in +which it was wrote, and with that character is often quoted by that +great lawyer my Lord Coke. By the laws of England, several metals are +divided into lawful or true metal and unlawful or false metal; the +former comprehends silver or gold, the latter all baser metals: that +the former is only to pass in payments appears by an Act of Parliament +made the twentieth year of Edward the First, called the statute +concerning the passing of pence, which I give you here as I got it +translated into English; for some of our laws at that time were, as I +am told, writ in Latin: Whoever in buying or selling presumeth to +refuse an half-penny or farthing of lawful money, bearing the stamp +which it ought to have, let him be seized on as a contemner of the +king's majesty, and cast to prison. + +By this statute, no person is to be reckoned a contemner of the king's +majesty, and for that crime to be committed to prison, but he who +refuses to accept the king's coin made of lawful metal, by which, as I +observ'd before, silver and gold only are intended. + +That this is the true construction of the Act, appears not only from +the plain meaning of the words, but from my Lord Coke's observation +upon it. By this Act (says he) it appears that no subject can be +forc'd to take in buying or selling or other payments, any money made +but of lawful metal; that is, of silver or gold. + +The law of England gives the king all mines of gold and silver, but +not the mines of other metals; the reason of which prerogative or +power, as it is given by my Lord Coke, is, because money can be made +of gold and silver, but not of other metals. + +Pursuant to this opinion half-pence and farthings were anciently made +of silver, which is more evident from the Act of Parliament of Henry +the IVth. chap. 4, by which it is enacted as follows: Item, for the +great scarcity that is at present within the realm of England of +half-pence and farthings of silver, it is ordained and established +that the third part of all the money of silver plate which shall be +brought to the bullion, shall be made in half-pence and farthings. +This shows that by the words half-penny and farthing of lawful money +in that statute concerning the passing of pence, is meant a small coin +in half-pence and farthings of silver. + +This is further manifest from the statute of the ninth year of Edward +the IIId. chap. 3, which enacts, That no sterling half-penny or +farthing be molten for to make vessel, or any other thing by the +goldsmiths, nor others, upon forfeiture of the money so molten (or +melted). + +By another Act in this king's reign black money was not to be current +in England, and by an Act made in the eleventh year of his reign, +chap. 5, galley half-pence were not to pass: what kind of coin these +were I do not know, but I presume they were made of base metal, and +that these Acts were no new laws, but further declarations of the old +laws relating to the coin. + +Thus the law stands in relation to coin, nor is there any example to +the contrary, except one in Davis's _Reports_, who tells us, that in +the time of Tyrone's rebellion Queen Elizabeth ordered money of mixt +metal to be coined in the Tower of London, and sent over hither for +payment of the army, obliging all people to receive it, and commanding +that all silver money should be taken only as bullion, that is, for as +much as it weighed. Davis tells us several particulars in this matter +too long here to trouble you with, and that the Privy Council of this +kingdom obliged a merchant in England to receive this mixt money for +goods transmitted hither. + +But this proceeding is rejected by all the best lawyers as contrary to +law, the Privy Council here having no such power. And, besides, it is +to be considered that the Queen was then under great difficulties by a +rebellion in this kingdom, assisted from Spain, and whatever is done +in great exigences and dangerous times should never be an example to +proceed by in seasons of peace and quietness. + +I will now, my dear friends, to save you the trouble, set before you, +in short, what the law obliges you to do, and what it does not oblige +you to. + +First, You are oblig'd to take all money in payments which is coin'd +by the king and is of the English standard or weight, provided it be +of gold or silver. + +Secondly, You are not oblig'd to take any money which is not of gold +or silver, not only the half-pence or farthings of England, or of any +other country; and it is only for convenience, or ease, that you are +content to take them, because the custom of coining silver half-pence +and farthings hath long been left off, I will suppose on account of +their being subject to be lost. + +Thirdly, Much less are we oblig'd to take those vile half-pence of +that same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven-pence in every +shilling. + +Therefore, my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy +trash: it is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood; his majesty in his +patent obliges nobody to take these half-pence; our gracious prince +hath no so ill advisers about him; or if he had, yet you see the laws +have not left it in the king's power, to force us to take any coin but +what is lawful, of right standard, gold and silver; therefore you have +nothing to fear. + +And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who are +the poor sort of tradesmen: perhaps you may think you will not be so +great losers as the rich if these half-pence should pass, because you +seldom see any silver, and your customers come to your shops or stalls +with nothing but brass, which you likewise find hard to be got; but +you may take my word, whenever this money gains footing among you, you +will be utterly undone; if you carry these half-pence to a shop for +tobacco or brandy, or any other thing you want, the shop-keeper will +advance his goods accordingly, or else he must break and leave the key +under the door. Do you think I will sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff +for twenty of Mr. Wood's half-pence? No, not under two hundred at +least, neither will I be at the trouble of counting, but weigh them in +a lump. I will tell you one thing further, that if Mr. Wood's project +should take it will ruin even our beggars: for when I give a beggar an +half-penny, it will quench his thirst, or go a good way to fill his +belly; but the twelfth part of a half-penny will do him no more +service than if I should give him three pins out of my sleeve. + +In short those half-pence are like the accursed thing, which, as the +Scripture tells us, the children of Israel were forbidden to touch; +they will run about like the plague and destroy every one who lays his +hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told a king +that he had invented a way to torment people by putting them into a +bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the projector +first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment; this very much +resembles the project of Mr. Wood; and the like of this may possibly +be Mr. Wood's fate, that the brass he contrived to torment this +kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his destruction at last. + +_N.B._--The author of this paper is inform'd by persons who have made +it their business to be exact in their observations on the true value +of these half-pence, that any person may expect to get a quart of +twopenny ale for thirty-six of them. + +I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to refresh +their memories whenever they shall have further notice of Mr. Wood's +half-pence or any other the like imposture. + + +II. + +A LETTER TO MR. HARDING THE PRINTER, UPON OCCASION OF A PARAGRAPH IN +HIS NEWS-PAPER OF AUGUST 1, 1724, RELATING TO MR. WOOD'S HALF-PENCE. + +In your news-letter of the first instant there is a paragraph dated +from London, July 25th, relating to Wood's half-pence; whereby it is +plain, what I foretold in my letter to the shop-keepers, etc., that +this vile fellow would never be at rest, and that the danger of our +ruin approaches nearer, and therefore the kingdom requires new and +fresh warning; however I take that paragraph to be, in a great +measure, an imposition upon the public, at least I hope so, because I +am informed that Wood is generally his own news-writer. I cannot but +observe from that paragraph that this public enemy of ours, not +satisfied to ruin us with his trash, takes every occasion to treat +this kingdom with the utmost contempt. He represents several of our +merchants and traders upon examination before a committee of a +council, agreeing that there was the utmost necessity of copper-money +here, before his patent, so that several gentlemen have been forced to +tally with their workmen, and give them bits of cards sealed and +subscribed with their names. What then? If a physician prescribe to a +patient a dram of physic, shall a rascal apothecary cram him with a +pound, and mix it up with poison? And is not a landlord's hand and +seal to his own labourers a better security for five or ten shillings, +than Wood's brass seven times below the real value, can be to the +kingdom, for an hundred and four thousand pounds? + +But who are these merchants and traders of Ireland that make this +report of the utmost necessity we are under of copper money? They are +only a few betrayers of their country, confederates with Wood, from +whom they are to purchase a great quantity of his coin, perhaps at +half value, and vend it among us to the ruin of the public and their +own private advantage. Are not these excellent witnesses, upon whose +integrity the fate of a kingdom must depend, who are evidences in +their own cause, and sharers in this work of iniquity? + +If we could have deserved the liberty of coining for ourselves, as we +formerly did (and why we have not is everybody's wonder as well as +mine), ten thousand pounds might have been coined here in Dublin of +only one fifth below the intrinsic value, and this sum, with the stock +of half-pence we then had, would have been sufficient: but Wood by his +emissaries, enemies to God and this kingdom, hath taken care to buy up +as many of our old half-pence as he could, and from thence the present +want of change arises; to remove which, by Mr. Wood's remedy, would +be, to cure a scratch on the finger by cutting off the arm. But +supposing there were not one farthing of change in the whole nation, I +will maintain that five and twenty thousand pounds would be a sum +fully sufficient to answer all our occasions. I am no inconsiderable +shop-keeper in this town, I have discoursed with several of my own and +other trades, with many gentlemen both of city and country, and also +with great numbers of farmers, cottagers, and labourers, who all agree +that two shillings in change for every family would be more than +necessary in all dealings. Now by the largest computation (even before +that grievous discouragement of agriculture, which hath so much +lessened our numbers) the souls in this kingdom are computed to be +one million and a half, which, allowing but six to a family, makes two +hundred and fifty thousand families, and consequently two shillings to +each family will amount only to five and twenty thousand pounds, +whereas this honest liberal hard-ware-man Wood, would impose upon us +above four times that sum. + +Your paragraph relates further, that Sir Isaac Newton reported an +assay taken at the Tower, of Wood's metal, by which it appears that +Wood had in all respects performed his contract. His contract! With +whom? Was it with the Parliament or people of Ireland? Are not they to +be the purchasers? But they detest, abhor, and reject it, as corrupt, +fraudulent, mingled with dirt and trash. Upon which he grows angry, +goes to law, and will impose his goods upon us by force. + +But your news-letter says that an assay was made of the coin. How +impudent and insupportable is this? Wood takes care to coin a dozen or +two half-pence of good metal, sends them to the Tower and they are +approved, and these must answer all that he hath already coined or +shall coin for the future. It is true, indeed, that a gentleman often +sends to my shop for a pattern of stuff, I cut it fairly off, and if +he likes it he comes or sends and compares the pattern with the whole +piece, and probably we come to a bargain. But if I were to buy an +hundred sheep, and the grazier should bring me one single weather fat +and well fleeced by way of pattern, and expect the same price round +for the whole hundred, without suffering me to see them before he was +paid, or giving me good security to restore my money for those that +were lean or shorn or scabby, I would be none of his customer. I have +heard of a man who had a mind to sell his house, and therefore carried +a piece of brick in his pocket, which he showed as a pattern to +encourage purchasers: and this is directly the case in point with Mr. +Wood's assay. + +The next part of the paragraph contains Mr. Wood's voluntary proposals +for preventing any future objections or apprehensions. + +His first proposal is, that whereas he hath already coined seventeen +thousand pounds, and has copper prepared to make it up forty thousand +pounds, he will be content to coin no more, unless the exigences of +trade require it, though his patent empowers him to coin a far greater +quantity. + +To which if I were to answer it should be thus: Let Mr. Wood and his +crew of founders and tinkers coin on till there is not an old kettle +left in the kingdom; let them coin old leather, tobacco-pipe clay, or +the dirt in the streets, and call their trumpery by what name they +please from a guinea to a farthing, we are not under any concern to +know how he and his tribe or accomplices think fit to employ +themselves. But I hope and trust that we are all to a man fully +determined to have nothing to do with him or his ware. + +The king has given him a patent to coin half-pence, but hath not +obliged us to take them, and I have already shown in my Letter to the +Shop-keepers, etc., that the law hath not left it in the power of the +prerogative to compel the subject to take any money, beside gold and +silver of the right sterling and standard. + +Wood further proposes, (if I understand him right, for his expressions +are dubious) that he will not coin above forty thousand pounds unless +the exigences of trade require it: First, I observe that this sum of +forty thousand pounds is almost double to what I proved to be +sufficient for the whole kingdom, although we had not one of our old +half-pence left. Again I ask, who is to be judge when the exigences of +trade require it? Without doubt he means himself, for as to us of this +poor kingdom, who must be utterly ruined if his project should +succeed, we were never once consulted till the matter was over, and he +will judge of our exigences by his own; neither will these be ever at +an end till he and his accomplices will think they have enough: and it +now appears that he will not be content with all our gold and silver, +but intends to buy up our goods and manufactures with the same coin. + +I shall not enter into examination of the prices for which he now +proposes to sell his half-pence or what he calls his copper, by the +pound; I have said enough of it in my former letter, and it hath +likewise been considered by others. It is certain that, by his own +first computation, we were to pay three shillings for what was +intrinsically worth but one, although it had been of the true weight +and standard for which he pretended to have contracted; but there is +so great a difference both in weight and badness in several of his +coins that some of them have been nine in ten below the intrinsic +value, and most of them six or seven. + +His last proposal being of a peculiar strain and nature, deserves to +be very particularly consider'd, both on account of the matter and the +style. It is as follows. + +Lastly, in consideration of the direful apprehensions which prevail in +Ireland, that Mr. Wood will by such coinage drain them of their gold +and silver, he proposes to take their manufactures in exchange, and +that no person be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +at one payment. + +First, observe this little impudent hard-ware-man turning into +ridicule the direful apprehensions of a whole kingdom, priding himself +as the cause of them, and daring to prescribe what no king of England +ever attempted, how far a whole nation shall be obliged to take his +brass coin. And he has reason to insult; for sure there was never an +example in history of a great kingdom kept in awe for above a year in +daily dread of utter destruction, not by a powerful invader at the +head of twenty thousand men, not by a plague or a famine, not by a +tyrannical prince (for we never had one more gracious) or a corrupt +administration, but by one single, diminutive, insignificant, +mechanic. + +But to go on. To remove our direful apprehensions that he will drain +us of our gold and silver by his coinage, this little arbitrary +mock-monarch most graciously offers to take our manufactures in +exchange. Are our Irish understandings indeed so low in his opinion? +Is not this the very misery we complain of? That his cursed project +will put us under the necessity of selling our goods for what is equal +to nothing. How would such a proposal sound from France or Spain, or +any other country we deal with, if they should offer to deal with us +only upon this condition, that we should take their money at ten times +higher than the intrinsic value? Does Mr. Wood think, for instance, +that we will sell him a stone of wool for a parcel of his counters not +worth sixpence, when we can send it to England and receive as many +shillings in gold and silver? Surely there was never heard such a +compound of impudence, villainy and folly. + +His proposals conclude with perfect high-treason. He promises, that +no person shall be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +of his coin in one payment: by which it is plain that he pretends to +oblige every subject in this kingdom to take so much in every payment, +if it be offered; whereas his patent obliges no man, nor can the +prerogative by law claim such a power, as I have often observed; so +that here Mr. Wood takes upon him the entire legislature, and an +absolute dominion over the properties of the whole nation. + +Good God! Who are this wretch's advisers? Who are his supporters, +abettors, encouragers, or sharers? Mr. Wood will oblige me to take +five-pence half-penny of his brass in every payment. And I will shoot +Mr. Wood and his deputies through the head, like highway-men or +house-breakers, if they dare to force one farthing of their coin upon +me in the payment of an hundred pounds. It is no loss of honour to +submit to the lion; but who, with the figure of a man can think with +patience of being devoured alive by a rat? He has laid a tax upon the +people of Ireland of seventeen shillings at least in the pound; a tax, +I say, not only upon lands, but interest-money, goods, manufactures, +the hire of handicraftsmen, labourers and servants. Shop-keepers, look +to yourselves. Wood will oblige and force you to take five-pence +half-penny of his trash in every payment, and many of you receive +twenty, thirty, forty, payments in one day, or else you can hardly +find bread: and pray consider how much that will amount to in a year; +twenty times five-pence half-penny is nine shillings and two-pence, +which is above an hundred and sixty pounds a year, whereof you will be +losers of at least one hundred and forty pounds by taking your +payments in his money. If any of you be content to deal with Mr. Wood +on such conditions they may. But for my own particular, let his money +perish with him. If the famous Mr. Hampden rather chose to go to +prison than pay a few shillings to King Charles I. without authority +of Parliament, I will rather choose to be hanged than have all my +substance taxed at seventeen shillings in the pound, at the arbitrary +will and pleasure of the venerable Mr. Wood. + +The paragraph concludes thus. _N.B._ (that is to say _nota bene_, or +mark well) No evidence appeared from Ireland or elsewhere, to prove +the mischiefs complained of, or any abuses whatsoever committed in the +execution of the said grant. + +The impudence of this remark exceeds all that went before. First, the +House of Commons in Ireland, which represents the whole people of the +kingdom; and secondly the Privy Council, addressed his majesty against +these half-pence. What could be done more to express the universal +sense and opinion of the nation? If his copper were diamonds, and the +kingdom were entirely against it, would not that be sufficient to +reject it? Must a committee of the House of Commons, and our whole +Privy Council go over to argue pro and con with Mr. Wood? To what end +did the king give his patent for coining of half-pence in Ireland? Was +it not, because it was represented to his sacred majesty, that such a +coinage would be of advantage to the good of this kingdom, and of all +his subjects here? It is to the patentee's peril if his representation +be false, and the execution of his patent be fraudulent and corrupt. +Is he so wicked and foolish to think that his patent was given him to +ruin a million and a half of people, that he might be a gainer of +three or fourscore thousand pounds to himself? Before he was at the +charge of passing a patent, much more of raking up so much filthy +dross, and stamping it with his majesty's image and superscription, +should he not first in common sense, in common equity, and common +manners, have consulted the principal party concerned; that is to say, +the people of the kingdom, the House of Lords or Commons, or the Privy +Council? If any foreigner should ask us, whose image and +superscription there is on Wood's coin, we should be ashamed to tell +him, it was Cæsar's. In that great want of copper half-pence, which +he alleges we were, our city set up our Cæsar's statue in excellent +copper, at an expence that is equal in value to thirty thousand +pounds of his coin; and we will not receive his image in worse metal. + +I observe many of our people putting a melancholy case on this +subject. It is true say they, we are all undone if Wood's half-pence +must pass; but what shall we do, if his majesty puts out a +proclamation commanding us to take them? This has been often dinned in +my ears. But I desire my countrymen to be assured that there is +nothing in it. The king never issues out a proclamation but to enjoin +what the law permits him. He will not issue out a proclamation against +law, or if such a thing should happen by a mistake, we are no more +obliged to obey it than to run our heads into the fire. Besides, his +majesty will never command us by a proclamation, what he does not +offer to command us in the patent itself. There he leaves it to our +discretion, so that our destruction must be entirely owing to +ourselves. Therefore let no man be afraid of a proclamation, which +will never be granted; and if it should, yet upon this occasion, will +be of no force. The king's revenues here are near four hundred +thousand pounds a year, can you think his ministers will advise him to +take them in Wood's brass, which will reduce the value to fifty +thousand pounds? England gets a million sterl. by this nation, which, +if this project goes on, will be almost reduc'd to nothing: and do you +think those who live in England upon Irish estates will be content to +take an eighth or a tenth part, by being paid in Wood's dross? + +If Wood and his confederates were not convinced of our stupidity, they +never would have attempted so audacious an enterprise. He now sees a +spirit hath been raised against him, and he only watches till it +begins to flag, he goes about watching when to devour us. He hopes we +shall be weary of contending with him, and at last out of ignorance, +or fear, or of being perfectly tired with opposition, we shall be +forced to yield. And therefore I confess it is my chief endeavour to +keep up your spirits and resentments. If I tell you there is a +precipice under you, and that if you go forwards you will certainly +break your necks--if I point to it before your eyes, must I be at the +trouble of repeating it every morning? Are our people's hearts waxed +gross? Are their ears dull of hearing, and have they closed their +eyes? I fear there are some few vipers among us, who, for ten or +twenty pounds' gain, would sell their souls and their country, though +at last it would end in their own ruin as well as ours. Be not like +the deaf adder, who refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he +never so wisely. + +Though my letter be directed to you, Mr. Harding, yet I intend it for +all my countrymen. I have no interest in this affair but what is +common to the public; I can live better than many others, I have some +gold and silver by me, and a shop well furnished, and shall be able +to make a shift when many of my betters are starving. But I am grieved +to see the coldness and indifference of many people with whom I +discourse. Some are afraid of a proclamation, others shrug up their +shoulders, and cry, what would you have us to do? Some give out, there +is no danger at all. Others are comforted that it will be a common +calamity and they shall fare no worse than their neighbours. Will a +man, who hears midnight-robbers at his door, get out of bed, and raise +his family for a common defence, and shall a whole kingdom lie in a +lethargy, while Mr. Wood comes at the head of his confederates to rob +them of all they have, to ruin us and our posterity for ever? If an +high-way-man meets you on the road, you give him your money to save +your life; but, God be thanked, Mr. Wood cannot touch a hair of your +heads. You have all the laws of God and man on your side. When he or +his accomplices offer you his dross, it is but saying No, and you are +safe. If a madman should come to my shop with a handful of dirt raked +out of the kennel, and offer it in payment for ten yards of stuff, I +would pity or laugh at him, or, if his behaviour deserved it, kick him +out of my doors. And if Mr. Wood comes to demand any gold or silver, +or commodities for which I have paid my gold and silver, in exchange +for his trash, can he deserve or expect better treatment? + +When the evil day is come (if it must come) let us mark and observe +those who presume to offer these half-pence in payment. Let their +names and trades, and places of abode be made public, that every one +may be aware of them, as betrayers of their country, and confederates +with Mr. Wood. Let them be watched at markets and fairs, and let the +first honest discoverer give the word about, that Wood's half-pence +have been offered, and caution the poor innocent people not to receive +them. + +Perhaps I have been too tedious; but there would never be an end, if I +attempt to say all that this melancholy subject will bear. I will +conclude with humbly offering one proposal, which if it were put in +practice, would blow up this destructive project at once. Let some +skilful judicious pen draw up an advertisement to the following +purpose: + +_Whereas one William Wood, hard-ware-man, now or lately sojourning in +the city of London, hath, by many misrepresentations, procured a +patent for coining an hundred and forty thousand pounds in copper +half-pence for this kingdom, which is a sum five times greater than +our occasions require: And whereas it is notorious that the said Wood +hath coined his half-pence of such base metal and false weight, that +they are, at least, six parts in seven below the real value: And +whereas we have reason to apprehend that the said Wood may, at any +time hereafter, clandestinely coin as many more half-pence as he +pleases: And whereas the said patent neither doth nor can oblige his +majesty's subjects to receive the said half-pence in any payment, but +leaves it to their voluntary choice, because, by law the subject +cannot be obliged to take any money except gold or silver: And +whereas, contrary to the letter and meaning of the said patent, the +said Wood hath declared that every person shall be obliged to take +five-pence half-penny of his coin in every payment: And whereas the +House of Commons and Privy Council have severally addressed his most +sacred majesty representing the ill consequences which the said +coinage may have upon this kingdom: And lastly, whereas it is +universally agreed, that the whole nation to a man (except Mr. Wood +and his confederates) are in the utmost apprehensions of the ruinous +consequences that must follow from the said coinage. Therefore we, +whose names are underwritten, being persons of considerable estates in +this kingdom, and residers therein, do unanimously resolve and declare +that we will never receive one farthing or half-penny of the said +Wood's coining, and that we will direct all our tenants to refuse the +said coin from any person whatsoever; of which, that they may not be +ignorant, we have sent them a copy of this advertisement, to be read +to them by our stewards, receivers, etc._ + +I could wish, that a paper of this nature might be drawn up, and +signed by two or three hundred principal gentlemen of this kingdom, +and printed copies thereof sent to their several tenants; I am +deceived, if anything could sooner defeat this execrable design of +Wood and his accomplices. This would immediately give the alarm, and +set the kingdom on their guard. This would give courage to the meanest +tenant and cottager. _How long, O Lord, righteous and true_, etc. + +I must tell you in particular, Mr. Harding, that you are much to +blame. Several hundred persons have enquired at your house for my +Letter to the Shop-keepers, etc., and you had none to sell them. Pray +keep yourself provided with that letter and with this; you have got +very well by the former, but I did not then write for your sake, any +more than I do now. Pray advertise both in every news-paper, and let +it not be your fault or mine if our countrymen will not take warning. +I desire you likewise to sell them as cheap as you can.--I am your +Servant, M.B. + +_Aug. 4, 1724._ + + + + +IV.--'SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE' + +BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE + + +(_I have found the selection of a suitable sample of Burke to be my +most difficult task in this volume. All his writings, as I have +pointed out in the general introduction, are, after a sort, pamphlets; +and this of itself was an embarrassment. It was partly complicated and +partly lessened by the fact that the form of his speeches naturally +excluded them. Many of his other works--notably the _Thoughts on the +Present Discontents_, the immortal _Reflections on the French +Revolution_, and the _Appeal from the New Whigs to the Old_--were much +too long for a scheme in which I have made it a rule to give in each +case entire works or divisions of works. I at last reduced the +suitable candidates to three--the _Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe_, +that _To a Noble Lord_, and the present number of the _Letters on a +Regicide Peace_. The first went as being to some extent identical in +subject with the examples of another writer, Sydney Smith, which I had +already resolved on giving; the second as being too much in the nature +of a personal apologia. With the third, which I looked on at first +with least favour, I have become increasingly well satisfied. It has +not the gorgeous rhetoric of _The Letter to a Noble Lord_, the +_Reflections_, and others. It has nothing so lively as the contrast +between France and Algiers in its immediate predecessor. It may even +seem, to those who have accustomed themselves to think of Burke wholly +or mainly as a gorgeous rhetorician, rather tame as a whole. But if it +does not soar, it never droops; it is admirably proportioned, +admirably written, and admirably argued throughout, and it shows great +knowledge and mastery of foreign politics--the point in which English +statesmen have always been weakest. I may add that it seems to me a +triumphant refutation of the charge--constantly brought against Burke +not merely by extreme democrats, but by the usual advocate of the +_juste milieu_,--that in his later years, and especially in these very +Letters, he became a mere raving Gallophobe, with no sense of +proportion or circumstance. For my part, I have read scores, probably +hundreds, of books--English, French, and German--on the French +Revolution; I have never read one that made Burke obsolete. Let it +only be added that the author, who was born in 1730, was very near the +end of his career--he died next year--when he wrote these letters, +and that the peace proposals which he deprecated, and which he did not +a little to avert, were dictated on the one side by the sobering down +of the first Revolutionary fervour under the Directory; on the other +by the persistent ill-success of the Allies, and the conflicts of +interest and principle which had arisen among them._) + + +My dear Sir--I closed my first letter with serious matter, and I hope +it has employed your thoughts. The system of peace must have a +reference to the system of the war. On that ground, I must therefore +again recall your mind to our original opinions, which time and events +have not taught me to vary. + +My ideas and my principles led me, in this contest, to encounter +France, not as a state, but as a faction. The vast territorial extent +of that country, its immense population, its riches of production, its +riches of commerce and convention--the whole aggregate mass of what, +in ordinary cases, constitutes the force of a state, to me were but +objects of secondary consideration. They might be balanced; and they +have been often more than balanced. Great as these things are, they +are not what make the faction formidable. It is the faction that makes +them truly dreadful. That faction is the evil spirit that possesses +the body of France; that informs it as a soul; that stamps upon its +ambition, and upon all its pursuits, a characteristic mark, which +strongly distinguishes them from the same general passions, and the +same general views, in other men and in other communities. It is that +spirit which inspires into them a new, a pernicious, a desolating +activity. Constituted as France was ten years ago, it was not in that +France to shake, to shatter, and to overwhelm Europe in the manner +that we behold. A sure destruction impends over those infatuated +princes, who, in the conflict with this new and unheard-of power, +proceed as if they were engaged in a war that bore a resemblance to +their former contests; or that they can make peace in the spirit of +their former arrangements of pacification. Here the beaten path is the +very reverse of the safe road. + +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 it is the +bank of deposit, and the bank of circulation, of all the pernicious +principles that are forming in every state. It will be 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 civilised +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 piece '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. 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. The 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. + +It was not of that sort of war that I was amongst the least +considerable, but amongst the most zealous advisers; and it is not by +the sort of peace now talked of, that I wish it concluded. It would +answer no great purpose to enter into the particular errors of the +war. The whole has been but one error. It was but nominally a war of +alliance. As the combined powers pursued it there was nothing to hold +an alliance together. There could be no tie of _honour_, in a society +for pillage. There could be no tie of a common _interest_ where the +object did not offer such a division amongst the parties as could well +give them a warm concern in the gains of each other, or could indeed +form such a body of equivalents, as might make one of them willing to +abandon a separate object of his ambition for the gratification of any +other member of the alliance. The partition of Poland offered an +object of spoil in which the parties _might_ agree. They were +circumjacent, and each might take a portion convenient to his own +territory. They might dispute about the value of their several shares, +but the contiguity to each of the demandants always furnished the +means of an adjustment. Though hereafter the world will have cause to +rue this iniquitous measure, and they most who were the most +concerned in it, for the moment there was wherewithal in the object to +preserve peace amongst confederates in wrong. But the spoil of France +did not afford the same facilities for accommodation. What might +satisfy the house of Austria in a Flemish frontier, afforded no +equivalent to tempt the cupidity of the king of Prussia. What might be +desired by Great Britain in the West Indies, must be coldly and +remotely, if at all, felt as an interest at Vienna; and it would be +felt as something worse than a negative interest at Madrid. Austria, +long possessed with unwise and dangerous designs on Italy, could not +be very much in earnest about the conservation of the old patrimony of +the house of Savoy; and Sardinia, who owed to an Italian force all her +means of shutting out France from Italy, of which she has been +supposed to hold the key, would not purchase the means of strength +upon one side by yielding it on the other. She would not readily give +the possession of Novara for the hope of Savoy. No continental power +was willing to lose any of its continental objects for the increase of +the naval power of Great Britain; and Great Britain would not give up +any of the objects she sought for as the means of an increase to her +naval power, to further their aggrandisement. + +The moment this war came to be considered as a war merely of profit, +the actual circumstances are such that it never could become really a +war of alliance. Nor can the peace be a peace of alliance, until +things are put upon their right bottom. + +I do not find it denied that when a treaty is entered into for peace, +a demand will be made on the regicides to surrender a great part of +their conquests on the continent. Will they, in the present state of +the war, make that surrender without an equivalent? This continental +cession must of course be made in favour of that party in the alliance +that has suffered losses. That party has nothing to furnish towards an +equivalent. What equivalent, for instance, has Holland to offer, who +has lost her all? What equivalent can come from the Emperor, every +part of whose territories contiguous to France is already within the +pale of the regicide dominions? What equivalent has Sardinia to offer +for Savoy and for Nice, I may say for her whole being? What has she +taken from the faction of France? she has lost very near her all; and +she has gained nothing. What equivalent has Spain to give? Alas! she +has already paid for her own ransom the fund of equivalent, and a +dreadful equivalent it is, to England and to herself. But I put Spain +out of the question; she is a province of the Jacobin empire, and she +must make peace or war according to the orders she receives from the +directory of assassins. In effect and substance, her crown is a fief +of regicide. + +Whence then can the compensation be demanded? Undoubtedly from that +power which alone has made some conquests. That power is England. Will +the allies then give away their ancient patrimony, that England may +keep islands in the West Indies? They never can protract the war in +good earnest for that object; nor can they act in concert with us, in +our refusal to grant anything towards their redemption. In that case +we are thus situated. Either we must give Europe, bound hand and foot, +to France; or we must quit the West Indies without any one object, +great or small, towards indemnity and security. I repeat it, without +any advantage whatever: because, supposing that our conquest could +comprise all that France ever possessed in the tropical America, it +never can amount in any fair estimation to a fair equivalent for +Holland, for the Austrian Netherlands, for the lower Germany, that is, +for the whole ancient kingdom or circle of Burgundy, now under the +yoke of regicide, to say nothing of almost all Italy under the same +barbarous domination. If we treat in the present situation of things, +we have nothing in our hands that can redeem Europe. Nor is the +Emperor, as I have observed, more rich in the fund of equivalents. + +If we look to our stock in the eastern world, our most valuable and +systematic acquisitions are made in that quarter. Is it from France +they are made? France has but one or two contemptible factories, +subsisting by the offal of the private fortunes of English individuals +to support them, in any part of India. I look on the taking of the +Cape of Good Hope as the securing of a post of great moment. It does +honour to those who planned, and to those who executed, that +enterprise: but I speak of it always as comparatively good; as good as +anything can be in a scheme of war that repels us from a centre, and +employs all our forces where nothing can be finally decisive. But +giving, as I freely give, every possible credit to these eastern +conquests, I ask one question,--on whom are they made? It is evident, +that if we can keep our eastern conquests we keep them not at the +expense of France, but at the expense of Holland our _ally_; of +Holland, the immediate cause of the war, the nation whom we had +undertaken to protect, and not of the republic which it was our +business to destroy. If we return the African and the Asiatic +conquests, we put them into the hands of a nominal state (to that +Holland is reduced) unable to retain them; and which will virtually +leave them under the direction of France. If we withhold them, Holland +declines still more as a state. She loses so much carrying trade, and +that means of keeping up the small degree of naval power she holds; +for which policy alone, and not for any commercial gain, she maintains +the Cape, or any settlement beyond it. In that case, resentment, +faction, and even necessity, will throw her more and more into the +power of the new, mischievous republic. But on the probable state of +Holland I shall say more, when in this correspondence I come to talk +over with you the state in which any sort of Jacobin peace will leave +all Europe. + +So far as to the East Indies. + +As to the West Indies, indeed as to either, if we look for matter of +exchange in order to ransom Europe, it is easy to show that we have +taken a terribly roundabout road. I cannot conceive, even if, for the +sake of holding conquests there, we should refuse to redeem Holland, +and the Austrian Netherlands, and the hither Germany, that Spain, +merely as she is Spain, (and forgetting that the regicide ambassador +governs at Madrid,) will see, with perfect satisfaction, Great Britain +sole mistress of the isles. In truth it appears to me, that, when we +come to balance our account, we shall find in the proposed peace only +the pure, simple, and unendowed charms of Jacobin amity. We shall have +the satisfaction of knowing, that no blood or treasure has been spared +by the allies for support of the regicide system. We shall reflect at +leisure on one great truth, that it was ten times more easy totally to +destroy the system itself, than, when established, it would be to +reduce its power; and that this republic, most formidable abroad, was +of all things the weakest at home; that her frontier was terrible, her +interior feeble; that it was matter of choice to attack her where she +is invincible, and to spare her where she was ready to dissolve by her +own internal disorders. We shall reflect, that our plan was good +neither for offence nor defence. + +It would not be at all difficult to prove, that an army of a hundred +thousand men, horse, foot, and artillery, might have been employed +against the enemy on the very soil which he has usurped, at a far less +expense than has been squandered away upon tropical adventures. In +these adventures it was not an enemy we had to vanquish, but a +cemetery to conquer. In carrying on the war in the West Indies, the +hostile sword is merciful; the country in which we engage is the +dreadful enemy. There the European conqueror finds a cruel defeat in +the very fruits of his success. Every advantage is but a new demand on +England for recruits to the West Indian grave. In a West India war, +the regicides have, for their troops, a race of fierce barbarians, to +whom the poisoned air, in which our youth inhale certain death, is +salubrity and life. To them the climate is the surest and most +faithful of allies. + +Had we carried on the war on the side of France which looks towards +the Channel or the Atlantic, we should have attacked our enemy on his +weak and unarmed side. We should not have to reckon on the loss of a +man who did not fall in battle. We should have an ally in the heart +of the country, who, to our hundred thousand, would at one time have +added eighty thousand men at the least, and all animated by principle, +by enthusiasm, and by vengeance; motives which secured them to the +cause in a very different manner from some of those allies whom we +subsidised with millions. This ally, (or rather this principal in the +war,) by the confession of the regicide himself, was more formidable +to him than all his other foes united. Warring there, we should have +led our arms to the capital of Wrong. Defeated, we could not fail +(proper precautions taken) of a sure retreat. Stationary, and only +supporting the royalists, an impenetrable barrier, an impregnable +rampart, would have been formed between the enemy and his naval power. +We are probably the only nation who have declined to act against an +enemy, when it might have been done in his own country; and who having +an armed, a powerful, and a long-victorious ally in that country, +declined all effectual co-operation, and suffered him to perish for +want of support. On the plan of a war in France, every advantage that +our allies might obtain would be doubled in its effect. Disasters on +the one side might have a fair chance of being compensated by +victories on the other. Had we brought the main of our force to bear +upon that quarter, all the operations of the British and Imperial +crowns would have been combined. The war would have had system, +correspondence, and a certain direction. But as the war has been +pursued, the operations of the two crowns have not the smallest degree +of mutual bearing or relation. + +Had acquisitions in the West Indies been our object, on success in +France, everything reasonable in those remote parts might be demanded +with decorum, and justice, and a sure effect. Well might we call for a +recompence in America, for those services to which Europe owed its +safety. Having abandoned this obvious policy connected with principle, +we have seen the regicide power taking the reverse course, and making +real conquests in the West Indies, to which all our dear-bought +advantages (if we could hold them) are mean and contemptible. The +noblest island within the tropics, worth all that we possess put +together, is, by the vassal Spaniard, delivered into her hands. The +island of Hispaniola (of which we have but one poor corner, by a +slippery hold) is perhaps equal to England in extent, and in fertility +is far superior. The part possessed by Spain, of that great island, +made for the seat and centre of a tropical empire, was not improved, +to be sure, as the French division had been, before it was +systematically destroyed by the cannibal republic; but it is not only +the far larger, but the far more salubrious and more fertile part. + +It was delivered into the hands of the barbarians without, as I can +find, any public reclamation on our part, not only in contravention to +one of the fundamental treaties that compose the public law of Europe, +but in defiance of the fundamental colonial policy of Spain herself. +This part of the treaty of Utrecht was made for great general ends +unquestionably; but whilst it provided for those general ends, it was +in affirmance of that particular policy. It was not to injure, but to +save Spain by making a settlement of her estate, which prohibited her +to alienate to France. It is her policy not to see the balance of West +Indian power overturned by France or by Great Britain. Whilst the +monarchies subsisted, this unprincipled cession was what the influence +of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon never dared to attempt on +the younger: but cannibal terror has been more powerful than family +influence. The Bourbon monarchy of Spain is united to the republic of +France, by what may be truly called the ties of blood. + +By this measure the balance of power in the West Indies is totally +destroyed. It has followed the balance of power in Europe. It is not +alone what shall be left nominally to the assassins that is theirs. +Theirs is the whole empire of Spain in America. That stroke finishes +all. I should be glad to see our suppliant negotiator in the act of +putting his feather to the ear of the directory, to make it unclinch +the fist; and, by his tickling, to charm that rich prize out of the +iron gripe of robbery and ambition! It does not require much sagacity +to discern that no power wholly baffled and defeated in Europe can +flatter itself with conquests in the West Indies. In that state of +things it can neither keep nor hold. No! It cannot even long make war +if the grand bank and deposit of its force is at all in the West +Indies. But here a scene opens to my view too important to pass by, +perhaps too critical to touch. Is it possible that it should not +present itself in all its relations to a mind habituated to consider +either war or peace on a large scale, or as one whole? + +Unfortunately other ideas have prevailed. A remote, an expensive, a +murderous, and, in the end, an unproductive adventure, carried on upon +ideas of mercantile knight-errantry, without any of the generous +wildness of Quixotism, is considered as sound, solid sense; and a war +in a wholesome climate, a war at our door, a war directly on the +enemy, a war in the heart of his country, a war in concert with an +internal ally, and in combination with the external, is regarded as +folly and romance. + +My dear friend, I hold it impossible that these considerations should +have escaped the statesmen on both sides of the water, and on both +sides of the House of Commons. 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 connexion 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 +from the digest and jurisprudence of the Christian world. In these +treasures are to be found the _usual_ relations of peace and amity in +civilised 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. + +The Revolution in France had the relation of France to other nations +as one of its principal objects. The changes made by that Revolution +were not the better to accommodate her to the old and usual relations, +but to produce new ones. The Revolution was made, not to make France +free, but to make her formidable; not to make her a neighbour, but a +mistress; not to make her more observant of laws, but to put her in a +condition to impose them. To make France truly formidable it was +necessary that France should be new modelled. They, who have not +followed the train of the late proceedings, have been led by deceitful +representations (which deceit made a part in the plan) to conceive +that this totally new model of a state, in which nothing escaped a +change, was made with a view to its internal relations only. + +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 proselytising 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 counterwork 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 Vergniaux, +Françias of Nantz, 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 phrensy 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 straight forward 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. Without question, to bring about the unexampled event of the +French Revolution, the concurrence of a very great number of views and +passions was necessary. In that stupendous work, no one principle, by +which the human mind may have its faculties at once invigorated and +depraved, was left unemployed; but I can speak it to a certainty, and +support it by undoubted proofs, that the ruling principle of those who +acted in the Revolution as _statesmen_, had the exterior +aggrandisement of France as their ultimate end in the most minute part +of the internal changes that were made. We, who of late years have +been drawn from an attention to foreign affairs by the importance of +our domestic discussions, cannot easily form a conception of the +general eagerness of the active and energetic part of the French +nation, itself the most active and energetic of all nations, previous +to its Revolution, upon that subject. I am convinced that the foreign +speculators in France, under the old government, were twenty to one of +the same description then or now in England; and few of that +description there were, who did not emulously set forward the +Revolution. The whole official system, particularly in the diplomatic +part, the regulars, the irregulars, down to the clerks in office, (a +corps, without comparison, more numerous than the same amongst us,) +co-operated in it. All the intriguers in foreign politics, all the +spies, all the intelligencers, actually or late in function, all the +candidates for that sort of employment, acted solely upon that +principle. + +On that system of aggrandisement there was but one mind: but two +violent factions arose about the means. The first wished France, +diverted from the politics of the continent, to attend solely to her +marine, to feed it by an increase of commerce, and thereby to +overpower England on her own element. They contended, that if England +were disabled, the powers on the continent would fall into their +proper subordination; that it was England which deranged the whole +continental system of Europe. The others, who were by far the more +numerous, though not the most outwardly prevalent at court, considered +this plan for France as contrary to her genius, her situation, and her +natural means. They agree as to the ultimate object, the reduction of +the British power, and, if possible, its naval power; but they +considered an ascendency on the continent as a necessary preliminary +to that undertaking. They argued, that the proceedings of England +herself had proved the soundness of this policy. That her greatest and +ablest statesmen had not considered the support of a continental +balance against France as a deviation from the principle of her naval +power, but as one of the most effectual modes of carrying it into +effect. That such had been her policy ever since the Revolution, +during which period the naval strength of Great Britain had gone on +increasing in the direct ratio of her interference in the politics of +the continent. With much stronger reason ought the politics of France +to take the same direction; as well for pursuing objects which her +situation would dictate to her, though England had no existence, as +for counteracting the politics of that nation; to France continental +politics are primary; they looked on them only of secondary +consideration to England, and, however necessary, but as means +necessary to an end. + +What is truly astonishing, the partisans of those two opposite systems +were at once prevalent, and at once employed, and in the very same +transactions--the one ostensibly, the other secretly, during the +latter part of the reign of Louis XV. Nor was there one court in which +an ambassador resided on the part of the ministers, in which another, +as a spy on him, did not also reside on the part of the king. They who +pursued the scheme for keeping peace on the continent, and +particularly with Austria, acting officially and publicly, the other +faction counteracting and opposing them. These private agents were +continually going from their function to the Bastile, and from the +Bastile to employment, and favour again. An inextricable cabal was +formed, some of persons of rank, others of subordinates. But by this +means the corps of politicians was augmented in number, and the whole +formed a body of active, adventuring, ambitious, discontented people, +despising the regular ministry, despising the courts at which they +were employed, despising the court which employed them. + +The unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth was not the first cause of the +evil by which he suffered. He came to it, as to a sort of inheritance, +by the false politics of his immediate predecessor. This system of +dark and perplexed intrigue had come to its perfection before he came +to the throne: and even then the Revolution strongly operated in all +its causes. + +There was no point on which the discontented diplomatic politicians so +bitterly arraigned their cabinet, as for the decay of French influence +in all others. From quarrelling with the court, they began to complain +of monarchy itself, as a system of government too variable for any +regular plan of national aggrandisement. They observed, that in that +sort of regimen too much depended on the personal character of the +prince; that the vicissitudes produced by the succession of princes of +a different character, and even the vicissitudes produced in the same +man, by the different views and inclinations belonging to youth, +manhood, and age, disturbed and distracted the policy of a country +made by nature for extensive empire, or, what was still more to their +taste, for that sort of general over-ruling influence which prepared +empire or supplied the place of it. They had continually in their +hands the observations of _Machiavel_ on _Livy_. They had +_Montesquieu's Grandeur et Décadence des Romains_ as a manual; and +they compared, with mortification, the systematic proceedings of a +Roman senate with the fluctuations of a monarchy. They observed the +very small additions of territory which all the power of France, +actuated by all the ambition of France, had acquired in two centuries. +The Romans had frequently acquired more in a single year. They +severely and in every part of it criticised the reign of Louis XIV., +whose irregular and desultory ambition had more provoked than +endangered Europe. Indeed, they who will be at the pains of seriously +considering the history of that period will see that those French +politicians had some reason. They who will not take the trouble of +reviewing it through all its wars and all its negotiations, will +consult the short but judicious criticism of the Marquis de +Montalembert on that subject. It may be read separately from his +ingenious system of fortification and military defence, on the +practical merit of which I am unable to form a judgment. + +The diplomatic politicians of whom I speak, and who formed by far the +majority in that class, made disadvantageous comparisons even between +their more legal and formalising monarchy, and the monarchies of other +states, as a system of power and influence. They observed that France +not only lost ground herself, but, through the languor and +unsteadiness of her pursuits, and from her aiming through commerce at +naval force which she never could attain without losing more on one +side than she could gain on the other, that three great powers, each +of them (as military states) capable of balancing her, had grown up on +the continent. Russia and Prussia had been created almost within +memory; and Austria, though not a new power, and even curtailed in +territory, was, by the very collision in which she lost that +territory, greatly improved in her military discipline and force. +During the reign of Maria Theresa the interior economy of the country +was made more to correspond with the support of great armies than +formerly it had been. As to Prussia, a merely military power, they +observed that one war had enriched her with as considerable a conquest +as France had acquired in centuries. Russia had broken the Turkish +power by which Austria might be, as formerly she had been, balanced in +favour of France. They felt it with pain, that the two northern powers +of Sweden and Denmark were in general under the sway of Russia; or +that, at best, France kept up a very doubtful conflict, with many +fluctuations of fortune, and at an enormous expense, in Sweden. In +Holland, the French party seemed, if not extinguished, at least +utterly obscured, and kept under by a stadtholder, leaning for support +sometimes on Great Britain, sometimes on Prussia, sometimes on both, +never on France. Even the spreading of the Bourbon family had become +merely a family accommodation; and had little effect on the national +politics. This alliance, they said, extinguished Spain by destroying +all its energy, without adding anything to the real power of France in +the accession of the forces of its great rival. In Italy, the same +family accommodation, the same national insignificance, were equally +visible. What cure for the radical weakness of the French monarchy, to +which all the means which wit could devise, or nature and fortune +could bestow, towards universal empire, was not of force to give life, +or vigour, or consistency,--but in a Republic? Out the word came; and +it never went back. + +Whether they reasoned, right or wrong, or that there was some mixture +of right and wrong in their reasoning, I am sure, that in this manner +they felt and reasoned. The different effects of a great military and +ambitious republic, and of a monarchy of the same description, were +constantly in their mouths. The principle was ready to operate when +opportunities should offer, which few of them indeed foresaw in the +extent in which they were afterwards presented; but these +opportunities, in some degree or other, they all ardently wished for. + +When I was in Paris in 1773, the treaty of 1756 between Austria and +France was deplored as a national calamity; because it united France +in friendship with a power at whose expense alone they could hope any +continental aggrandisement. When the first partition of Poland was +made, in which France had no share, and which had further aggrandised +every one of the three powers of which they were most jealous, I found +them in a perfect phrensy of rage and indignation: not that they were +hurt at the shocking and uncoloured violence and injustice of that +partition, but at the debility, improvidence, and want of activity, in +their government, in not preventing it as a means of aggrandisement to +their rivals, or in not contriving, by exchanges of some kind or +other, to obtain their share of advantage from that robbery. + +In that or nearly in that state of things and of opinions, came the +Austrian match; which promised to draw the knot, as afterwards in +effect it did, still more closely between the old rival houses. This +added exceedingly to their hatred and contempt of their monarchy. It +was for this reason that the late glorious queen, who on all accounts +was formed to produce general love and admiration, and whose life was +as mild and beneficent as her death was beyond example great and +heroic, became so very soon and so very much the object of an +implacable rancour, never to be extinguished but in her blood. When I +wrote my letter in answer to M. de Menonville, in the beginning of +January, 1791, I had good reason for thinking that this description of +revolutionists did not so early nor so steadily point their murderous +designs at the martyr king as at the royal heroine. It was accident, +and the momentary depression of that part of the faction, that gave to +the husband the happy priority in death. + +From this their restless desire of an over-ruling influence, they bent +a very great part of their designs and efforts to revive the old +French party, which was a democratic party in Holland, and to make a +revolution there. They were happy at the troubles which the singular +imprudence of Joseph the Second had stirred up in the Austrian +Netherlands. They rejoiced when they saw him irritate his subjects, +profess philosophy, send away the Dutch garrisons, and dismantle his +fortifications. As to Holland, they never forgave either the king or +the ministry, for suffering that object, which they justly looked on +as principal in their design of reducing the power of England, to +escape out of their hands. This was the true secret of the commercial +treaty, made, on their part, against all the old rules and principles +of commerce, with a view of diverting the English nation, by a pursuit +of immediate profit, from an attention to the progress of France in +its designs upon that republic. The system of the economists, which +led to the general opening of commerce, facilitated that treaty, but +did not produce it. They were in despair when they found that by the +vigour of Mr. Pitt, supported in this point by Mr. Fox and the +opposition, the object to which they had sacrificed their manufactures +was lost to their ambition. + +This eager desire of raising France from the condition into which she +had fallen, as they conceived, from her monarchical imbecility, had +been the main-spring of their precedent interference in that unhappy +American quarrel, the bad effects of which to this nation have not, as +yet, fully disclosed themselves. These sentiments had been long +lurking in their breasts, though their views were only discovered now +and then, in heat and as by escapes; but on this occasion they +exploded suddenly. They were professed with ostentation and propagated +with zeal. These sentiments were not produced, as some think, by +their American alliance. The American alliance was produced by their +republican principles and republican policy. This new relation +undoubtedly did much. The discourses and cabals that it produced, the +intercourse that it established, and, above all, the example, which +made it seem practicable to establish a republic in a great extent of +country, finished the work, and gave to that part of the revolutionary +faction a degree of strength which required other energies than the +late king possessed, to resist, or even to restrain. It spread +everywhere; but it was nowhere more prevalent than in the heart of the +court. The palace of Versailles, by its language, seemed a forum of +democracy. To have pointed out to most of those politicians, from +their dispositions and movements, what has since happened, the fall of +their own monarchy, of their own laws, of their own religion, would +have been to furnish a motive the more for pushing forward a system on +which they considered all these things as encumbrances. Such in truth +they were. And we have seen them succeed not only in the destruction +of their monarchy, but in all the objects of ambition that they +proposed from that destruction. 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 concentred, 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 complexity 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. In that country entirely to cut off a +branch of commerce, to extinguish a manufacture, to destroy the +circulation of money, to violate credit, to suspend the course of +agriculture, even to burn a city, or to lay waste a province of their +own, does not cost them a moment's anxiety. To them the will, the +wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals, is as +nothing. Individuality is left out of their scheme of government. The +state is all in all. Everything is referred to the production of +force; afterwards, everything is trusted to the use of it. It is +military in its principle, in its maxims, in its spirit, and in all +its movements. The state has dominion and conquest for its sole +objects; dominion over minds by proselytism, over bodies by arms. + +Thus constituted, with an immense body of natural means which are +lessened in their amount only to be increased in their effect, France +has, since the accomplishment of the Revolution, a complete unity in +its direction. It has destroyed every resource of the state which +depends upon opinion and the good-will of individuals. The riches of +convention disappear. The advantages of nature in some measure remain: +even these, I admit, are astonishingly lessened; the command over what +remains is complete and absolute. We go about asking when assignats +will expire, and we laugh at the last price of them. But what +signifies the fate of those tickets of despotism? The despotism will +find despotic means of supply. They have found the short cut to the +productions of nature, while others, in pursuit of them, are obliged +to wind through the labyrinth of a very intricate state of society. +They seize upon the fruit of the labour; they seize upon the labourer +himself. Were France but half of what it is in population, in +compactness, in applicability of its force, situated as it is, and +being what it is, it would be too strong for most of the states of +Europe, constituted as they are, and proceeding as they proceed. Would +it be wise to estimate what the world of Europe, as well as the world +of Asia, had to dread from Genghiz Khân, upon a contemplation of the +resources of the cold and barren spot in the remotest Tartary, from +whence first issued that scourge of the human race? Ought we to judge +from the excise and stamp duties of the rocks, or from the paper +circulation of the sands of Arabia, the power by which Mahomet and his +tribes laid hold at once on the two most powerful empires of the +world; beat one of them totally to the ground, broke to pieces the +other, and, in not much longer space of time than I have lived, +overturned governments, laws, manners, religion, and extended an +empire from the Indus to the Pyrenees? + +Material resources never have supplied, nor ever can supply, the want +of unity in design, and constancy in pursuit. But unity in design, and +perseverance and boldness in pursuit, have never wanted resources, and +never will. We have not considered as we ought the dreadful energy of +a state in which the property has nothing to do with the government. +Reflect, my dear Sir, reflect again and again, on a government, in +which the property is in complete subjection, and where nothing rules +but the mind of desperate men. The condition of a commonwealth not +governed by its property was a combination of things which the learned +and ingenious speculator Harrington, who has tossed about society into +all forms, never could imagine to be possible. We have seen it; the +world has felt it; and if the world will shut their eyes to this state +of things, they will feel it more. The rulers there have found their +resources in crimes. The discovery is dreadful; the mine exhaustless. +They have everything to gain, and they have nothing to lose. They have +a boundless inheritance in hope; and there is no medium for them, +betwixt the highest elevation, and death with infamy. Never can they, +who; from the miserable servitude of the desk, have been raised to +empire, again submit to the bondage of a starving bureau, or the +profit of copying music, or writing plaidoyers by the sheet. It has +made me often smile in bitterness, when I have heard talk of an +indemnity to such men, provided they return to their allegiance. + +From all this, what is my inference? It is, that this new system of +robbery in France cannot be rendered safe by any art; that it _must_ +be destroyed, or that it will destroy all Europe; that to destroy that +enemy, by some means or other, the force opposed to it should be made +to bear some analogy and resemblance to the force and spirit which +that system exerts; that war ought to be made against it, in its +vulnerable parts. These are my inferences. In one word, with this +republic nothing independent can co-exist The errors of Louis XVI. +were more pardonable to prudence, than any of those of the same kind +into which the allied courts may fall. They have the benefit of his +dreadful example. + +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 impostors. 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 all 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 +negotiations, 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 XIII. had force enough to +destroy the republican system of the Protestants at home. + +Louis XVI. 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 connexions, 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 violently 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 XVI., 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 +XVI. 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 out-work +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. + +With this example before their eyes, do any ministers in England, do +any ministers in Austria, really flatter themselves that they can +erect, not on the remote shores of the Atlantic, but in their view, in +their vicinity, in absolute contact with one of them, not a commercial +but a martial republic--a republic not of simple husbandmen or +fishermen, but of intriguers, and of warriors--a republic of a +character the most restless, the most enterprising, the most impious, +the most fierce and bloody, the most hypocritical and perfidious, the +most bold and daring, that ever has been seen, or indeed that can be +conceived to exist, without bringing on their own certain ruin? + +Such is the republic to which we are going to give a place in +civilised fellowship: the republic, which, with joint consent, we are +going to establish in the centre of Europe, in a post that overlooks +and commands every other state, and which eminently confronts and +menaces this kingdom. + +You cannot fail to observe that I speak as if the allied powers were +actually consenting, and not compelled by events to the establishment +of this faction in France. The words have not escaped me. You will +hereafter naturally expect that I should make them good. But whether +in adopting this measure we are madly active, or weakly passive, or +pusillanimously panic struck, the effects will be the same. You may +call this faction, which has eradicated the monarchy,--expelled the +proprietary, persecuted religion, and trampled upon law,--you may call +this France if you please: but of the ancient France nothing remains +but its central geography; its iron frontier; its spirit of ambition; +its audacity of enterprise; its perplexing intrigue. These, and these +alone, remain: and they remain heightened in their principle and +augmented in their means. All the former correctives, whether of +virtue or of weakness, which existed in the old monarchy, are gone. No +single new corrective is to be found in the whole body of the new +institutions. How should such a thing be found there, when everything +has been chosen with care and selection to forward all those ambitious +designs and dispositions, not to control them? The whole is a body of +ways and means for the supply of dominion, without one heterogeneous +particle in it. + +Here I suffer you to breathe, and leave to your meditation what has +occurred to me on the _genius and character_ of the French Revolution. +From having this before us, we may be better able to determine on the +first question I proposed, that is, how far nations, called foreign, +are likely to be affected with the system established within that +territory. I intended to proceed next on the question of her +facilities, from _the internal state of other nations, and +particularly of this_, for obtaining her ends: but I ought to be +aware that my notions are controverted.--I mean, therefore, in my next +letter, to take notice of what, in that way, has been recommended to +me as the most deserving of notice. In the examination of those +pieces, I shall have occasion to discuss some others of the topics to +which I have called your attention. You know that the letters which I +now send to the press, as well as a part of what is to follow, have +been in their substance long since written. A circumstance which your +partiality alone could make of importance to you, but which to the +public is of no importance at all, retarded their appearance. The late +events which press upon us obliged me to make some additions; but no +substantial change in the matter. + +This discussion, my friend, will be long. But the matter is serious; +and if ever the fate of the world could be truly said to depend on a +particular measure, it is upon this peace. For the present, farewell. + + + + +V.--'PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS' + +BY SYDNEY SMITH + +(LETTERS II., VI., VII., IX.) + + +(_The pamphleteering spirit is strong in almost all Sydney Smith's +'Contributions to the _Edinburgh Review_,' but the form and subjects +of those contributions exclude them here. Of his two great pamphlet +issues proper, _Peter Plymley's Letters_ and those _To Archdeacon +Singleton_, the former are, though perhaps of less polished and +perfect wit than the latter, more distinctly political, and have more +of that _diable au corps_ which Voltaire considered necessary to +success in the arts. They have also the advantage that, while the +_Letters to Archdeacon Singleton_, though not an avowed recantation, +are in the nature of a palinode--always an awkward thing--_Plymley_ is +frankly and confidently, not to say wantonly, aggressive. These +_Letters_, ten in number, were written just after the fall of the +mainly Whig Ministry of 'All the Talents,' to which Sydney had been +indebted for his preferment of Foston, and which lost its position +not least owing to its intended support of the 'Catholic' claims. +Those claims were not admitted for twenty years later; and Sydney's +advocacy of them was regarded as a little too exuberant by some even +of his own party. But there is no doubt that the _Letters_ had a great +influence in laughing if not in arguing sections of the public round +to the Emancipation side._) + + +LETTER II. + +Dear Abraham--The Catholic not respect an oath! why not? What upon +earth has kept him out of Parliament, or excluded him from all the +offices whence he is excluded, but his respect for oaths? There is no +law which prohibits a Catholic to sit in Parliament. There could be no +such law; because it is impossible to find out what passes in the +interior of any man's mind. Suppose it were in contemplation to +exclude all men from certain offices who contended for the legality of +taking tithes: the only mode of discovering that fervid love of +decimation which I know you to possess would be to tender you an oath +"against that damnable doctrine, that it is lawful for a spiritual man +to take, abstract, appropriate, subduct, or lead away the tenth calf, +sheep, lamb, ox, pigeon, duck," etc., etc., etc., and every other +animal that ever existed, which of course the lawyers would take care +to enumerate. Now this oath I am sure you would rather die than take; +and so the Catholic is excluded from Parliament because he will not +swear that he disbelieves the leading doctrines of his religion! The +Catholic asks you to abolish some oaths which oppress him; your answer +is that he does not respect oaths. Then why subject him to the test of +oaths? The oaths keep him out of Parliament; why, then, he respects +them. Turn which way you will, either your laws are nugatory, or the +Catholic is bound by religious obligations as you are; but no eel in +the well-sanded fist of a cook-maid, upon the eve of being skinned, +ever twisted and writhed as an orthodox parson does when he is +compelled by the gripe of reason to admit anything in favour of a +dissenter. + +I will not dispute with you whether the Pope be or be not the Scarlet +Lady of Babylon. I hope it is not so; because I am afraid it will +induce His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer to introduce several +severe bills against popery, if that is the case; and though he will +have the decency to appoint a previous committee of inquiry as to the +fact, the committee will be garbled, and the report inflammatory. +Leaving this to be settled as he pleases to settle it, I wish to +inform you, that, previously to the bill last passed in favour of the +Catholics, at the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, and for his satisfaction, +the opinions of six of the most celebrated of the foreign Catholic +universities were taken as to the right of the Pope to interfere in +the temporal concerns of any country. The answer cannot possibly leave +the shadow of a doubt, even in the mind of Baron Maseres; and Dr. +Rennel would be compelled to admit it, if three Bishops lay dead at +the very moment the question were put to him. To this answer might be +added also the solemn declaration and signature of all the Catholics +in Great Britain. + +I should perfectly agree with you, if the Catholics admitted such a +dangerous dispensing power in the hands of the Pope; but they all deny +it, and laugh at it, and are ready to abjure it in the most decided +manner you can devise. They obey the Pope as the spiritual head of +their Church; but are you really so foolish as to be imposed upon by +mere names? What matters it the seven-thousandth part of a farthing +who is the spiritual head of any Church? Is not Mr. Wilberforce at the +head of the Church of Clapham? Is not Dr. Letsom at the head of the +Quaker Church? Is not the General Assembly at the head of the Church +of Scotland? How is the government disturbed by these many-headed +Churches? or in what way is the power of the Crown augmented by this +almost nominal dignity? + +The King appoints a fast-day once a year, and he makes the bishops: +and if the government would take half the pains to keep the Catholics +out of the arms of France that it does to widen Temple Bar, or +improve Snow Hill, the King would get into his hands the appointments +of the titular Bishops of Ireland. Both Mr. C----'s sisters enjoy +pensions more than sufficient to place the two greatest dignitaries of +the Irish Catholic Church entirely at the disposal of the Crown. +Everybody who knows Ireland knows perfectly well, that nothing would +be easier, with the expenditure of a little money, than to preserve +enough of the ostensible appointment in the hands of the Pope to +satisfy the scruples of the Catholics, while the real nomination +remained with the Crown. But, as I have before said, the moment the +very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to +common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the +barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots. + +Whatever your opinion may be of the follies of the Roman Catholic +religion, remember they are the follies of four millions of human +beings, increasing rapidly in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, who, +if firmly united with this country, would set at defiance the power of +France, and if once wrested from their alliance with England, would in +three years render its existence as an independent nation absolutely +impossible. You speak of danger to the Establishment: I request to +know when the Establishment was ever so much in danger as when Hoche +was in Bantry Bay, and whether all the books of Bossuet, or the arts +of the Jesuits, were half so terrible? Mr. Perceval and his parsons +forget all this, in their horror lest twelve or fourteen old women may +be converted to holy water and Catholic nonsense. They never see that, +while they are saving these venerable ladies from perdition, Ireland +may be lost, England broken down, and the Protestant Church, with all +its deans, prebendaries, Percevals, and Rennels, be swept into the +vortex of oblivion. + +Do not, I beseech you, ever mention to me again the name of Dr. +Duigenan. I have been in every corner of Ireland, and have studied its +present strength and condition with no common labour. Be assured +Ireland does not contain at this moment less than five millions of +people. There were returned in the year 1791 to the hearth tax 701,000 +houses, and there is no kind of question that there were about 50,000 +houses omitted in that return. Taking, however, only the number +returned for the tax, and allowing the average of six to a house (a +very small average for a potato-fed people), this brings the +population to 4,200,000 people in the year 1791: and it can be shown +from the clearest evidence (and Mr. Newenham in his book shows it), +that Ireland for the last fifty years has increased in its population +at the rate of 50 or 60,000 per annum; which leaves the present +population of Ireland at about five millions, after every possible +deduction for _existing circumstances, just and necessary wars, +monstrous and unnatural rebellions_, and all other sources of human +destruction. Of this population, two out of ten are Protestants; and +the half of the Protestant population are Dissenters, and as inimical +to the Church as the Catholics themselves. In this state of things +thumbscrews and whipping--admirable engines of policy as they must be +considered to be--will not ultimately avail. The Catholics will hang +over you; they will watch for the moment, and compel you hereafter to +give them ten times as much, against your will, as they would now be +contented with, if it were voluntarily surrendered. Remember what +happened in the American war, when Ireland compelled you to give her +everything she asked, and to renounce, in the most explicit manner, +your claim of Sovereignty over her. God Almighty grant the folly of +these present men may not bring on such another crisis of public +affairs! + +What are your dangers which threaten the Establishment?--Reduce this +declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean. The most +ample allowance does not calculate that there would be more than +twenty members who were Roman Catholics in one house, and ten in the +other, if the Catholic emancipation were carried into effect. Do you +mean that these thirty members would bring in a bill to take away the +tithes from the Protestant, and to pay them to the Catholic clergy? Do +you mean that a Catholic general would march his army into the House +of Commons, and purge it of Mr. Perceval and Dr. Duigenan? or, that +the theological writers would become all of a sudden more acute or +more learned, if the present civil incapacities were removed? Do you +fear for your tithes, or your doctrines, or your person, or the +English Constitution? Every fear, taken separately, is so glaringly +absurd, that no man has the folly or the boldness to state it. Every +one conceals his ignorance, or his baseness, in a stupid general +panic, which, when called on, he is utterly incapable of explaining. +Whatever you think of the Catholics, there they are--you cannot get +rid of them; your alternative is to give them a lawful place for +stating their grievances, or an unlawful one: if you do not admit them +to the House of Commons, they will hold their parliament in Potatoe +Place, Dublin, and be ten times as violent and inflammatory as they +would be in Westminster. Nothing would give me such an idea of +security as to see twenty or thirty Catholic gentlemen in Parliament, +looked upon by all the Catholics as the fair and proper organ of their +party. I should have thought it the height of good fortune that such a +wish existed on their part, and the very essence of madness and +ignorance to reject it. Can you murder the Catholics? Can you neglect +them? They are too numerous for both these expedients. What remains to +be done is obvious to every human being--but to that man who, instead +of being a Methodist preacher, is, for the curse of us and our +children, and for the ruin of Troy and the misery of good old Priam +and his sons, become a legislator and a politician. + +A distinction, I perceive, is taken by one of the most feeble noblemen +in Great Britain, between persecution and the deprivation of political +power; whereas, there is no more distinction between these two things +than there is between him who makes the distinction and a booby. If I +strip off the relic-covered jacket of a Catholic, and give him twenty +stripes ... I persecute; if I say, Everybody in the town where you +live shall be a candidate for lucrative and honourable offices, but +you, who are a Catholic ... I do not persecute! What barbarous +nonsense is this! as if degradation was not as great an evil as bodily +pain or as severe poverty: as if I could not be as great a tyrant by +saying, You shall not enjoy--as by saying, You shall suffer. The +English, I believe, are as truly religious as any nation in Europe: I +know no greater blessing; but it carries with it this evil in its +train, that any villain who will bawl out, '_The Church is in +danger!_' may get a place and a good pension; and that any +administration who will do the same thing may bring a set of men into +power who, at a moment of stationary and passive piety, would be +hooted by the very boys in the streets. But it is not all religion; it +is, in great part, the narrow and exclusive spirit which delights to +keep the common blessings of sun and air and freedom from other human +beings. 'Your religion has always been degraded; you are in the dust, +and I will take care you never rise again. I should enjoy less the +possession of an earthly good by every additional person to whom it +was extended.' You may not be aware of it yourself, most reverend +Abraham, but you deny their freedom to the Catholics upon the same +principle that Sarah your wife refuses to give the receipt for a ham +or a gooseberry dumpling: she values her receipts, not because they +secure to her a certain flavour, but because they remind her that her +neighbours want it:--a feeling laughable in a priestess, shameful in a +priest; venial when it withholds the blessings of a ham, tyrannical +and execrable when it narrows the boon of religious freedom. + +You spend a great deal of ink about the character of the present prime +minister. Grant you all that you write--I say, I fear he will ruin +Ireland, and pursue a line of policy destructive to the true interest +of his country: and then you tell me, he is faithful to Mrs. Perceval, +and kind to the Master Percevals! These are, undoubtedly, the first +qualifications to be looked to in a time of the most serious public +danger; but somehow or another (if public and private virtues must +always be incompatible), I should prefer that he destroyed the +domestic happiness of Wood or Cockell, owed for the veal of the +preceding year, whipped his boys, and saved his country. + +The late administration did not do right; they did not build their +measures upon the solid basis of facts. They should have caused +several Catholics to have been dissected after death by surgeons of +either religion; and the report to have been published with +accompanying plates. If the viscera, and other organs of life, had +been found to be the same as in Protestant bodies; if the provisions +of nerves, arteries, cerebrum, and cerebellum, had been the same as we +are provided with, or as the Dissenters are now known to possess; +then, indeed, they might have met Mr. Perceval upon a proud eminence, +and convinced the country at large of the strong probability that the +Catholics are really human creatures, endowed with the feelings of +men, and entitled to all their rights. But instead of this wise and +prudent measure, Lord Howick, with his usual precipitation, brings +forward a bill in their favour, without offering the slightest proof +to the country that they were anything more than horses and oxen. The +person who shows the lama at the corner of Piccadilly has the +precaution to write up--_Allowed by Sir Joseph Banks to be a real +quadruped_, so his Lordship might have said--_Allowed by the bench of +Bishops to be real human creatures_.... I could write you twenty +letters upon this subject; but I am tired, and so I suppose are you. +Our friendship is now of forty years' standing; you know me to be a +truly religious man; but I shudder to see religion treated like a +cockade, or a pint of beer, and made the instrument of a party. I love +the king, but I love the people as well as the king; and if I am sorry +to see his old age molested, I am much more sorry to see four millions +of Catholics baffled in their just expectations. If I love Lord +Grenville, and Lord Howick, it is because they love their country; if +I abhor ... it is because I know there is but one man among them who +is not laughing at the enormous folly and credulity of the country, +and that he is an ignorant and mischievous bigot. As for the light and +frivolous jester, of whom it is your misfortune to think so highly, +learn, my dear Abraham, that this political Killigrew, just before the +breaking-up of the last administration, was in actual treaty with them +for a place; and if they had survived twenty-four hours longer, he +would have been now declaiming against the cry of No Popery! instead +of inflaming it. With this practical comment on the baseness of human +nature, I bid you adieu! + + +LETTER VI. + +Dear Abraham--What amuses me the most is to hear of the _indulgences_ +which the Catholics have received, and their exorbitance in not being +satisfied with those indulgences: now if you complain to me that a +man is obtrusive and shameless in his requests, and that it is +impossible to bring him to reason, I must first of all hear the whole +of your conduct towards him; for you may have taken from him so much +in the first instance that, in spite of a long series of restitution, +a vast latitude for petition may still remain behind. + +There is a village, no matter where, in which the inhabitants, on one +day in the year, sit down to a dinner prepared at the common expense: +by an extraordinary piece of tyranny, which Lord Hawkesbury would call +the wisdom of the village ancestors, the inhabitants of three of the +streets, about a hundred years ago, seized upon the inhabitants of the +fourth street, bound them hand and foot, laid them upon their backs, +and compelled them to look on while the rest were stuffing themselves +with beef and beer; the next year the inhabitants of the persecuted +street, though they contributed an equal quota of the expense, were +treated precisely in the same manner. The tyranny grew into a custom; +and, as the manner of our nature is, it was considered as the most +sacred of all duties to keep these poor fellows without their annual +dinner. The village was so tenacious of this practice, that nothing +could induce them to resign it; every enemy to it was looked upon as a +disbeliever in Divine Providence, and any nefarious churchwarden who +wished to succeed in his election had nothing to do but to represent +his antagonist as an abolitionist, in order to frustrate his ambition, +endanger his life, and throw the village into a state of the most +dreadful commotion. By degrees, however, the obnoxious street grew to +be so well peopled, and its inhabitants so firmly united, that their +oppressors, more afraid of injustice, were more disposed to be just. +At the next dinner they are unbound, the year after allowed to sit +upright, then a bit of bread and a glass of water; till at last, after +a long series of concessions, they are emboldened to ask, in pretty +plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at the bottom of the +table, and to fill their bellies as well as the rest. Forthwith a +general cry of shame and scandal: 'Ten years ago, were you not laid +upon your backs? Don't you remember what a great thing you thought it +to get a piece of bread? How thankful you were for cheese parings? +Have you forgotten that memorable era, when the lord of the manor +interfered to obtain for you a slice of the public pudding? And now, +with an audacity only equalled by your ingratitude, you have the +impudence to ask for knives and forks, and to request, in terms too +plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down to table with the rest, +and be indulged even with beef and beer: there are not more than half +a dozen dishes which we have reserved for ourselves; the rest has been +thrown open to you in the utmost profusion; you have potatoes, and +carrots, suet dumplings, sops in the pan, and delicious toast and +water in incredible quantities. Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal are +ours; and if you were not the most restless and dissatisfied of human +beings, you would never think of aspiring to enjoy them.' + +Is not this, my dainty Abraham, the very nonsense and the very insult +which is talked to and practised upon the Catholics? You are surprised +that men who have tasted of partial justice should ask for perfect +justice; that he who has been robbed of coat and cloak will not be +contented with the restitution of one of his garments. He would be a +very lazy blockhead if he were content, and I (who, though an +inhabitant of the village, have preserved, thank God, some sense of +justice) most earnestly counsel these half-fed claimants to persevere +in their just demands, till they are admitted to a more complete share +of a dinner for which they pay as much as the others; and if they see +a little attenuated lawyer squabbling at the head of their opponents, +let them desire him to empty his pockets, and to pull out all the +pieces of duck, fowl, and pudding which he has filched from the public +feast, to carry home to his wife and children. + +You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this country +to the Irish before the Union. I deny that any voluntary concession +was ever made by England to Ireland. What did Ireland ever ask that +was granted? What did she ever demand that was not refused? How did +she get her Mutiny Bill--a limited Parliament--a repeal of Poyning's +Law--a constitution? Not by the concessions of England, but by her +fears. When Ireland asked for all these things upon her knees, her +petitions were rejected with Percevalism and contempt; when she +demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, they were granted +with every mark of consternation and dismay. Ask of Lord Auckland the +fatal consequences of trifling with such a people as the Irish. He +himself was the organ of these refusals. As secretary to the Lord +Lieutenant, the insolence and the tyranny of this country passed +through his hands. Ask him if he remembers the consequences. Ask him +if he has forgotten that memorable evening when he came down booted +and mantled to the House of Commons, when he told the House he was +about to set off for Ireland that night, and declared before God, if +he did not carry with him a compliance with all their demands, Ireland +was for ever lost to this country. The present generation have +forgotten this; but I have not forgotten it; and I know, hasty and +undignified as the submission of England then was, that Lord Auckland +was right, that the delay of a single day might very probably have +separated the two peoples for ever. The terms submission and fear are +galling terms when applied from the lesser nation to the greater; but +it is the plain historical truth, it is the natural consequence of +injustice, it is the predicament in which every country places itself +which leaves such a mass of hatred and discontent by its side. No +empire is powerful enough to endure it; it would exhaust the strength +of China, and sink it with all its mandarins and tea-kettles to the +bottom of the deep. By refusing them justice now when you are strong +enough to refuse them anything more than justice, you will act over +again, with the Catholics, the same scene of mean and precipitate +submission which disgraced you before America, and before the +volunteers of Ireland. We shall live to hear the Hampstead Protestant +pronouncing such extravagant panegyrics upon holy water, and paying +such fulsome compliments to the thumbs and offals of departed saints, +that parties will change sentiments, and Lord Henry Petty and Sam +Whitbread take a spell at No Popery. The wisdom of Mr. Fox was alike +employed in teaching his country justice when Ireland was weak, and +dignity when Ireland was strong. We are fast pacing round the same +miserable circle of ruin and imbecility. Alas! where is our guide? + +You say that Ireland is a millstone about our necks; that it would be +better for us if Ireland were sunk at the bottom of the sea; that the +Irish are a nation of irreclaimable savages and barbarians. How often +have I heard these sentiments fall from the plump and thoughtless +squire, and from the thriving English shopkeeper, who has never felt +the rod of an Orange master upon his back. Ireland a millstone about +your neck! Why is it not a stone of Ajax in your hand? I agree with +you most cordially that, governed as Ireland now is, it would be a +vast accession of strength if the waves of the sea were to rise and +engulf her to-morrow. At this moment, opposed as we are to all the +world, the annihilation of one of the most fertile islands on the face +of the globe, containing five millions of human creatures, would be +one of the most solid advantages which could happen to this country. I +doubt very much, in spite of all the just abuse which has been +lavished upon Bonaparte, whether there is any one of his conquered +countries the blotting out of which would be as beneficial to him as +the destruction of Ireland would be to us: of countries I speak +differing in language from the French, little habituated to their +intercourse, and inflamed with all the resentments of a recently +conquered people. Why will you attribute the turbulence of our people +to any cause but the right--to any cause but your own scandalous +oppression? If you tie your horse up to a gate, and beat him cruelly, +is he vicious because he kicks you? If you have plagued and worried a +mastiff dog for years, is he mad because he flies at you whenever he +sees you? Hatred is an active, troublesome passion. Depend upon it, +whole nations have always some reason for their hatred. Before you +refer the turbulence of the Irish to incurable defects in their +character, tell me if you have treated them as friends and equals? +Have you protected their commerce? Have you respected their religion? +Have you been as anxious for their freedom as your own? Nothing of all +this. What then? Why you have confiscated the territorial surface of +the country twice over: you have massacred and exported her +inhabitants: you have deprived four-fifths of them of every civil +privilege: you have at every period made her commerce and manufactures +slavishly subordinate to your own: and yet the hatred which the Irish +bear to you is the result of an original turbulence of character, and +of a primitive, obdurate wildness, utterly incapable of civilisation. +The embroidered inanities and the sixth-form effusions of Mr. Canning +are really not powerful enough to make me believe this; nor is there +any authority on earth (always excepting the Dean of Christ Church) +which could make it credible to me. I am sick of Mr. Canning. There is +not a 'ha'porth of bread to all this sugar and sack.' I love not the +cretaceous and incredible countenance of his colleague. The only +opinion in which I agree with these two gentlemen is that which they +entertain of each other. I am sure that the insolence of Mr. Pitt, and +the unbalanced accounts of Melville, were far better than the perils +of this new ignorance:-- + + Nonne fuit satiùs, tristes Amaryllidis iras + Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan? + Quamvis ille _niger_? + +In the midst of the most profound peace, the secret articles of the +Treaty of Tilsit, in which the destruction of Ireland is resolved +upon, induce you to rob the Danes of their fleet. After the expedition +sailed comes the Treaty of Tilsit, containing no article, public or +private, alluding to Ireland. The state of the world, you tell me, +justified us in doing this. Just God! do we think only of the state of +the world when there is an opportunity for robbery, for murder, and +for plunder; and do we forget the state of the world when we are +called upon to be wise, and good, and just? Does the state of the +world never remind us that we have four millions of subjects whose +injuries we ought to atone for, and whose affections we ought to +conciliate? Does the state of the world never warn us to lay aside our +infernal bigotry, and to arm every man who acknowledges a God, and can +grasp a sword? Did it never occur to this administration that they +might virtuously get hold of a force ten times greater than the force +of the Danish fleet? Was there no other way of protecting Ireland but +by bringing eternal shame upon Great Britain, and by making the earth +a den of robbers? See what the men whom you have supplanted would have +done. They would have rendered the invasion of Ireland impossible, by +restoring to the Catholics their long-lost rights: they would have +acted in such a manner that the French would neither have wished for +invasion nor dared to attempt it: they would have increased the +permanent strength of the country while they preserved its reputation +unsullied. Nothing of this kind your friends have done, because they +are solemnly pledged to do nothing of this kind; because, to tolerate +all religions, and to equalise civil rights to all sects, is to oppose +some of the worst passions of our nature--to plunder and to oppress is +to gratify them all. They wanted the huzzas of mobs, and they have for +ever blasted the fame of England to obtain them. Were the fleets of +Holland, France, and Spain destroyed by larceny? You resisted the +power of 150 sail of the line by sheer courage, and violated every +principle of morals from the dread of fifteen hulks, while the +expedition itself cost you three times more than the value of the +larcenous matter brought away. The French trample on the laws of God +and man, not for old cordage, but for kingdoms, and always take care +to be well paid for their crimes. We contrive, under the present +administration, to unite moral with intellectual deficiency, and to +grow weaker and worse by the same action. If they had any evidence of +the intended hostility of the Danes, why was it not produced? Why have +the nations of Europe been allowed to feel an indignation against this +country beyond the reach of all subsequent information? Are these +times, do you imagine, when we can trifle with a year of universal +hatred, dally with the curses of Europe, and then regain a lost +character at pleasure, by the parliamentary perspirations of the +Foreign Secretary, or the solemn asseverations of the pecuniary Rose? +Believe me, Abraham, it is not under such ministers as these that the +dexterity of honest Englishmen will ever equal the dexterity of French +knaves; it is not in their presence that the serpent of Moses will +ever swallow up the serpents of the magician. + +Lord Hawkesbury says that nothing is to be granted to the Catholics +from fear. What! not even justice? Why not? There are four millions of +disaffected people within twenty miles of your own coast. I fairly +confess that the dread which I have of their physical power is with me +a very strong motive for listening to their claims. To talk of not +acting from fear is mere parliamentary cant. From what motive but +fear, I should be glad to know, have all the improvements in our +constitution proceeded? I question if any justice has ever been done +to large masses of mankind from any other motive. By what other +motives can the plunderers of the Baltic suppose nations to be +governed in their intercourse _with each other_? If I say, Give this +people what they ask because it is just, do you think I should get ten +people to listen to me? Would not the lesser of the two Jenkinsons be +the first to treat me with contempt? The only true way to make the +mass of mankind see the beauty of justice is by showing to them, in +pretty plain terms, the consequences of injustice. If any body of +French troops land in Ireland, the whole population of that country +will rise against you to a man, and you could not possibly survive +such an event three years. Such, from the bottom of my soul, do I +believe to be the present state of that country; and so far does it +appear to me to be impolitic and unstatesman-like to conceed anything +to such a danger, that if the Catholics, in addition to their present +just demands, were to petition for the perpetual removal of the said +Lord Hawkesbury from his Majesty's councils, I think, whatever might +be the effect upon the destinies of Europe, and however it might +retard our own individual destruction, that the prayer of the petition +should be instantly complied with. Canning's crocodile tears should +not move me; the hoops of the maids of honour should not hide him. I +would tear him from the banisters of the back stairs, and plunge him +in the fishy fumes of the dirtiest of all his Cinque Ports. + + +LETTER VII. + +Dear Abraham--In the correspondence which is passing between us, you +are perpetually alluding to the Foreign Secretary; and in answer to +the dangers of Ireland, which I am pressing upon your notice, you have +nothing to urge but the confidence which you repose in the discretion +and sound sense of this gentleman. I can only say, that I have +listened to him long and often with the greatest attention; I have +used every exertion in my power to take a fair measure of him, and it +appears to me impossible to hear him upon any arduous topic without +perceiving that he is eminently deficient in those solid and serious +qualities upon which, and upon which alone, the confidence of a great +country can properly repose. He sweats and labours, and works for +sense, and Mr. Ellis seems always to think it is coming, but it does +not come; the machine can't draw up what is not to be found in the +spring; Providence has made him a light, jesting, paragraph-writing +man, and that he will remain to his dying day. When he is jocular he +is strong, when he is serious he is like Samson in a wig; any ordinary +person is a match for him: a song, an ironical letter, a burlesque +ode, an attack in the newspaper upon Nicoll's eye, a smart speech of +twenty minutes, full of gross misrepresentations and clever turns, +excellent language, a spirited manner, lucky quotation, success in +provoking dull men, some half information picked up in Pall Mall in +the morning; these are your friend's natural weapons; all these things +he can do: here I allow him to be truly great; nay, I will be just, +and go still further, if he would confine himself to these things, and +consider the _facete_ and the playful to be the basis of his +character, he would, for that species of man, be universally regarded +as a person of a very good understanding; call him a legislator, a +reasoner, and the conductor of the affairs of a great nation, and it +seems to me as absurd as if a butterfly were to teach bees to make +honey. That he is an extraordinary writer of small poetry, and a diner +out of the highest lustre, I do most readily admit. After George +Selwyn, and perhaps Tickell, there has been no such man for this +half-century. The Foreign Secretary is a gentleman, a respectable as +well as a highly agreeable man in private life; but you may as well +feed me with decayed potatoes as console me for the miseries of +Ireland by the resources of his _sense_ and his _discretion_. It is +only the public situation which this gentleman holds which entitles me +or induces me to say so much about him. He is a fly in amber, nobody +cares about the fly; the only question is, How the devil did it get +there? Nor do I attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of +utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke for fear it +should flood a province. + +The friends of the Catholic question are, I observe, extremely +embarrassed in arguing when they come to the loyalty of the Irish +Catholics. As for me, I shall go straight forward to my object, and +state what I have no manner of doubt, from an intimate knowledge of +Ireland, to be the plain truth. Of the great Roman Catholic +proprietors, and of the Catholic prelates, there may be a few, and but +a few, who would follow the fortunes of England at all events: there +is another set of men who, thoroughly detesting this country, have too +much property and too much character to lose, not to wait for some +very favourable event before they show themselves; but the great mass +of Catholic population, upon the slightest appearance of a French +force in that country, would rise upon you to a man. It is the most +mistaken policy to conceal the plain truth. There is no loyalty among +the Catholics: they detest you as their worst oppressors, and they +will continue to detest you till you remove the cause of their hatred. +It is in your power in six months' time to produce a total revolution +of opinions among this people; and in some future letter I will show +you that this is clearly the case. At present, see what a dreadful +state Ireland is in. The common toast among the low Irish is, the +feast of the _passover_. Some allusion to _Bonaparte_, in a play +lately acted at Dublin, produced thunders of applause from the pit and +the galleries; and a politician should not be inattentive to the +public feelings expressed in theatres. Mr. Perceval thinks he has +disarmed the Irish: he has no more disarmed the Irish than he has +resigned a shilling of his own public emoluments. An Irish peasant +fills the barrel of his gun full of tow dipped in oil, butters up the +lock, buries it in a bog, and allows the Orange bloodhound to ransack +his cottage at pleasure. Be just and kind to the Irish, and you will +indeed disarm them; rescue them from the degraded servitude in which +they are held by a handful of their own countrymen, and you will add +four millions of brave and affectionate men to your strength. Nightly +visits, Protestant inspectors, licenses to possess a pistol, or a +knife and fork, the odious vigour of the _evangelical_ Perceval--acts +of Parliament, drawn up by some English attorney, to save you from the +hatred of four millions of people--the guarding yourselves from +universal disaffection by a police; a confidence in the little cunning +of Bow Street, when you might rest your security upon the eternal +basis of the best feelings: this is the meanness and madness to which +nations are reduced when they lose sight of the first elements of +justice, without which a country can be no more secure than it can be +healthy without air. I sicken at such policy and such men. The fact +is, the Ministers know nothing about the present state of Ireland; Mr. +Perceval sees a few clergymen, Lord Castlereagh a few general +officers, who take care, of course, to report what is pleasant rather +than what is true. As for the joyous and lepid consul, he jokes upon +neutral flags and frauds, jokes upon Irish rebels, jokes upon +northern and western and southern foes, and gives himself no trouble +upon any subject; nor is the mediocrity of the idolatrous deputy of +the slightest use. Dissolved in grins, he reads no memorials upon the +state of Ireland, listens to no reports, asks no questions, and is the + + "_Bourn_ from whom no traveller returns." + +The danger of an immediate insurrection is now, I _believe_, blown +over. You have so strong an army in Ireland, and the Irish are become +so much more cunning from the last insurrection, that you may perhaps +be tolerably secure just at present from that evil: but are you secure +from the efforts which the French may make to throw a body of troops +into Ireland? and do you consider that event to be difficult and +improbable? From Brest Harbour to Cape St. Vincent, you have above +three thousand miles of hostile sea coast, and twelve or fourteen +harbours quite capable of containing a sufficient force for the +powerful invasion of Ireland. The nearest of these harbours is not two +days' sail from the southern coast of Ireland, with a fair leading +wind; and the furthest not ten. Five ships of the line, for so very +short a passage, might carry five or six thousand troops with cannon +and ammunition; and Ireland presents to their attack a southern coast +of more than 500 miles, abounding in deep bays, admirable harbours, +and disaffected inhabitants. Your blockading ships may be forced to +come home for provisions and repairs, or they may be blown off in a +gale of wind and compelled to bear away for their own coast; and you +will observe that the very same wind which locks you up in the British +Channel, when you are got there, is evidently favourable for the +invasion of Ireland. And yet this is called Government, and the people +huzza Mr. Perceval for continuing to expose his country day after day +to such tremendous perils as these; cursing the men who would have +given up a question in theology to have saved us from such a risk. The +British empire at this moment is in the state of a peach-blossom--if +the wind blows gently from one quarter, it survives; if furiously from +the other, it perishes. A stiff breeze may set in from the north, the +Rochefort squadron will be taken, and the Minister will be the most +holy of men: if it comes from some other point, Ireland is gone; we +curse ourselves as a set of monastic madmen, and call out for the +unavailing satisfaction of Mr. Perceval's head. Such a state of +political existence is scarcely credible: it is the action of a mad +young fool standing upon one foot, and peeping down the crater of +Mount Ætna, not the conduct of a wise and sober people deciding upon +their best and dearest interests: and in the name, the much-injured +name, of heaven, what is it all for that we expose ourselves to these +dangers? Is it that we may sell more muslin? Is it that we may acquire +more territory? Is it that we may strengthen what we have already +acquired? No; nothing of all this; but that one set of Irishmen may +torture another set of Irishmen--that Sir Phelim O'Callaghan may +continue to whip Sir Toby M'Tackle, his next door neighbour, and +continue to ravish his Catholic daughters; and these are the measures +which the honest and consistent Secretary supports; and this is the +Secretary whose genius in the estimation of Brother Abraham is to +extinguish the genius of Bonaparte. Pompey was killed by a slave, +Goliath smitten by a stripling. Pyrrhus died by the hand of a woman; +tremble, thou great Gaul, from whose head an armed Minerva leaps forth +in the hour of danger; tremble, thou scourge of God, a pleasant man is +come out against thee, and thou shall be laid low by a joker of jokes, +and he shall talk his pleasant talk against thee, and thou shall be no +more! + +You tell me, in spite of all this parade of sea-coast, Bonaparte has +neither ships nor sailors: but this is a mistake. He has not ships and +sailors to contest the empire of the seas with Great Britain, but +there remains quite sufficient of the navies of France, Spain, +Holland, and Denmark, for these short excursions and invasions. Do you +think, too, that Bonaparte does not add to his navy every year? Do +you suppose, with all Europe at his feet, that he can find any +difficulty in obtaining timber, and that money will not procure for +him any quantity of naval stores he may want? The mere machine, the +empty ship, he can build as well, and as quickly, as you can; and +though he may not find enough of practised sailors to man large +fighting-fleets--it is not possible to conceive that he can want +sailors for such sort of purposes as I have stated. He is at present +the despotic monarch of above twenty thousand miles of sea-coast, and +yet you suppose he cannot procure sailors for the invasion of Ireland. +Believe, if you please, that such a fleet met at sea by any number of +our ships at all comparable to them in point of force, would be +immediately taken, let it be so; I count nothing upon their power of +resistance, only upon their power of escaping unobserved. If +experience has taught us anything, it is the impossibility of +perpetual blockades. The instances are innumerable, during the course +of this war, where whole fleets have sailed in and out of harbour, in +spite of every vigilance used to prevent it. I shall only mention +those cases where Ireland is concerned. In December, 1796, seven ships +of the line, and ten transports, reached Bantry Bay from Brest, +without having seen an English ship in their passage. It blew a storm +when they were off shore, and therefore England still continues to be +an independent kingdom. You will observe that at the very time the +French fleet sailed out of Brest Harbour, Admiral Colpoys was cruising +off there with a powerful squadron, and still, from the particular +circumstances of the weather, found it impossible to prevent the +French from coming out. During the time that Admiral Colpoys was +cruising off Brest, Admiral Richery, with six ships of the line, +passed him, and got safe into the harbour. At the very moment when the +French squadron was lying in Bantry Bay, Lord Bridport with his fleet +was locked up by a foul wind in the Channel, and for several days +could not stir to the assistance of Ireland. Admiral Colpoys, totally +unable to find the French fleet, came home. Lord Bridport, at the +change of the wind, cruised for them in vain, and they got safe back +to Brest, without having seen a single one of those floating bulwarks, +the possession of which we believe will enable us with impunity to set +justice and common sense at defiance. Such is the miserable and +precarious state of an anemocracy, of a people who put their trust in +hurricanes, and are governed by wind. In August, 1798, three forty-gun +frigates landed 1100 men under Humbert, making the passage from +Rochelle to Killala without seeing any English ship. In October of the +same year, four French frigates anchored in Killala Bay with 2000 +troops; and though they did not land their troops they returned to +France in safety. In the same month, a line-of-battle ship, eight +stout frigates, and a brig, all full of troops and stores, reached the +coast of Ireland, and were fortunately, in sight of land, destroyed, +after an obstinate engagement, by Sir John Warren. + +If you despise the little troop which, in these numerous experiments, +did make good its landing, take with you, if you please, this _précis_ +of its exploits: eleven hundred men, commanded by a soldier raised +from the ranks, put to rout a select army of 6000 men, commanded by +General Lake, seized their ordnance, ammunition, and stores, advanced +150 miles into a country containing an armed force of 150,000 men, and +at last surrendered to the Viceroy, an experienced general, gravely +and cautiously advancing at the head of all his chivalry and of an +immense army to oppose him. You must excuse these details about +Ireland, but it appears to me to be of all other subjects the most +important. If we conciliate Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do +not, we can do nothing well. If Ireland was friendly, we might equally +set at defiance the talents of Bonaparte and the blunders of his +rival, Mr. Canning; we could then support the ruinous and silly bustle +of our useless expeditions, and the almost incredible ignorance of our +commercial orders in council. Let the present administration give up +but this one point, and there is nothing which I would not consent to +grant them. Mr. Perceval shall have full liberty to insult the tomb +of Mr. Fox, and to torment every eminent Dissenter in Great Britain; +Lord Camden shall have large boxes of plums; Mr. Rose receive +permission to prefix to his name the appellative of virtuous; and to +the Viscount Castlereagh a round sum of ready money shall be well and +truly paid into his hand. Lastly, what remains to Mr. George Canning, +but that he ride up and down Pall Mall glorious upon a white horse, +and that they cry out before him, Thus shall it be done to the +statesman who hath written 'The Needy Knife-Grinder,' and the German +play? Adieu only for the present; you shall soon hear from me again; +it is a subject upon which I cannot long be silent. + + +LETTER IX. + +Dear Abraham--No Catholic can be chief Governor or Governor of this +kingdom, Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord High Treasurer, +Chief of any of the Courts of Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, +Puisne Judge, Judge in the Admiralty, Master of the Rolls, Secretary +of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer or his Deputy, +Teller or Cashier of Exchequer, Auditor or General, Governor or Gustos +Rotulorum of Counties, Chief Governor's Secretary, Privy Councillor, +King's Counsel, Serjeant, Attorney, Solicitor-General, Master in +Chancery, Provost or Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, +Postmaster-General, Master and Lieutenant-General of Ordnance, +Commander-in-Chief, General on the Staff, Sheriff, Sub-Sheriff, Mayor, +Bailiff, Recorder, Burgess, or any other officer in a City, or a +Corporation. No Catholic can be guardian to a Protestant, and no +priest guardian at all; no Catholic can be a gamekeeper, or have for +sale, or otherwise, any arms or warlike stores; no Catholic can +present to a living, unless he choose to turn Jew in order to obtain +that privilege; the pecuniary qualification of Catholic jurors is made +higher than that of Protestants, and no relaxation of the ancient +rigorous code is permitted, unless to those who shall take an oath +prescribed by 13 and 14 George III. Now if this is not picking the +plums out of the pudding and leaving the mere batter to the Catholics, +I know not what is. If it were merely the Privy Council, it would be +(I allow) nothing but a point of honour for which the mass of +Catholics were contending, the honour of being chief-mourners or +pall-bearers to the country; but surely no man will contend that every +barrister may not speculate upon the possibility of being a Puisne +Judge; and that every shopkeeper must not feel himself injured by his +exclusion from borough offices. + +One of the greatest practical evils which the Catholics suffer in +Ireland is their exclusion from the offices of Sheriff and Deputy +Sheriff. Nobody who is unacquainted with Ireland can conceive the +obstacles which this opposes to the fair administration of justice. +The formation of juries is now entirely in the hands of the +Protestants; the lives, liberties, and properties of the Catholics in +the hands of the juries; and this is the arrangement for the +administration of justice in a country where religious prejudices are +inflamed to the greatest degree of animosity! In this country, if a +man be a foreigner, if he sell slippers, and sealing wax, and +artificial flowers, we are so tender of human life that we take care +half the number of persons who are to decide upon his fate should be +men of similar prejudices and feelings with himself: but a poor +Catholic in Ireland may be tried by twelve Percevals, and destroyed +according to the manner of that gentleman in the name of the Lord, and +with all the insulting forms of justice. I do not go the length of +saying that deliberate and wilful injustice is done. I have no doubt +that the Orange Deputy Sheriff thinks it would be a most unpardonable +breach of his duty if he did not summon a Protestant panel. I can +easily believe that the Protestant panel may conduct themselves very +conscientiously in hanging the gentlemen of the crucifix; but I blame +the law which does not guard the Catholic against the probable tenor +of those feelings which must unconsciously influence the judgments of +mankind. I detest that state of society which extends unequal degrees +of protection to different creeds and persuasions; and I cannot +describe to you the contempt I feel for a man who, calling himself a +statesman, defends a system which fills the heart of every Irishman +with treason, and makes his allegiance prudence, not choice. + +I request to know if the vestry taxes in Ireland are a mere matter of +romantic feeling which can affect only the Earl of Fingal? In a parish +where there are four thousand Catholics and fifty Protestants, the +Protestants may meet together in a vestry meeting at which no Catholic +has the right to vote, and tax all the lands in the parish 1s. 6d. per +acre, or in the pound, I forget which, for the repairs of the +church--and how has the necessity of these repairs been ascertained? A +Protestant plumber has discovered that it wants new leading; a +Protestant carpenter is convinced the timbers are not sound; and the +glazier who hates holy water (as an accoucheur hates celibacy, because +he gets nothing by it) is employed to put in new sashes. + +The grand juries in Ireland are the great scene of jobbing. They have +a power of making a county rate to a considerable extent for roads, +bridges, and other objects of general accommodation. 'You suffer the +road to be brought through my park, and I will have the bridge +constructed in a situation where it will make a beautiful object to +your house. You do my job, and I will do yours.' These are the sweet +and interesting subjects which occasionally occupy Milesian gentlemen +while they are attendant upon this grand inquest of justice. But there +is a religion, it seems, even in jobs; and it will be highly +gratifying to Mr. Perceval to learn that no man in Ireland who +believes in seven sacraments can carry a public road, or bridge, one +yard out of the direction most beneficial to the public, and that +nobody can cheat the public who does not expound the Scriptures in the +purest and most orthodox manner. This will give pleasure to Mr. +Perceval: but, from his unfairness upon these topics I appeal to the +justice and the proper feelings of Mr. Huskisson. I ask him if the +human mind can experience a more dreadful sensation than to see its +own jobs refused, and the jobs of another religion perpetually +succeeding? I ask him his opinion of a jobless faith, of a creed which +dooms a man through life to a lean and plunderless integrity. He knows +that human nature cannot and will not bear it; and if we were to paint +a political Tartarus, it would be an endless series of snug +expectations and cruel disappointments. These are a few of many +dreadful inconveniences which the Catholics of all ranks suffer from +the laws by which they are at present oppressed. Besides, look at +human nature: what is the history of all professions? Joel is to be +brought up to the bar: has Mrs. Plymley the slightest doubt of his +being Chancellor? Do not his two shrivelled aunts live in the +certainty of seeing him in that situation, and of cutting out with +their own hands his equity habiliments? And I could name a certain +minister of the Gospel who does not, in the bottom of his heart, much +differ from these opinions. Do you think that the fathers and mothers +of the holy Catholic Church are not as absurd as Protestant papas and +mammas? The probability I admit to be, in each particular case, that +the sweet little blockhead will in fact never get a brief;--but I will +venture to say there is not a parent from the Giant's Causeway to +Bantry Bay who does not conceive that his child is the unfortunate +victim of the exclusion, and that nothing short of positive law could +prevent his own dear, pre-eminent Paddy from rising to the highest +honours of the State. So with the army and parliament; in fact, few +are excluded; but, in imagination, all: you keep twenty or thirty +Catholics out, and you lose the affections of four millions; and, let +me tell you, that recent circumstances have by no means tended to +diminish in the minds of men that hope of elevation beyond their own +rank which is so congenial to our nature: from pleading for John Roe +to taxing John Bull, from jesting for Mr. Pitt and writing in the +_Anti-Jacobin_, to managing the affairs of Europe--these are leaps +which seem to justify the fondest dreams of mothers and of aunts. + +I do not say that the disabilities to which the Catholics are exposed +amount to such intolerable grievances, that the strength and industry +of a nation are overwhelmed by them: the increasing prosperity of +Ireland fully demonstrates to the contrary. But I repeat again, what I +have often stated in the course of our correspondence, that your laws +against the Catholics are exactly in that state in which you have +neither the benefits of rigour nor of liberality: every law which +prevented the Catholic from gaining strength and wealth is repealed; +every law which can irritate remains; if you were determined to insult +the Catholics you should have kept them weak; if you resolved to give +them strength, you should have ceased to insult them--at present your +conduct is pure, unadulterated folly. + +Lord Hawkesbury says, 'We heard nothing about the Catholics till we +began to mitigate the laws against them; when we relieved them in part +from this oppression they began to be disaffected.' This is very true; +but it proves just what I have said, that you have either done too +much or too little; and as there lives not, I hope, upon earth, so +depraved a courtier that he would load the Catholics with their +ancient chains, what absurdity it is, then, not to render their +dispositions friendly, when you leave their arms and legs free! + +You know, and many Englishmen know, what passes in China; but nobody +knows or cares what passes in Ireland. At the beginning of the +present reign no Catholic could realise property, or carry on any +business; they were absolutely annihilated, and had no more agency in +the country than so many trees. They were like Lord Mulgrave's +eloquence and Lord Camden's wit; the legislative bodies did not know +of their existence. For these twenty-five years last past the +Catholics have been engaged in commerce; within that period the +commerce of Ireland has doubled--there are four Catholics at work for +one Protestant, and eight Catholics at work for one Episcopalian. Of +course, the proportion which Catholic wealth bears to Protestant +wealth is every year altering rapidly in favour of the Catholics. I +have already told you what their purchases of land were the last year: +since that period I have been at some pains to find out the actual +state of the Catholic wealth: it is impossible upon such a subject to +arrive at complete accuracy; but I have good reason to believe that +there are at present 2000 Catholics in Ireland possessing an income of +£500 and upwards, many of these with incomes of one, two, three, and +four thousand, and some amounting to fifteen and twenty thousand per +annum:--and this is the kingdom, and these the people, for whose +conciliation we are to wait Heaven knows when, and Lord Hawkesbury +why! As for me, I never think of the situation of Ireland without +feeling the same necessity for immediate interference as I should do +if I saw blood flowing from a great artery. I rush towards it with +the instinctive rapidity of a man desirous of preventing death, and +have no other feeling but that in a few seconds the patient may be no +more. + +I could not help smiling, in the times of No Popery, to witness the +loyal indignation of many persons at the attempt made by the last +ministry to do something for the relief of Ireland. The general cry in +the country was, that they would not see their beloved Monarch used +ill in his old age, and that they would stand by him to the last drop +of their blood. I respect good feelings, however erroneous be the +occasions on which they display themselves; and therefore I saw in all +this as much to admire as to blame. It was a species of affection, +however, which reminded me very forcibly of the attachment displayed +by the servants of the Russian ambassador at the beginning of the last +century. His Excellency happened to fall down in a kind of apoplectic +fit, when he was paying a morning visit in the house of an +acquaintance. The confusion was of course very great, and messengers +were despatched in every direction to find a surgeon: who, upon his +arrival, declared that his Excellency must be immediately blooded, and +prepared himself forthwith to perform the operation: the barbarous +servants of the embassy, who were there in great numbers, no sooner +saw the surgeon prepared to wound the arm of their master with a +sharp, shining instrument, than they drew their swords, put themselves +in an attitude of defence, and swore in pure Sclavonic, 'that they +would murder any man who attempted to do him the slightest injury: he +had been a very good master to them, and they would not desert him in +his misfortunes, or suffer his blood to be shed while he was off his +guard, and incapable of defending himself.' By good fortune, the +secretary arrived about this period of the dispute, and his +Excellency, relieved from superfluous blood and perilous affection, +was, after much difficulty, restored to life. + +There is an argument brought forward with some appearance of +plausibility in the House of Commons, which certainly merits an +answer: You know that the Catholics now vote for members of parliament +in Ireland, and that they outnumber the Protestants in a very great +proportion; if you allow Catholics to sit in parliament, religion will +be found to influence votes more than property, and the greater part +of the 100 Irish members who are returned to parliament will be +Catholics. Add to these the Catholic members who are returned in +England, and you will have a phalanx of heretical strength which every +minister will be compelled to respect, and occasionally to conciliate +by concessions incompatible with the interests of the Protestant +Church. The fact is, however, that you are at this moment subjected to +every danger of this kind which you can possibly apprehend hereafter. +If the spiritual interests of the voters are more powerful than their +temporal interests, they can bind down their representatives to +support any measures favourable to the Catholic religion, and they can +change the objects of their choice till they have found Protestant +members (as they easily may do) perfectly obedient to their wishes. If +the superior possessions of the Protestants prevent the Catholics from +uniting for a common political object, then danger you fear cannot +exist: if zeal, on the contrary, gets the better of acres, then the +danger at present exists, from the right of voting already given to +the Catholics, and it will not be increased by allowing them to sit in +parliament. There are, as nearly as I can recollect, thirty seats in +Ireland for cities and counties, where the Protestants are the most +numerous, and where the members returned must of course be +Protestants. In the other seventy representations the wealth of the +Protestants is opposed to the number of the Catholics; and if all the +seventy members returned were of the Catholic persuasion, they must +still plot the destruction of our religion in the midst of 588 +Protestants. Such terrors would disgrace a cook-maid, or a toothless +aunt--when they fall from the lips of bearded and senatorial men, they +are nauseous, antiperistaltic, and emetical. + +How can you for a moment doubt of the rapid effects which would be +produced by the emancipation? In the first place, to my certain +knowledge the Catholics have long since expressed to his Majesty's +Ministers their perfect readiness _to vest in his Majesty, either with +the consent of the Pope, or without it if it cannot be obtained, the +nomination of the Catholic prelacy_. The Catholic prelacy in Ireland +consists of twenty-six bishops and the warden of Galway, a dignitary +enjoying Catholic jurisdiction. The number of Roman Catholic priests +in Ireland exceeds one thousand. The expenses of his peculiar worship +are, to a substantial farmer or mechanic, five shillings per annum; to +a labourer (where he is not entirely excused) one shilling per annum; +this includes the contribution of the whole family, and for this the +priest is bound to attend them when sick, and to confess them when +they apply to him; he is also to keep his chapel in order, to +celebrate divine service, and to preach on Sundays and holydays. In +the northern district a priest gains from £30 to £50; in the other +parts of Ireland from £60 to £90 per annum. The best paid Catholic +bishops receive about £400 per annum; the others from £300 to £350. My +plan is very simple: I would have 300 Catholic parishes at £100 per +annum, 300 at £200 per annum, and 400 at £300 per annum; this, for the +whole thousand parishes, would amount to £190,000. To the prelacy I +would allot £20,000 in unequal proportions, from £1000 to £500; and I +would appropriate £40,000 more for the support of Catholic Schools, +and the repairs of Catholic churches; the whole amount of which sum is +£250,000, about the expense of three days of one of our genuine, good +English _just and necessary wars_. The clergy should all receive their +salaries at the Bank of Ireland, and I would place the whole patronage +in the hands of the Crown. Now, I appeal to any human being, except +Spencer Perceval, Esq., of the parish of Hampstead, what the +disaffection of a clergy would amount to, gaping after this graduated +bounty of the Crown, and whether Ignatius Loyola himself, if he were a +living blockhead instead of a dead saint, could withstand the +temptation of bouncing from £100 a year at Sligo, to £300 in +Tipperary? This is the miserable sum of money for which the merchants +and landowners and nobility of England are exposing themselves to the +tremendous peril of losing Ireland. The sinecure places of the Roses +and the Percevals, and the 'dear and near relations,' put up to +auction at thirty years' purchase, would almost amount to the money. + +I admit that nothing can be more reasonable than to expect that a +Catholic priest should starve to death, genteelly and pleasantly, for +the good of the Protestant religion; but is it equally reasonable to +expect that he should do so for the Protestant pews, and Protestant +brick and mortar? On an Irish Sabbath the bell of a neat parish +church often summons to church only the parson and an occasionally +conforming clerk; while, two hundred yards off, a thousand Catholics +are huddled together in a miserable hovel, and pelted by all the +storms of heaven. Can anything be more distressing than to see a +venerable man pouring forth sublime truths in tattered breeches, and +depending for his food upon the little offal he gets from his +parishioners? I venerate a human being who starves for his principles, +let them be what they may; but starving for anything is not at all to +the taste of the honourable flagellants: strict principles, and good +pay, is the motto of Mr. Perceval: the one he keeps in great measure +for the faults of his enemies, the other for himself. + +There are parishes in Connaught in which a Protestant was never +settled nor even seen. In that province, in Munster, and in parts of +Leinster, the entire peasantry for sixty miles are Catholics; in these +tracts the churches are frequently shut for want of a congregation, or +opened to an assemblage of from six to twenty persons. Of what +Protestants there are in Ireland, the greatest part are gathered +together in Ulster, or they live in towns. In the country of the other +three provinces the Catholics see no other religion but their own, and +are at the least as fifteen to one Protestant. In the diocese of Tuam +they are sixty to one; in the parish of St. Mulins, diocese of +Leghlin, there are four thousand Catholics and one Protestant; in the +town of Grasgenamana, in the county of Kilkenny, there are between +four and five hundred Catholic houses, and three Protestant houses. In +the parish of Allen, county Kildare, there is no Protestant, though it +is very populous. In the parish of Arlesin, Queen's County, the +proportion is one hundred to one. In the whole county of Kilkenny, by +actual enumeration, it is seventeen to one; in the diocese of +Kilmacduagh, province of Connaught, fifty-two to one, by ditto. These +I give you as a few specimens of the present state of Ireland; and yet +there are men impudent and ignorant enough to contend that such evils +require no remedy, and that mild family man who dwelleth in Hampstead +can find none but the cautery and the knife. + + ----'Omne per ignem + Excoquitur vitium.' + +I cannot describe the horror and disgust which I felt at hearing Mr. +Perceval call upon the then Ministry for measures of vigour in +Ireland. If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I +walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my own +begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly combed; +if the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort--how awfully +would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the +cabins of the poor, brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of +Ireland! How easy it is to shed human blood; how easy it is to +persuade ourselves that it is our duty to do so, and that the decision +has cost us a severe struggle; how much in all ages have wounds and +shrieks and tears been the cheap and vulgar resources of the rulers of +mankind; how difficult and how noble it is to govern in kindness and +to found an empire upon the everlasting basis of justice and +affection! But what do men call vigour? To let loose hussars and to +bring up artillery, to govern with lighted matches, and to cut, and +push, and prime; I call this not vigour, but the _sloth of cruelty and +ignorance_. The vigour I love consists in finding out wherein subjects +are aggrieved, in relieving them, in studying the temper and genius of +a people, in consulting their prejudices, in selecting proper persons +to lead and manage them, in the laborious, watchful, and difficult +task of increasing public happiness by allaying each particular +discontent. In this way Hoche pacified La Vendée--and in this way only +will Ireland ever be subdued. But this, in the eyes of Mr. Perceval, +is imbecility and meanness. Houses are not broken open, women are not +insulted, the people seem all to be happy; they are not rode over by +horses, and cut by whips. Do you call this vigour? Is this government? + + + + +VI.--'LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW.' + +BY WILLIAM COBBETT + + +(_Although Cobbett produced not a few political pamphlets in the +strictest sense of the term, the infinitely greater part of his work +is comprised during his earlier days in the volumes of _Peter +Porcupine's Gazette_, during his later in those of the _Weekly +Register_. This latter, however, he himself for a time actually +entitled _The Weekly Political Pamphlet_, while he alluded to it under +that name even at other times; and his whole work was imbued even more +deeply than that of Defoe with the pamphlet character. I have selected +two examples from the critical time when he was still exasperated by +his imprisonment, and stung into fresh efforts by debt and the +prospect of fresh difficulties. They exhibit in the most striking form +all Cobbett's pet hatreds--of the unreformed Parliament, of paper +money, of political economy, of potatoes, and of many other things. +The first is the _Register_ of 2d November 1816, the first number of +the cheapened form, which was sold at twopence, and so acquired the +name of 'Twopenny Trash,' from a phrase of, as some say, Canning's, +others Castlereagh's. The second is an early number of the papers +written from America. They will, with the notes, explain themselves._) + + +LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND, ON THE CAUSE OF THEIR PRESENT MISERIES; ON THE MEASURES +WHICH HAVE PRODUCED THAT CAUSE; ON THE REMEDIES WHICH SOME FOOLISH AND +SOME CRUEL AND INSOLENT MEN HAVE PROPOSED; AND ON THE LINE OF CONDUCT +WHICH JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OUGHT TO PURSUE, IN ORDER TO OBTAIN +EFFECTUAL RELIEF, AND TO ASSIST IN PROMOTING THE TRANQUILLITY AND +RESTORING THE HAPPINESS OF THEIR COUNTRY. + +Friends And Fellow-countrymen--Whatever the pride of rank, of riches, +or of scholarship may have induced some men to believe, or to affect +to believe, the real strength and all the resources of a country ever +have sprung and ever must spring from the _labour_ of its people; and +hence it is that this nation, which is so small in numbers and so poor +in climate and soil compared with many others, has, for many ages, +been the most powerful nation in the world: it is the most +industrious, the most laborious, and, therefore, the most powerful. +Elegant dresses, superb furniture, stately buildings, fine roads and +canals, fleet horses and carriages, numerous and stout ships, +warehouses teeming with goods; all these, and many other objects that +fall under our view, are so many marks of national wealth and +resources. But all these spring from _labour_. Without the journeyman +and the labourer none of them could exist; without the assistance of +their hands the country would be a wilderness, hardly worth the notice +of an invader. + +As it is the labour of those who toil which makes a country abound in +resources, so it is the same class of men, who must, by their arms, +secure its safety and uphold its fame. Titles and immense sums of +money have been bestowed upon numerous Naval and Military Commanders. +Without calling the justice of these in question, we may assert that +the victories were obtained by _you_ and your fathers and brothers and +sons, in co-operation with those Commanders, who, with _your_ aid, +have done great and wonderful things; but who, without that aid, would +have been as impotent as children at the breast. + +With this correct idea of your own worth in your minds, with what +indignation must you hear yourselves called the Populace, the Rabble, +the Mob, the Swinish Multitude; and with what greater indignation, if +possible, must you hear the projects of those cool and cruel and +insolent men, who, now that you have been, without any fault of yours, +brought into a state of misery, propose to narrow the limit of parish +relief, to prevent you from marrying in the days of your youth, or to +thrust you out to seek your bread in foreign lands, never more to +behold your parents or friends? But suppress your indignation, until +we return to this topic, after we have considered the _cause_ of your +present misery, and the measures which have produced that cause. + +The times in which we live are full of peril. The nation, as described +by the very creatures of Government, is fast advancing to that period +when an important change must take place. It is the lot of mankind +that some shall labour with their limbs and others with their minds; +and, on all occasions, more especially on an occasion like the +present, it is the duty of the latter to come to the assistance of the +former. We are all equally interested in the peace and happiness of +our common country. It is of the utmost importance that, in the +seeking to obtain these objects, our endeavours should be uniform, and +tend all to the same point. Such an uniformity cannot exist without +an uniformity of sentiment as to public matters, and to produce this +latter uniformity amongst you is the object of this address. + +As to the cause of our present miseries, it is the enormous amount of +the taxes which the Government compels us to pay for the support of +its army, its placemen, its pensioners, etc., and for the payment of +the interest of its debt. That this is the _real_ cause has been a +thousand times proved; and it is now so acknowledged by the creatures +of the Government themselves. Two hundred and five of the +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture ascribe the ruin of the +country to taxation. Numerous writers, formerly the friends of the +Pitt system, now declare that taxation has been the cause of our +distress. Indeed, when we compare our present state to the state of +the country previous to the wars against France, we must see that our +present misery is owing to no other cause. The taxes then annually +raised amounted to about fifteen millions: they amounted last year to +seventy millions. The nation was then happy; it is now miserable. + +The writers and speakers who labour in the cause of corruption, have +taken great pains to make the labouring classes believe that _they_ +are _not taxed_; that the taxes which are paid by the landlords, +farmers, and tradesmen, do not affect you, the journeymen and +labourers; and that the tax-makers have been very lenient towards +you. But, I hope that you see to the bottom of these things now. You +must be sensible that if all your employers were totally ruined in one +day, you would be wholly without employment and without bread; and, of +course, in whatever degree your employers are deprived of their means, +they must withhold means from you. In America the most awkward common +labourer receives five shillings a day, while provisions are cheaper +in that country than in this. Here, a carter, boarded in the house, +receives about seven pounds a year; in America, he receives about +thirty pounds a year. What is it that makes this difference? Why, in +America the whole of the taxes do not amount to more than about ten +shillings a head upon the whole of the population; while in England +they amount to nearly six pounds a head! _There_, a journeyman or +labourer may support his family well, and save from thirty to sixty +pounds a year: _here_, he amongst you is a lucky man, who can provide +his family with food and with decent clothes to cover them, without +any hope of possessing a penny in the days of sickness or of old age. +_There_, the Chief Magistrate receives six thousand pounds a year; +_here_, the civil list surpasses a million of pounds in amount, and as +much is allowed to each of the Princesses in one year, as the chief +magistrate of America receives in two years, though that country is +nearly equal to this in population. + +A Mr. Preston, a lawyer of great eminence, and a great praiser of +Pitt, has just published a pamphlet, in which is this remark: 'It +should always be remembered, that the eighteen pounds a year paid to +any placeman or pensioner, withdraws from the public the means of +giving active employment to one individual as the head of a family; +thus depriving five persons of the means of sustenance from the fruits +of honest industry and active labour, and rendering them paupers.' +Thus this supporter of Pitt acknowledges the great truth that the +taxes are the cause of a people's poverty and misery and degradation. +We did not stand in need of this acknowledgment; the fact has been +clearly proved before; but it is good for us to see the friends and +admirers of Pitt brought to make this confession. + +It has been attempted to puzzle you with this sort of question: 'If +taxes be the cause of the people's misery, how comes it that they were +not so miserable before the taxes were reduced as they are now?' Here +is a fallacy which you will be careful to detect. I know that the +taxes have been reduced; that is to say, _nominally_ reduced, but not +so in fact; on the contrary, they have, in reality, been greatly +augmented. This has been done by the sleight-of-hand of paper money. +Suppose, for instance, that four years ago, I had a hundred pounds to +pay in taxes, then a hundred and thirty bushels of wheat would have +paid my share. If I have now seventy-five pounds to pay in taxes, it +will require a hundred and ninety bushels of wheat to pay my share of +taxes. Consequently, though my taxes are nominally reduced, they are, +in reality, greatly augmented. This has been done by the legerdemain +of paper money. In 1812, the pound-note was worth only thirteen +shillings in silver. It is now worth twenty shillings. Therefore, when +we now pay a pound-note to the tax-gatherer, we really pay him twenty +shillings where we before paid him thirteen shillings; and the +Landholders who lent pound-notes worth thirteen shillings each, are +now paid their interest in pounds worth twenty shillings each. And the +thing is come to what Sir Francis Burdett told the Parliament it would +come to. He told them in 1811, that if they ever attempted to pay the +interest of their debt in gold and silver, or in paper money equal in +value to gold and silver, the farmers and tradesmen must be ruined, +and the journeymen and labourers reduced to the last stage of misery. + +Thus, then, it is clear that it is the weight of the taxes, under +which you are sinking, which has already pressed so many of you down +into the state of paupers, and which now threatens to deprive many of +you of your existence. We next come to consider what have been the +causes of this weight of taxes. Here we must go back a little in our +history, and you will soon see that this intolerable weight has all +proceeded from the want of a Parliamentary Reform. + +In the year 1764, soon after the present king came to the throne, the +annual interest of the Debt amounted to about five millions, and the +whole of the taxes to about nine millions. But, soon after this, a war +was entered on to compel the Americans to submit to be taxed by the +Parliament, without being represented in that Parliament. The +Americans triumphed, and, after the war was over, the annual interest +of the Debt amounted to about nine millions, and the whole of the +taxes to about fifteen millions. This was our situation when the +French people began their Revolution. The French people had so long +been the slaves of a despotic government, that the friends of freedom +in England rejoiced at their emancipation. The cause of Reform, which +had never ceased to have supporters in England for a great many years, +now acquired new life, and the Reformers urged the Parliament to grant +reform, instead of going to war against the people of France. The +Reformers said: 'Give the nation reform, and you need fear no +revolution.' The Parliament, instead of listening to the Reformers, +crushed them, and went to war against the people of France; and the +consequence of these wars is, that the annual interest of the Debt now +amounts to forty-five millions, and the whole of the taxes, during +each of the last several years, to seventy millions. So that these +wars have ADDED thirty-six millions a year to the interest of the +Debt, and fifty-five millions a year to the amount of the whole of +the taxes! This is the price that we have paid for having checked (for +it is only checked) the progress of liberty in France; for having +forced upon that people the family of Bourbon, and for having enabled +another branch of that same family to restore the bloody Inquisition, +which Napoleon had put down. + +Since the restoration of the Bourbons and of the old Government of +France has been, as far as possible, the grand result of the contest; +since this has been the end of all our fightings and all our past +sacrifices and present misery and degradation; let us see (for the +inquiry is now very full of interest) what sort of Government that was +which the French people had just destroyed, when our Government began +its wars against that people. + +If, only twenty-eight years ago, any man in England had said that the +Government of France was one that ought to be suffered to exist, he +would have been hooted out of any company. It is notorious that that +Government was a cruel despotism; and that we and our forefathers +always called it such. This description of that Government is to be +found in all our histories, in all our Parliamentary debates, in all +our books on Government and politics. It is notorious, that the family +of Bourbon has produced the most perfidious and bloody monsters that +ever disgraced the human form. It is notorious that millions of +Frenchmen have been butchered, and burnt, and driven into exile by +their commands. It is recorded, even in the history of France, that +one of them said that the putrid carcass of a Protestant smelt sweet +to him. Even in these latter times, so late as the reign of Louis +XIV., it is notorious that hundreds of thousands of innocent people +were put to the most cruel death. In some instances, they were burnt +in their houses; in others they were shut into lower rooms, while the +incessant noise of kettle-drums over their heads, day and night, drove +them to raving madness. To enumerate all the infernal means employed +by this tyrant to torture and kill the people, would fill a volume. +Exile was the lot of those who escaped the swords, the wheels, the +axes, the gibbets, the torches of his hell-hounds. England was the +place of refuge for many of these persecuted people. The grandfather +of the present Earl of Radnor, and the father of the venerable Baron +Maseres were amongst them; and it is well known that England owes no +inconsiderable part of her manufacturing skill and industry to that +atrocious persecution. Enemies of freedom, wherever it existed, this +family of Bourbon, in the reign of Louis XIV. and XV., fitted out +expeditions for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the throne of +England, and thereby caused great expense and blood-shed to this +nation; and, even the Louis who was beheaded by his subjects, did, in +the most perfidious manner, make war upon England, during her war +with America. No matter what was the nature of the cause, his conduct +was perfidious; he professed peace while he was preparing for war. His +object could not be to assist freedom, because his own subjects were +slaves. + +Such was the family that were ruling in France when the French +Revolution began. After it was resolved to go to war against the +people of France, all the hirelings of corruption were set to work to +gloss over the character and conduct of the old Government, and to +paint in the most horrid colours the acts of vengeance which the +people were inflicting on the numerous tyrants, civil, military, and +ecclesiastical, whom the change of things had placed at their mercy. +The people's turn was now come, and, in the days of their power, they +justly bore in mind the oppressions which they and their forefathers +had endured. The taxes imposed by the Government became at last +intolerable. It had contracted a great debt to carry on its wars. In +order to be able to pay the interest of this debt, and to support an +enormous standing army in time of peace, it laid upon the people +burdens which they could no longer endure. It fined and flogged +fathers and mothers if their children were detected in smuggling. Its +courts of justice were filled with cruel and base judges. The nobility +treated the common people like dogs; these latter were compelled to +serve as soldiers, but were excluded from all share, or chance of +honour and command, which were engrossed by the nobility. + +Now, when the time came for the people to have the power in their +hands, was it surprising that the first use they made of it was to +take vengeance on their oppressors? I will not answer this question +myself. It shall be answered by Mr. Arthur Young, the present +Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. He was in France at the time, +and living upon the very spot, and having examined into the causes of +the Revolution, he wrote and published the following remarks, in his +_Travels_, vol. i. page 603:-- + + 'It is impossible to justify the excesses of the people on + their taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of + cruelties; it is idle to deny the facts, for they have been + proved too clearly to admit of doubt. But is it really the + people to whom we are to impute the whole? Or to their + oppressors, who had kept them so long in a state of bondage? + He who chooses to be served by slaves and by ill-treated + slaves, must know that he holds both his property and his + life by a tenure far different from those who prefer the + service of well-treated freemen; and he who dines to the + music of groaning sufferers, must not, in the moment of + insurrection, complain that his sons' throats are cut. When + such evils happen, they surely are more imputable to the + tyranny of the master than to the cruelty of the servant. The + analogy holds with the French peasants. The murder of a + seigneur, or a country seat in flames, is recorded in every + newspaper; the rank of the person who suffers attracts + notice; but where do we find the registers of that seigneur's + oppressions of his peasantry, and his exactions of feudal + services from those whose children were dying around them for + want of bread? Where do we find the minutes that assigned + these starving wretches to some vile pettifogger, to be + fleeced by impositions, and mockery of justice, in the + seigneural courts? Who gives us the awards of the Intendant + and his _sub-delegues_, which took off the taxes of a man of + fashion, and laid them with accumulated weight on the poor, + who were so unfortunate as to be his neighbours? Who has + dwelt sufficiently upon explaining all the ramifications of + despotism, regal, aristocratical, and ecclesiastical, + pervading the whole mass of the people; reaching, like a + circulating fluid, the most distant capillary tubes of + poverty and wretchedness? In these cases the sufferers are + too ignoble to be known; and the mass too indiscriminate to + be pitied. But should a philosopher feel and reason thus? + Should he mistake the cause for the effect? and, giving all + his pity to the few, feel no compassion for the many, because + they suffer in his eyes not individually but by millions? The + excesses of the people cannot, I fear, be justified; it would + undoubtedly have done them credit, both as men and as + Christians, if they had possessed their new acquired power + with moderation. But let it be remembered that the populace + in no country ever use power with moderation; excess is + inherent in their aggregate constitution: and as every + Government in the world knows that violence infallibly + attends power in such hands, it is doubly bound in common + sense, and for common safety, so to conduct itself, that the + people may not find an interest in public confusions. They + will always suffer much and long, before they are effectually + roused; nothing, therefore, can kindle the flame but such + oppressions of some classes or order in society as give able + men the opportunity of seconding the general mass; discontent + will diffuse itself around; and if the Government take not + warning in time, it is alone answerable for all the burnings + and all the plunderings and all the devastation and all the + blood that follow.' + +Who can deny the justice of these observations? It was the Government +alone that was justly chargeable with the excesses committed in this +early stage, and, in fact, in every other stage, of the Revolution of +France. If the Government had given way in time, none of these +excesses would have been committed. If it had listened to the +complaints, the prayers, the supplications, the cries of the +cruelly-treated and starving people; if it had changed its conduct, +reduced its expenses, it might have been safe under the protection of +the peace-officers, and might have disbanded its standing army. But it +persevered; it relied upon the bayonet, and upon its judges and +hangmen. The latter were destroyed, and the former went over to the +side of the people. Was it any wonder that the people burnt the houses +of their oppressors, and killed the owners and their families? The +country contained thousands upon thousands of men that had been ruined +by taxation, and by judgments of infamous courts of justice, 'a +mockery of justice'; and, when these ruined men saw their oppressors +at their feet, was it any wonder that they took vengeance upon them? +Was it any wonder that the son, who had seen his father and mother +flogged, because he, when a child, had smuggled a handful of salt, +should burn for an occasion to shoot through the head the ruffians who +had thus lacerated the bodies of his parents? Moses slew the insolent +Egyptian who had smitten one of his countrymen in bondage. Yet Moses +has never been called either a murderer or a cruel wretch for this +act; and the bondage of the Israelites was light as a feather compared +to the tyranny under which the people of France had groaned for ages. +Moses resisted oppression in the only way that resistance was in his +power. He knew that his countrymen had no chance of justice in any +court; he knew that petitions against his oppressors were all in vain; +and 'looking upon the burdens' of his countrymen, he resolved to begin +the only sort of resistance that was left him. Yet it was little more +than a mere insult that drew forth his anger and resistance; and, if +Moses was justified, as he clearly was, what needs there any apology +for the people of France? + +It seems at first sight very strange that the Government of France +should not have 'taken warning in time.' But it had so long been in +the habit of despising the people that its mind was incapable of +entertaining any notion of danger from the oppressions heaped upon +them. It was surrounded with panders and parasites who told it nothing +but flattering falsehoods; and it saw itself supported by two hundred +and fifty thousand bayonets, which it thought irresistible; though it +found in the end that those who wielded those bayonets were not long +so base as to be induced, either by threats or promises, to butcher +their brothers and sisters and parents. And, if you ask me how it +came to pass that they did not 'take warning in time,' I answer that +they did take warning, but that, seeing that the change which was +coming would deprive them of a great part of their power and +emoluments, they resolved to resist the change, and to destroy the +country, if possible, rather than not have all its wealth and power to +themselves. The ruffian whom we read of, a little time ago, who +stabbed a young woman because she was breaking from him to take the +arm of another man whom she preferred, acted upon the principle of the +ministers, the noblesse, and the clergy of France. They could no +longer unjustly possess, therefore they would destroy. They saw that +if a just government were established; that if the people were fairly +represented in a national council; they saw that if this were to take +place, they would no longer be able to wallow in wealth at the expense +of the people; and, seeing this, they resolved to throw all into +confusion, and, if possible, to make a heap of ruins of that country +which they could no longer oppress, and the substance of which they +could no longer devour. + +Talk of violence indeed! Was there anything too violent, anything too +severe to be inflicted on these men? It was they who produced +confusion; it was they who caused the massacres and guillotinings; it +was they who destroyed the kingly government; it was they who brought +the king to the block. They were answerable for all and for every +single part of the mischief, as much as Pharaoh was for the plagues in +Egypt, which history of Pharaoh seems, by the bye, to be intended as a +lesson to all future tyrants. He 'set taskmasters over the Israelites +to afflict them with burdens; and he made them build treasure cities +for him; he made them serve with rigour; he made their lives bitter +with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of +service of the field; he denied them straw, and insisted upon their +making the same quantity of bricks, and because they were unable to +obey, the taskmasters called them idle and beat them.' Was it too much +to scourge and to destroy all the first-born of men who could +tolerate, assist, and uphold a tyrant like this? Yet was Pharaoh less +an oppressor than the old government of France. + +Thus, then, we have a view of the former state of that country, by +wars against the people of which we have been brought into our present +state of misery. There are many of the hirelings of corruption, who +actually insist on it that we ought now to go to war again for the +restoring of all the cruel despotism which formerly existed in France. +This is what cannot be done, however. Our wars have sent back the +Bourbons; but the tithes, the seigneurs, and many other curses have +not been restored. The French people still enjoy much of the benefit +of the Revolution; and great numbers of their ancient petty tyrants +have been destroyed. So that even were things to remain as they are, +the French people have gained greatly by their Revolution. But things +cannot remain as they are. Better days are at hand. + +In proceeding now to examine the remedies for your distresses, I shall +first notice some of those which foolish, or cruel and insolent men +have proposed. Seeing that the cause of your misery is the weight of +taxation, one would expect to hear of nothing but a reduction of +taxation in the way of remedy; but from the friends of corruption +never do we hear of any such remedy. To hear them, one would think +that _you_ had been the guilty cause of the misery you suffer; and +that you, and you alone, ought to be made answerable for what has +taken place. The emissaries of corruption are now continually crying +out against the weight of the Poor-rates, and they seem to regard all +that is taken in that way as a dead loss to the Government! Their +project is to deny relief to all who are able to work. But what is the +use of your being able to work, if no one will, or can, give you work? +To tell you that you must work for your bread, and, at the same time, +not to find any work for you, is full as bad as it would be to order +you to make bricks without straw. Indeed, it is rather more cruel and +insolent; for Pharaoh's taskmasters did point out to the Israelites +that they might go into the fields and get _stubble_. The _Courier_ +newspaper of the 9th of October, says, 'We must thus be cruel only to +be kind.' I am persuaded that you will not understand this kindness, +while you will easily understand the cruelty. The notion of these +people seems to be that everybody that receives money out of the taxes +has a right to receive it, except you. They tremble at the fearful +amount of the Poor-rates: they say, and very truly, that those rates +have risen from two and a half to eight or ten millions since the +beginning of the wars against the people of France; they think, and +not without reason, that these rates will soon swallow up nearly all +the rent of the land. These assertions and apprehensions are perfectly +well founded; but how can _you_ help it? You have not had the +management of the affairs of the nation. It is not you who have ruined +the farmers and tradesmen. You only want food and raiment: you are +ready to work for it; but you cannot go naked and without food. + +But the complaints of these persons against you are the more +unreasonable, because they say not a word against the sums paid to +sinecure placemen and pensioners. Of the five hundred and more +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture, there are scarcely ten who +do not complain of the weight of the Poor-rates, of the immense sums +taken away from them by the poor, and many of them complain of the +idleness of the poor. But not one single man complains of the immense +sums taken away to support sinecure placemen, who do nothing for their +money, and to support pensioners, many of whom are women and children, +the wives and daughters of the nobility and other persons in high +life, and who can do nothing, and never can have done anything for +what they receive. There are of these places and pensions all sizes, +from twenty pounds to thirty thousand and nearly forty thousand pounds +a year! And surely these ought to be done away before any proposition +be made to take the parish allowance from any of you who are unable to +work, or to find work to do. There are several individual placemen, +the profits of each of which would maintain a thousand families. The +names of the ladies upon the pension list would, if printed, one under +another, fill a sheet of paper like this. And is it not, then, base +and cruel at the same time in these Agricultural correspondents to cry +out so loudly against the charge of supporting the unfortunate poor, +while they utter not a word of complaint against the sinecure places +and pensions? + +The unfortunate journeymen and labourers and their families have a +right, they have a just claim, to relief from the purses of the rich. +For there can exist no riches and no resources which they by their +labour have not assisted to create. But I should be glad to know how +the sinecure placemen and lady pensioners have assisted to create +food and raiment, or the means of producing them. The labourer who is +out of work or ill, to-day, may be able to work, and set to work +to-morrow. While those placemen and pensioners never can work; or, at +least, it is clear that they never intend to do it. + +You have been represented by the _Times_ newspaper, by the _Courier_, +by the _Morning Post_, by the _Morning Herald_, and others, as the +_scum_ of society. They say that you have no business at public +meetings; that you are rabble, and that you pay no taxes. These +insolent hirelings, who wallow in wealth, would not be able to put +their abuse of you in print were it not for your labour. You create +all that is an object of taxation; for even the land itself would be +good for nothing without your labour. But are you not taxed? Do you +pay no taxes? One of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture +has said that care has been taken to lay as little tax as possible on +the articles used by you. One would wonder how a man could be found +impudent enough to put an assertion like this upon paper. But the +people of this country have so long been insulted by such men, that +the insolence of the latter knows no bounds. + +The tax gatherers do not, indeed, come to you and demand money of you: +but there are few articles which you use, in the purchase of which you +do not pay a tax. + +On your shoes, salt, beer, malt, hops, tea, sugar, candles, soap, +paper, coffee, spirits, glass of your windows, bricks and tiles, +tobacco: on all these, and many other articles you pay a tax, and even +on your loaf you pay a tax, because everything is taxed from which the +loaf proceeds. In several cases the tax amounts to more than one half +of what you pay for the article itself; these taxes go in part to +support sinecure placemen and pensioners; and the ruffians of the +hired press call you the scum of society, and deny that you have any +right to show your faces at any public meeting to petition for a +reform, or for the removal of any abuse whatever! + +Mr. Preston, whom I quoted before, and who is a member of Parliament +and has a large estate, says upon this subject, 'Every family, even of +the poorest labourer, consisting of five persons, may be considered as +paying, in indirect taxes, at least ten pounds a year, or more than +half his wages at seven shillings a week!' And yet the insolent +hirelings call you the mob, the rabble, the scum, the swinish +multitude, and say that your voice is nothing; that you have no +business at public meetings; and that you are, and ought to be +considered as nothing in the body politic! Shall we never see the day +when these men will change their tone! Will they never cease to look +upon us [as on] brutes! I trust they will change their tone, and that +the day of the change is at no great distance! + +The weight of the Poor-rate, which must increase while the present +system continues, alarms the corrupt, who plainly see that what is +paid to relieve you, they cannot have. Some of them, therefore, hint +at your early marriages as a great evil, and a clergyman named Malthus +has seriously proposed measures for checking you in this respect; +while one of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture complains +of the increase of bastards, and proposes severe punishment on the +parents! How hard these men are to please! What would they have you +do? As some have called you the swinish multitude, would it be much +wonder if they were to propose to serve you as families of young pigs +are served? Or if they were to bring forward the measure of Pharaoh, +who ordered the midwives to kill all the male children of the +Israelites? + +But, if you can restrain your indignation at these insolent notions +and schemes, with what feelings must you look upon the condition of +your country, where the increase of the people is now looked upon as a +curse! Thus, however, has it always been, in all countries where taxes +have produced excessive misery. Our countryman, Mr. Gibbon, in his +History of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, has the +following passage: 'The horrid practice of murdering their new-born +infants was become every day more frequent in the provinces. It was +the effect of _distress_, and the distress was principally occasioned +by the _intolerable burden of taxes_, and by the vexatious as well as +cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their +insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of +mankind, instead of rejoicing at an increase of family, deemed it an +act of paternal tenderness to release the children from the impending +miseries of a life which they themselves were unable to support.' + +But that which took place under the base Emperor Constantine will not +take place in England. You will not murder your new-born infants, nor +will you, to please the corrupt and insolent, debar yourselves from +enjoyments to which you are invited by the very first of Nature's +laws. It is, however, a disgrace to the country that men should be +found in it capable of putting ideas so insolent upon paper. So, then, +a young man arm-in-arm with a rosy-cheeked girl must be a spectacle of +evil omen! What! and do they imagine that you are thus to be +extinguished, because some of you are now (without any fault of yours) +unable to find work? As far as you were wanted to labour, to fight, or +to pay taxes, you were welcome, and they boasted of your numbers; but +now that your country has been brought into a state of misery, these +corrupt and insolent men are busied with schemes for getting rid of +you. Just as if you had not as good a right to live and to love and to +marry as they have! They do not propose, far from it, to check the +breeding of sinecure placemen and pensioners, who are supported in +part by the taxes which you help to pay. They say not a word about the +whole families who are upon the pension list. In many cases there are +sums granted in trust for _the children_ of such a lord or such a +lady. And while labourers and journeymen who have large families too, +are actually paying taxes for the support of these lords' and ladies' +children, these cruel and insolent men propose that they shall have no +relief, and that their having children ought to be checked! To such a +subject no words can do justice. You will feel as you ought to feel; +and to the effect of your feelings I leave these cruel and insolent +men. + +There is one more scheme to notice, which, though rather less against +nature is not less hateful and insolent; namely, to encourage you to +emigrate to foreign countries. This scheme is distinctly proposed to +the Government by one of the correspondents of the Board of +Agriculture. What he means by encouragement must be to send away by +force, or by paying for the passage; for a man who has money stands in +no need of relief. But, I trust, that not a man of you will move, let +the _encouragement_ be what it may. It is impossible for many to go, +though the prospect be ever so fair. We must stand by our country, and +it is base not to stand by her, as long as there is a chance of seeing +her what she ought to be. But the proposition is, nevertheless, base +and insolent This man did not propose to encourage the sinecure +placemen and pensioners to emigrate; yet, surely, you who help to +maintain them by the taxes which you pay, have as good a right to +remain in the country as they have! You have fathers and mothers and +sisters and brothers and children and friends as well as they; but +this base projector recommends that you may be encouraged to leave +your relations and friends for ever; while he would have the sinecure +placemen and pensioners remain quietly where they are! + +No: you will not leave your country. If you have suffered much and +long, you have the greater right to remain in the hope of seeing +better days. And I beseech you not to look upon yourselves as the +_scum_; but, on the contrary, to be well persuaded that a great deal +will depend upon your exertions; and therefore, I now proceed to point +out to you what appears to me to be the line of conduct which +journeymen and labourers ought to pursue in order to obtain effectual +relief, and to assist in promoting tranquillity and restoring the +happiness of the country. + +We have seen that the cause of our miseries is the burden of taxes +occasioned by wars, by standing armies, by sinecures, by pensions, +etc. It would be endless and useless to enumerate all the different +heads or sums of expenditure. The remedy is what we have now to look +to, and that remedy consists wholly and solely of such a reform in the +Commons' or People's House of Parliament, as shall give to every payer +of direct taxes a vote at elections, and as shall cause the Members to +be elected annually. + +In a late _Register_ I have pointed out how easily, how peaceably, how +fairly, such a Parliament might be chosen. I am aware that it may, and +not without justice, be thought wrong to deprive those of the right of +voting who pay indirect taxes. Direct taxes are those which are +directly paid by any person into the hands of the tax-gatherers, as +the assessed rates and taxes. Indirect taxes are those which are paid +indirectly through the maker or seller of goods, as the tax on soap or +candles or salt or malt. And, as no man ought to be taxed without his +consent, there has always been a difficulty upon this head. There has +been no question about the _right_ of every man who is free to +exercise his will, who has a settled place in society, and who pays a +tax of any sort, to vote for Members of Parliament. The difficulty is +in taking the votes by any other means than by the Rate-book; for if +there be no list of tax-payers in the hands of any person, mere menial +servants, vagrants, pickpockets, and scamps of all sorts might not +only come to the poll, but they might poll in several parishes or +places, on one and the same day. A corrupt rich man might employ +scores of persons of this description, and in this way would the +purpose of reform be completely defeated. In America, where one branch +of the Congress is elected for four years and the other for two years, +they have still adhered to the principle of direct taxation, and in +some of the States they have made it necessary for a voter to be worth +one hundred pounds. Yet they have, in that country, duties on goods, +custom duties, and excise duties also; and, of course, there are many +persons who really pay taxes, and who, nevertheless, are not permitted +to vote. The people do not complain of this. They know that the number +of votes is so great that no corruption can take place, and they have +no desire to see livery servants, vagrants, and pickpockets take part +in their elections. Nevertheless it would be very easy for a reformed +Parliament, when once it had taken root, to make a just arrangement of +this matter. The most likely method would be to take off the indirect +taxes, and to put a small direct tax upon every master of a house, +however low his situation in life. + +But this and all other good things, must be done by a reformed +Parliament. We must have that first, or we shall have nothing good; +and any man who would beforehand take up your time with the detail of +what a reformed Parliament ought to do in this respect, or with +respect to any changes in the form of government, can have no other +object than that of defeating the cause of reform; and, indeed, the +very act must show, that to raise obstacles is his wish. + +Such men, now that they find you justly irritated, would persuade you +that, because things have been perverted from their true ends, there +is nothing good in our constitution and laws. For what, then, did +Hampden die in the field, and Sydney on the scaffold? And has it been +discovered at last that England has always been an enslaved country +from top to toe? The Americans, who are a very wise people, and who +love liberty with all their hearts, and who take care to enjoy it too, +took special care not to part with any of the great principles and +laws which they derived from their forefathers. They took special care +to speak with reverence of, and to preserve Magna Charta, the Bill of +Rights, the Habeas Corpus, and not only all the body of the Common Law +of England, but most of the rules of our courts, and all our form of +jurisprudence. Indeed it is the greatest glory of England that she has +thus supplied with sound principles of freedom those immense regions +which will be peopled perhaps by hundreds of millions. + +I know of no enemy of reform and of the happiness of the country so +great as that man who would persuade you that we possess nothing good, +and that all must be torn to pieces. There is no principle, no +precedent, no regulations (except as to mere matter of detail), +favourable to freedom, which is not to be found in the Laws of +England or in the example of our ancestors. Therefore I say we may ask +for, and we want nothing new. We have great constitutional laws and +principles to which we are immovably attached. We want great +alteration, but we want nothing new. Alteration, modification, to suit +the times and circumstances; but the great principles ought to be and +must, be the same, or else confusion will follow. + +It was the misfortune of the French people that they had no great and +settled principles to refer to in their laws or history. They sallied +forth and inflicted vengeance on their oppressors; but, for want of +settled principles to which to refer they fell into confusion; they +massacred each other; they next flew to a military chief to protect +them even against themselves; and the result has been what we too well +know. Let us therefore congratulate ourselves that we have great +constitutional principles and laws, to which we can refer, and to +which we are attached. + +That reform will come I know, if the people do their duty; and all +that we have to guard against is confusion, which cannot come if +reform take place in time. I have before observed to you that when the +friends of corruption in France saw that they could not prevent a +change, they bent their endeavours to produce confusion, in which they +fully succeeded. They employed numbers of unprincipled men to go about +the country proposing all sorts of mad schemes. They produced first a +confusion in men's minds, and next a civil war between provinces, +towns, villages and families. The tyrant Robespierre, who was exceeded +in cruelty only by some of the Bourbons, was proved to have been in +league with the open enemies of France. He butchered all the real +friends of freedom whom he could lay his hands on, except Paine, whom +he shut up in a dungeon till he was reduced to a skeleton. This +monster was at last put to death himself; and his horrid end ought to +be a warning to any man who may wish to walk in the same path. But I +am, for my part, in little fear of the influence of such men. They +cannot cajole you as Robespierre cajoled the people of Paris. It is, +nevertheless, necessary for you to be on your guard against them, and +when you hear a man talking big and hectoring about projects which go +further than a real and radical reform of the Parliament, be you well +assured that that man would be a second Robespierre if he could, and +that he would make use of you and sacrifice the life of the very last +man of you; that he would ride upon the shoulders of some through +rivers of the blood of others, for the purpose of gratifying his own +selfish and base and insolent ambition. + +In order effectually to avoid the rock of confusion, we should keep +steadily in our eye not only what we wish to be done but what can be +done now. We know that such a reform as would send up a Parliament, +chosen by all payers of direct taxes, is not only just and +reasonable, but easy of execution. I am therefore for accomplishing +that object first; and I am not at all afraid that a set of men who +would really hold the purse of the people, and who had been just +chosen freely by the people, would very soon do everything that the +warmest friend of freedom could wish to see done. + +While, however, you are upon your guard against false friends, you +should neglect no opportunity of doing all that is within your power +to give support to the cause of reform. Petition is the channel for +your sentiments, and there is no village so small that its petition +would not have some weight. You ought to attend at every public +meeting within your reach. You ought to read to and to assist, each +other in coming at a competent knowledge of all public matters. Above +all things, you ought to be unanimous in your object, and not suffer +yourselves to be divided. + +The subject of religion has nothing to do with this great question of +reform. A reformed Parliament would soon do away with all religious +distinctions and disabilities. In their eyes, a Catholic and a +Protestant would both appear in the same light. + +The _Courier_, the _Times_, and other emissaries of corruption, are +constantly endeavouring to direct your wrath against bakers, brewers, +butchers, and other persons who deal in the necessaries of life. But, +I trust that you are not to be stimulated to such a species of +violence. These tradesmen are as much in distress as you. They cannot +help their malt and hops and beer and bread and meat being too dear +for you to purchase. They all sell as cheap as they can, without being +absolutely ruined. The beer you drink is more than half _tax_, and +when the tax has been paid by the seller he must have payment back +again from you who drink, or he must be ruined. The baker has numerous +taxes to pay, and so has the butcher, and so has the miller and the +farmer. Besides, all men are eager to sell, and, if they could sell +cheaper they certainly would, because that would be the sure way of +getting more custom. It is the weight of the taxes which presses us +all to the earth, except those who receive their incomes out of those +taxes. Therefore I exhort you most earnestly not to be induced to lay +violent hands on those who really suffer as much as yourselves. + +On the subject of lowering wages too, you ought to consider that your +employers cannot give to you that which they have not. At present, +corn is high in price, but that high price is no benefit to the +farmer, because it has risen from the badness of the crop, which Mr. +Hunt foretold at the Common Hall, and for the foretelling of which he +was so much abused by the hirelings of the press, who, almost up to +this very moment, have been boasting and thanking God for the goodness +of the crop! The farmer whose corn is half destroyed, gains nothing by +selling the remaining half for double the price at which he would +have sold the whole. If I grow 10 quarters of wheat, and if I save it +all and sell it for two pounds a quarter, I receive as much money as +if I had sold the one-half of it for four pounds a quarter. And I am +better off in the former case, because I want wheat for seed, and +because I want some to consume myself. These matters I recommend to +your serious consideration; because it being unjust to fall upon your +employers to force them to give that which they have not to give, your +conduct in such cases must tend to weaken the great cause in which we +ought all now to be engaged, namely the removal of our burdens through +the means of a reformed Parliament. It is the interest of vile men of +all descriptions to set one part of the people against the other part; +and therefore it becomes you to be constantly on your guard against +their allurements. + +When journeymen find their wages reduced, they should take time to +reflect on the real cause, before they fly on their employers, who are +in many cases in as great or greater distress than themselves. How +many of those employers have of late gone to jail for debt and left +helpless families behind them! The employer's trade falls off. His +goods are reduced in price. His stock loses the half of its value. He +owes money. He is ruined; and how can he continue to pay high wages? +The cause of his ruin is the weight of the taxes, which presses so +heavily on us all, that we lose the power of purchasing goods. But it +is certain that a great many, a very large portion of the farmers, +tradesmen, and manufacturers, have, by their supineness and want of +public spirit, contributed towards the bringing of this ruin upon +themselves and upon you. They have _skulked_ from their public duty. +They have kept aloof from, or opposed all measures for a redress of +grievances; and indeed, they still skulk, though ruin and destruction +stare them in the face. Why do they not now come forward and explain +to you the real cause of the reduction of your wages? Why do they not +put themselves at your head in petitioning for redress? This would +secure their property much better than the calling in of troops, which +can never afford them more than a short and precarious security. In +the days of their prosperity they were amply warned of what has now +come to pass; and the far greater part of them abused and calumniated +those who gave them the warning. Even if they would now act the part +of men worthy of being relieved, the relief to us all would speedily +follow. If they will not; if they will still skulk, they will merit +all the miseries which they are destined to suffer. + +Instead of coming forward to apply for a reduction of those taxes +which are pressing them as well as you to the earth, what are they +doing? Why, they are applying to the Government to add to their +receipts by passing Corn Bills, by preventing foreign wool from being +imported; and many other silly schemes. Instead of asking for a +reduction of taxes they are asking for the means of paying taxes! +Instead of asking for the abolition of sinecure places and pensions, +they pray to be enabled to continue to pay the amount of those places +and pensions! They know very well that the salaries of the judges and +of many other persons were greatly raised, some years ago, on the +ground of the rise in the price of labour and provisions, why then do +they not ask to have those salaries reduced, now that labour is +reduced? Why do they not apply to the case of the judges and others +the arguments which they apply to you? They can talk boldly enough to +you; but they are too great cowards to talk to the Government, even in +the way of petition! Far more honourable is it to be a ragged pauper +than to be numbered among such men. + +These people call themselves the _respectable_ part of the nation. +They are, as they pretend, the virtuous part of the people, because +they are quiet; as if virtue consisted in immobility! There is a +canting Scotchman in London, who publishes a paper called the +'_Champion_' who is everlastingly harping upon the virtues of the +'fireside,' and who inculcates the duty of quiet submission. Might we +ask this Champion of the teapot and milk-jug whether Magna Charta and +the Bill of Rights were won by the fireside? Whether the tyrants of +the House of Stuart and of Bourbon were hurled down by fireside +virtues? Whether the Americans gained their independence, and have +preserved their freedom, by sitting by the fireside? O, no! these were +all achieved by action, and amidst bustle and noise. Quiet indeed! Why +in this quality a log, or a stone, far surpasses even the pupils of +this Champion of quietness; and the chairs round his fireside exceed +those who sit in them. But in order to put these quiet, fireside, +respectable people to the test, let us ask them if they approve of +drunkenness, breaches of the peace, black eyes, bloody noses, fraud, +bribery, corruption, perjury, and subornation of perjury; and if they +say no, let us ask them whether these are not going on all over the +country at every general election. If they answer yes, as they must +unless they be guilty of wilful falsehood, will they then be so good +as to tell us how they reconcile their inactivity with sentiments of +virtue? Some men, in all former ages, have been held in esteem for +their wisdom, their genius, their skill, their valour, their devotion +to country, etc., but never until this age, was _quietness_ deemed a +quality to be extolled. It would be no difficult matter to show that +the quiet, fireside gentry are the most callous and cruel, and, +therefore, the most wicked part of the nation. Amongst them it is that +you find all the peculators, all the blood-suckers of various degrees, +all the borough-voters and their offspring, all the selfish and +unfeeling wretches, who, rather than risk the disturbing of their +ease for one single month, rather than go a mile to hold up their hand +at a public meeting, would see half the people perish with hunger and +cold. The humanity, which is continually on their lips, is all +fiction. They weep over the tale of woe in a novel; but round their +'decent fireside,' never was compassion felt for a real sufferer, or +indignation at the acts of a powerful tyrant. + +The object of the efforts of such writers is clearly enough seen. Keep +all _quiet_! Do not rouse! Keep still! Keep down! Let those who +perish, perish in silence! It will, however, be out of the power of +these quacks, with all their laudanum, to allay the blood which is now +boiling in the veins of the people of this kingdom; who, if they are +doomed to perish, are at any rate resolved not to perish in silence. +The writer whom I have mentioned above, says that he, of course, does +not count 'the lower classes, who, under the pressure of need or under +the influence of ignorant prejudice, may blindly and weakly rush upon +certain and prompt punishment; but that the security of every decent +fireside, every respectable father's best hopes for his children, +still connect themselves with the Government.' And by Government he +clearly means all the mass as it now stands. There is nobody so +callous and so insolent as your sentimental quacks and their patients. +How these 'decent fireside' people would stare, if some morning they +were to come down and find them occupied by uninvited visitors! I +hope they never will. I hope that things will never come to this pass: +but if one thing more than any other tends to produce so sad an +effect, it is the cool insolence with which such men as this writer +treats the most numerous and most suffering classes of the people. + +Long as this Address already is, I cannot conclude without some +observations on the 'Charity Subscriptions' at the London Tavern. The +object of this subscription professes to be to afford relief to the +distressed labourers, etc. About forty thousand pounds have been +subscribed, and there is no probability of its going much further. +There is an absurdity on the face of the scheme; for, as all parishes +are compelled by law to afford relief to every person in distress, it +is very clear that, as far as money is given by these people to +relieve the poor, there will be so much saved in the parish rates. But +the folly of the thing is not what I wish you most to attend to. +Several of the subscribers to this fund receive each of them more than +ten thousand pounds and some more than thirty thousand pounds each, +out of those taxes which you help to pay, and which emoluments not a +man of them proposes to give up. The clergy appear very forward in +this subscription. An Archbishop and a Bishop assisted at the forming +of the scheme. Now then, observe that there has been given out of the +taxes, for several years past, one hundred thousand pounds a year, +for what, think you? Why for the relief of the poor clergy! I have no +account at hand later than that delivered last year, and there I find +this sum!--for the poor clergy! The rich clergy do not pay this sum; +but it comes out of those taxes, part, and a large part of which you +pay on your beer, malt, salt, shoes, etc. I daresay that the 'decent +firesides' of these poor clergy still connect themselves with the +Government. Amongst all our misery we have had to support the +intolerable disgrace of being an object of the charity of a Bourbon +Prince, while we are paying for supporting that family upon the throne +of France. Well! But is this all? We are taxed, at the very same +moment, for the support of the French Emigrants! And you shall see to +what amount. Nay, not only French, but Dutch and others, as appears +from the forementioned account laid before Parliament last year. The +sum, paid out of the taxes, in one year, for the relief of suffering +French Clergy and Laity, St. Domingo Sufferers, Dutch Emigrants, +Corsican Emigrants, was one hundred and eighty-seven thousand seven +hundred and fifty pounds; yes, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand +seven hundred and fifty pounds paid to this set in one year out of +those taxes of which you pay so large a share, while you are insulted +with a subscription to relieve you, and while there are projectors who +have the audacity to recommend schemes for preventing you from +marrying while young, and to induce you to emigrate from your +country! I'll venture my life that the 'decent firesides' of all this +swarm of French clergy and laity, and Dutch, and Corsicans, and St. +Domingo sufferers 'still connect themselves closely with the +Government'; and I will also venture my life that you do not stand in +need of one more word to warm every drop of blood remaining in your +bodies! As to the money subscribed by regiments of soldiers, whose pay +arises from taxes in part paid by you, though it is a most shocking +spectacle to behold, I do not think so much of it. The soldiers are +your fathers, brothers, and sons. But if they were all to give their +whole pay, and if they amount to one hundred and fifty thousand men, +it would not amount to one-half of what is now paid in Poor-rates, and +of course would not add half a pound of bread to every pound which the +unhappy paupers now receive. All the expenses of the Army and Ordnance +amount to an enormous sum--to sixteen or eighteen millions; but the +pay of one hundred and fifty thousand men, at a shilling a day each, +amounts to no more than two million seven hundred and twelve thousand +five hundred pounds. So that, supposing them all to receive a shilling +a day each, the soldiers receive only about a third part of the sum +now paid annually in Poor-rates. + +I have no room, nor have I any desire, to appeal to your passions upon +this occasion. I have laid before you, with all the clearness I am +master of, the causes of our misery, the measures which have led to +those causes, and I have pointed out what appears to me to be the only +remedy--namely a reform of the Commons', or People's House of +Parliament. I exhort you to proceed in a peaceable and lawful manner, +but at the same time to proceed with zeal and resolution in the +attainment of this object. If the skulkers will not join you, if the +'decent fireside' gentry still keep aloof, proceed by yourselves. Any +man can draw up a petition, and any man can carry it up to London, +with instructions to deliver it into trusty hands, to be presented +whenever the House shall meet. Some further information will be given +as to this matter in a future Number. In the meanwhile, I remain your +Friend, WM. COBBETT. + + +TO JACK HARROW, AN ENGLISH LABOURER + +_On the new Cheat which is now on foot, and which goes under the name +of Savings Banks_ + +NORTH HAMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND, +_November 7th, 1818._ + +Friend Jack--You sometimes hear the Parson talk about deceivers, who +go about in sheep's clothing; but who inwardly are ravening wolves. +You frequently hear of the tricks of the London cheats, and I daresay +you have often enough witnessed those of mountebanks and gypsies. But, +Jack, all the tricks of these deceivers and cheaters, if the trickery +of them all were put together, would fall far short of the trick now +playing off under the name of Savings Banks. And seeing that it is +possible that you may be exposed to the danger of having a few pounds +picked out of your pocket by this trick, I think it right to put you +on your guard against the cheat. + +You have before been informed of who and what the Boroughmongers are. +Therefore, at present, I shall enter into no explanation of their +recent conduct. But, in order to give you a clear view of their +motives in this new trick, and which, I think, is about the last in +their budget, I must go back and tell you something of the history of +their Debt, and of what are called the Funds. Some years ago the +Boroughmongers put me into a loathsome prison for two years, made me +pay a thousand pounds fine, and made me enter into recognisances for +seven years, only because I expressed my indignation at the flogging +of Englishmen, in the heart of England, under the superintendence of +hired German troops brought into the country to keep the people in +awe. It pleased God, Jack, to preserve my life and health, while I was +in that prison. And I employed a part of my time in writing a little +book entitled _Paper against Gold_. In this little book I fully +explained all the frauds of what is called the _National Debt_, and +of what are called the _Funds_. But as it is possible that you may not +have seen that little book, I will here tell you enough about these +things to make you see the reasons for the Boroughmongers using this +trick of Savings Banks. + +The Boroughmongers are, you know, those persons (some Lords, some +Baronets, and some Esquires, as they call themselves) who fill, or +nominate others to fill, the seats in the House of Commons. _Commons_ +means the mass of the _people_. So that this is the House of the +People, according to the law of the land. The people--you, I, and all +of us, ought to vote for the men who sit in this House. But the said +Lords, Baronets, and Esquires have taken our rights away, and they +nominate the Members themselves. A _monger_ is a _dealer_, as +ironmonger, cheesemonger, and the like: and as the Lords, Baronets, +and Esquires sometimes sell and sometimes buy seats, and as the seats +are said to be filled by the people in certain Boroughs, these Lords, +Baronets, and Esquires are very properly called _Boroughmongers_; that +is to say, dealers in boroughs or in the seats of boroughs. As all +laws and all other matters of government are set up and enforced at +the will of the two Houses, against whose will the king cannot stir +hand or foot; and as the Boroughmongers fill the seats of the two +Houses, they have all the power, and, of course, the king and the +people have none. Being possessed of all the power; being able to tax +us at their pleasure; being able to hang us for whatever they please +to call a crime; they will, of course, do with our property and +persons just what they please. And accordingly, they take from us more +than the half of our earnings; and they keep soldiers (whom they +deceive) to shoot at us and kill us, if we attempt to resist. They put +us in dungeons when they like. And, in Ireland, they compel people to +remain shut up in their houses from sunset to sunrise, and if any man, +contrary to their commands, goes out of his house in the night, in +order to go to the privy, they punish him very severely; and in that +unhappy country they transport men and women to Botany Bay without any +trial by jury, and merely by the orders of two justices of the peace +appointed by themselves. + +This, Jack, is horrid work to be going on amongst a people who call +themselves _free_; amongst a people who boast of their liberties. But +the facts are so; and now I shall explain to you how the +Boroughmongers, who are so few in number compared to the whole people, +are able to commit these cruel acts and to carry on this abominable +tyranny; and you will see that the trick of Savings Banks makes a part +of the means, which they now intend to use for the perpetuating of +this tyranny. + +Formerly, more than a hundred years ago, when the kings of England +had some real power, and before the Boroughmongers took all the powers +of king and people into their hands, the people, when the kings +behaved amiss, used to rise against them and compel them to act +justly. They beheaded Charles the First about one hundred and seventy +years ago; and they drove James the Second out of the kingdom; they +went so far as to set his family aside for ever, and they put up the +present royal family in its stead. + +This was all very well; but when King James had been driven out, the +Lords and Baronets and Squires conceived the notion of ruling for ever +over king and people. They made Parliaments, which used to be annual, +three years of duration; and when the members had been elected for +three years, the members themselves made a law to make the people obey +them for seven years. Thus was the usurpation completed; and from that +time to this the Boroughmongers have filled the seats just as it has +pleased them to do it; and they have, as I said before, done with our +property and our persons just what they have pleased to do. + +Now it will naturally be matter of wonder to you, friend Jack, that +this small band of persons, and of debauched wretched persons too, any +half dozen of whom you would be able to beat with one hand tied down; +it will be matter of wonder to you that this contemptible band should +have been able thus to subjugate, and hold in bondage so degrading, +the whole of the English people. But, Jack, recollect that once a +parcel of fat, lazy, drinking, and guttling monks and friars were able +to make this same people to work and support them in their laziness +and debaucheries, aye, and almost to adore them, too; to go to them, +and kneel down and confess their sins to them, and to believe that it +was in their power to absolve them of their sins. Now how was it that +these fat, these bastard-propagating rascals succeeded in making the +people do this? Why by fraud; by deception; by cheatery; by making +them believe lies; by frightening them half out of their wits; by +making them believe that they would go to hell if they did not work +for them. A ten-thousandth part of the people were able to knock the +greasy vagabonds on the head; and they would have done it too; but +they were afraid of going to hell if they had no priest to pardon +them. + +Thus did these miscreants govern by fraud. The Boroughmongers, as I +shall by and by show, have of late been compelled to resort to open +force; but for a long while they governed by fraud alone. First they, +by the artful and able agents which they have constantly kept in pay, +frightened the people with the pretended dangers of a return of the +old king's family. The people were amused with this scarecrow, while +the chains were silently forging to bind them with. But the great +fraud, the cheat of all cheats, was what they call the national debt. +And now, Jack, pray attend to me; for I am going to explain the chief +cause of all the disgraces and sufferings of the labourers in England; +and am also going to explain the reasons or motives which the +Boroughmongers have for setting on foot this new fraud of Savings +Banks. I beg you, Jack, if you have no other leisure time, to stay at +home instead of going to church, for one single Sunday. Shave +yourself, put on a clean shirt, and sit down and read this letter ten +times over, until you understand every word of it. And if you do that, +you will laugh at the parson and tax-gatherer's coaxings about Savings +Banks. You will keep your odd pennies to yourself; or lay them out in +bread or bacon. + +You have heard, I daresay, a great deal about the national debt; and +now I will tell you what this thing is, and how it came, and then you +will see what an imposture it is, and how shamefully the people of +England have been duped and robbed. + +The Boroughmongers having usurped all the powers of government, and +having begun to pocket the public money at a great rate, the people +grew discontented. They began to think that they had done wrong in +driving King James away. In a pretty little fable-book, there is a +fable which says that the frogs, who had a log of wood for king, +prayed to Jupiter to send them something more active. He sent them a +stork, or heron, which gobbled them up alive by scores! The people of +England found in the Boroughmongers what the poor frogs found in the +stork; and they began to cry out against them and to wish for the old +king back again. + +The Boroughmongers saw their danger, and they adopted measures to +prevent it. They saw that if they could make it the interest of a +great many rich people to uphold them and their system they should be +able to get along. They therefore passed a law to enable themselves to +borrow money of rich people; and by the same law they imposed it on +the people at large to pay, for ever, the interest of the money so by +them borrowed. + +The money which they thus borrowed they spent in wars, or divided +amongst themselves, in one shape or another. Indeed the money spent in +wars was pocketed, for the greater part, by themselves. Thus they +owed, in time, immense sums of money; and as they continued to pass +laws to compel the nation at large to pay the interest of what they +borrowed, spent and pocketed, they called and still call this debt, +the debt of the nation; or, in the usual words, the national debt. + +It is curious to observe that there has seldom been known in the world +any very wicked and mischievous scheme of which a priest of some +description or other was not at the bottom. This scheme, certainly as +wicked in itself as any that was ever known, and far more mischievous +in its consequences than any other, was the offspring of a Bishop of +Salisbury, whose name was Burnet; a name that we ought to teach our +very children to execrate. This crafty priest was made a Bishop for +his invention of this scheme; a fit reward for such a service. + +The Boroughmongers began this debt one hundred and twenty-four years +ago. They have gone on borrowing ever since; and have never paid off +one farthing, and never can. They have continued to pass Acts to make +the people pay the interest of what has been borrowed; till, at last, +the debt itself amounts to more than all the lands, all the houses, +all the trees, all the canals and all the mines would sell for at +their full sterling value; and the money to pay the interest is taken +out of men's rents and out of their earnings; and you, Jack, as I +shall by and by prove to you, pay to the Boroughmongers more than the +half of what you receive in weekly wages from your master. + +Is not this a pretty state of things? Pray observe, Jack, the debt far +exceeds the real full value of the whole kingdom, if there could be a +purchaser found for it. So that, you see, as to private property no +man has any, as long as this debt hangs upon the country. Your master, +Farmer Gripe, for instance, calls his farm _his_. It is none of his, +according to the Boroughmongers' law; for that law has pawned it for +the payment of the interest of the Boroughmongers' debt; and the pawn +must remain as long as the Boroughmongers' law remains. Gripe is +compelled to pay out of the yearly value of his farm a certain portion +to the debt. He may, indeed, sell the farm; but he can get only a part +of the value; because the purchaser will have to pay a yearly sum on +account of the pawn. In short, the Boroughmongers have, in fact, +passed laws to take every man's private property away from him, in +whatever portions their debt may demand such taking away; and a man +who thinks himself an owner of land, is at best only a steward who +manages it for the Boroughmongers. + +This, however, is only a small part of the evil; for the whole of the +rents of the houses and lands and mines and canals would not pay the +interest of this debt; no, and not much more than the half of it. The +labour is therefore pawned too. Every man's labour is pawned for the +payment of the interest of this debt. Aye, Jack, you may think that +you are working for yourself, and that, when on a Saturday night you +take nine shillings from Farmer Gripe, the shillings are for your own +use. You are grievously deceived, for more than half the sum is paid +to the Boroughmongers on account of the pawn. You do not see this, but +the fact is so. Come, what are the things in which you expend the nine +shillings? Tea, sugar, tobacco, candles, salt, soap, shoes, beer, +bread; for no meat do you ever taste. On the articles taken together, +except bread, you pay far more than half tax; and you will observe +that your master's taxes are, in part, pinched out of you. There is an +army employed in Ireland to go with the excisemen and other taxers to +make the people pay. If the taxers were to wait at the ale houses and +grocers' shops, and receive their portion from your own hands, you +would then clearly see that the Boroughmongers take away more than the +half of what you earn. You would then clearly see what it is that +makes you poor and ragged, and that makes your children cry for the +want of a bellyful. You would clearly see that what the hypocrites +tell you about this being your lot, and about Providence placing you +in such a state in order to try your patience and faith, is all a base +falsehood. Why does not Providence place the Boroughmongers and the +parsons in a state to try their patience and faith? Is Providence less +anxious to save them than to save you? If you could see clearly what +you pay on account of the Boroughmongers' pawn, you would see that +your misery arises from the designs of a benevolent Providence being +counteracted by the measures of the Borough-tyrants. + +Your lot, indeed! Your lot assigned by Providence! This is real +blasphemy! Just as if Providence, which sends the salt on shore all +round our coast, had ordained that you should not have any of it +unless you would pay the Boroughmongers fifteen shillings a bushel tax +upon it! But what a Providence must that be which would ordain that an +Englishman should pay fifteen shillings tax on a bushel of English +salt, while a Long Islander pays only two shillings and sixpence for a +bushel of the same salt, after it is brought to America from England? +What an idea must we have of such a Providence as this? Oh no, Jack; +this is not the work of Providence. It is the work of the +Boroughmongers; the pretext about Providence has been invented to +deceive and cheat you, and to perpetuate your slavery. + +Well: all is pawned then. The land, the houses, the canals, the mines, +and the labour are pawned for the payment of the interest of the +Boroughmongers debt. Your labour, mind, Jack, is pawned for the +one-half of its worth. But you will naturally ask, how is it that the +nation, that everybody submits to this? There's your mistake, Jack. It +is not _everybody_ that submits. In the first place there are the +Boroughmongers themselves and all their long tribe of relations, +legitimate and spurious, who profit from the taxes, and who have the +church livings, which they enjoy without giving the poor any part of +their legal share of those livings. Then there are all the officers of +army and navy, and all the endless hosts of place-men and place-women, +pensioned men and pensioned women, and all the hosts of tax-gatherers, +who alone, these last I mean, swallow more than would be necessary to +carry on the Government under a reformed Parliament. But have you +forgotten the lenders of the money which makes the debt? These people +live wholly upon the interest of the debt; and of course they approve +of your labour, and the labour of every man being pawned. The +Boroughmongers have pawned your labour to them. Therefore they like +that your labour should be taxed. They cannot be said to submit to the +tyranny; they applaud it, and to their utmost they support it. + +But you will say, still the mass of the people would, if they had a +mind to bestir themselves, be too strong for all these. Very true. But +you forget the army, Jack. This is a great military force, armed with +bayonets, bullets and cannon-balls, ready at all times and in all +places to march or gallop to attack the people, if they attempt to eat +sugar or salt without paying the tax. There are forts, under the name +of barracks, all over the kingdom, where armed men are kept in +readiness for this purpose. In Ireland they actually go in person to +help to collect the taxes; and in England they are always ready to do +the same. Now, suppose, Jack, that a man who has a bit of land by the +seaside, were to take up a little of the salt that Providence sends on +shore. He would be prosecuted. He would resist the process. Soldiers +would come and take him away to be tried and _hanged_. Suppose you, +Jack, were to dip your rushes into grease, till they came to farthing +candles. The Excise would prosecute you. The sheriff would send men to +drag you to jail. You would fight in defence of your house and home. +You would beat off the sheriff's men. Soldiers would come and kill +you, or would take you away to be hanged. + +This is the thing by which the Boroughmongers govern. There are enough +who would gladly not submit to their tyranny; but there is nobody but +themselves who has an army at command. + +Nevertheless they are not altogether easy under these circumstances. +An army is a two-edged weapon. It may cut the employer as well as the +thing that it is employed upon. It is made up of flesh and blood, and +of English flesh and blood too. It may not always be willing to move, +or to strike when moved. The Boroughmongers see that their titles and +estates hang upon the army. They would fain coax the people back again +to feelings of reverence and love. They would fain wheedle them into +something that shall blunt their hostility. They have been trying +Bible-schemes, school-schemes, and soup-schemes. And at last they are +trying the Savings Banks scheme, upon which I shall now more +particularly address you. + +This thing is of the same nature, and its design is the same, as those +of the grand scheme of Bishop Burnet. The people are discontented. +They feel their oppressions; they seek a change; and some of them have +decidedly protested against paying any longer any part of the +interest of the debt, which they say ought to be paid, if at all, by +those who have borrowed and spent, or pocketed, the money. Now then, +in order to enlist great numbers of labourers and artisans on their +side, the Boroughmongers have fallen upon the scheme of coaxing them +to put small sums into what they call _banks_. These sums they pay +large interest upon, and suffer the parties to take them out whenever +they please. By this scheme they think to bind great numbers to them +and their tyranny. They think that great numbers of labourers and +artisans, seeing their little sums increase, as they will imagine, +will begin to conceive the hopes of becoming rich by such means; and +as these persons are to be told that their money is in the _funds_, +they will soon imbibe the spirit of fundholders, and will not care who +suffers, or whether freedom or slavery prevail, so that the funds be +but safe. + +Such is the scheme and such the motives. It will fail of its object, +though not unworthy the inventive powers of the servile knaves of +Edinburgh. It will fail, first because the men from whom alone the +Borough-tyrants have anything to dread, will see through the scheme +and despise it; and will, besides, well know that the funds are a mere +bubble that may burst, or be bursted at any moment. The parsons appear +to be the main tools in this coaxing scheme. They are always at the +head of everything which they think likely to support tyranny. The +depositors will be domestic servants, particularly women, who will be +tickled with the idea of having a fortune in the funds. The +Boroughmongers will hint to their tenants that they must get their +labourers into the Savings Banks. A preference will be given to such +as deposit. The Ladies, the 'Parsons' Ladies,' will scold poor people +into the funds. The parish officers will act their part in this +compulsory process: and thus will the Boroughmongers get into their +hands some millions of the people's money by a sort of 'forced loan': +or in other words, a robbery. In order to swell the thing out, the +parsons and other tools of the Boroughmongers will lend money in this +way themselves, under feigned names; and we shall, if the system last +a year or two, hear boastings of how rich the poor are become. + +Now then, Jack, supposing it possible that Farmer Gripe may, under +pain of being turned out of your cottage, have made you put your +twopence a week into one of these banks, let us see what is the +natural consequence of your so doing. Twopence a week is eight +shillings and eightpence a year; and the interest will make the amount +about nine shillings perhaps. What use is this to you? Will you let it +remain; and will you go on thus for years? You must go on a great many +years, indeed, before your deposit amounts to as much as the +Boroughmongers take from you in one year! Twopence will buy you a +quarter of a pound of meat. This is a dinner for your wife or +yourself. You never taste meat. And why are you to give up half a +pound of your bread to the Boroughmongers. You are ill; your wife is +ill; your children are ill. 'Go to the bank and take out your money,' +says the overseer; 'for I'll give you no aid till that be spent.' Thus +then, you will have been robbing your own starved belly weekly, to no +other end than that of favouring the parish purse, upon which you have +a just and legal claim, until the clergy restore to the poor what they +have taken from them. As the thing now stands, the poor are starved by +others, this scheme is intended to make them assist in the work +themselves, at the same time that it binds them to the tyranny. + +But, Jack, what a monstrous thing is this, that the Boroughmongers +should kindly pass an Act to induce you to save your money, while they +take from you five shillings out of every nine that you earn? Why not +take less from you! That would be the more natural way to go to work, +surely. Why not leave you all your earnings to yourself? Oh, no! They +cannot do that. It is from the labour of men like you that the far +greater part of the money comes to enrich the Boroughmongers, their +relations and dependants. + +However, suppose you have gotten together five pounds in a Savings +Bank. That is to say in the funds. This is a great deal for you, +though it is not half so much as you are compelled to give to the +Boroughmongers in one year. This is a great sum. It is much more than +you ever will have; but suppose you have it. It is _in the funds_, +mind. And now let me tell you what the funds are; which is necessary +if you have not read my little book called _Paper against Gold._ The +funds is _no place_ at all, Jack. It is nothing, Jack. It is +moonshine. It is a lie, a bubble, a fraud, a cheat, a humbug. And it +is all these in the most perfect degree. People think that the funds +is a place where money is kept. They think that it is a place which +contains that which they have deposited. But the fact is, that the +funds is a word which means nothing that the most of the people think +it means. It means the _descriptions of the several sorts of the +debt_. Suppose I owed money to a tailor, to a smith, to a shoemaker, +to a carpenter, and that I had their several bills in my house. I +should in the language of the Boroughmongers, call these bills my +_funds_. The Boroughmongers owe some people annuities at three pounds +for a hundred; some at four pounds for a hundred; some at five pounds +for a hundred; and these annuities, or debts they call their funds. +And, Jack, if the Savings Bank people lend them a good parcel of +money, they will have that money in these debts or funds. They will be +owners of some of those debts which never will and never can be paid. + +But what is this money too in which you are to be paid back again? It +is no money. It is paper; and though that paper will pass just at this +time; it will not long pass, I can assure you, Jack. When you have +worked a fortnight, and get a pound note for it, you set a high value +upon the note, because it brings you food. But suppose nobody would +take the note from you. Suppose no one would give you anything in +exchange for it. You would go back to Farmer Gripe and fling the note +in his face. You would insist upon real money, and you would get it, +or you would tear down his house. This is what will happen, Jack, in a +very short time. + +I will explain to you, Jack, how this matter stands. Formerly +bank-notes were as good as real money, because anybody that had one +might go at any moment, and get real money for it at the Bank. But now +the thing is quite changed. The Bank broke some years ago; that is to +say, it could not pay its notes in real money; and it never has been +able to do it from that time to this; and what is more, it never can +do it again. To be sure the paper passes at present. You take it for +your work, and others take it of you for bread and tea. But the time +may be, and I believe is, very near at hand, when this paper will not +pass at all; and then as the Boroughmongers and the Savings Bank +people have, and can have, no real money, how are you to get your five +pounds back again? + +The bank-notes may be all put down at any moment, if any man of +talent and resolution choose to put them down; and why may not such a +man exist, and have the Disposition to put them down? They are now of +value, as I said before, because they will pass; because people will +take them and will give victuals and drink for them; but, if nobody +would give bread and tea and beer for them, would they then be good +for anything? They are taken because people are pretty sure that they +can pass them again; but who will take them when he does not think +that he can pass them again? And I assure you, Jack, that even I +myself could, before next May-day, do that which would prevent any man +in England from ever taking a bank-note any more. If you should put +five pounds into a Savings Bank, therefore, you could, in such case, +never see a farthing in exchange for it. + +This being a matter of so much importance to you, I will clearly +explain to you how I might easily do the thing. Mind, I do not say +that I will do the thing. Indeed, I will not; and I do not know any +one that intends to do it. But I will show you how I _might_ do it; +because it is right that you should know what a ticklish state your +poor five pounds will be in if you deposit them in the Savings Bank. + +You know, Jack, that _forged_ notes pass till people find them out. +They keep passing very quietly till they come to the Bank, and there +being known for forged notes, the man who carries them to the Bank, or +owns them at the time, loses the amount of them. Suppose now, that Tom +were to forge a note, and pay it to Dick for a pig. Dick would pay it +to Bob for some tea. Bob would send it up to London to pay his +tea-man. The tea-man would send it to the Bank. The Bank would keep +it, and give him nothing for it. If the tea-man forgot whom he got it +from, he must lose. If he could prove that he got it from Bob, Bob +must lose it; and so on; but either Dick or Bob or the tea-man must +lose it. There must be a loss somewhere. + +Now, it is clear that if there were a great quantity of forged notes +in circulation, people would be afraid to take notes at all; and that +if this great quantity came out all of a sudden, it would for a while +put an end to all payments and all trade. And if such great quantity +can with safety be put out, I leave you to guess, Jack, at the +situation of your five pounds. I will now show you, then, that I could +do this myself, and with perfect safety and ease. + +I could have made, at a very trifling expense, a million of pounds in +bank-notes of various amounts. There are fourteen different ways in +which I could send them to England, and lodge them safely there, +without the smallest chance of their arrival being known to any soul +except the man to whom they should be confided. The Banks might +search and ransack every vessel that arrived from America. They might +do what they would. They would never detect the cargo! + +There they are then, safe in London; a famous stock of bank-notes, so +well executed that no human being except the Bank people would be able +to discover the counterfeit. The agent takes a parcel at a time, and +drops them in the street in the dark. This work he carries on for a +week or two in such streets as are best calculated for the purpose, +till he has well stocked the town. He may do the same at Portsmouth +and other great towns if he please, and he may send off large supplies +by post. + +Now, Jack, suppose you were up at London with your master's waggon. +You might find a parcel of notes. You would go to the first shop to +buy your wife a gown and your children some clothes, yourself a hat, a +greatcoat, and some shoes. The rest you would lay out at shops on the +road home; for the sooner you got rid of this _foundal_, the less +chance of having it taken from you. The shopkeepers would thank you +for your custom, and your wife's heart would bound with joy. + +The notes would travel about most merrily. At last they would come to +the Bank. The holders would lose them; but you would gain by them. So +that, upon the whole, there would be no loss, and the maker of the +notes would have no gain. Others would find, and nearly all would do +like you. In a few days the notes would find their way to the Bank in +great numbers, where they would all be stopped. The news would spread +abroad. The thieftakers would be busy. Every man who had had his note +stopped at the Bank would alarm his neighbourhood. The country would +ring with the news. Nobody would take a bank-note. All business would +be at a stand. The farmers would sell no corn for bank-notes. The +millers would have nothing else to pay with. No markets, because no +money. The baker would be able to get no flour. He could sell no +bread, for nobody would have money to pay him. + +Jack, this thing will assuredly take place. Mind, I tell you so. I +have been right in my predictions on former occasions; and I am not +wrong now. I beg you to believe me; or, at any rate, to blame yourself +if you lose by such an event. In the midst of this hubbub what will +you do? Farmer Gripe will, I daresay, give you something to eat for +your labour. But what will become of your five pounds? That sum you +have in the Savings Bank, and as you are to have it out at any time +when you please, your wife sets off to draw it. The banker gives her a +five-pound note. She brings it; but nobody will take it of you for a +pig, for bread, for clothing, or for anything else! And this, Jack, +will be the fate of all those who shall be weak enough to put their +money into those banks! + +I beg you, Jack, not to rely on the power of the Boroughmongers in +this case. Anything that is to be done with halters, gags, dungeons, +bayonets, powder, or ball, they can do a great deal at; but they are +not conjurers; they are not wizards. They cannot prevent a man from +dropping bank-notes in the dark; and they cannot make people believe +in the goodness of that which they must know to be bad. If they could +hold a sword to every man's breast, they might indeed do something; +but short of this, nothing that they can do would be of any avail. +However, the truth is that they, in such case, will have no sword at +all. An army is a powerful weapon; but an army must be paid. Soldiers +have been called machines; but they are eating and drinking machines. +With good food and drink they will go far and do much; but without +them, they will not stir an inch. And in such a case whence is to come +the money to pay them? In short, Jack, the Boroughmongers would drop +down dead, like men in an apoplexy, and you would, as soon as things +got to rights, have your bread and beer and meat and everything in +abundance. + +The Boroughmongers possess no means of preventing the complete success +of the dropping plan. If they do, they ought to thank me for giving +them a warning of their danger; and for telling them that if they do +prevent the success of such a plan, they are the cleverest fellows in +this world. + +I now, Jack, take my leave of you, hoping that you will not be coaxed +out of your money, and assuring you that I am your friend, + +WM. COBBETT. + + + + +VII.--'THE LETTERS OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER' + +BY SIR WALTER SCOTT + + +(_To what has been said in the Introduction respecting the _Letters of +Malachi Malagrowther_ it is only necessary to add that their immediate +cause was a Bill due to the very commercial crisis which indirectly +ruined Scott himself, and introduced in the spring of 1826 for +stopping the note circulation of private banks altogether, while +limiting that of the Bank of England to notes of £5 and upwards. The +scheme, which was to extend to the whole of Great Britain, was from +the first unpopular in Scotland, and Scott plunged into the fray. The +letters excited or coincided with such violent opposition throughout +the country that the Bill was limited to England only. As Scott was a +strong Tory, his friends in the Government, especially Lord Melville +and Croker (who was officially employed to answer 'Malachi'), were +rather sore at his action. He defended himself in some spirited +private letters, which will be found in Lockhart._) + + +A LETTER ON THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY + +_To the Editor of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal_ + +My dear Mr. Journalist--I am by pedigree a discontented person, so +that you may throw this letter into the fire, if you have any +apprehensions of incurring the displeasure of your superiors. I am, in +fact, the lineal descendant of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who makes a +figure in the _Fortunes of Nigel_, and have retained a reasonable +proportion of his ill-luck, and, in consequence, of his ill-temper. +If, therefore, I should chance to appear too warm and poignant in my +observations, you must impute it to the hasty and peevish humour which +I derive from my ancestor. But, at the same time, it often happens +that this disposition leads me to speak useful, though unpleasant +truths, when more prudent men hold their tongues and eat their +pudding. A lizard is an ugly and disgusting thing enough; but, +methinks, if a lizard were to run over my face and awaken me, which is +said to be their custom when they observe a snake approach a sleeping +person, I should neither scorn his intimation, nor feel justifiable +in crushing him to death, merely because he is a filthy little +abridgment of a crocodile. Therefore, 'for my love, I pray you, wrong +me not.' + +I am old, sir, poor, and peevish, and therefore I may be wrong; but +when I look back on the last fifteen or twenty years, and more +especially on the last ten, I think I see my native country of +Scotland, if it is yet to be called by a title so discriminative, +falling, so far as its national, or rather, perhaps, I ought now to +say its _provincial_, interests are concerned, daily into more +absolute contempt. Our ancestors were a people of some consideration +in the councils of the empire. So late as my own younger days, an +English minister would have paused, even in a favourite measure, if a +reclamation of national rights had been made by a member for Scotland, +supported as it uniformly then was, by the voice of her +representatives and her people. Such ameliorations in our peculiar +system as were thought necessary, in order that North Britain might +keep pace with her sister in the advance of improvement, were +suggested by our own countrymen, persons well acquainted with our +peculiar system of laws (as different from those of England as from +those of France), and who knew exactly how to adapt the desired +alteration to the principle of our legislative enactments, so that the +whole machine might, as mechanics say, work well and easily. For a +long time this wholesome check upon innovation, which requires the +assimilation of a proposed improvement with the general constitution +of the country to which it has been recommended, and which ensures +that important point, by stipulating that the measure shall originate +with those to whom the spirit of the constitution is familiar, has +been, so far as Scotland is concerned, considerably disused. Those who +have stepped forward to repair the gradual failure of our +constitutional system of law, have been persons that, howsoever +qualified in other respects, have had little further knowledge of its +construction than could be acquired by a hasty and partial survey, +taken just before they commenced their labours. Scotland and her laws +have been too often subjected to the alterations of any person who +chose to found himself a reputation, by bringing in a bill to cure +some defect which had never been felt in practice, but which was +represented as a frightful bugbear to English statesmen, who, wisely +and judiciously tenacious of the legal practice and principles +received at home, are proportionally startled at the idea of anything +abroad which cannot be brought to assimilate with them. + +The English seem to have made a compromise with the active tendency to +innovation, which is one great characteristic of the day. Wise and +sagacious themselves, they are nervously jealous of innovations in +their own laws--_Nolumus leges Angliae mutari_, is written on the +skirts of their judicial robes, as the most sacred texts of Scripture +were inscribed on the phylacteries of the Rabbis. The belief that the +Common Law of England constitutes the perfection of human reason, is a +maxim bound upon their foreheads. Law Monks they have been called in +other respects, and like monks they are devoted to their own Rule, and +admit no question of its infallibility. There can be no doubt that +their love of a system, which, if not perfect, has so much in it that +is excellent, originates in the most praiseworthy feelings. Call it if +you will the prejudice of education, it is still a prejudice +honourable in itself, and useful to the public. I only find fault with +it, because, like the Friars in the Duenna monopolising the bottle, +these English monks will not tolerate in their lay brethren of the +north the slightest pretence to a similar feeling. + +In England, therefore, no innovation can be proposed affecting the +administration of justice, without being subjected to the strict +enquiry of the Guardians of the Law, and afterwards resisted +pertinaciously, until time and the most mature and reiterated +discussion shall have proved its utility, nay, its necessity. The old +saying is still true in all its points--Touch but a cobweb in +Westminster Hall, and the old spider will come out in defence of it. +This caution may sometimes postpone the adoption of useful +amendments, but it operates to prevent all hasty and experimental +innovations; and it is surely better that existing evils should be +endured for some time longer, than that violent remedies should be +hastily adopted, the unforeseen and unprovided for consequences of +which are often so much more extensive than those which had been +foreseen and reckoned upon. An ordinary mason can calculate upon the +exact gap which will be made by the removal of a corner stone in an +old building; but what architect, not intimately acquainted with the +whole edifice, can presume even to guess how much of the structure is, +or is not, to follow? + +The English policy in this respect is a wise one, and we have only to +wish they would not insist in keeping it all to themselves. But those +who are most devoted to their own religion have least sympathy for the +feelings of dissenters; and a spirit of proselytism has of late shown +itself in England for extending the benefits of their system, in all +its strength and weakness, to a country which has been hitherto +flourishing and contented under its own. They adopted the conclusion +that all English enactments are right; but the system of municipal law +in Scotland is not English, therefore it is wrong. Under sanction of +this syllogism, our rulers have indulged and encouraged a spirit of +experiment and innovation at our expense, which they resist +obstinately when it is to be carried through at their own risk. + +For more than half of last century, this was a practice not to be +thought of. Scotland was during that period disaffected, in bad +humour, armed too, and smarting under various irritating +recollections. This is not the sort of patient for whom an +experimental legislator chooses to prescribe. There was little chance +of making Saunders take the patent pill by persuasion--main force was +a dangerous argument, and some thought claymores had edges. + +This period passed away, a happier one arrived, and Scotland, no +longer the object of terror, or at least great uneasiness, to the +British Government, was left from the year 1750 under the guardianship +of her own institutions, to win her silent way to national wealth and +consequence. Contempt probably procured for her the freedom from +interference, which had formerly been granted out of fear; for the +medical faculty are as slack in attending the garrets of paupers as +the caverns of robbers. But neglected as she was, and perhaps +_because_ she was neglected, Scotland, reckoning her progress during +the space from the close of the American War to the present day, has +increased her prosperity in a ratio more than five times greater than +that of her more fortunate and richer sister. She is now worth the +attention of the learned faculty, and God knows she has had plenty of +it. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall, and _talked_ into +courses of physic, for which she had little occasion. She has been of +late a sort of experimental farm, upon which every political student +has been permitted to try his theory--a kind of common property, where +every juvenile statesman has been encouraged to make his inroads, as +in Moray land, where, anciently, according to the idea of the old +Highlanders, all men had a right to take their prey--a subject in a +common dissecting room, left to the scalpel of the junior students, +with the degrading inscription,--_fiat experimentum in corpore vili_. + +I do not mean to dispute, Sir, that much alteration was necessary in +our laws, and that much benefit has followed many of the great changes +which have taken place. I do not mean to deprecate a gradual approach +to the English system, especially in commercial law. The Jury Court, +for example, was a fair experiment, in my opinion, cautiously +introduced as such, and placed under such regulations as might best +assimilate its forms with those of the existing Supreme Court. I beg, +therefore, to be considered as not speaking of the alterations +themselves, but of the apparent hostility towards our municipal +institutions, as repeatedly manifested in the course of late +proceedings, tending to force and wrench them into a similarity with +those of England. + +The opinions of our own lawyers, nay, of our Judges, than whom wiser +and more honourable men never held that character, have been, if +report speaks true, something too much neglected and controlled in the +course of these important changes, in which, methinks, they ought to +have had a leading and primary voice. They have been almost avowedly +regarded not as persons the best qualified to judge of proposed +innovations, but as prejudiced men, determined to oppose them, right +or wrong. The last public Commission was framed on the very principle, +that if Scotch lawyers were needs to be employed, a sufficient number +of these should consist of gentlemen, who, whatever their talents and +respectability might be in other respects, had been too long estranged +from the study of Scottish law to retain any accurate recollection of +an abstruse science, or any decided partiality for its technical +forms. This was done avowedly for the purpose of evading the natural +partiality of the Scottish Judges and practitioners to their own +system; that partiality which the English themselves hold so sacred a +feeling in their own Judges and Counsel learned in the law. I am not, +I repeat, complaining of the result of the Commissions, but of the +spirit in which the alterations were undertaken. Unquestionably much +was done in brushing up and improving the old machinery of Scottish +Law Courts, and in making it move more rapidly, though scarce, I +think, more correctly than before. Dispatch has been much attended +to. But it may be ultimately found that the timepiece which runs +fastest does not intimate the hour most accurately. At all events, the +changes have been made and established--there let them rest. And had +I, Malachi Malagrowther, the sole power to-morrow of doing so, I would +not restore the old forms of judicial proceedings; because I hold the +constitution of Courts of Justice too serious matters to be put back +or forward at pleasure, like a boy's first watch, merely for +experiment's sake. + +What I _do_ complain of is the general spirit of slight and dislike +manifested to our national establishments by those of the sister +country who are so very zealous in defending their own; and not less +do I complain of their jealousy of the opinions of those who cannot +but be much better acquainted than they, both with the merits and +deficiencies of the system, which hasty and imperfectly informed +judges have shown themselves so anxious to revolutionise. + +There is no explanation to be given of this but one--namely, the +entire conviction and belief of our English brethren that the true +Themis is worshipped in Westminster Hall, and that her adorers cannot +be too zealous in her service; while she, whose image an ingenious +artist has depicted balancing herself upon a _tee-totum_ on the +southern window of the Parliament House of Edinburgh, is a mere +idol,--a Diana of Ephesus,--whom her votaries worship, either because +her shrine brings great gain to the craftsmen, or out of an ignorant +and dotard superstition, which induces them to prefer the old Scottish +_Mumpsimus_ to the modern English _Sumpsimus_. Now, this is not fair +construction in our friends, whose intentions in our behalf, we allow, +are excellent, but who certainly are scarcely entitled to beg the +question at issue without inquiry or discussion, or to treat us as the +Spaniards treated the Indians, whom they massacred for worshipping the +image of the Sun, while they themselves bowed down to that of the +Virgin Mary. Even Queen Elizabeth was contented with the evasive +answer of Melville, when hard pressed with the trying question, +whether Queen Mary or she were the fairest. We are willing, in the +spirit of that answer, to say that the Themis of Westminster Hall is +the best fitted to preside over the administration of the larger, and +more fertile country of beef and pudding; while she of the tee-totum +(placed in that precarious position, we presume, to express her +instability, since these new lights were struck out) claims a more +limited but equally respectful homage, within her ancient +jurisdiction--_sua paupera regna_--the Land of Cakes. If this +compromise does not appease the ardour of our brethren for converting +us to English forms and fashions, we must use the scriptural question, +"Who hath required these things at your hands?" + +The inquiries and result of another Commission are too much to the +purpose to be suppressed. The object was to investigate the conduct of +the Revenue Boards in Ireland and Scotland. In the former, it is well +known, great mismanagement was discovered; for Pat, poor fellow, had +been playing the loon to a considerable extent. In Scotland, _not a +shadow of abuse prevailed_. You would have thought, Mr. Journalist, +that the Irish Boards would have been reformed in some shape, and the +Scotch Establishments honourably acquitted, and suffered to continue +on the footing of independence which they had so long enjoyed, and of +which they had proved themselves so worthy. Not so, sir. The Revenue +Boards, in both countries, underwent exactly the same regulation, were +deprived of their independent consequence, and placed under the +superintendence of English control; the innocent and the guilty being +treated in every respect alike. Now, on the side of Scotland, this was +like Trinculo losing his bottle in the pool--there was not only +dishonour in the thing, but an infinite loss. + +I have heard two reasons suggested for this indiscriminating +application of punishment to the innocent and to the culpable. + +In the first place, it was honestly confessed that Ireland would never +have quietly submitted to the indignity offered to her, unless poor +inoffensive Scotland had been included in the regulation. The Green +Isle, it seems, was of the mind of a celebrated lady of quality, who, +being about to have a decayed tooth drawn, refused to submit to the +operation till she had seen the dentist extract a sound and +serviceable grinder from the jaws of her waiting-woman--and her humour +was to be gratified. The lady was a termagant dame--the wench a +tame-spirited simpleton--the dentist an obliging operator--and the +teeth of both were drawn accordingly. + +This gratification of his humours is gained by Pat's being up with the +pike and shillelagh on any or no occasion. God forbid Scotland should +retrograde towards such a state--much better that the Deil, as in +Burns's song, danced away with the whole excisemen in the country. We +do not want to hear her prate of her number of millions of men, and +her old military exploits. We had better remain in union with England, +even at the risk of becoming a subordinate species of Northumberland, +as far as national consequence is concerned, than remedy ourselves by +even hinting the possibility of a rupture. But there is no harm in +wishing Scotland to have just so much ill-nature, according to her own +proverb, as may keep her good-nature from being abused; so much +national spirit as may determine her to stand by her own rights, +conducting her assertion of them with every feeling of respect and +amity toward England. + +The other reason alleged for this equal distribution of _punishment_, +as if it had been the influence of the common sun, or the general +rain, to the just and the unjust, was one which is extremely +predominant at present with our Ministers--the _necessity_ of +_Uniformity_ in all such cases; and the consideration what an awkward +thing it would be to have a Board of Excise or Customs remaining +independent in the one country, solely because they had, without +impeachment, discharged their duty; while the same establishment was +cashiered in another, for no better reason than that it had been +misused. + +This reminds us of an incident, said to have befallen at the Castle of +Glammis, when these venerable towers were inhabited by a certain old +Earl of Strathmore, who was as great an admirer of uniformity as the +Chancellor of the Exchequer could have desired. He and his gardener +directed all in the garden and pleasure grounds upon the ancient +principle of exact correspondence between the different parts, so that +each alley had its brother; a principle which, renounced by gardeners, +is now adopted by statesmen. It chanced once upon a time that a fellow +was caught committing some petty theft, and, being taken in the +manner, was sentenced by the Bailie Macwheeble of the jurisdiction to +stand for a certain time in the baronial pillory, called the _jougs_, +being a collar and chain, one of which contrivances was attached to +each side of the portal of the great avenue which led to the castle. +The thief was turned over accordingly to the gardener, as +ground-officer, to see the punishment duly inflicted. When the Thane +of Glammis returned from his morning ride, he was surprised to find +both sides of the gateway accommodated each with a prisoner, like a +pair of heraldic supporters, _chained_ and _collared proper_. He asked +the gardener, whom he found watching the place of punishment, as his +duty required, whether another delinquent had been detected? "No, my +Lord," said the gardener, in the tone of a man excellently well +satisfied with himself,--"but I thought the single fellow looked very +awkward standing on one side of the gateway, so I gave half a crown to +one of the labourers to stand on the other side for _uniformity's +sake_." This is exactly a case in point, and probably the only one +which can be found--with this sole difference, that I do not hear that +the members of the Scottish Revenue Board got any boon for standing in +the pillory with those of Ireland--for uniformity's sake. + +Lastly, sir, I come to this business of extending the provisions of +the Bill prohibiting the issue of notes under five pounds to Scotland, +in six months after the period that the regulation shall be adopted in +England. + +I am not about to enter upon the question which so much agitates +speculative writers upon the wealth of nations, or attempt to discuss +what proportion of the precious metals ought to be detained within a +country; what are the best means of keeping it there; or to what +extent the want of specie can be supplied by paper credit: I will not +ask if a poor man can be made a rich one, by compelling him to buy a +service of plate, instead of the delf ware which served his turn. +These are questions I am not adequate to solve. But I beg leave to +consider the question in a practical point of view, and to refer +myself entirely to experience. + +I assume, without much hazard of contradiction, that Banks have +existed in Scotland for near one hundred and twenty years--that they +have flourished, and the country has flourished with them--and that +during the last fifty years particularly, provincial Banks, or +branches of the principal established and chartered Banks, have +gradually extended themselves in almost every Lowland district in +Scotland; that the notes, and especially the small notes, which they +distribute, entirely supply the demand for a medium of currency; and +that the system has so completely expelled gold from the country of +Scotland, that you never by any chance espy a guinea there, unless in +the purse of an accidental stranger, or in the coffers of these Banks +themselves. This is granting the facts of the case as broadly as can +be asked. + +It is not less unquestionable that the consequence of this Banking +system, as conducted in Scotland, has been attended with the greatest +advantage to the country. The facility which it has afforded to the +industrious and enterprising agriculturalist or manufacturer, as well +as to the trustees of the public in executing national works, has +converted Scotland from a poor, miserable, and barren country, into +one, where, if nature has done less, art and industry have done more, +than in perhaps any country in Europe, England herself not excepted. +Through means of the credit which this system has afforded, roads have +been made, bridges built, and canals dug, opening up to reciprocal +communication the most sequestered districts of the country--manufactures +have been established, unequalled in extent or success--wastes have +been converted into productive farms--the productions of the earth for +human use have been multiplied twentyfold, while the wealth of the rich +and the comforts of the poor have been extended in the same proportion. +And all this in a country where the rigour of the climate, and +sterility of the soil, seem united to set improvement at defiance. Let +those who remember Scotland forty years since, bear witness if I speak +truth or falsehood. + +There is no doubt that this change has been produced by the facilities +of procuring credit, which the Scottish Banks held forth, both by +discounting bills, and by granting cash-accounts. Every undertaking of +consequence, whether by the public or by individuals, has been carried +on by such means; at least exceptions are extremely rare. + +There is as little doubt that the Banks could not have furnished these +necessary funds of cash, without enjoying the reciprocal advantage of +their own notes being circulated in consequence, and by means of the +accommodation thus afforded. It is not to be expected that every +undertaking which the system enabled speculators or adventurers to +commence, should be well-judged, attentively carried on, or successful +in issue. Imprudence in some cases, misfortune in others, have had +their usual quantity of victims. But in Scotland, as elsewhere, it has +happened in many instances that improvements, which turned out ruinous +to those who undertook them, have, notwithstanding, themselves +ultimately produced the most beneficial advantages to the country, +which derived in such instances an addition to its general prosperity, +even from the undertakings which had proved destructive to the private +fortune of the projectors. + +Not only did the Banks dispersed throughout Scotland afford the means +of bringing the country to an unexpected and almost marvellous degree +of prosperity, but in no considerable instance, save one, have their +own over-speculating undertakings been the means of interrupting that +prosperity. The solitary exception was the undertaking called the Ayr +Bank, rashly entered into by a large body of country gentlemen and +others, unacquainted with commercial affairs, and who had moreover the +misfortune not only to set out on false principles, but to get false +rogues for their principal agents and managers. The fall of this Bank +brought much calamity on the country; but two things are remarkable in +its history: First, that under its too prodigal, yet beneficial +influence, a fine county (that of Ayr) was converted from a desert +into a fertile land. Secondly, that, though at a distant interval, the +Ayr Bank paid all its engagements, and the loss only fell on the +original stockholders. The warning was, however, a terrible one, and +has been so well attended to in Scotland, that very few attempts seem +to have been afterwards made to establish Banks prematurely--that is, +where the particular district was not in such an advanced state as to +require the support of additional credit; for in every such case, it +was judiciously foreseen, the forcing a capital on the district could +only lead to wild speculation, instead of supporting solid and +promising undertakings. + +The character and condition of the persons pursuing the profession +ought to be noticed, however slightly. The Bankers of Scotland have +been, generally speaking, _good_ men, in the mercantile phrase, +showing, by the wealth of which they have died possessed, that their +credit was sound; and _good_ men also, many of them eminently so, in +the more extensive and better sense of the word, manifesting, by the +excellence of their character, the fairness of the means by which +their riches were acquired. There may have been, among so numerous a +body, men of a different character, fishers in troubled waters, +capitalists who sought gain not by the encouragement of fair trade +and honest industry, but by affording temporary fuel to rashness or +avarice. But the number of upright traders in the profession has +narrowed the means of mischief which such Christian Shylocks would +otherwise have possessed. There was loss, there was discredit, in +having recourse to such characters, when honest wants could be fairly +supplied by upright men, and on liberal terms. Such reptiles have been +confined in Scotland to batten upon their proper prey of folly, and +feast, like worms, on the corruption in which they are bred. + +Since the period of the Ayr Bank, now near half a century, I recollect +very few instances of Banking Companies issuing notes which have +become insolvent. One, about thirty years since, was the Merchant Bank +of Stirling, which never was in high credit, having been known almost +at the time of its commencement by the odious nickname of _Black in +the West_. Another was within these ten years, the East Lothian +Banking Company, whose affairs had been very ill conducted by a +villainous manager. In both cases, the notes were paid up in full. In +the latter case, they were taken up by one of the most respectable +houses in Edinburgh; so that all current engagements were paid without +the least check to the circulation of their notes, or inconvenience to +poor or rich, who happened to have them in possession. The Union Bank +of Falkirk also became insolvent within these fifteen years, but paid +up its engagements without much loss to the creditors. Other cases +there may have occurred, not coming within my recollection; but I +think none which made any great sensation, or could at all affect the +general confidence of the country in the stability of the system. None +of these bankruptcies excited much attention, or, as we have seen, +caused any considerable loss. + +In the present unhappy commercial distress, I have always heard and +understood that the Scottish Banks have done all in their power to +alleviate the evils which came thickening on the country; and far from +acting illiberally, that they have come forward to support the +tottering credit of the commercial world with a frankness which +augured the most perfect confidence in their own resources. We have +heard of only one provincial Bank being even for a moment in the +predicament of suspicion; and of that copartnery the funds and credit +were so well understood, that their correspondents in Edinburgh, as in +the case of the East Lothian Bank formerly mentioned, at once +guaranteed the payment of their notes, and saved the public even from +momentary agitation, and individuals from the possibility of distress. +I ask what must be the stability of a system of credit of which such +an universal earthquake could not displace or shake even the slightest +individual portion? + +Thus stands the case in Scotland; and it is clear any restrictive +enactment affecting the Banking system, or their mode of issuing +notes, must be adopted in consequence of evils, operating elsewhere +perhaps, but certainly unknown in this country. + +In England, unfortunately, things have been very different, and the +insolvency of many provincial Banking Companies, of the most +established reputation for stability, has greatly distressed the +country, and alarmed London itself, from the necessary reaction of +their misfortunes upon their correspondents in the capital. + +I do not think, sir, that the advocate of Scotland is called upon to +go further, in order to plead an exemption from any experiment which +England may think proper to try to cure her own malady, than to say +such malady does not exist in her jurisdiction. It is surely enough to +plead, 'We are well, our pulse and complexion prove it--let those who +are sick take physic.' But the opinion of the English Ministers is +widely different; for, granting our premisses, they deny our +conclusion. + +The peculiar humour of a friend, whom I lost some years ago, is the +only one I recollect, which jumps precisely with the reasoning of the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. My friend was an old Scottish laird, a +bachelor and a humorist--wealthy, convivial, and hospitable, and of +course having always plenty of company about him. He had a regular +custom of swallowing every night in the world one of Dr. Anderson's +pills, for which reasons may be readily imagined. But it is not so +easy to account for his insisting on every one of his guests taking +the same medicine, and whether it was by way of patronising the +medicine, which is in some sense a national receipt, or whether the +mischievous old wag amused himself with anticipating the scenes of +delicate embarrassment, which the dispensation sometimes produced in +the course of the night, I really cannot even guess. What is equally +strange, he pressed the request with a sort of eloquence which +succeeded with every guest. No man escaped, though there were few who +did not make resistance. His powers of persuasion would have been +invaluable to a minister of state. 'What! not one _Leetle Anderson_, +to oblige your friend, your host, your entertainer! He had taken one +himself--he would take another, if you pleased--surely what was good +for his complaint must of course be beneficial to yours?' It was in +vain you pleaded your being perfectly well,--your detesting the +medicine,--your being certain it would not agree with you--none of the +apologies were received as valid. You might be warm, pathetic or +sulky, fretful or patient, grave or serious in testifying your +repugnance, but you were equally a doomed man; escape was impossible. +Your host was in his turn eloquent,--authoritative,--facetious, +--argumentative,--precatory,--pathetic, above all, pertinacious. No +guest was known to escape the _Leetle Anderson_. The last time I +experienced the laird's hospitality there were present at the evening +meal the following catalogue of guests:--a Bond-street dandy, of the most +brilliant water, drawn thither by the temptation of grouse-shooting--a +writer from the neighbouring borough (the lairds _doer_, I +believe),--two country lairds, men of reserved and stiff habits--three +sheep-farmers, as stiff-necked and stubborn as their own haltered +rams--and I, Malachi Malagrowther, not facile or obvious to persuasion. +There was also the Esculapius of the vicinity--one who gave, but +elsewhere was never known to _take_ medicine. All succumbed--each took, +after various degrees of resistance according to his peculiar fashion, +his own _Leetle Anderson_. The doer took a brace. On the event I +am silent. None had reason to congratulate himself on his complaisance. +The laird has slept with his ancestors for some years, remembered +sometimes with a smile on account of his humorous eccentricities, always +with a sigh when his surviving friends and neighbours reflect on his +kindliness and genuine beneficence. I have only to add that I hope he +has not bequeathed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, otherwise so +highly gifted, his invincible powers of persuading folks to take +medicine, which their constitutions do not require. + +Have I argued my case too high in supposing that the present intended +legislative enactment is as inapplicable to Scotland as a pair of +elaborate knee-buckles would be to the dress of a kilted Highlander? I +think not. + +I understand Lord Liverpool and the Chancellor of the Exchequer +distinctly to have admitted the fact, that no distress whatever had +originated in Scotland from the present issuing of small notes of the +bankers established there, whether provincial in the strict sense, or +sent abroad by branches of the larger establishments settled in the +metropolis. No proof can be desired better than the admission of the +adversary. + +Nevertheless, we have been positively informed by the newspapers that +Ministers see no reason why any law adopted on this subject should not +be imperative over all his Majesty's dominions, including Scotland, +_for uniformity's sake_. In my opinion they might as well make a law +that the Scotsman, for uniformity's sake, should not eat oatmeal, +because it is found to give Englishmen the heartburn. If an ordinance +prohibiting the oatcake, can be accompanied with a regulation capable +of being enforced, that in future, for uniformity's sake, our moors +and uplands shall henceforth bear the purest wheat, I for one have no +objection to the regulation. But till Ben Nevis be level with +Norfolkshire, though the natural wants of the two nations may be the +same, the extent of these wants, natural or commercial, and the mode +of supplying them, must be widely different, let the rule of +uniformity be as absolute as it will. The nation which cannot raise +wheat, must be allowed to eat oat-bread; the nation which is too poor +to retain a circulating medium of the precious metals, must be +permitted to supply its place with paper credit; otherwise, they must +go without food, and without currency. + +If I were called on, Mr. Journalist, I think I could give some reasons +why the system of banking which has been found well adapted for +Scotland is not proper for England, and why there is no reason for +inflicting upon us the intended remedy; in other words, why this +political balsam of Fierabras which is to relieve Don Quixote, may +have a great chance to poison Sancho. With this view, I will mention +briefly some strong points of distinction affecting the comparative +credit of the banks in England and in Scotland; and they seem to +furnish, to one inexperienced in political economies (upon the +transcendental doctrines of which so much stress is now laid), very +satisfactory reasons for the difference which is not denied to exist +betwixt the effects of the same general system in different countries. + +In Scotland, almost all Banking Companies consist of a considerable +number of persons, many of them men of landed property, whose landed +estates, with the burthens legally affecting them, may be learned from +the records, for the expense of a few shillings; so that all the +world knows, or may know, the general basis on which their credit +rests, and the extent of real property, which, independent of their +personal means, is responsible for their commercial engagements. In +most banking establishments this fund of credit is considerable, in +others immense; especially in those where the shares are numerous, and +are held in small proportions, many of them by persons of landed +estates, whose fortunes, however large, and however small their share +of stock, must all be liable to the engagements of the Bank. In +England, as I believe, the number of the partners engaged in a banking +concern cannot exceed five; and though of late years their landed +property has been declared subject to be attacked by their commercial +creditors, yet no one can learn, without incalculable trouble, the +real value of that land, or with what mortgages it is burthened. Thus, +_cæteris paribus_, the English banker cannot make his solvency +manifest to the public, therefore cannot expect, or receive, the same +unlimited trust, which is willingly and securely reposed in those of +the same profession in Scotland. + +Secondly, the circulation of the Scottish bank-notes is free and +unlimited; an advantage arising from their superior degree of credit. +They pass without a shadow of objection through the whole limits of +Scotland, and, though they cannot be legally tendered, are current +nearly as far as York in England. Those of English Banking Companies +seldom extend beyond a very limited horizon: in two or three stages +from the place where they are issued, many of them are objected to, +and give perpetual trouble to any traveller who has happened to take +them in change on the road. Even the most creditable provincial notes +never approach London in a free tide--never circulate like blood to +the heart, and from thence to the extremities, but are current within +a limited circle; often, indeed, so very limited, that the notes +issued in the morning, to use an old simile, fly out like pigeons from +the dovecot, and are sure to return in the evening to the spot which +they have left at break of day. + +Owing to these causes, and others which I forbear mentioning, the +profession of provincial Bankers in England is limited in its regular +profits, and uncertain in its returns, to a degree unknown in +Scotland; and is, therefore, more apt to be adopted in the South by +men of sanguine hopes and bold adventure (both frequently +disproportioned to the extent of their capital), who sink in mines or +other hazardous speculations the funds which their banking credit +enables them to command, and deluge the country with notes, which, on +some unhappy morning, are found not worth a penny--as those to whom +the foul fiend has given apparent treasures are said in due time to +discover they are only pieces of slate. + +I am aware it may be urged that the restrictions imposed on those +English provincial Banks are necessary to secure the supremacy of the +Bank of England; on the same principle on which dogs, kept near the +purlieus of a royal forest, were anciently lamed by the cutting off of +one of the claws, to prevent their interfering with the royal sport. +This is a very good regulation for England, for what I know; but why +should the Scottish institutions, which do not, and cannot interfere +with the influence of the Bank of England, be put on a level with +those of which such jealousy is, justly or unjustly, entertained? We +receive no benefit from that immense establishment, which, like a +great oak, overshadows England from Tweed to Cornwall. Why should our +national plantations be cut down or cramped for the sake of what +affords us neither shade nor shelter, and which, besides, can take no +advantage by the injury done to us? Why should we be subjected to a +monopoly from which we derive no national benefit? + +I have only to add that Scotland has not felt the slightest +inconvenience from the want of specie, nay, that it has never been in +request among them. A tradesman will take a guinea more unwillingly +than a note of the same value--to the peasant the coin is unknown. No +one ever wishes for specie save when upon a journey to England. In +occasional runs upon particular houses, the notes of other Banking +Companies have always been the value asked for--no holder of these +notes ever demanded specie. The credit of one establishment might be +doubted for the time--that of the general system was never brought +into question. Even avarice, the most suspicious of passions, has in +no instance I ever heard of, desired to compose her hoards by an +accumulation of the precious metals. The confidence in the credit of +our ordinary medium has not been doubted even in the dreams of the +most irritable and jealous of human passions. + +All these considerations are so obvious that a statesman so acute as +Mr. Robinson must have taken them in at the first glance, and must at +the same time have deemed them of no weight, compared with the +necessary conformity between the laws of the two kingdoms. I must, +therefore, speak to the justice of this point of uniformity. + +Sir, my respected ancestor, Sir Mungo, when he had the distinguished +honour to be _whipping_, or rather _whipped boy_, to his Majesty King +James the Sixth of gracious memory, was always, in virtue of his +office, scourged when the king deserved flogging; and the same +equitable rule seems to distinguish the conduct of Government towards +Scotland, as one of the three United Kingdoms. If Pat is guilty of +peculation, Sister Peg loses her Boards of Revenue--if John Bull's +cashiers mismanage his money-matters, those who have conducted Sister +Margaret's to their own great honour, and her no less advantage, must +be deprived of the power of serving her in future; at least that power +must be greatly restricted and limited. + + 'Quidquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi.' + +That is to say, if our superiors of England and Ireland eat sour +grapes, the Scottish teeth must be set on edge as well as their own. +An uniformity in benefits may be well--an uniformity in penal +measures, towards the innocent and the guilty, in prohibitory +regulations, whether necessary or not, seems harsh law, and worse +justice. + +This levelling system, not equitable in itself, is infinitely unjust, +if a story, often told by my poor old grandfather, was true, which I +own I am inclined to doubt. The old man, sir, had learned in his +youth, or dreamed in his dotage, that Scotland had become an integral +part of England,--not in right of conquest, or rendition, or through +any right of inheritance--but in virtue of a solemn Treaty of Union. +Nay, so distinct an idea had he of this supposed Treaty, that he used +to recite one of its articles to this effect:--'That the laws in use +within the kingdom of Scotland, do, after the Union, remain in the +same force as before, but alterable by the Parliament of Great +Britain, with this difference between the laws concerning public +right, policy, and civil government, and those which concern private +right, that the former may be made the same through the whole United +Kingdom; but that no alteration be made on laws which concern private +right, _excepting for the evident utility of the subjects within +Scotland_.' When the old gentleman came to the passage, which you will +mark in italics, he always clenched his fist, and exclaimed, 'Nemo me +impune lacessit!' which, I presume, are words belonging to the black +art, since there is no one in the Modern Athens conjuror enough to +understand their meaning, or at least to comprehend the spirit of the +sentiment which my grandfather thought they conveyed. + +I cannot help thinking, sir, that if there had been any truth in my +grandfather's story, some Scottish member would, on the late occasion, +have informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that, in virtue of this +Treaty, it was no sufficient reason for innovating upon the private +rights of Scotsmen in a most tender and delicate point, merely that +the Right Honourable Gentleman saw no reason why the same law should +not be current through the whole of his Majesty's dominions; and that, +on the contrary, it was incumbent upon him to go a step further, and +to show that the alteration proposed _was_ for the EVIDENT UTILITY _of +the subjects within Scotland_,--a proposition disavowed by the Right +Honourable Gentleman's candid admission, as well as by that of the +Prime Minister, and contradicted in every circumstance by the actual +state of the case. + +Methinks, sir, our 'Chosen Five and Forty,' supposing they had bound +themselves to Ministers by such oaths of silence and obedience as are +taken by Carthusian friars, must have had free-will and speech to +express their sentiments, had they been possessed of so irrefragable +an argument in such a case of extremity. The sight of a father's life +in danger is said to have restored the power of language to the dumb; +and truly, the necessary defence of the rights of our native country +is not, or at least ought not to be, a less animating motive. Lord +Lauderdale almost alone interfered, and procured, to his infinite +honour, a delay of six months in the extension of this act,--a sort of +reprieve from the southern _jougs_,--by which we may have some chance +of profiting, if, during the interval, we can show ourselves true +Scotsmen, by some better proof than merely by being 'wise behind the +hand.' + +In the first place, sir, I would have this old Treaty searched for, +and should it be found to be still existing, I think it decides the +question. For, how can it be possible that it should be for the +'evident utility' of Scotland to alter her laws of private right, to +the total subversion of a system under which she is admitted to have +flourished for a century, and which has never within North Britain +been attended with the inconveniences charged against it in the sister +country, where, by the way, it never existed? Even if the old +parchment should be voted obsolete, there would be some satisfaction +in having it looked out and preserved--not in the Register-Office, or +Advocates' Library, where it might awaken painful recollections--but +in the Museum of the Antiquaries, where, with the Solemn League and +Covenant, the Letter of the Scottish Nobles to the Pope on the +independence of their country, and other antiquated documents, once +held in reverence, it might silently contract dust, yet remain to bear +witness that such things had been. + +I earnestly hope, however, that an international league of such +importance may still be found obligatory on both the _high_ and the +_low_ contracting parties; on that which has the power, and apparently +the will, to break it, as well as on the weaker nation, who cannot, +without incurring still worse, and more miserable consequences, oppose +aggression, otherwise than by invoking the faith of treaties, and the +national honour of Old England. + +In the second place, all ranks and bodies of men in North Britain (for +all are concerned, the poor as well as the rich) should express by +petition their sense of the injustice which is offered to the country, +and the distress which will probably be the necessary consequence. +Without the power of issuing their own notes the Banks cannot supply +the manufacturer with that credit which enables him to pay his +workmen, and wait his return; or accommodate the farmer with that +fund which makes it easy for him to discharge his rent, and give wages +to his labourers, while in the act of performing expensive operations +which are to treble or quadruple the produce of his farm. The trustees +on the high-roads and other public works, so ready to stake their +personal credit for carrying on public improvements, will no longer +possess the power of raising funds by doing so. The whole existing +state of credit is to be altered from top to bottom, and Ministers are +silent on any remedy which such a state of things would imperiously +require. + +These are subjects worth struggling for, and rather of more importance +than generally come before County Meetings. The English legislature +seems inclined to stultify our Law Authorities in their department; +but let us at least try if they will listen to the united voice of a +Nation in matters which so intimately concern its welfare, that almost +every man must have formed a judgment on the subject, from something +like personal experience. For my part, I cannot doubt the result. + +Times are undoubtedly different from those of Queen Anne, when, Dean +Swift having in a political pamphlet passed some sarcasms on the +Scottish nation, as a poor and fierce people, the Scythians of +Britain,--the Scottish peers, headed by the Duke of Argyll, went in +a body to the ministers, and compelled them to disown the sentiments +which had been expressed by their partisan, and offer a reward of +three hundred pounds for the author of the libel, well known to be the +best advocate and most intimate friend of the existing administration. +They demanded also that the printer and publisher should be prosecuted +before the House of Peers; and Harley, however unwillingly, was +obliged to yield to their demand. + +In the celebrated case of Porteous, the English legislature saw +themselves compelled to desist from vindictive measures, on account of +a gross offence committed in the metropolis of Scotland. In that of +the Roman Catholic bill they yielded to the voice of the Scottish +people, or rather of the Scottish mob, and declared the proposed +alteration of the law should not extend to North Britain. The cases +were different, in point of merit, though the Scots were successful in +both. In the one, a boon of clemency was extorted; in the other, +concession was an act of decided weakness. But ought the present +administration of Great Britain to show less deference to our +temperate and general remonstrance on a matter concerning ourselves +only, than their predecessors did to the passions, and even the +ill-founded and unjust prejudices, of our ancestors? + +Times, indeed, have changed since those days, and circumstances also. +We are no longer a poor, that is, so _very poor_ a country and +people; and as we have increased in wealth, we have become somewhat +poorer in spirit, and more loath to incur displeasure by contests upon +mere etiquette, or national prejudice. But we have some grounds to +plead for favour with England. We have borne our pecuniary impositions +during a long war, with a patience the more exemplary, as they lay +heavier on us from our comparative want of means--our blood has flowed +as freely as that of England or of Ireland--our lives and fortunes +have become unhesitatingly devoted to the defence of the empire--our +loyalty as warmly and willingly displayed towards the person of our +Sovereign. We have consented with submission, if not with +cheerfulness, to reductions and abolitions of public offices, required +for the good of the state at large, but which must affect materially +the condition, and even the respectability, of our overburthened +aristocracy. We have in every respect conducted ourselves as good and +faithful subjects of the general empire. + +We do not boast of these things as actual merits; but they are at +least duties discharged, and in an appeal to men of honour and of +judgment, must entitle us to be heard with patience, and even +deference, on the management of our own affairs, if we speak +unanimously, lay aside party feeling, and use the voice of one leaf of +the holy Trefoil,--one distinct and component part of the United +Kingdoms. + +Let no consideration deter us from pleading our own cause temperately +but firmly, and we shall certainly receive a favourable audience. Even +our acquisition of a little wealth, which might abate our courage on +other occasions, should invigorate us to unanimous perseverance at the +present crisis, when the very source of our national prosperity is +directly, though unwittingly, struck at. Our plaids are, I trust, not +yet sunk into Jewish gaberdines, to be wantonly spit upon; nor are we +yet bound to 'receive the insult with a patient shrug.' But exertion +is now demanded on other accounts than those of mere honourable +punctilio. Misers themselves will struggle in defence of their +property, though tolerant of all aggressions by which that is not +threatened. Avarice herself, however mean-spirited, will rouse to +defend the wealth she possesses, and preserve the means of gaining +more. Scotland is now called upon to rally in defence of the sources +of her national improvement, and the means of increasing it; upon +which, as none are so much concerned in the subject, none can be such +competent judges as Scotsmen themselves. + +I cannot believe so generous a people as the English, so wise an +administration as the present, will disregard our humble +remonstrances, merely because they are made in the form of peaceful +entreaty, and not _secundum perfervidum ingenium Scotorum_, with +'durk and pistol at our belt.' It would be a dangerous lesson to teach +the empire at large, that threats can extort what is not yielded to +reasonable and respectful remonstrance. + +But this is not all. The principle of 'uniformity of laws,' if not +manfully withstood, may have other blessings in store for us. Suppose, +that when finished with blistering Scotland when in perfect health, +England should find time and courage to withdraw the veil from the +deep cancer which is gnawing her own bowels, and make an attempt to +stop the fatal progress of her _poor-rates_. Some system or other must +be proposed in its place--a grinding one it must be, for it is not an +evil to be cured by palliatives. Suppose the English, for uniformity's +sake, insist that Scotland, which is at present free from this foul +and shameful disorder, should nevertheless be included in the severe +_treatment_ which the disease demands, how would the landholders of +Scotland like to undergo the scalpel and cautery, merely because +England requires to be scarified? + +Or again;--Supposing England should take a fancy to impart to us her +sanguinary criminal code, which, too cruel to be carried into effect, +gives every wretch that is condemned a chance of one to twelve that he +shall not be executed, and so turns the law into a lottery--would this +be an agreeable boon to North Britain? + +Once more;--What if the English ministers should feel disposed to +extend to us their equitable system of process respecting civil debt, +which divides the advantages so admirably betwixt debtor and +creditor--_That_ equal dispensation of justice, which provides that an +imprisoned debtor, if a rogue, may remain in undisturbed possession of +a great landed estate, and enjoy in a jail all the luxuries of +Sardanapalus, while the wretch to whom he owes money is starving; and +that, to balance the matter, a creditor, if cruel, may detain a debtor +in prison for a lifetime, and make, as the established phrase goes, +_dice of his bones_--would this admirable reciprocity of privilege, +indulged alternately to knave and tyrant, please Saunders better than +his own humane action of Cessio, and his equitable process of +Adjudication? + +I will not insist further on such topics, for I daresay that these +apparent enormities in principle are, in England where they have +operation, modified and corrected in practice by circumstances unknown +to me; so that, in passing judgment on them, I may myself fall into +the error I deprecate, of judging of foreign laws without being aware +of all the premisses. Neither do I mean that we should struggle with +illiberality against any improvements which can be borrowed from +English principle. I would only desire that such ameliorations were +adopted, not merely because they are English, but because they are +suited to be assimilated with the laws of Scotland, and lead, in +short, _to her evident utility_; and this on the principle, that in +transplanting a tree, little attention need be paid to the character +of the climate and soil from which it is brought, although the +greatest care must be taken that those of the situation to which it is +transplanted are fitted to receive it. It would be no reason for +planting mulberry-trees in Scotland, that they luxuriate in the south +of England. There is sense in the old proverb, 'Ilk land has its ain +lauch.' + +In the present case, it is impossible to believe the extension of +these restrictions to Scotland can be for the _evident utility_ of the +country, which has prospered so long and so uniformly under directly +the contrary system. + +It is very probable I may be deemed illiberal in all this reasoning; +but if to look for information to practical results, rather than to +theoretical principles, and to argue from the effect of the experience +of a century, rather than the deductions of a modern hypothesis, be +illiberal, I must sit down content with a censure, which will include +wiser men than I. The philosophical tailors of Laputa, who wrought by +mathematical calculation, had, no doubt, a supreme contempt for those +humble fashioners who went to work by measuring the person of their +customer; but Gulliver tells us, that the worst clothes he ever wore, +were constructed upon abstract principles; and truly, I think, we have +seen some laws, and may see more, not much better adapted to existing +circumstances, than the Captain's philosophical uniform to his actual +person. + +It is true, that every wise statesman keeps sound and general +political principles in his eye, as the pilot looks upon his compass +to discover his true course. But this true course cannot always be +followed out straight and diametrically; it must be altered from time +to time, nay sometimes apparently abandoned, on account of shoals, +breakers, and headlands, not to mention contrary winds. The same +obstacles occur to the course of the statesman. The point at which he +aims may be important, the principle on which he steers may be just; +yet the obstacles arising from rooted prejudices, from intemperate +passions, from ancient practices, from a different character of +people, from varieties in climate and soil, may cause a direct +movement upon his ultimate object to be attended with distress to +individuals, and loss to the community, which no good man would wish +to occasion, and with dangers which no wise man would voluntarily +choose to encounter. + +Although I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been rather +precipitate in the decided opinion which he is represented to have +expressed on this occasion, I am far from entertaining the slightest +disrespect for the right honourable gentleman. 'I hear as good +exclamation upon him as on any man in Messina, and though I am but a +poor man, I am glad to hear it.' But a decided attachment to abstract +principle, and to a spirit of generalising, is--like a rash rider on a +headstrong horse--very apt to run foul of local obstacles, which might +have been avoided by a more deliberate career, where the nature of the +ground had been previously considered. + +I make allowance for the temptation natural to an ingenious and active +mind. There is a natural pride in following out an universal and +levelling principle. It seems to augur genius, force of conception, +and steadiness of purpose; qualities which every legislator is +desirous of being thought to possess. On the other hand, the study of +local advantages and impediments demands labour and inquiry, and is +rewarded after all only with the cold and parsimonious praise due to +humble industry. It is no less true, however, that measures which go +straight and direct to a great general object, without noticing +intervening impediments, must often resemble the fierce progress of +the thunderbolt or the cannon-ball, those dreadful agents, which, in +rushing right to their point, care not what ruin they make by the way. +The sounder and more moderate policy, accommodating its measures to +exterior circumstances, rather resembles the judicious course of a +well-conducted highway, which, turning aside frequently from its +direct course, + + 'Winds round the corn-field and the hill of vines,' + +and becomes devious, that it may respect property and avoid obstacles; +thus escaping even temporary evils, and serving the public no less in +its more circuitous, than it would have done in its direct course. + +Can you tell me, sir, if this _uniformity_ of civil institutions, +which calls for such sacrifices, be at all descended from, or related +to, a doctrine nearly of the same nature, called Conformity in +religious doctrine, very fashionable about one hundred and fifty years +since, which undertook to unite the jarring creeds of the United +Kingdom to one common standard, and excited a universal strife by the +vain attempt, and a thousand fierce disputes, in which she + + '----umpire sate, + And by decision more embroiled the fray'? + +Should Uniformity have the same pedigree, Malachi Malagrowther +proclaims her 'a hawk of a very bad nest.' + +The universal opinion of a whole kingdom, founded upon a century's +experience, ought not to be lightly considered as founded in ignorance +and prejudice. I am something of an agriculturist; and in travelling +through the country I have often had occasion to wonder that the +inhabitants of particular districts had not adopted certain obvious +improvements in cultivation. But, upon inquiry, I have usually found +out that appearances had deceived me, and that I had not reckoned on +particular local circumstances, which either prevented the execution +of the system I should have theoretically recommended, or rendered +some other more advantageous in the particular circumstances. + +I do not therefore resist theoretical innovation in general; I only +humbly desire it may not outrun the suggestions arising from the +experience of ages. I would have the necessity felt and acknowledged +before old institutions are demolished--the _evident utility_ of every +alteration demonstrated before it is adopted upon mere speculation. I +submit our ancient system to the primary knife of the legislature, but +would not willingly see our reformers employ a weapon, which, like the +sword of Jack the Giant-Killer, _cuts before the point_. + +It is always to be considered, that in human affairs, the very best +imaginable result is seldom to be obtained, and that it is wise to +content ourselves with the best which can be got. This principle +speaks with a voice of thunder against violent innovation, for the +sake of possible improvement, where things are already well. We ought +not to desire better bread than is made of wheat. Our Scotch proverb +warns us to _Let weel bide_; and all the world has heard of the +untranslatable Italian epitaph upon the man, who died of taking physic +to make him better, when he was already in health.--I am, Mr. +Journalist, yours, + +MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT + + +Since writing these hasty thoughts, I hear it reported that we are to +have an extension of our precarious reprieve, and that our six months +are to be extended to six years. I would not have Scotland trust to +this hollow truce. The measure ought, like all others, to be canvassed +on its merits, and frankly admitted or rejected; it has been stirred +and ought to be decided. I request my countrymen not to be soothed +into inactivity by that temporising, and, I will say, unmanly +vacillation. Government is pledged to nothing by taking an open +course; for if the bill, so far as applicable to Scotland, is at +present absolutely laid aside, there can be no objection to their +resuming it at any period, when from change of circumstances, it may +be advantageous to Scotland, and when, for what I know, it may be +welcomed as a boon. + +But if held over our heads as a minatory measure, to take place within +a certain period, what can the event be but to cripple and ultimately +destroy the present system, on which a direct attack is found at +present inexpedient? Can the bankers continue to conduct their +profession on the same secure footing, with an abrogation of it in +prospect? Must it not cease to be what it has hitherto been--a +business carried on both for their own profit, and for the +accommodation of the country? Instead of employing their capital in +the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming +others? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from +that species of commerce? And may not the place of these be supplied +by men of daring adventure, without corresponding capital, who will +take a chance of wealth or ruin in the chances of the game? + +If it is the absolute and irrevocable determination that the bill is +to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the +better; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of +life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and +protracted suspense. + + + + +NOTES + +[Transcriber's note: I have added the pamphlet headings, since the +original page numbers are not helpful.] + + +I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. + +_The exclusion_--of James from the succession. + +_The rebellion_--Monmouth's. + +_The Quakers_.--A hit, of course, at Penn. + +_Piqueer_, 'do outpost duty,' 'raid.' + +_Lords of the Articles_.--A well-known body in the older Scottish +Constitution, through whom only legislation could be originated, and who +thus almost nullified the powers of Parliament. + +_Squeaziness_ = 'squeamishness,' 'queasiness.' + +_It is impossible_.--Another form of 'No bishop no king.' + +_The new converts_.--After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. + +_T.W._ is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for +'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William +Temple. + + +II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS. + +_Neither_, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the +famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in _Hamlet_. + + +III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. + +I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics +with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the +vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described as '_a mean ordinary man, +a hard-ware dealer_.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly +independent of them. + +_Written_--by Swift himself. + +_Bere_, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated +in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, +and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher +climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought +to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted. + +_Conolly_.--Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. + +_Pistole_--about ten shillings. + +_Brought to the bullion_ seems here to have the meaning of the +French _billonner_ or _envoyer au billon_, 'to melt for recoining.' + +_Our Cæsar's statue_.--The statue of George I. on Essex Bridge, +Dublin. + + +IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. + +_Contignation_.--This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite +obsolete word (from _tignum_, 'beam') means 'having a common or +continuous roof.' + +The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendéan and Chouan +movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully +explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of +the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and +though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little +positive evidence to support them. + +_But when the possibility ... that the_.--It will probably seem +to a modern reader that either 'that' or 'the' has crept in improperly. +It might be so; but Burke still maintained the authoritative but rather +inelegant tradition by which 'that,' like the French _que_, could +replace any such antecedent word as 'when,' 'because,' etc. + +_Louis the Sixteenth_.--To this is appended a note in the editions +beginning, 'It may be right to do justice to Louis XVI. He did what he +could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.' The subject has of +late years received considerable illustration in the Duke of Broglie's +_Le Secret du Roi_, and other works by the same author. + +_Montalembert_.--Marc René, Marquis de (1714-1800), a voluminous +military writer. + +_Harrington_--of the _Oceana_. + + +V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. + +_Dear Abraham_.--'Peter Plymley' addresses his _Letters_ to +'my brother Abraham, who lives in the country,' and is a +parson. + +_Baron Maseres_.--Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a descendant +of Huguenots, very well thought of by his contemporaries. Dr. Rennel I +know not, unless he was the Herodotus man. + +_C----_, Canning. + +_Dr. Duigenan_.--A delightful person who, in his hot youth, as a +junior Fellow of T.C., D., threatened to 'bulge the Provost's' [Provost +Hely Hutchinson's] 'eye,' and was afterwards a pillar of Protestantism. + +This _light and frivolous jester_ was _not_ the Rev. Sydney +Smith, but George Canning, Esq. + +_The pecuniary Rose_.--'Old George' Rose, Pitt's right hand. He +was rather heavily rewarded with places and pensions; but even Liberals +now admit that the country has hardly had an abler official. + +_Lord Hawkesbury_, Jenkinson, better known as Lord Liverpool. + +_Tickell_--the _Rolliad_ Tickell. + +_Joel_--Peter's nephew and Abraham's son. + + +VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW. + +_Paint in the most horrid colours_.--See, for instance, _The +Bloody Buoy_ and _The Cannibal's Progress_, by William Cobbett. + +_Flogging_.--Some of the militia mutinied at Ely, and were +punished, the guard on the occasion being furnished by the cavalry of +the German Legion. Cobbett noticed this in the most inflammatory +manner, and it being war time, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and +sentenced as he describes. + +_Monks and friars_.--A time came when Cobbett thought and wrote +very differently of these persons. But that was his way. + +_Foundal_.--I do not know whether Cobbett invented this equivalent +for _trouvaille_, 'windfall,' or not. His notable scheme for breaking +the Bank is a good example of him in his insaner moods. + + +VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. + +_The Duenna_--Sheridan's. + +_The Jury Court_.--Trial by jury in _civil_ cases was only introduced +into Scotland in 1815. + +_Evasive answer_--to the effect that each queen was the fairest +woman in her own country. + +_Doer_ = 'factor' or agent. + +_Them_--as if 'Scotsmen' had been written for 'Scotland.' + +_Chosen Five and Forty_--the original number of members +assigned to Scotland. + +_Political pamphlet_--'The Public Spirit of the Whigs.' + +_Durk, sic_ in original. + +_Cessio, sc. bonorum_, whereby a debtor on giving up his property +could be relieved of liabilities. + +_Adjudication_, whereby a creditor could attach landed as +well as personal property. + +_Lauch_ = 'laugh.' + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Political Pamphlets, by George Saintsbury + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13943 *** diff --git a/13943-h/13943-h.htm b/13943-h/13943-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4ac3cd --- /dev/null +++ b/13943-h/13943-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7476 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Political Pamphlets, by George Saintsbury. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + .table {text-align: center;} + .address {text-align: right;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13943 ***</div> + +<p>THE POCKET LIBRARY<br /> +OF<br /> +ENGLISH LITERATURE<br /> +<br /> +Edited by GEORGE SAINTSBURY</p> + +<p>A collection, in separate volumes, partly of extracts from +long books, partly of short pieces, by the same writer, on the +same subject, or of the same class.</p> + +<p>Vol I.—Tales of Mystery.<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.3em;'>II.—Political Verse.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>III.—Defoe's Minor Novels.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>IV.—Political Pamphlets.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.25em;'>V.—Seventeenth Century Lyrics.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>VI.—Elizabethan and Jacobean Pamphlets.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<h1>POLITICAL PAMPHLETS</h1> +<p> </p> + +<h4>Edited By</h4> +<h2>GEORGE SAINTSBURY</h2> +<p> </p> +<h5>LONDON<br /> +PERCIVAL AND CO.<br /> +1892</h5> + +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> + + +<div class='table'> +<table cellpadding='5' summary='Table of Contents'> + <tr> + <td><b>CONTENTS</b></td> + <td>Page</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. (By George Savile,<br /> +Marquess of Halifax)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> +</tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS.<br /> +(By Daniel Defoe)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. (By Jonathan Swift)<br /> +To the Tradesmen, Shop-Keepers, Farmers, and<br /> + Common-People in general, of the Kingdom<br /> + of Ireland; concerning the Brass half-pence<br /> + coined by Mr. Wood</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_47'>47</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer, upon<br /> + occasion of a Paragraph in his News-Paper of<br /> + August 1, 1724, relating to Mr. Wood's Half-pence</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. <br /> + (By the Right Honourable Edmund Burke)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. (By Sydney Smith</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td> +</tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS<br /> +OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND.<br /> +LETTER TO JACK HARROW.<br /> +(By William Cobbett)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_182'>182</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER.<br /> +(By Sir Walter Scott)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_249'>249</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> + +<p>It is sometimes thought, and very often said, that political writing, +after its special day is done, becomes more dead than any other kind +of literature, or even journalism. I do not know whether my own +judgment is perverted by the fact of a special devotion to the +business, but it certainly seems to me that both the thought and the +saying are mistakes. Indeed, a rough-and-ready refutation of them is +supplied by the fact that, in no few cases, political pieces have +entered into the generally admitted stock of the best literary things. +If they are little read, can we honestly say that other things in the +same rank are read much more? And is there not the further plea, by no +means contradictory, nor even merely alternative, that the best +examples of them are, as a rule, merged in huge collected 'Works,' or, +in the case of authors who have not attained to that dignity, simply +inaccessible to the general? At any rate my publishers have consented +to let me try the experiment of gathering certain famous things of the +sort in this volume, and the public must decide.</p> + +<p>I do not begin very early, partly because examples of the Elizabethan +political pamphlet, or what supplied its place, will be given in +another volume of the series exclusively devoted to the pamphlet +literature of the reigns of Eliza and our James, partly for a still +better reason presently to be explained. On the other hand, though +another special volume is devoted to Defoe, the immortal <i>Shortest Way +with the Dissenters</i> is separated from the rest of his work, and given +here. Most of the contents, however, represent authors not otherwise +represented in the series, and though very well known indeed by name, +less read than quoted. The suitableness of the political pamphlet, +both by size and self-containedness, for such a volume as this, needs +no justification except that which it, like everything else, must +receive, by being put to the proof of reading.</p> + +<p>There is no difficulty in showing, with at least sufficient critical +exactness, why it is not possible or not desirable to select examples +from very early periods even of strictly modern history. The causes +are in part the same as those which delayed the production of really +capital political verse (which has been treated in another volume), +but they are not wholly the same. The Martin Marprelate pamphlets are +strictly political; so are many things earlier, later, and +contemporary with them, by hands known and unknown, great and small, +skilled and unskilled; so are some even in the work of so great a man +as Bacon. But very many things were wanting to secure the conditions +necessary to the perfect pamphlet. There was not the political +freedom; there was not the public; there was not the immediate object; +there was not, last and most of all, the style. Political utterances +under a more or less despotic, or, as the modern euphemism goes, +'personal' government, were almost necessarily those of a retained +advocate, who expected his immediate reward, on the one hand; or of a +rebel, who stood to make his account with office if he succeeded, or +with savage punishment if he failed, on the other. A distant prospect +of impeachment, of the loss of ears, hands, or life if the tide turns, +is a stimulant to violence rather than to vigour. I do not think, +however, that this is the most important factor in the problem. +Parliamentary government, with a limited franchise of tolerably +intelligent voters, a party system, and newspapers comparatively +undeveloped, may not suit an ideally perfect <i>politeia</i>, but it is +the very hotbed in which to nourish the pamphlet. There is also a +style, as there is a time, for all things; and no style could be so +well suited for the pamphlet as the balanced, measured, pointed, and +polished style which Dryden and Tillotson and Temple brought in during +the third quarter of the seventeenth century, and which did not go out +of fashion till the second quarter of the nineteenth. We have indeed +seen pamphlets proper exercising considerable influence in quite +recent times; but in no instance that I can remember has this been due +to any literary merits, and I doubt whether even the bare fact will be +soon or often renewed in our days. The written word—the written word +of condensed, strengthened, spirited literature—has lost much, if not +all, of its force with an enormously increased electorate, and a +bewildering multiplicity of print and speech of all kinds.</p> + +<p>Whatever justice these reasonings may have or may lack, the facts +speak for themselves, as facts intelligently regarded have a habit of +doing. The first pamphlets proper of great literary merit and great +political influence are those of Halifax in the first movement of real +party struggle during the reign of Charles the Second; the last which +unite the same requisites are those of Scott on the eve of the first +Reform Bill. The leaflet and circular war of the anti-Corn Law League +must be ruled out as much as Mr. Gladstone's <i>Bulgarian Horrors</i>.</p> + +<p>This leaves us a period of almost exactly a hundred and fifty years, +during which the kind, whether in good or bad examples, was of +constant influence; while its best instances enriched literature with +permanent masterpieces in little. I do not think that any moderately +instructed person will find much difficulty in comprehending the +specimens here given. I am sure that no moderately intelligent one +will fail, with a very little trouble, to take delight in them. I do +not know whether an artful generaliser could get anything out of the +circumstances in which the best of them grew; I should say myself that +nothing more than the system of government, the conditions of the +electorate and the legislature, and the existence from time to time of +a superheated state in political feeling, can or need be collected. In +some respects, to my own taste, the first of these examples is also +the best. To Halifax full justice has never been done, for we have had +no capable historian of the late seventeenth century but Macaulay, and +Halifax's defect of fervour as a Jacobite was more than made up to +Macaulay by his defect of fervour as a Williamite. As for the moderns, +I have myself more than once failed to induce editors of 'series' to +give Halifax a place. Yet Macaulay himself has been fairer to the +great Trimmer than to most persons with whom he was not in full +sympathy. The weakness of Halifax's position is indeed obvious. When +you run first to one side of the boat and then to the other, you have +ten chances of sinking to one of trimming her. To hold fast to one +party only, and to keep that from extremes, is the only secret, and it +is no great disgrace to Halifax, that in the very infancy of the party +and parliamentary system, he did not perceive it. But this hardly +interferes at all with the excellence of his pamphlets. The polished +style, the admirable sense, the subdued and yet ever present wit, the +avoidance of excessive cleverness (the one thing that the average +Briton will not stand), the constant eye on the object, are +unmistakable. They are nearly as forcible as Dryden's political and +controversial prefaces, which are pamphlets themselves in their way, +and they excel them in knowledge of affairs, in urbanity, in +adaptation to the special purpose. In all these points they resemble +more than anything else the pamphlets of Paul Louis Courier, and +there can be no higher praise than this.</p> + +<p>No age in English history was more fertile in pamphlets than the +reigns of William and of Anne. Some men of real distinction +occasionally contributed to them, and others (such as Ferguson and +Maynwaring) obtained such literary notoriety as they possess by their +means. The total volume of the kind produced during the quarter of a +century between the Revolution and the accession of George the First +would probably fill a considerable library. But the examples which +really deserve exhumation are very few, and I doubt whether any can +pretend to vie with the masterpieces of Defoe and Swift. Both these +great writers were accomplished practitioners in the art, and the +characteristics of both lent themselves with peculiar yet strangely +different readiness to the work. They addressed, indeed, different +sections of what was even then the electorate. Defoe's unpolished +realism and his exact adaptation of tone, thought, taste, and fancy to +the measure of the common Englishman were what chiefly gave him a +hearing. Swift aimed and flew higher, but also did not miss the lower +mark. No one has ever doubted that Johnson's depreciation of <i>The +Conduct of the Allies</i> was half special perversity (for he was always +unjust to Swift), half mere humorous paradox. For there was much more +of this in the doctor's utterances than his admirers, either in his +own day or since, have always recognised, or have sometimes been +qualified by Providence to recognise. As for the <i>Drapier's Letters</i> I +can never myself admire them enough, and they seem to me to have been +on the whole under-rather than over-valued by posterity.</p> + +<p>The 'Great Walpolian Battle' and the attacks on Bute and other +favourite ministers were very fertile in the pamphlet, but already +there were certain signs of alteration in its character. Pulteney and +Walpole's other adversaries had already glimmerings of the newspaper +proper, that is to say, of the continual dropping fire rather than the +single heavy broadside; to adopt a better metaphor still, of a +regimental and professional soldiery rather than of single volunteer +champions. The <i>Letters of Junius</i>, which for some time past have been +gradually dropping from their former somewhat undue pride of place +(gained and kept as much by the factitious mystery of their origin as +by anything else) to a station more justly warranted, are no doubt +themselves pamphlets of a kind; but they are separated from pamphlets +proper not less by their contents than by their form and continuity. +The real difference is this, that the pamphlet, though often if not +always personal enough, should always and generally does affect at +least to discuss a general question of principle or policy, whereas +Junius is always personal first, and very generally last also. On the +other hand, Burke, whether his productions be called Speeches or +Letters, Thoughts or Reflections, is always a pamphleteer in heart and +soul, in form and matter. If the resemblance of his pamphlets to +speeches gives the force and fire, it is certain that the resemblance +of his speeches to pamphlets accounts for that 'dinner-bell' effect of +his which has puzzled some people and shocked others. Burke always +argued the point, if he only argued one side of it, and it is the +special as it is the saving grace of the pamphlet that it must, or at +least should, be an argument, and not merely an invective or an +innuendo, a sermon or a lampoon.</p> + +<p>Sydney Smith belonged both to the old school and the new. He was both +pamphleteer and journalist; but he kept the form and even to some +extent the style of his pamphlets and his articles well apart. I may +seem likely to have some difficulty in admitting the claim of Cobbett +after disallowing that of Junius under the definition just given, but +I have no very great fear of being unable to making it good. Much as +Cobbett disliked persons, and crotchety as he was in his dislikes, +they were always dislikes of principle in the bottom. The singular +Tory-Radicalism which Cobbett exhibited, and which has made some rank +him unduly low, was no doubt partly due to accidents of birth and +education, and to narrowness of intellectual form. But +boroughmongering after all was a Whig rather than a Tory institution, +and Cobbett's hatred of it, as well as that desire for the maintenance +of a kind of manufacturing yeomanry (not wholly different from the +later ideal of Mr. William Morris,) which was his other guiding +principle throughout, was by no means alien from pure Toryism. His +work in relation to Reform, moreover, is unmistakable—as unmistakable +as is that of Sydney Smith, who precedes him here, with regard to +Catholic Emancipation. I should have voted and written against both +these things had I lived then; but this does not make me enjoy Cobbett +or Sydney any the less.</p> + +<p>As for the latest example I have selected, it is a crucial one. The +<i>Letters of Malachi Malagrowther</i> come from a man who is not often +rated high as a political thinker, even by those who sympathise with +his political views. But here as elsewhere the politician, no less +than the poet, the critic, the historian, bears the penalty of the +pre-eminent greatness of the novelist. Nothing is more uncritical than +to regard Scott as a mere sentimentalist in politics, and I cannot +think that any competent judge can do so after reading <i>Malagrowther</i>, +even after reading Scott's own Diary and letters on the subject. As he +there explains, he was not greatly carried, as a rule, to interest +himself in the details of politics. As both Lockhart and he admit, he +might not have been so interested even at this juncture had it not +been for the chagrin at his own misfortunes, which, nobly and +stoically repressed as it was, required some issue. But his general +principle on this occasion was clear; it can be thoroughly apprehended +and appreciated even by an Englishman of Englishmen. It was thoroughly +justified by the event, and, I may perhaps be permitted to observe, +ran exactly contrary to a sentiment rather widely adopted of late. No +man, whether in public writings or private conduct, could be more set +than Scott was against a spurious Scotch particularism. He even earned +from silly Scots maledictions for the chivalrous justice he dealt to +England in <i>The Lord of the Isles</i>, and the common-sense justice he +dealt to her in the mouth of Bailie Jarvie. But he was not more +staunch for the political Union than he was for the preservation of +minor institutions, manners, and character; and the proposed +interference with Scotch banking seemed to him to be one of the things +tending to make good Scotchmen, as he bluntly told Croker, 'damned +mischievous Englishmen.' Therefore he arose and spoke, and though he +averted the immediate attempt, yet the prophecies which he uttered +were amply fulfilled in other ways after the Reform Bill.</p> + +<p>These, then, are the principles on which I have selected the pieces +that follow (some minor reasons for the particular choices being given +in the special introductions):—That they should be pamphlets proper +(<i>Malachi</i> appeared first in a newspaper, but that was a sign of the +time chiefly, and the numbers of Cobbett's <i>Register</i> were practically +independent pieces); that they should deal with special subjects of +burning political, and not merely personal, interest; and that they +should either directly or in the long-run have exercised an actual +determining influence on the course of politics and history. This last +point is undoubted in the case of the examples from Halifax, Swift, +Burke (who more than any one man pointed and steeled the resistance +of England to Jacobin tyranny), and Scott; it was less immediate, but +scarcely more dubious in those of Defoe, Cobbett, and Sydney Smith. +And so in all humility I make my bow as introducer once more to the +English public of these Seven Masters of English political writing.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_1'></a>I.—'LETTER TO A DISSENTER'</h3> +<h4>BY GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUESS OF HALIFAX</h4> + +<p>(<i>There is no doubt that Halifax's work deserves to rank first in a +collection of political pamphlets. He signed none; it was indeed +almost impossible for a prominent person in the State then safely or +decently to do so, and different attributions were made at the time of +some of them, as of the</i> Character of a Trimmer <i>to Coventry, and of +this</i> Letter <i>(this 'masterly little tract,' as Macaulay justly calls +it) to Temple. But shortly after his death all were published as his +unchallenged, and there never has been any doubt of their authorship +in the minds of good judges. Four of them are so good that extrinsic +reasons have to be brought in for preferring one to the other. The</i> +Character of a Trimmer <i>is rather too long for my scheme; the</i> Anatomy +of an Equivalent <i>is too technical, and requires too much illustration +and exegesis; the</i> Cautions for Choice of Members of Parliament, +<i>though practically valuable to<a name='Page_2'></a> the present day, is a little too +general. The</i> Letter to a Dissenter <i>escapes all these objections. It +is brief, it is thoroughly to the point, it is comprehensible almost +without note or comment to any one who remembers the broad fact that +by his Declaration of Indulgence James the Second attempted to detach, +and almost succeeded in detaching, the Dissenters from their common +cause with the Church in opposing his enfranchisement of the Roman +Catholics, and his preferment of them to great offices. As for its +author, his most eminent acts are written in the pages of the +universally read historian above quoted. But he was in reality more of +a Tory than it suited Macaulay to represent him, though he gloried in +the name of Trimmer, and certainly showed what is called in modern +political slang a 'crossbench mind' not only during the madness of the +Popish plot, during the greater madness of James's assaults on the +Church, the Constitution, and private rights, but also (after the +Revolution) towards William of Orange. Born about 1630 he died in +April 1695, leaving the fame, unjustified by any samples in those +unreported days, of the greatest orator of his time, a reputation as a +wit which was partly inherited by his grandson, Chesterfield, and the +small volume of</i> Miscellanies, <i>on which we here draw. The pamphlet +itself appeared in April 1687</i>.)</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_3'></a>A LETTER TO A DISSENTER, UPON OCCASION OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE GRACIOUS +DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE</h3> + +<p>Sir—Since addresses are in fashion, give me leave to make one to you. +This is neither the effect of fear, interest, or resentment; therefore +you may be sure it is sincere: and for that reason it may expect to be +kindly received. Whether it will have power enough to convince, +dependeth upon the reasons of which you are to judge; and upon your +preparation of mind, to be persuaded by truth, whenever it appeareth +to you. It ought not to be the less welcome for coming from a friendly +hand, one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of +opinion, and who will not let his thoughts for the public be so tied +or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants as to stifle +the charity, which besides all other arguments, is at this time become +necessary to preserve us.</p> + +<p>I am neither surprised nor provoked, to see that in the condition you +were put into by the laws, and the ill circumstances you lay under, by +having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your charge, you were +desirous to make yourselves less uneasy and obnoxious to authority. +Men who are sore, run to the nearest remedy with too much haste to +consider all the consequences: grains of allowance are to be<a name='Page_4'></a> given, +where nature giveth such strong influences. When to men under +sufferings it offereth ease, the present pain will hardly allow time +to examine the remedies; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a +fair audience from our mind, whilst so possessed, till the smart is a +little allayed.</p> + +<p>I do not know whether the warmth that naturally belongeth to new +friendships, may not make it a harder task for me to persuade you. It +is like telling lovers, in the beginning of their joys, that they will +in a little time have an end. Such an unwelcome style doth not easily +find credit. But I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new +passion, but that you will hear still; and therefore I am also under +the less discouragement, when I offer to your consideration two +things. The <i>first</i> is, the cause you have to suspect your new +friends. The <i>second</i>, the duty incumbent upon you, in Christianity +and prudence, not to hazard the public safety, neither by desire of +ease nor of revenge.</p> + +<p>To the <i>first</i>. Consider that notwithstanding the smooth language +which is now put on to engage you, these new friends did not make you +their choice, but their refuge. They have ever made their first +courtships to the Church of England, and when they were rejected +there, they made their application to you in the second place. The +instances of this might be given in all times. I do not repeat them, +because<a name='Page_5'></a> whatsoever is unnecessary must be tedious; the truth of this +assertion being so plain as not to admit a dispute. You cannot +therefore reasonably flatter yourselves that there is any inclination +to you. They never pretended to allow you any quarter, but to usher in +liberty for themselves under that shelter. I refer you to Mr. +Coleman's Letters, and to the Journals of Parliament, where you may be +convinced, if you can be so mistaken as to doubt; nay, at this very +hour they can hardly forbear, in the height of their courtship, to let +fall hard words of you. So little is nature to be restrained; it will +start out sometimes, disdaining to submit to the usurpation of art and +interest.</p> + +<p>This alliance, between liberty and infallibility, is bringing together +the two most contrary things that are in the world. The Church of Rome +doth not only dislike the allowing liberty, but by its principles it +cannot do it. Wine is not more expressly forbid to the Mahometans, +than giving heretics liberty to the Papists. They are no more able to +make good their vows to you, than men married before, and their wife +alive, can confirm their contract with another. The continuance of +their kindness would be a habit of sin, of which they are to repent; +and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms than their +promise to destroy you. You are therefore to be hugged now, only that +you may be the better<a name='Page_6'></a> squeezed at another time. There must be +something extraordinary when the Church of Rome setteth up bills, and +offereth plaisters, for tender consciences. By all that hath hitherto +appeared, her skill in chirurgery lieth chiefly in a quick hand to cut +off limbs; but she is the worst at healing of any that ever pretended +to it.</p> + +<p>To come so quick from another extreme is such an unnatural motion that +you ought to be upon your guard. The other day you were Sons of +Belial; now you are Angels of Light. This is a violent change, and it +will be fit for you to pause upon it before you believe it. If your +features are not altered, neither is their opinion of you, whatever +may be pretended. Do you believe less than you did that there is +idolatry in the Church of Rome? Sure you do not. See, then, how they +treat, both in words and writing, those who entertain that opinion. +Conclude from hence, how inconsistent their favour is with this single +article, except they give you a dispensation for this too, and not by +a <i>non obstante</i>, secure you that they will not think the worse of +you.</p> + +<p>Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of +paradoxes. Popery now is the only friend to liberty, and the known +enemy to persecution. The men of Taunton and Tiverton are above all +other eminent for Loyalty. The Quakers, from being declared by the +Papists not to be Christians,<a name='Page_7'></a> are now made favourites, and taken into +their particular protection; they are on a sudden grown the most +accomplished men of the kingdom in good breeding, and give thanks with +the best grace in double-refined language. So that I should not +wonder, though a man of that persuasion, in spite of his hat, should +be Master of the Ceremonies. Not to say harsher words, these are such +very new things, that it is impossible not to suspend our belief, till +by a little more experience, we may be informed whether they are +realities or apparitions. We have been under shameful mistakes, if +these opinions are true; but for the present we are apt to be +incredulous, except that we could be convinced that the priest's words +in this case too are able to make such a sudden and effectual change; +and that their power is not limited to the Sacrament, but that it +extendeth to alter the nature of all other things, as often as they +are so disposed.</p> + +<p>Let me now speak of the instruments of your friendship, and then leave +you to judge whether they do not afford matter of suspicion. No +sharpness is to be mingled, where healing only is intended; so nothing +will be said to expose particular men, how strong soever the +temptation may be, or how clear the proofs to make it out. A word or +two in general, for your better caution, shall suffice. Suppose then, +for argument's sake, that the mediators of this new<a name='Page_8'></a> alliance should +be such as have been formerly employed in treaties of the same kind, +and there detected to have acted by order, and to have been empowered +to give encouragements and rewards. Would not this be an argument to +suspect them?</p> + +<p>If they should plainly be under engagements to one side, their +arguments to the other ought to be received accordingly. Their fair +pretences are to be looked upon as a part of their commission, which +may not improbably give them a dispensation in the case of truth, when +it may bring a prejudice upon the service of those by whom they are +employed.</p> + +<p>If there should be men, who having formerly had means and authority to +persuade by secular arguments, have, in pursuance of that power, +sprinkled money among the Dissenting ministers; and if those very men +should now have the same authority, practise the same methods, and +disburse where they cannot otherwise persuade; it seemeth to me to be +rather an evidence than a presumption of the deceit.</p> + +<p>If there should be ministers amongst you, who by having fallen under +temptations of this kind, are in some sort engaged to continue their +frailty, by the awe they are in lest it should be exposed; the +persuasions of these unfortunate men must sure have the less force, +and their arguments, though never so specious, are to be suspected, +when they come from men who have mortgaged themselves to severe<a name='Page_9'></a> +creditors, that expect a rigorous observance of the contract, let it +be never so unwarrantable. If these, or any others, should at this +time preach up anger and vengeance against the Church of England; may +it not without injustice be suspected that a thing so plainly out of +season springeth rather from corruption than mistake; and that those +who act this choleric part, do not believe themselves, but only pursue +higher directions, and endeavour to make good that part of their +contract, which obligeth them, upon a forfeiture, to make use of their +enflaming eloquence? They might apprehend their wages would be +retrenched if they should be moderate: and therefore, whilst violence +is their interest, those who have not the same arguments have no +reason to follow such a partial example.</p> + +<p>If there should be men, who by the load of their crimes against the +Government, have been bowed down to comply with it against their +conscience; who by incurring the want of a pardon, have drawn upon +themselves a necessity of an entire resignation, such men are to be +lamented, but not to be believed. Nay, they themselves, when they have +discharged their unwelcome talk, will be inwardly glad that their +forced endeavours do not succeed, and are pleased when men resist +their insinuations; which are far from being voluntary or sincere, but +are squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so obnoxious.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_10'></a>If, in the height of this great dearness, by comparing things, it +should happen that at this instant there is much a surer friendship +with those who are so far from allowing liberty that they allow no +living to a Protestant under them—let the scene lie in what part of +the world it will, the argument will come home, and sure it will +afford sufficient ground to suspect. Apparent contradictions must +strike us; neither nature nor reason can digest them. Self-flattery, +and the desire to deceive ourselves, to gratify present appetite, with +all their power, which is great, cannot get the better of such broad +conviction, as some things carry along with them. Will you call these +vain and empty suspicions? Have you been at all times so void of fears +and jealousies, as to justify your being so unreasonably valiant in +having none upon this occasion? Such an extraordinary courage at this +unseasonable time, to say no more, is too dangerous a virtue to be +commended.</p> + +<p>If then, for these and a thousand other reasons, there is cause to +suspect, sure your new friends are not to dictate to you, or advise +you. For instance: the Addresses that fly abroad every week, and +murder us with <i>another to the same</i>; the first draughts are made by +those who are not very proper to be secretaries to the Protestant +Religion: and it is your part only to write them out fairer again.</p> + +<p>Strange! that you, who have been formerly so<a name='Page_11'></a> much against <i>set +forms</i>, should now be content the priests should indite for you. The +nature of thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being pleased or +obliged; they grow in the heart, and from thence show themselves +either in looks, speech, writing, or action. No man was ever thankful +because he was bid to be so, but because he had, or thought he had +some reason for it. If then there is cause in this case to pay such +extravagant acknowledgments, they will flow naturally, without taking +such pains to procure them; and it is unkindly done to tire all the +Post-horses with carrying circular letters, to solicit that which +would be done without any trouble or constraint. If it is really in +itself such a favour, what needeth so much pressing men to be +thankful, and with such eager circumstances, that where persuasions +cannot delude, threatenings are employed to fright them into a +compliance? Thanks must be voluntary, not only unconstrained but +unsolicited, else they are either trifles or snares, that either +signify nothing or a great deal more than is intended by those that +give them. If an inference should be made, that whosoever thanketh the +King for his Declaration, is by that engaged to justify it in point of +law; it is a greater stride than I presume all those care to make who +are persuaded to address. It shall be supposed that all the thankers +will be repealers of the Test, whenever a Parliament shall meet; such +an expectation is better<a name='Page_12'></a> prevented before than disappointed +afterwards; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal +is not to do anything that may give a colour to the mistake. These +bespoken thanks are little less improper than love-letters that were +solicited by the lady to whom they are to be directed: so that, +besides the little ground there is to give them, the manner of getting +them doth extremely lessen their value. It might be wished that you +would have suppressed your impatience, and have been content, for the +sake of religion, to enjoy it within yourselves, without the liberty +of a public exercise, till a Parliament had allowed it; but since that +could not be, and that the articles of some amongst you have made use +of the well-meant zeal of the generality to draw them into this +mistake, I am so far from blaming you with that sharpness, which +perhaps the matter in strictness would bear, that I am ready to err on +the side of the more gentle construction.</p> + +<p>There is a great difference between enjoying quietly the advantages of +an act irregularly done by others, and the going about to support it +against the laws in being. The law is so sacred that no trespass +against it is to be defended; yet frailties may in some measure be +excused when they cannot be justified. The desire of enjoying liberty, +from which men have been so long restrained, may be a temptation that +their reason is not at all times able to resist. If in such a<a name='Page_13'></a> case +some objections are leapt over, indifferent men will be more inclined +to lament the occasion than to fall too hard upon the fault, whilst it +is covered with the apology of a good intention. But where, to rescue +yourselves from the severity of one law, you give a blow to all the +laws, by which your religion and liberty are to be protected; and +instead of silently receiving the benefit of this indulgence, you set +up for advocates to support it, you become voluntary aggressors, and +look like counsel retained by the prerogative against your old friend +Magna Charta, who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under +your displeasure.</p> + +<p>If the case then should be, that the price expected from you for this +liberty is giving up your right in the laws, sure you will think twice +before you go any further in such a losing bargain. After giving +thanks for the breach of one law, you lose the right of complaining of +the breach of all the rest; you will not very well know how to defend +yourselves when you are pressed; and having given up the question when +it was for your advantage, you cannot recall it when it shall be to +your prejudice. If you will set up at one time a power to help you, +which at another time, by parity of reason, shall be made use of to +destroy you, you will neither be pitied nor relieved against a +mischief which you draw upon yourselves by being so unreasonably +thankful. It is like calling in<a name='Page_14'></a> auxiliaries to help, who are strong +enough to subdue you. In such a case your complaints will come too +late to be heard, and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of +compassion.</p> + +<p>If you think, for your excuse, to expound your thanks, so as to +restrain them to this particular case; others, for their ends, will +extend them further: and in these differing interpretations, that +which is backed by authority will be the most likely to prevail; +especially when, by the advantage you have given them, they have in +truth the better of the argument, and that the inferences from your +own concessions are very strong and express against you. This is so +far from being a groundless supposition, that there was a late +instance of it in the last session of Parliament, in the House of +Lords, where the first thanks, though things of course, were +interpreted to be the approbation of the King's whole speech, and a +restraint from the further examination of any part of it, though never +so much disliked; and it was with difficulty obtained, not to be +excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty prerogative of +dispensing, merely by this innocent and usual piece of good manners, +by which no such thing could possibly be intended.</p> + +<p>This showeth that some bounds are to be put to your good breeding, and +that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be +ventured upon a compliment. Now that you have for some time<a name='Page_15'></a> enjoyed +the benefit of the end, it is time for you to look into the danger of +the means. The same reason that made you desirous to get liberty must +make you solicitous to preserve it, so that the next thought will +naturally be, not to engage yourself beyond retreat; and to agree so +far with the principles of all religion, as not to rely upon a +death-bed repentance.</p> + +<p>There are certain periods of time, which being once past, make all +cautions ineffectual, and all remedies desperate. Our understandings +are apt to be hurried on by the first heats, which, if not restrained +in time, do not give us leave to look back till it is too late. +Consider this in the case of your anger against the Church of England, +and take warning by their mistake in the same kind, when after the +late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of +your rough usage to them in other times, that it made them forget +their interest and sacrifice it to their revenge.</p> + +<p>Either you will blame this proceeding in them, and for that reason not +follow it; or, if you allow it, you have no reason to be offended with +them; so that you must either dismiss your anger or lose your excuse; +except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of +your morality and understanding.</p> + +<p>If you had now to do with those rigid prelates who made it a matter of +conscience to give you the<a name='Page_16'></a> least indulgence, but kept you at an +uncharitable distance, and even to your most reasonable scruples +continued stiff and inexorable, the argument might be fairer on your +side; but since the common danger has so laid open that mistake, that +all the former haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished, and +that it hath turned the spirit of persecution into a spirit of peace, +charity, and condescension; shall this happy change only affect the +Church of England? And are you so in love with separation as not to be +moved by this example? It ought to be followed, were there no other +reason than that it is virtue; but when, besides that, it is become +necessary to your preservation, it is impossible to fail the having +its effect upon you.</p> + +<p>If it should be said that the Church of England is never humble but +when she is out of power, and therefore loseth the right of being +believed when she pretendeth to it: the answer is, <i>first</i>, It would +be an uncharitable objection, and very much mistimed; an unseasonable +triumph, not only ungenerous but unsafe: so that in these respects it +cannot be urged without scandal, even though it could be said with +truth. <i>Secondly</i>, This is not so in fact, and the argument must fall, +being built upon a false foundation; for whatever may be told you at +this very hour, and in the heat and glare of your perfect sunshine, +the Church of England can in a moment bring clouds<a name='Page_17'></a> again, and turn +the royal thunder upon your heads, blow you off the stage with a +breath, if she would give but a smile or a kind word; the least +glimpse of her compliance would throw you back into the state of +suffering, and draw upon you all the arrears of severity which have +accrued during the time of this kindness to you; and yet the Church of +England, with all her faults, will not allow herself to be rescued by +such unjustifiable means, but chooseth to bear the weight of power +rather than lie under the burden of being criminal.</p> + +<p>It cannot be said that she is unprovoked: books and letters come out +every day to call for answers, yet she will not be stirred. From the +supposed authors and the style, one would swear they were undertakers, +and had made a contract to fall out with the Church of England. There +are lashes in every address, challenges to draw the pen in every +pamphlet. In short, the fairest occasions in the world given to +quarrel; but she wisely distinguisheth between the body of Dissenters, +whom she will suppose to act, as they do, with no ill intent, and +these small skirmishers, picked and sent out to piqueer, and to begin +a fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the +advantage of the Church of Rome.</p> + +<p>This conduct is so good, that it will be scandalous not to applaud it. +It is not equal dealing to blame<a name='Page_18'></a> our adversaries for doing ill, and +not commend them when they do well.</p> + +<p>To hate them because they are persecuted, and not to be reconciled to +them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the +advantages that can be gained by a criminal compliance, is a principle +no sort of Christians can own, since it would give an objection to +them never to be answered.</p> + +<p>Think a little who they were that promoted your former persecutions, +and then consider how it will look to be angry with the instruments, +and at the same time to make a league with the authors of your +sufferings.</p> + +<p>Have you enough considered what will be expected from you? Are you +ready to stand in every borough by virtue of a <i>congé d'élire</i>, and +instead of election be satisfied if you are returned?</p> + +<p>Will you, in parliament, justify the dispensing power, with all its +consequences, and repeal the test, by which you will make way for the +repeal of all the laws that were made to preserve your religion, and +to enact others that shall destroy it?</p> + +<p>Are you disposed to change the liberty of debate into the merit of +obedience; and to be made instruments to repeal or enact laws, when +the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles?</p> + +<p>Are you so linked to your new friends as to reject any indulgence a +parliament shall offer you, if it shall<a name='Page_19'></a> not be so comprehensive as to +include the Papists in it?</p> + +<p>Consider that the implied conditions of your new treaty are no less +than that you are to do everything you are desired, without examining; +and that for this pretended liberty of conscience, your real freedom +is to be sacrificed; your former faults hang like chains still about +you, you are let loose only upon bail; the first act of non-compliance +sendeth you to gaol again.</p> + +<p>You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the legality +of this power which you are to justify, since the being so very +earnest to get it established by a law, and the doing such very hard +things in order, as they think, to obtain it, is a clear evidence that +they do not think that the single power of the Crown is in this case a +good foundation; especially when this is done under a prince so very +tender of the rights of sovereignty that he would think it a +diminution to his prerogative, where he conceiveth it strong enough to +go alone, to call in the legislative help to strengthen and support +it.</p> + +<p>You have formerly blamed the Church of England, and not without +reason, for going so far as they did in their compliance; and yet so +soon as they stopped, you see they are not only deserted, but +prosecuted. Conclude, then, from this example, that you must either +break off your friendship or resolve to have no<a name='Page_20'></a> bounds in it. If they +do succeed in their design, they will leave you first: if they do, you +must either leave them, when it will be too late for your safety, or +else, after the squeaziness of starting at a surplice, you must be +forced to swallow Transubstantiation.</p> + +<p>Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were +Trimmers for enduring you; and now, by a sudden turn, you are become +the favourites. Do not deceive yourselves; it is not the nature of +lasting plants thus to shoot up in a night; you may look gay and green +for a little time, but you want a root to give you a continuance. It +is not so long since, as to be forgotten, that the maxim was, It is +impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBEL. Consider at this time in +France, even the new converts are so far from being employed that they +are disarmed; their sudden change maketh them still to be distrusted, +notwithstanding that they are reconciled; what are you to expect then +from your dear friends, to whom, whenever they shall think fit to +throw you off again, you have in other times given such arguments for +their excuse?</p> + +<p>Besides all this you act very unskilfully against your visible +interest, if you throw away the advantages of which you can hardly +fail in the next probable Revolution. Things tend naturally to what +you would have, if you would let them alone, and not by an +unseasonable activity lose the influences of your<a name='Page_21'></a> good star, which +promiseth you everything that is prosperous.</p> + +<p>The Church of England, convinced of its error in being severe to you; +the Parliament, whenever it meeteth sure to be gentle to you; the next +heir, bred in the country which you have so often quoted for a pattern +of indulgence; a general agreement of all thinking men, that we must +no more cut ourselves off from the Protestants abroad, but rather +enlarge the foundations upon which we are to build our defences +against the common enemy; so that in truth, all things seem to +conspire to give you ease and satisfaction, if by too much haste to +anticipate your good fortune you do not destroy it.</p> + +<p>The Protestants have but one article of human strength to oppose the +power which is now against them, and that is not to lose the advantage +of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided.</p> + +<p>We all agree in our duty to our prince; our objections to his belief +do not hinder us from seeing his virtues; and our not complying with +his religion hath no effect upon our allegiance. We are not to be +laughed out of our passive obedience, and the doctrine of +non-resistance, though even those who perhaps owe the best part of +their security to that principle are apt to make a jest of it.</p> + +<p>So that if we give no advantage by the fatal<a name='Page_22'></a> mistake of misapplying +our anger, by the natural course of things this danger will pass away +like a shower of hail; fair weather will succeed, as lowering as the +sky now looketh, and all this by a plain and easy receipt. Let us be +still, quiet, and undivided, firm at the same time to our religion, +our loyalty, and our laws; and so long as we continue this method it +is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose +the bet; except the Church of Rome, which hath been so long barren of +miracles, should now, in her declining age, be brought to bed of one +that would outdo the best she can brag of in her legend.</p> + +<p>To conclude, the short question will be, Whether you will join with +those who must in the end run the same fate with you? If Protestants +of all sorts, in their behaviour to one another, have been to blame, +they are upon more equal terms, and, for that very reason, it is +fitter for them now to be reconciled. Our disunion is not only a +reproach, but a danger to us. Those who believe in modern miracles +have more right, or at least more excuse, to neglect all secular +caution; but for us, it is as justifiable to have no religion as +wilfully to throw away the human means of preserving it.—I am, Dear +Sir, your most affectionate humble Servant, T.W.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_23'></a>II.—'THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS'</h3> + +<h4>BY DANIEL DEFOE</h4> + +<p>(<i>Defoe wrote an enormous number of pamphlets; for great part of his +life he might almost have been described as a pamphleteer pure and +simple. In the vast lists of publications which his biographers and +bibliographers have compiled, partly by industry and partly by +imagination, by far the larger number of entries is of the pamphlet +kind. Indeed, as most people know, Defoe did not take to the +composition of the fiction which has made his name famous till very +late in life. Born in the year 1661, he began pamphleteering when he +was scarcely of age, and continued in that way (with occasional +excursions into work larger in scale, but not very different in style +or matter) for nearly forty years before the publication of </i>Robinson +Crusoe<i>. His two most famous and most effective pamphlets were the +so-called </i>Legion Letter<i> and </i>The Shortest Way with the Dissenters<i> +(given here), to which may perhaps be added the </i>Reasons against War +with France<i>. All these, with many others, appeared within the +compass<a name='Page_24'></a> of the years 1700-1702. The three together touched upon the +three most burning questions of the late seventeenth and early +eighteenth centuries—parliamentary factiousness, an aggressive policy +abroad, and toleration at home. Little or no annotation is required +for their comprehension, but the reader may amuse himself if he likes +by meditating whether the </i>Shortest Way<i> is irony or not. My own +opinion is that it is not; being a simple statement of the actual +views of the other side. The anecdotic history of the piece—how it +was taken for serious by both sides, was prosecuted by Government, the +author proclaimed, and a reward offered for his detection; how, the +printer and publisher being arrested, Defoe surrendered, was tried, +pleaded guilty, was fined, pilloried, and imprisoned—may be read in +the biographies. His imprisonment lasted till August 1704, when Harley +let him out, and he entered upon a course of rather mysterious service +as a Government free-lance, which was continued under various +ministries, and has not on the whole brought him credit with +posterity. For many years, his remarkable </i>Review<i>, a political +journal which he conducted single-handed, served as his chief organ; +but he never gave up writing pamphlets till his death in 1731, though +he never approached either the merit or the effect of that here +given.</i>)</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Sir Roger L'Estrange tells us a story in his collection of fables, of +the cock and the horses. The cock<a name='Page_25'></a> was gotten to roost in the stable +among the horses, and there being no racks or other conveniences for +him, it seems he was forced to roost upon the ground. The horses +jostling about for room, and putting the cock in danger of his life, +he gives them this grave advice, 'Pray, gentlefolks, let us stand +still, for fear we should tread upon one another.'</p> + +<p>There are some people in the world, who now they are unperched, and +reduced to an equality with other people, and under strong and very +just apprehensions of being further treated as they deserve, begin, +with Æsop's cock, to preach up peace and union, and the Christian +duties of moderation, forgetting that, when they had the power in +their hands, these graces were strangers in their gates.</p> + +<p>It is now near fourteen years that the glory and peace of the purest +and most flourishing Church in the world has been eclipsed, buffeted, +and disturbed by a sort of men whom God in His providence has suffered +to insult over her and bring her down. These have been the days of her +humiliation and tribulation. She has borne with invincible patience +the reproach of the wicked, and God has at last heard her prayers, and +delivered her from the oppression of the stranger.</p> + +<p>And now they find their day is over, their power gone, and the throne +of this nation possessed by a royal, English, true, and ever-constant +member of, and<a name='Page_26'></a> friend to, the Church of England. Now they find that +they are in danger of the Church of England's just resentments; now +they cry out peace, union, forbearance, and charity, as if the Church +had not too long harboured her enemies under her wing, and nourished +the viperous brood till they hiss and fly in the face of the mother +that cherished them.</p> + +<p>No, gentlemen, the time of mercy is past, your day of grace is over; +you should have practised peace, and moderation, and charity, if you +expected any yourselves.</p> + +<p>We have heard none of this lesson for fourteen years past. We have +been huffed and bullied with your Act of Toleration; you have told us +that you are the Church established by law, as well as others; have +set up your canting synagogues at our church doors, and the Church and +members have been loaded with reproaches, with oaths, associations, +abjurations, and what not. Where has been the mercy, the forbearance, +the charity, you have shown to tender consciences of the Church of +England, that could not take oaths as fast as you made them; that +having sworn allegiance to their lawful and rightful King, could not +dispense with that oath, their King being still alive, and swear to +your new hodge-podge of a Dutch Government? These have been turned out +of their livings, and they and their families left to starve; their +estates double taxed to carry on a war<a name='Page_27'></a> they had no hand in, and you +got nothing by. What account can you give of the multitudes you have +forced to comply, against their consciences, with your new sophistical +politics, who, like new converts in France, sin because they cannot +starve? And now the tables are turned upon you; you must not be +persecuted; it is not a Christian spirit.</p> + +<p>You have butchered one king, deposed another king, and made a mock +king of a third, and yet you could have the face to expect to be +employed and trusted by the fourth. Anybody that did not know the +temper of your party would stand amazed at the impudence, as well as +folly, to think of it.</p> + +<p>Your management of your Dutch monarch, whom you reduced to a mere King +of Clouts, is enough to give any future princes such an idea of your +principles as to warn them sufficiently from coming into your +clutches; and God be thanked the Queen is out of your hands, knows +you, and will have a care of you.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt but the supreme authority of a nation has in itself +a power, and a right to that power, to execute the laws upon any part +of that nation it governs. The execution of the known laws of the +land, and that with a weak and gentle hand neither, was all this +fanatical party of this land have ever called persecution; this they +have magnified to a height, that the sufferings of the Huguenots in +France<a name='Page_28'></a> were not to be compared with. Now, to execute the known laws +of a nation upon those who transgress them, after voluntarily +consenting to the making those laws, can never be called persecution, +but justice. But justice is always violence to the party offending, +for every man is innocent in his own eyes. The first execution of the +laws against Dissenters in England was in the days of King James the +First; and what did it amount to truly? The worst they suffered was at +their own request: to let them go to New England and erect a new +colony, and give them great privileges, grants, and suitable powers, +keep them under protection, and defend them against all invaders, and +receive no taxes or revenue from them. This was the cruelty of the +Church of England. Fatal leniency! It was the ruin of that excellent +prince, King Charles the First. Had King James sent all the Puritans +in England away to the West Indies, we had been a national, unmixed +Church; the Church of England had been kept undivided and entire.</p> + +<p>To requite the lenity of the father they take up arms against the son; +conquer, pursue, take, imprison, and at last put to death the anointed +of God, and destroy the very being and nature of government, setting +up a sordid impostor, who had neither title to govern nor +understanding to manage, but supplied that want with power, bloody and +desperate counsels, and craft without conscience.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_29'></a>Had not King James the First withheld the full execution of the laws, +had he given them strict justice, he had cleared the nation of them, +and the consequences had been plain: his son had never been murdered +by them nor the monarchy overwhelmed. It was too much mercy shown them +was the ruin of his posterity and the ruin of the nation's peace. One +would think the Dissenters should not have the face to believe that we +are to be wheedled and canted into peace and toleration when they know +that they have once requited us with a civil war, and once with an +intolerable and unrighteous persecution for our former civility.</p> + +<p>Nay, to encourage us to be easy with them, it is apparent that they +never had the upper hand of the Church, but they treated her with all +the severity, with all the reproach and contempt that was possible. +What peace and what mercy did they show the loyal gentry of the Church +of England in the time of their triumphant Commonwealth? How did they +put all the gentry of England to ransom, whether they were actually in +arms for the King or not, making people compound for their estates and +starve their families? How did they treat the clergy of the Church of +England, sequestered the ministers, devoured the patrimony of the +Church, and divided the spoil by sharing the Church lands among their +soldiers, and turning her clergy out to starve? Just such measure as +they have meted should be measured them again.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_30'></a>Charity and love is the known doctrine of the Church of England, and +it is plain she has put it in practice towards the Dissenters, even +beyond what they ought, till she has been wanting to herself, and in +effect unkind to her sons, particularly in the too much lenity of King +James the First, mentioned before. Had he so rooted the Puritans from +the face of the land, which he had an opportunity early to have done, +they had not had the power to vex the Church as since they have done.</p> + +<p>In the days of King Charles the Second how did the Church reward their +bloody doings with lenity and mercy, except the barbarous regicides of +the pretended court of justice? Not a soul suffered for all the blood +in an unnatural war. King Charles came in all mercy and love, +cherished them, preferred them, employed them, withheld the rigour of +the law, and oftentimes, even against the advice of his Parliament, +gave them liberty of conscience; and how did they requite him with the +villanous contrivance to depose and murder him and his successor at +the Rye Plot?</p> + +<p>King James, as if mercy was the inherent quality of the family, began +his reign with unusual favour to them. Nor could their joining with +the Duke of Monmouth against him move him to do himself justice upon +them; but that mistaken prince thought to win them by gentleness and +love, proclaimed an universal liberty to them, and rather<a name='Page_31'></a> +discountenanced the Church of England than them. How they requited him +all the world knows.</p> + +<p>The late reign is too fresh in the memory of all the world to need a +comment; how, under pretence of joining with the Church in redressing +some grievances, they pushed things to that extremity, in conjunction +with some mistaken gentlemen, as to depose the late King, as if the +grievance of the nation could not have been redressed but by the +absolute ruin of the prince. Here is an instance of their temper, +their peace, and charity. To what height they carried themselves +during the reign of a king of their own; how they crept into all +places of trust and profit; how they insinuated into the favour of the +King, and were at first preferred to the highest places in the nation; +how they engrossed the ministry, and above all, how pitifully they +managed, is too plain to need any remarks.</p> + +<p>But particularly their mercy and charity, the spirit of union, they +tell us so much of, has been remarkable in Scotland. If any man would +see the spirit of a Dissenter, let him look into Scotland. There they +made entire conquest of the Church, trampled down the sacred orders, +and suppressed the Episcopal government with an absolute, and, as they +suppose, irretrievable victory, though it is possible they may find +themselves mistaken. Now it would be a very proper question to ask +their impudent advocate, the<a name='Page_32'></a> Observator, pray how much mercy and +favour did the members of the Episcopal Church find in Scotland from +the Scotch Presbyterian Government? and I shall undertake for the +Church of England that the Dissenters shall still receive as much +here, though they deserve but little.</p> + +<p>In a small treatise of the sufferings of the Episcopal clergy in +Scotland, it will appear what usage they met with; how they not only +lost their livings, but in several places were plundered and abused in +their persons; the ministers that could not conform turned out with +numerous families and no maintenance, and hardly charity enough left +to relieve them with a bit of bread. And the cruelties of the parties +are innumerable, and not to be attempted in this short piece.</p> + +<p>And now to prevent the distant cloud which they perceived to hang over +their heads from England, with a true Presbyterian policy they put in +for a union of nations, that England might unite their Church with the +Kirk of Scotland, and their Presbyterian members sit in our House of +Commons, and their Assembly of Scotch canting long-cloaks in our +Convocation. What might have been if our fanatic Whiggish statesmen +continued, God only knows; but we hope we are out of fear of that now.</p> + +<p>It is alleged by some of the faction—and they began to bully us with +it—that if we won't unite with<a name='Page_33'></a> them they will not settle the crown +with us again, but when Her Majesty dies, will choose a king for +themselves.</p> + +<p>If they won't, we must make them, and it is not the first time we have +let them know that we are able. The crowns of these kingdoms have not +so far disowned the right of succession but they may retrieve it +again; and if Scotland thinks to come off from a successive to an +elective state of government, England has not promised not to assist +the right heir and put them into possession without any regard to +their ridiculous settlements.</p> + +<p>These are the gentlemen, these their ways of treating the Church, both +at home and abroad. Now let us examine the reasons they pretend to +give why we should be favourable to them, why we should continue and +tolerate them among us.</p> + +<p>First, they are very numerous, they say; they are a great part of the +nation, and we cannot suppress them.</p> + +<p>To this may be answered:—</p> + +<p>1. They are not so numerous as the Protestants in France, and yet the +French King effectually cleared the nation of them at once, and we +don't find he misses them at home. But I am not of the opinion they +are so numerous as is pretended; their party is more numerous than +their persons, and those mistaken people of the Church who are misled +and deluded by<a name='Page_34'></a> their wheedling artifices to join with them, make +their party the greater; but these will open their eyes when the +Government shall set heartily about the work, and come off from them, +as some animals, which they say always desert a house when it is +likely to fall.</p> + +<p>2. The more numerous the more dangerous, and therefore the more need +to suppress them; and God has suffered us to bear them as goads in our +sides for not utterly extinguishing them long ago.</p> + +<p>3. If we are to allow them only because we cannot suppress them, then +it ought to be tried whether we can or not; and I am of opinion it is +easy to be done, and could prescribe ways and means, if it were +proper; but I doubt not the Government will find effectual methods for +the rooting the contagion from the face of this land.</p> + +<p>Another argument they use, which is this, that it is a time of war, +and we have need to unite against the common enemy.</p> + +<p>We answer, this common enemy had been no enemy if they had not made +him so. He was quiet, in peace, and no way disturbed or encroached +upon us, and we know no reason we had to quarrel with him.</p> + +<p>But further, we make no question but we are able to deal with this +common enemy without their help; but why must we unite with them +because of the enemy? Will they go over to the enemy if we do<a name='Page_35'></a> not +prevent it by a union with them? We are very well contented they +should, and make no question we shall be ready to deal with them and +the common enemy too, and better without them than with them.</p> + +<p>Besides, if we have a common enemy, there is the more need to be +secure against our private enemies. If there is one common enemy, we +have the less need to have an enemy in our bowels.</p> + +<p>It was a great argument some people used against suppressing the old +money, that it was a time of war, and it was too great a risk for the +nation to run; if we should not master it, we should be undone. And +yet the sequel proved the hazard was not so great but it might be +mastered, and the success was answerable. The suppressing the +Dissenters is not a harder work nor a work of less necessity to the +public. We can never enjoy a settled, uninterrupted union and +tranquillity in this nation till the spirit of Whiggism, faction, and +schism is melted down like the old money.</p> + +<p>To talk of the difficulty is to frighten ourselves with chimeras and +notions of a powerful party, which are indeed a party without power. +Difficulties often appear greater at a distance than when they are +searched into with judgment and distinguished from the vapours and +shadows that attend them.</p> + +<p>We are not to be frightened with it; this age is wiser than that by +all our own experience and theirs<a name='Page_36'></a> too. King Charles the First had +early suppressed this party if he had taken more deliberate measures. +In short, it is not worth arguing to talk of their arms. Their +Monmouths, and Shaftesburys, and Argyles are gone; their Dutch +sanctuary is at an end; Heaven has made way for their destruction, and +if we do not close with the Divine occasion we are to blame ourselves, +and may remember that we had once an opportunity to serve the Church +of England by extirpating her implacable enemies, and having let slip +the minute that Heaven presented, may experimentally complain, <i>Post +est occasio calva</i>.</p> + +<p>Here are some popular objections in the way:—</p> + +<p>As first, the Queen has promised them to continue them in their +tolerated liberty, and has told us she will be a religious observer of +her word.</p> + +<p>What Her Majesty will do we cannot help; but what, as head of the +Church, she ought to do, is another case. Her Majesty has promised to +protect and defend the Church of England, and if she cannot +effectually do that without the destruction of the Dissenters, she +must of course dispense with one promise to comply with another. But +to answer this cavil more effectually: Her Majesty did never promise +to maintain the toleration to the destruction of the Church; but it is +upon supposition that it may be compatible with the well-being and +safety of the Church, which she had declared she would take<a name='Page_37'></a> especial +care of. Now if these two interests clash, it is plain Her Majesty's +intentions are to uphold, protect, defend, and establish the Church, +and this we conceive is impossible.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it may be said that the Church is in no immediate danger from +the Dissenters, and therefore it is time enough. But this is a weak +answer.</p> + +<p>For first, if a danger be real, the distance of it is no argument +against, but rather a spur to quicken us to prevention, lest it be too +late hereafter.</p> + +<p>And secondly, here is the opportunity, and the only one perhaps that +ever the Church had, to secure herself and destroy her enemies.</p> + +<p>The representatives of the nation have now an opportunity; the time is +come which all good men have wished for, that the gentlemen of England +may serve the Church of England. Now they are protected and encouraged +by a Church of England Queen.</p> + +<p>What will you do for your sister in the day that she shall be spoken +for?</p> + +<p>If ever you will establish the best Christian Church in the world; if +ever you will suppress the spirit of enthusiasm; if ever you will free +the nation from the viperous brood that have so long sucked the blood +of their mother; if ever you will leave your posterity free from +faction and rebellion, this is the time. This is the time to pull up +this heretical weed of<a name='Page_38'></a> sedition that has so long disturbed the peace +of our Church and poisoned the good corn.</p> + +<p>But, says another hot and cold objector, this is renewing fire and +faggot, reviving the act <i>De Heretico Comburendo</i>; this will be +cruelty in its nature, and barbarous to all the world.</p> + +<p>I answer, it is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but +the poison of their nature makes it a charity to our neighbours to +destroy those creatures, not for any personal injury received, but for +prevention; not for the evil they have done, but the evil they may do.</p> + +<p>Serpents, toads, vipers, etc., are noxious to the body, and poison the +sensitive life; these poison the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare +our children, destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future +felicity, and contaminate the whole mass.</p> + +<p>Shall any law be given to such wild creatures? Some beasts are for +sport, and the huntsmen give them advantages of ground; but some are +knocked on the head by all possible ways of violence and surprise.</p> + +<p>I do not prescribe fire and faggot, but, as Scipio said of Carthage, +<i>Delenda est Carthago</i>. They are to be rooted out of this nation, if +ever we will live in peace, serve God, or enjoy our own. As for the +manner, I leave it to those hands who have a right to execute God's +justice on the nation's and the Church's enemies.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_39'></a>But if we must be frighted from this justice under the specious +pretences and odious sense of cruelty, nothing will be effected: it +will be more barbarous to our own children and dear posterity when +they shall reproach their fathers, as we do ours, and tell us, 'You +had an opportunity to root out this cursed race from the world under +the favour and protection of a true English queen; and out of your +foolish pity you spared them, because, forsooth, you would not be +cruel; and now our Church is suppressed and persecuted, our religion +trampled under foot, our estates plundered, our persons imprisoned and +dragged to jails, gibbets, and scaffolds: your sparing this Amalekite +race is our destruction, your mercy to them proves cruelty to your +poor posterity.'</p> + +<p>How just will such reflections be when our posterity shall fall under +the merciless clutches of this uncharitable generation, when our +Church shall be swallowed up in schism, faction, enthusiasm, and +confusion; when our Government shall be devolved upon foreigners, and +our monarchy dwindled into a republic.</p> + +<p>It would be more rational for us, if we must spare this generation, to +summon our own to a general massacre, and as we have brought them into +the world free, send them out so, and not betray them to destruction +by our supine negligence, and then cry, 'It is mercy.'</p> + +<p><a name='Page_40'></a>Moses was a merciful, meek man, and yet with what fury did he run +through the camp, and cut the throats of three and thirty thousand of +his dear Israelites that were fallen into idolatry. What was the +reason? It was mercy to the rest to make these examples, to prevent +the destruction of the whole army.</p> + +<p>How many millions of future souls we save from infection and delusion +if the present race of poisoned spirits were purged from the face of +the land!</p> + +<p>It is vain to trifle in this matter, the light, foolish handling of +them by mulcts, fines, etc.,—it is their glory and their advantage. +If the gallows instead of the Counter, and the galleys instead of the +fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, to preach or hear, +there would not be so many sufferers. The spirit of martyrdom is over; +they that will go to church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors would go +to forty churches rather than be hanged.</p> + +<p>If one severe law were made and punctually executed, that whoever was +found at a conventicle should be banished the nation and the preacher +be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale. They would all come +to church, and one age would make us all one again.</p> + +<p>To talk of five shillings a month for not coming to the sacrament, and +one shilling per week for not coming to church, this is such a way of +converting<a name='Page_41'></a> people as never was known; this is selling them a liberty +to transgress for so much money. If it be not a crime, why don't we +give them full license? And if it be, no price ought to compound for +the committing it, for that is selling a liberty to people to sin +against God and the Government.</p> + +<p>If it be a crime of the highest consequence both against the peace and +welfare of the nation, the glory of God, the good of the Church, and +the happiness of the soul, let us rank it among capital offences, and +let it receive a punishment in proportion to it.</p> + +<p>We hang men for trifles, and banish them for things not worth naming; +but an offence against God and the Church, against the welfare of the +world and the dignity of religion, shall be bought off for five +shillings! This is such a shame to a Christian Government that it is +with regret I transmit it to posterity.</p> + +<p>If men sin against God, affront His ordinances, rebel against His +Church, and disobey the precepts of their superiors, let them suffer +as such capital crimes deserve. So will religion flourish, and this +divided nation be once again united.</p> + +<p>And yet the title of barbarous and cruel will soon be taken off from +this law too. I am not supposing that all the Dissenters in England +should be hanged or banished, but, as in cases of rebellions and +insurrections, if a few of the ringleaders suffer,<a name='Page_42'></a> the multitude are +dismissed; so, a few obstinate people being made examples, there is no +doubt but the severity of the law would find a stop in the compliance +of the multitude.</p> + +<p>To make the reasonableness of this matter out of question, and more +unanswerably plain, let us examine for what it is that this nation is +divided into parties and factions, and let us see how they can justify +a separation, or we of the Church of England can justify our bearing +the insults and inconveniences of the party.</p> + +<p>One of their leading pastors, and a man of as much learning as most +among them, in his answer to a pamphlet, entitled 'An Inquiry into the +Occasional Conformity,' has these words, p. 27, 'Do the religion of +the Church and the meeting-houses make two religions? Wherein do they +differ? The substance of the same religion is common to them both; and +the modes and accidents are the things in which only they differ.' P. +28: 'Thirty-nine articles are given us for the summary of our +religion; thirty-six contain the substance of it, wherein we agree; +three the additional appendices, about which we have some +differences.'</p> + +<p>Now, if, as by their own acknowledgment, the Church of England is a +true Church, and the difference between them is only in a few modes +and accidents, why should we expect that they will suffer<a name='Page_43'></a> galleys, +corporeal punishment, and banishment for these trifles? There is no +question but they will be wiser; even their own principles will not +bear them out in it; they will certainly comply with the laws and with +reason; and though at the first severity they may seem hard, the next +age will feel nothing of it; the contagion will be rooted out; the +disease being cured, there will be no need of the operation; but if +they should venture to transgress and fall into the pit, all the world +must condemn their obstinacy, as being without ground from their own +principles.</p> + +<p>Thus the pretence of cruelty will be taken off, and the party actually +suppressed, and the disquiets they have so often brought upon the +nation prevented.</p> + +<p>Their numbers and their wealth make them haughty, and that is so far +from being an argument to persuade us to forbear them, that it is a +warning to us, without any delay, to reconcile them to the unity of +the Church or remove them from us.</p> + +<p>At present, Heaven be praised, they are not so formidable as they have +been, and it is our own fault if ever we suffer them to be so. +Providence and the Church of England seem to join in this particular, +that now the destroyers of the nation's peace may be overturned, and +to this end the present opportunity seems to be put into our hands.</p> + +<p>To this end her present Majesty seems reserved to enjoy the crown, +that the ecclesiastic as well as civil<a name='Page_44'></a> rights of the nation may be +restored by her hand. To this end the face of affairs have received +such a turn in the process of a few months as never has been before; +the leading men of the nation, the universal cry of the people, the +unanimous request of the clergy, agree in this, that the deliverance +of our Church is at hand. For this end has Providence given us such a +Parliament, such a Convocation, such a gentry, and such a Queen as we +never had before. And what may be the consequences of a neglect of +such opportunities? The succession of the crown has but a dark +prospect; another Dutch turn may make the hopes of it ridiculous and +the practice impossible. Be the house of our future princes never so +well inclined, they will be foreigners, and many years will be spent +in suiting the genius of strangers to this crown and the interests of +the nation; and how many ages it may be before the English throne be +filled with so much zeal and candour, so much tenderness and hearty +affection to the Church as we see it now covered with, who can +imagine?</p> + +<p>It is high time, then, for the friends of the Church of England to +think of building up and establishing her in such a manner that she +may be no more invaded by foreigners nor divided by factions, schisms, +and error.</p> + +<p>If this could be done by gentle and easy methods, I should be glad; +but the wound is corroded, the<a name='Page_45'></a> vitals begin to mortify, and nothing +but amputation of members can complete the cure; all the ways of +tenderness and compassion, all persuasive arguments, have been made +use of in vain.</p> + +<p>The humour of the Dissenters has so increased among the people that +they hold the Church in defiance, and the house of God is an +abomination among them; nay, they have brought up their posterity in +such prepossessed aversions to our holy religion that the ignorant mob +think we are all idolaters and worshippers of Baal, and account it a +sin to come within the walls of our churches.</p> + +<p>The primitive Christians were not more shy of a heathen temple or of +meat offered to idols, nor the Jews of swine's flesh, than some of our +Dissenters are of the Church, and the divine service selemnised +therein.</p> + +<p>This obstinacy must be rooted out with the profession of it; while the +generation are less at liberty daily to affront God Almighty and +dishonour His holy worship, we are wanting in our duty to God and our +mother, the Church of England.</p> + +<p>How can we answer it to God, to the Church, and to our posterity, to +leave them entangled with fanaticism, error, and obstinacy in the +bowels of the nation; to leave them an enemy in their streets, that in +time may involve them in the same crimes, and endanger the utter +extirpation of religion in the nation?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_46'></a>What is the difference betwixt this and being subjected to the power +of the Church of Rome, from whence we have reformed? If one be an +extreme on one hand, and one on another, it is equally destructive to +the truth to have errors settled among us, let them be of what nature +they will.</p> + +<p>Both are enemies of our Church and of our peace; and why should it not +be as criminal to admit an enthusiast as a Jesuit? Why should the +Papist with his seven sacraments be worse than the Quaker with no +sacraments at all? Why should religious houses be more intolerable +than meeting-houses? Alas, the Church of England! What with Popery on +one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified +between two thieves!</p> + +<p>Now let us crucify the thieves. Let her foundations be established +upon the destruction of her enemies. The doors of mercy being always +open to the returning part of the deluded people, let the obstinate be +ruled with the rod of iron.</p> + +<p>Let all true sons of so holy and oppressed a mother, exasperated by +her afflictions, harden their hearts against those who have oppressed +her.</p> + +<p>And may God Almighty put it into the hearts of all the friends of +truth to lift up a standard against pride and Antichrist, that the +posterity of the sons of error may be rooted out from the face of this +land for ever.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_47'></a>III.—THE 'DRAPIER'S LETTERS'</h3> +<h5>(NOS. I AND 2)</h5> + +<h4>BY JONATHAN SWIFT</h4> + +<p>(<i>The two pamphlets entitled </i>The Conduct of the Allies<i> and </i>The +Public Spirit of the Whigs<i>—which are sometimes considered the +capital examples of the political efforts of Swift's magnificent +genius—were the very Jachin and Boaz of the Tory administration in +the last years of Anne, and the effect of them has been admitted by +such a violent Whig and such a good critic as Jeffrey. They seemed, +however, not wholly suitable for insertion here; first, because of +their length (for one would have occupied nearly a third, the other +nearly a fourth of this volume), and secondly, because the greater +part of each does really, to some extent, underlie the charge brought +against political pamphlets generally, and, being occupied with a +great number of personal and particular matters, requires either much +intimacy with the period or elaborate and probably tedious comparison +and elucidation, to make it intelligible. No such drawback attaches<a name='Page_48'></a> +to the almost more famous </i>Drapier's Letters<i>, of which I give the +first and second. They were written at the very zenith of their +author's marvellous powers, and at the time when his </i>sæva indignatio<i> +was heated seven times hotter than usual by the conviction that his +last hope of English promotion was gone. Their circumstances are +simple and well known. Wood had received a patent to coin copper money +for Ireland to the amount of £108,000. Most commentators seem to think +that he would have done this honestly enough; to me the simple fact +that on the revocation of his patent a pension of £3000 a year was +given to him in compensation is proof enough of the contrary. It is +impossible to imagine any honest profit on a transaction of such a +nature to such an amount which could rise to the capital value of such +a pension. That Swift was instigated to take up his pen against the +transaction by private griefs against the Ministry is extremely +probable; that the thing was not a job less so. As before, I must +refer to biographers for the details of the matter; the text is what +interests us here. I shall only remind the reader that Swift was +fifty-seven when the 'Drapier' wrote, that </i>Gulliver<i> appeared about +three years later, and that Swift himself expired—lunatic and +miserable beyond utterance—on the 19th October 1745, twenty-one years +after all Dublin and half England had rung with the boldness and the +triumph of the 'Drapier.'</i>)</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_49'></a>I</h3> + +<h3>TO THE TRADESMEN, SHOP-KEEPERS, FARMERS, AND COMMON-PEOPLE IN GENERAL, +OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND; CONCERNING THE BRASS HALF-PENCE COINED BY +MR. WOOD.</h3> + +<p>Brethren, Friends, Countrymen, and Fellow Subjects—What I intend now +to say to you, is, next to your duty to God, and the care of your +salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves, and your children; +your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life entirely +depend upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men, as +Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country, to read this +paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; +which that you may do at the less expence, I have ordered the printer +to sell it at the lowest rate.</p> + +<p>It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no other +intention than to do you good you will not be at the pains to read his +advices: one copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you, which will +be less than a farthing a-piece. It is your folly that you have no +common or general interest in your view, not even the wisest among +you, neither do you know or enquire, or care who are your friends or +who are your enemies.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_50'></a>About four years ago, a little book was written, to advise all people +to wear the manufactures of this our own dear country: it had no other +design, said nothing against the king or Parliament, or any man, yet +the poor printer was prosecuted two years, with the utmost violence, +and even some weavers themselves, for whose sake it was written, being +upon the jury, found him guilty. This would be enough to discourage +any man from endeavouring to do you good, when you will either neglect +him or fly in his face for his pains, and when he must expect only +danger to himself and loss of money, perhaps to his ruin.</p> + +<p>However, I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest destruction +before your eyes, if you do not behave yourselves as you ought.</p> + +<p>I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact; and then +I will lay before you how you ought to act in common prudence, and +according to the laws of your country.</p> + +<p>The fact is thus, It having been many years since copper half-pence or +farthings were last coined in this kingdom, they have been for some +time very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about under the name of +raps. Several applications were made to England, that we might have +liberty to coin new ones, as in former times we did; but they did not +succeed. At last one Mr. Wood a mean ordinary man, a hard<a name='Page_51'></a>ware dealer, +procured a patent under his Majesty's Broad Seal to coin fourscore and +ten thousand pounds in copper for this kingdom, which patent however +did not oblige any one here to take them, unless they pleased. Now you +must know, that the half-pence and farthings in England pass for very +little more than they are worth. And if you should beat them to +pieces, and sell them to the brazier, you would not lose above a penny +in a shilling. But Mr. Wood made his half-pence of such base metal, +and so much smaller than the English ones, that the brazier would not +give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of his; so that +this sum of fourscore and ten thousand pounds in good gold and silver, +must be given for trash that will not be worth above eight or nine +thousand pounds real value. But this is not the worst, for Mr. Wood, +when he pleases, may by stealth send over another and another +fourscore and ten thousand pounds, and buy all our goods for eleven +parts in twelve, under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a +dozen of hats for five shillings a-piece, which amounts to three +pounds, and receives the payment in Mr. Wood's coin, he really +receives only the value of five shillings.</p> + +<p>Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood +could have so much interest as to get his Majesty's Broad Seal for so +great a sum of bad money to be sent to this poor country, and<a name='Page_52'></a> that +all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and +let us make our own half-pence, as we used to do. Now I will make that +matter very plain. We are at a great distance from the king's court, +and have nobody there to solicit for us, although a great number of +lords and squires, whose estates are here, and are our countrymen, +spend all their lives and fortunes there. But this same Mr. Wood was +able to attend constantly for his own interest; he is an Englishman +and had great friends, and it seems knew very well where to give money +to those that would speak to others that could speak to the king and +could tell a fair story. And his majesty, and perhaps the great lord +or lords who advised him, might think it was for our country's good; +and so, as the lawyers express it, the king was deceived in his grant, +which often happens in all reigns. And I am sure if his majesty knew +that such a patent, if it should take effect according to the desire +of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin this kingdom, which hath given such +great proofs of its loyalty, he would immediately recall it, and +perhaps show his displeasure to somebody or other: but a word to the +wise is enough. Most of you must have heard, with what anger our +honourable House of Commons receiv'd an account of this Wood's patent. +There were several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proofs that +it was all a wicked cheat from the bottom<a name='Page_53'></a> to the top, and several +smart votes were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to +answer likewise in print, and in so confident a way, as if he were a +better man than our whole Parliament put together.</p> + +<p>This Wood, as soon as his patent was passed, or soon after, sends over +a great many barrels of those half-pence, to Cork and other seaport +towns, and to get them off, offered an hundred pounds in his coin for +seventy or eighty in silver: but the collectors of the king's customs +very honestly refused to take them, and so did almost everybody else. +And since the Parliament hath condemned them, and desired the king +that they might be stopped, all the kingdom do abominate them.</p> + +<p>But Wood is still working under hand to force his half-pence upon us, +and if he can by help of his friends in England prevail so far as to +get an order that the commissioners and collectors of the king's money +shall receive them, and that the army is to be paid with them, then he +thinks his work shall be done. And this is the difficulty you will be +under in such a case: for the common soldier when he goes to the +market or ale-house will offer this money, and if it be refused, +perhaps he will swagger and hector, and threaten to beat the butcher +or ale-wife, or take the goods by force, and throw them the bad +half-pence. In this and the like cases the shop-keeper, or victualler, +or any other tradesman, has no more to do<a name='Page_54'></a> than to demand ten times +the price of his goods if it is to be paid in Wood's money; for +example, twenty pence of that money for a quart of ale, and so in all +things else, and not part with his goods till he gets the money.</p> + +<p>For suppose you go to an ale-house with that base money, and the +landlord gives you a quart for four of these half-pence, what must the +victualler do? His brewer will not be paid in that coin, or if the +brewer should be such a fool, the farmers will not take it from them +for their bere, because they are bound by their leases to pay their +rents in good and lawful money of England, which this is not, nor of +Ireland neither, and the Squire their landlord will never be so +bewitched to take such trash for his land; so that it must certainly +stop somewhere or other, and where-ever it stops it is the same thing, +and we are all undone.</p> + +<p>The common weight of these half-pence is between four and five to an +ounce; suppose five, then three shillings and fourpence will weigh a +pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pounds butter +weight. Now there are many hundred farmers who pay two hundred pound a +year rent. Therefore when one of these farmers comes with his half +year's rent, which is one hundred pound, it will be at least six +hundred pound weight, which is three horses load.</p> + +<p>If a squire has a mind to come to town to buy<a name='Page_55'></a> clothes and wine and +spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter here, he +must bring with him five or six horses loaden with sacks as the +farmers bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach to our +shops, it must be followed by a car loaded with Mr. Wood's money. And +I hope we shall have the grace to take it for no more than it is +worth.</p> + +<p>They say Squire Conolly has sixteen thousand pounds a year; now if he +sends for his rent to town, as it is likely he does, he must have two +hundred and fifty horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or +three great cellars in his house for stowage. But what the bankers +will do I cannot tell. For I am assured that some great bankers keep +by them forty thousand pounds in ready cash, to answer all payments, +which sum, in Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to +carry it.</p> + +<p>For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a pretty +good shop of Irish stuffs and silks, and instead of taking Mr. Wood's +bad copper, I intend to truck with my neighbours the butchers, and +bakers, and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods, and the little +gold and silver I have I will keep by me like my heart's blood till +better times, or till I am just ready to starve, and then I will buy +Mr. Wood's money, as my father did the brass money in K. James's time, +who could buy ten pound of it with<a name='Page_56'></a> a guinea, and I hope to get as +much for a pistole, and so purchase bread from those who will be such +fools as to sell it me.</p> + +<p>These half-pence, if they once pass, will soon be counterfeit, because +it may be cheaply done, the stuff is so base. The Dutch likewise will +probably do the same thing, and send them over to us to pay for our +goods; and Mr. Wood will never be at rest but coin on: so that in some +years we shall have at least five times fourscore and ten thousand +pounds of this lumber. Now the current money of this kingdom is not +reckoned to be above four hundred thousand pounds in all; and while +there is a silver sixpence left, these blood-suckers will never be +quiet.</p> + +<p>When once the kingdom is reduced to such a condition I will tell you +what must be the end: the gentlemen of estates will all turn off their +tenants for want of payment, because, as I told you before, the +tenants are obliged by their leases to pay sterling, which is lawful +current money of England; then they will turn their own farmers, as +too many of them do already, run all into sheep where they can, +keeping only such other cattle as are necessary; then they will be +their own merchants, and send their wool and butter and hides and +linen beyond sea for ready money and wine and spices and silks. They +will keep only a few miserable cottiers. The farmers must rob or beg, +or leave their country. The shop-<a name='Page_57'></a>keepers in this and every other town +must break and starve: for it is the landed man that maintains the +merchant, and shop-keeper, and handicraftsman.</p> + +<p>But when the squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the good +money he gets from abroad he will hoard up to send for England, and +keep some poor tailor or weaver and the like in his own house, who +will be glad to get bread at any rate.</p> + +<p>I should never have done, if I were to tell you all the miseries that +we shall undergo if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this cursed +coin. It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into one +scale, and this sorry fellow Wood into the other, that Mr. Wood should +weigh down this whole kingdom, by which England gets above a million +of good money every year clear into their pockets, and that is more +than the English do by all the world besides.</p> + +<p>But your great comfort is, that, as his majesty's patent does not +oblige you to take this money, so the laws have not given the Crown a +power of forcing the subjects to take what money the king pleases: for +then, by the same reason, we might be bound to take pebble-stones or +cockle-shells, or stamped leather for current coin, if ever we should +happen to live under an ill prince, who might likewise by the same +power make a guinea pass for ten pounds, a shilling for twenty +shillings, and so on, by which he would in a short time get all the +silver and gold of<a name='Page_58'></a> the kingdom into his own hands, and leave us +nothing but brass or leather or what he pleased. Neither is anything +reckoned more cruel or oppressive in the French Government than their +common practice of calling in all their money after they have sunk it +very low, and then coining it a-new at a much higher value, which +however is not the thousandth part so wicked as this abominable +project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects silver for +silver, and gold for gold; but this fellow will not so much as give us +good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a twelfth part +of their worth.</p> + +<p>Having said this much, I will now go on to tell you the judgments of +some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose for your +sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be sure +I went upon good grounds.</p> + +<p>A famous law-book call'd the <i>Mirrour of Justice</i>, discoursing of the +articles (or laws) ordained by our ancient kings, declares the law to +be as follows: It was ordained that no king of this realm should +change, impair, or amend the money or make any other money than of +gold or silver without the assent of all the counties, that is, as my +Lord Coke says, without the assent of Parliament.</p> + +<p>This book is very ancient, and of great authority for the time in +which it was wrote, and with that character is often quoted by that +great lawyer my<a name='Page_59'></a> Lord Coke. By the laws of England, several metals are +divided into lawful or true metal and unlawful or false metal; the +former comprehends silver or gold, the latter all baser metals: that +the former is only to pass in payments appears by an Act of Parliament +made the twentieth year of Edward the First, called the statute +concerning the passing of pence, which I give you here as I got it +translated into English; for some of our laws at that time were, as I +am told, writ in Latin: Whoever in buying or selling presumeth to +refuse an half-penny or farthing of lawful money, bearing the stamp +which it ought to have, let him be seized on as a contemner of the +king's majesty, and cast to prison.</p> + +<p>By this statute, no person is to be reckoned a contemner of the king's +majesty, and for that crime to be committed to prison, but he who +refuses to accept the king's coin made of lawful metal, by which, as I +observ'd before, silver and gold only are intended.</p> + +<p>That this is the true construction of the Act, appears not only from +the plain meaning of the words, but from my Lord Coke's observation +upon it. By this Act (says he) it appears that no subject can be +forc'd to take in buying or selling or other payments, any money made +but of lawful metal; that is, of silver or gold.</p> + +<p>The law of England gives the king all mines of<a name='Page_60'></a> gold and silver, but +not the mines of other metals; the reason of which prerogative or +power, as it is given by my Lord Coke, is, because money can be made +of gold and silver, but not of other metals.</p> + +<p>Pursuant to this opinion half-pence and farthings were anciently made +of silver, which is more evident from the Act of Parliament of Henry +the IVth. chap. 4, by which it is enacted as follows: Item, for the +great scarcity that is at present within the realm of England of +half-pence and farthings of silver, it is ordained and established +that the third part of all the money of silver plate which shall be +brought to the bullion, shall be made in half-pence and farthings. +This shows that by the words half-penny and farthing of lawful money +in that statute concerning the passing of pence, is meant a small coin +in half-pence and farthings of silver.</p> + +<p>This is further manifest from the statute of the ninth year of Edward +the IIId. chap. 3, which enacts, That no sterling half-penny or +farthing be molten for to make vessel, or any other thing by the +goldsmiths, nor others, upon forfeiture of the money so molten (or +melted).</p> + +<p>By another Act in this king's reign black money was not to be current +in England, and by an Act made in the eleventh year of his reign, +chap. 5, galley half-pence were not to pass: what kind of coin these +were I do not know, but I presume they<a name='Page_61'></a> were made of base metal, and +that these Acts were no new laws, but further declarations of the old +laws relating to the coin.</p> + +<p>Thus the law stands in relation to coin, nor is there any example to +the contrary, except one in Davis's <i>Reports</i>, who tells us, that in +the time of Tyrone's rebellion Queen Elizabeth ordered money of mixt +metal to be coined in the Tower of London, and sent over hither for +payment of the army, obliging all people to receive it, and commanding +that all silver money should be taken only as bullion, that is, for as +much as it weighed. Davis tells us several particulars in this matter +too long here to trouble you with, and that the Privy Council of this +kingdom obliged a merchant in England to receive this mixt money for +goods transmitted hither.</p> + +<p>But this proceeding is rejected by all the best lawyers as contrary to +law, the Privy Council here having no such power. And, besides, it is +to be considered that the Queen was then under great difficulties by a +rebellion in this kingdom, assisted from Spain, and whatever is done +in great exigences and dangerous times should never be an example to +proceed by in seasons of peace and quietness.</p> + +<p>I will now, my dear friends, to save you the trouble, set before you, +in short, what the law obliges you to do, and what it does not oblige +you to.</p> + +<p>First, You are oblig'd to take all money in<a name='Page_62'></a> payments which is coin'd +by the king and is of the English standard or weight, provided it be +of gold or silver.</p> + +<p>Secondly, You are not oblig'd to take any money which is not of gold +or silver, not only the half-pence or farthings of England, or of any +other country; and it is only for convenience, or ease, that you are +content to take them, because the custom of coining silver half-pence +and farthings hath long been left off, I will suppose on account of +their being subject to be lost.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, Much less are we oblig'd to take those vile half-pence of +that same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven-pence in every +shilling.</p> + +<p>Therefore, my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy +trash: it is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood; his majesty in his +patent obliges nobody to take these half-pence; our gracious prince +hath no so ill advisers about him; or if he had, yet you see the laws +have not left it in the king's power, to force us to take any coin but +what is lawful, of right standard, gold and silver; therefore you have +nothing to fear.</p> + +<p>And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who are +the poor sort of tradesmen: perhaps you may think you will not be so +great losers as the rich if these half-pence should pass, because you +seldom see any silver, and your customers come to your shops or stalls +with nothing but brass,<a name='Page_63'></a> which you likewise find hard to be got; but +you may take my word, whenever this money gains footing among you, you +will be utterly undone; if you carry these half-pence to a shop for +tobacco or brandy, or any other thing you want, the shop-keeper will +advance his goods accordingly, or else he must break and leave the key +under the door. Do you think I will sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff +for twenty of Mr. Wood's half-pence? No, not under two hundred at +least, neither will I be at the trouble of counting, but weigh them in +a lump. I will tell you one thing further, that if Mr. Wood's project +should take it will ruin even our beggars: for when I give a beggar an +half-penny, it will quench his thirst, or go a good way to fill his +belly; but the twelfth part of a half-penny will do him no more +service than if I should give him three pins out of my sleeve.</p> + +<p>In short those half-pence are like the accursed thing, which, as the +Scripture tells us, the children of Israel were forbidden to touch; +they will run about like the plague and destroy every one who lays his +hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told a king +that he had invented a way to torment people by putting them into a +bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the projector +first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment; this very much +resembles the project of Mr. Wood; and the like of this may possibly +be Mr. Wood's fate,<a name='Page_64'></a> that the brass he contrived to torment this +kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his destruction at last.</p> + +<p><i>N.B.</i>—The author of this paper is inform'd by persons who have made +it their business to be exact in their observations on the true value +of these half-pence, that any person may expect to get a quart of +twopenny ale for thirty-six of them.</p> + +<p>I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to refresh +their memories whenever they shall have further notice of Mr. Wood's +half-pence or any other the like imposture.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>II.</h3> + +<h3>A LETTER TO MR. HARDING THE PRINTER, UPON OCCASION OF A PARAGRAPH IN +HIS NEWS-PAPER OF AUGUST 1, 1724, RELATING TO MR. WOOD'S HALF-PENCE.</h3> + +<p>In your news-letter of the first instant there is a paragraph dated +from London, July 25th, relating to Wood's half-pence; whereby it is +plain, what I foretold in my letter to the shop-keepers, etc., that +this vile fellow would never be at rest, and that the danger of our +ruin approaches nearer, and therefore the kingdom requires new and +fresh warning; however I take that paragraph to be, in a great +measure, an<a name='Page_65'></a> imposition upon the public, at least I hope so, because I +am informed that Wood is generally his own news-writer. I cannot but +observe from that paragraph that this public enemy of ours, not +satisfied to ruin us with his trash, takes every occasion to treat +this kingdom with the utmost contempt. He represents several of our +merchants and traders upon examination before a committee of a +council, agreeing that there was the utmost necessity of copper-money +here, before his patent, so that several gentlemen have been forced to +tally with their workmen, and give them bits of cards sealed and +subscribed with their names. What then? If a physician prescribe to a +patient a dram of physic, shall a rascal apothecary cram him with a +pound, and mix it up with poison? And is not a landlord's hand and +seal to his own labourers a better security for five or ten shillings, +than Wood's brass seven times below the real value, can be to the +kingdom, for an hundred and four thousand pounds?</p> + +<p>But who are these merchants and traders of Ireland that make this +report of the utmost necessity we are under of copper money? They are +only a few betrayers of their country, confederates with Wood, from +whom they are to purchase a great quantity of his coin, perhaps at +half value, and vend it among us to the ruin of the public and their +own private advantage. Are not these excellent witnesses, upon<a name='Page_66'></a> whose +integrity the fate of a kingdom must depend, who are evidences in +their own cause, and sharers in this work of iniquity?</p> + +<p>If we could have deserved the liberty of coining for ourselves, as we +formerly did (and why we have not is everybody's wonder as well as +mine), ten thousand pounds might have been coined here in Dublin of +only one fifth below the intrinsic value, and this sum, with the stock +of half-pence we then had, would have been sufficient: but Wood by his +emissaries, enemies to God and this kingdom, hath taken care to buy up +as many of our old half-pence as he could, and from thence the present +want of change arises; to remove which, by Mr. Wood's remedy, would +be, to cure a scratch on the finger by cutting off the arm. But +supposing there were not one farthing of change in the whole nation, I +will maintain that five and twenty thousand pounds would be a sum +fully sufficient to answer all our occasions. I am no inconsiderable +shop-keeper in this town, I have discoursed with several of my own and +other trades, with many gentlemen both of city and country, and also +with great numbers of farmers, cottagers, and labourers, who all agree +that two shillings in change for every family would be more than +necessary in all dealings. Now by the largest computation (even before +that grievous discouragement of agriculture, which hath so much +lessened our numbers)<a name='Page_67'></a> the souls in this kingdom are computed to be +one million and a half, which, allowing but six to a family, makes two +hundred and fifty thousand families, and consequently two shillings to +each family will amount only to five and twenty thousand pounds, +whereas this honest liberal hard-ware-man Wood, would impose upon us +above four times that sum.</p> + +<p>Your paragraph relates further, that Sir Isaac Newton reported an +assay taken at the Tower, of Wood's metal, by which it appears that +Wood had in all respects performed his contract. His contract! With +whom? Was it with the Parliament or people of Ireland? Are not they to +be the purchasers? But they detest, abhor, and reject it, as corrupt, +fraudulent, mingled with dirt and trash. Upon which he grows angry, +goes to law, and will impose his goods upon us by force.</p> + +<p>But your news-letter says that an assay was made of the coin. How +impudent and insupportable is this? Wood takes care to coin a dozen or +two half-pence of good metal, sends them to the Tower and they are +approved, and these must answer all that he hath already coined or +shall coin for the future. It is true, indeed, that a gentleman often +sends to my shop for a pattern of stuff, I cut it fairly off, and if +he likes it he comes or sends and compares the pattern with the whole +piece, and probably we come to a bargain. But if I were to buy an +hundred sheep, and the<a name='Page_68'></a> grazier should bring me one single weather fat +and well fleeced by way of pattern, and expect the same price round +for the whole hundred, without suffering me to see them before he was +paid, or giving me good security to restore my money for those that +were lean or shorn or scabby, I would be none of his customer. I have +heard of a man who had a mind to sell his house, and therefore carried +a piece of brick in his pocket, which he showed as a pattern to +encourage purchasers: and this is directly the case in point with Mr. +Wood's assay.</p> + +<p>The next part of the paragraph contains Mr. Wood's voluntary proposals +for preventing any future objections or apprehensions.</p> + +<p>His first proposal is, that whereas he hath already coined seventeen +thousand pounds, and has copper prepared to make it up forty thousand +pounds, he will be content to coin no more, unless the exigences of +trade require it, though his patent empowers him to coin a far greater +quantity.</p> + +<p>To which if I were to answer it should be thus: Let Mr. Wood and his +crew of founders and tinkers coin on till there is not an old kettle +left in the kingdom; let them coin old leather, tobacco-pipe clay, or +the dirt in the streets, and call their trumpery by what name they +please from a guinea to a farthing, we are not under any concern to +know how he and his tribe or accomplices think fit to employ +themselves.<a name='Page_69'></a> But I hope and trust that we are all to a man fully +determined to have nothing to do with him or his ware.</p> + +<p>The king has given him a patent to coin half-pence, but hath not +obliged us to take them, and I have already shown in my Letter to the +Shop-keepers, etc., that the law hath not left it in the power of the +prerogative to compel the subject to take any money, beside gold and +silver of the right sterling and standard.</p> + +<p>Wood further proposes, (if I understand him right, for his expressions +are dubious) that he will not coin above forty thousand pounds unless +the exigences of trade require it: First, I observe that this sum of +forty thousand pounds is almost double to what I proved to be +sufficient for the whole kingdom, although we had not one of our old +half-pence left. Again I ask, who is to be judge when the exigences of +trade require it? Without doubt he means himself, for as to us of this +poor kingdom, who must be utterly ruined if his project should +succeed, we were never once consulted till the matter was over, and he +will judge of our exigences by his own; neither will these be ever at +an end till he and his accomplices will think they have enough: and it +now appears that he will not be content with all our gold and silver, +but intends to buy up our goods and manufactures with the same coin.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_70'></a>I shall not enter into examination of the prices for which he now +proposes to sell his half-pence or what he calls his copper, by the +pound; I have said enough of it in my former letter, and it hath +likewise been considered by others. It is certain that, by his own +first computation, we were to pay three shillings for what was +intrinsically worth but one, although it had been of the true weight +and standard for which he pretended to have contracted; but there is +so great a difference both in weight and badness in several of his +coins that some of them have been nine in ten below the intrinsic +value, and most of them six or seven.</p> + +<p>His last proposal being of a peculiar strain and nature, deserves to +be very particularly consider'd, both on account of the matter and the +style. It is as follows.</p> + +<p>Lastly, in consideration of the direful apprehensions which prevail in +Ireland, that Mr. Wood will by such coinage drain them of their gold +and silver, he proposes to take their manufactures in exchange, and +that no person be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +at one payment.</p> + +<p>First, observe this little impudent hard-ware-man turning into +ridicule the direful apprehensions of a whole kingdom, priding himself +as the cause of them, and daring to prescribe what no king of England +ever attempted, how far a whole nation shall be obliged to<a name='Page_71'></a> take his +brass coin. And he has reason to insult; for sure there was never an +example in history of a great kingdom kept in awe for above a year in +daily dread of utter destruction, not by a powerful invader at the +head of twenty thousand men, not by a plague or a famine, not by a +tyrannical prince (for we never had one more gracious) or a corrupt +administration, but by one single, diminutive, insignificant, +mechanic.</p> + +<p>But to go on. To remove our direful apprehensions that he will drain +us of our gold and silver by his coinage, this little arbitrary +mock-monarch most graciously offers to take our manufactures in +exchange. Are our Irish understandings indeed so low in his opinion? +Is not this the very misery we complain of? That his cursed project +will put us under the necessity of selling our goods for what is equal +to nothing. How would such a proposal sound from France or Spain, or +any other country we deal with, if they should offer to deal with us +only upon this condition, that we should take their money at ten times +higher than the intrinsic value? Does Mr. Wood think, for instance, +that we will sell him a stone of wool for a parcel of his counters not +worth sixpence, when we can send it to England and receive as many +shillings in gold and silver? Surely there was never heard such a +compound of impudence, villainy and folly.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_72'></a>His proposals conclude with perfect high-treason. He promises, that +no person shall be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +of his coin in one payment: by which it is plain that he pretends to +oblige every subject in this kingdom to take so much in every payment, +if it be offered; whereas his patent obliges no man, nor can the +prerogative by law claim such a power, as I have often observed; so +that here Mr. Wood takes upon him the entire legislature, and an +absolute dominion over the properties of the whole nation.</p> + +<p>Good God! Who are this wretch's advisers? Who are his supporters, +abettors, encouragers, or sharers? Mr. Wood will oblige me to take +five-pence half-penny of his brass in every payment. And I will shoot +Mr. Wood and his deputies through the head, like highway-men or +house-breakers, if they dare to force one farthing of their coin upon +me in the payment of an hundred pounds. It is no loss of honour to +submit to the lion; but who, with the figure of a man can think with +patience of being devoured alive by a rat? He has laid a tax upon the +people of Ireland of seventeen shillings at least in the pound; a tax, +I say, not only upon lands, but interest-money, goods, manufactures, +the hire of handicraftsmen, labourers and servants. Shop-keepers, look +to yourselves. Wood will oblige and force you to take five-pence +half-penny of his trash in every payment, and<a name='Page_73'></a> many of you receive +twenty, thirty, forty, payments in one day, or else you can hardly +find bread: and pray consider how much that will amount to in a year; +twenty times five-pence half-penny is nine shillings and two-pence, +which is above an hundred and sixty pounds a year, whereof you will be +losers of at least one hundred and forty pounds by taking your +payments in his money. If any of you be content to deal with Mr. Wood +on such conditions they may. But for my own particular, let his money +perish with him. If the famous Mr. Hampden rather chose to go to +prison than pay a few shillings to King Charles I. without authority +of Parliament, I will rather choose to be hanged than have all my +substance taxed at seventeen shillings in the pound, at the arbitrary +will and pleasure of the venerable Mr. Wood.</p> + +<p>The paragraph concludes thus. <i>N.B.</i> (that is to say <i>nota bene</i>, or +mark well) No evidence appeared from Ireland or elsewhere, to prove +the mischiefs complained of, or any abuses whatsoever committed in the +execution of the said grant.</p> + +<p>The impudence of this remark exceeds all that went before. First, the +House of Commons in Ireland, which represents the whole people of the +kingdom; and secondly the Privy Council, addressed his majesty against +these half-pence. What could be done more to express the universal +sense and opinion<a name='Page_74'></a> of the nation? If his copper were diamonds, and the +kingdom were entirely against it, would not that be sufficient to +reject it? Must a committee of the House of Commons, and our whole +Privy Council go over to argue pro and con with Mr. Wood? To what end +did the king give his patent for coining of half-pence in Ireland? Was +it not, because it was represented to his sacred majesty, that such a +coinage would be of advantage to the good of this kingdom, and of all +his subjects here? It is to the patentee's peril if his representation +be false, and the execution of his patent be fraudulent and corrupt. +Is he so wicked and foolish to think that his patent was given him to +ruin a million and a half of people, that he might be a gainer of +three or fourscore thousand pounds to himself? Before he was at the +charge of passing a patent, much more of raking up so much filthy +dross, and stamping it with his majesty's image and superscription, +should he not first in common sense, in common equity, and common +manners, have consulted the principal party concerned; that is to say, +the people of the kingdom, the House of Lords or Commons, or the Privy +Council? If any foreigner should ask us, whose image and +superscription there is on Wood's coin, we should be ashamed to tell +him, it was Cæsar's. In that great want of copper half-pence, which +he alleges we were, our city set up our Cæsar's statue in excellent +copper, at an expence<a name='Page_75'></a> that is equal in value to thirty thousand +pounds of his coin; and we will not receive his image in worse metal.</p> + +<p>I observe many of our people putting a melancholy case on this +subject. It is true say they, we are all undone if Wood's half-pence +must pass; but what shall we do, if his majesty puts out a +proclamation commanding us to take them? This has been often dinned in +my ears. But I desire my countrymen to be assured that there is +nothing in it. The king never issues out a proclamation but to enjoin +what the law permits him. He will not issue out a proclamation against +law, or if such a thing should happen by a mistake, we are no more +obliged to obey it than to run our heads into the fire. Besides, his +majesty will never command us by a proclamation, what he does not +offer to command us in the patent itself. There he leaves it to our +discretion, so that our destruction must be entirely owing to +ourselves. Therefore let no man be afraid of a proclamation, which +will never be granted; and if it should, yet upon this occasion, will +be of no force. The king's revenues here are near four hundred +thousand pounds a year, can you think his ministers will advise him to +take them in Wood's brass, which will reduce the value to fifty +thousand pounds? England gets a million sterl. by this nation, which, +if this project goes on, will be almost reduc'd to nothing: and do you +think those who live in England upon Irish estates<a name='Page_76'></a> will be content to +take an eighth or a tenth part, by being paid in Wood's dross?</p> + +<p>If Wood and his confederates were not convinced of our stupidity, they +never would have attempted so audacious an enterprise. He now sees a +spirit hath been raised against him, and he only watches till it +begins to flag, he goes about watching when to devour us. He hopes we +shall be weary of contending with him, and at last out of ignorance, +or fear, or of being perfectly tired with opposition, we shall be +forced to yield. And therefore I confess it is my chief endeavour to +keep up your spirits and resentments. If I tell you there is a +precipice under you, and that if you go forwards you will certainly +break your necks—if I point to it before your eyes, must I be at the +trouble of repeating it every morning? Are our people's hearts waxed +gross? Are their ears dull of hearing, and have they closed their +eyes? I fear there are some few vipers among us, who, for ten or +twenty pounds' gain, would sell their souls and their country, though +at last it would end in their own ruin as well as ours. Be not like +the deaf adder, who refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he +never so wisely.</p> + +<p>Though my letter be directed to you, Mr. Harding, yet I intend it for +all my countrymen. I have no interest in this affair but what is +common to the public; I can live better than many others, I have some +gold and silver by me, and a shop well furnished,<a name='Page_77'></a> and shall be able +to make a shift when many of my betters are starving. But I am grieved +to see the coldness and indifference of many people with whom I +discourse. Some are afraid of a proclamation, others shrug up their +shoulders, and cry, what would you have us to do? Some give out, there +is no danger at all. Others are comforted that it will be a common +calamity and they shall fare no worse than their neighbours. Will a +man, who hears midnight-robbers at his door, get out of bed, and raise +his family for a common defence, and shall a whole kingdom lie in a +lethargy, while Mr. Wood comes at the head of his confederates to rob +them of all they have, to ruin us and our posterity for ever? If an +high-way-man meets you on the road, you give him your money to save +your life; but, God be thanked, Mr. Wood cannot touch a hair of your +heads. You have all the laws of God and man on your side. When he or +his accomplices offer you his dross, it is but saying No, and you are +safe. If a madman should come to my shop with a handful of dirt raked +out of the kennel, and offer it in payment for ten yards of stuff, I +would pity or laugh at him, or, if his behaviour deserved it, kick him +out of my doors. And if Mr. Wood comes to demand any gold or silver, +or commodities for which I have paid my gold and silver, in exchange +for his trash, can he deserve or expect better treatment?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_78'></a>When the evil day is come (if it must come) let us mark and observe +those who presume to offer these half-pence in payment. Let their +names and trades, and places of abode be made public, that every one +may be aware of them, as betrayers of their country, and confederates +with Mr. Wood. Let them be watched at markets and fairs, and let the +first honest discoverer give the word about, that Wood's half-pence +have been offered, and caution the poor innocent people not to receive +them.</p> + +<p>Perhaps I have been too tedious; but there would never be an end, if I +attempt to say all that this melancholy subject will bear. I will +conclude with humbly offering one proposal, which if it were put in +practice, would blow up this destructive project at once. Let some +skilful judicious pen draw up an advertisement to the following +purpose:</p> + +<p><i>Whereas one William Wood, hard-ware-man, now or lately sojourning in +the city of London, hath, by many misrepresentations, procured a +patent for coining an hundred and forty thousand pounds in copper +half-pence for this kingdom, which is a sum five times greater than +our occasions require: And whereas it is notorious that the said Wood +hath coined his half-pence of such base metal and false weight, that +they are, at least, six parts in seven below the real value: And +whereas we have reason to apprehend that the said Wood may, at any +time hereafter, clandestinely<a name='Page_79'></a> coin as many more half-pence as he +pleases: And whereas the said patent neither doth nor can oblige his +majesty's subjects to receive the said half-pence in any payment, but +leaves it to their voluntary choice, because, by law the subject +cannot be obliged to take any money except gold or silver: And +whereas, contrary to the letter and meaning of the said patent, the +said Wood hath declared that every person shall be obliged to take +five-pence half-penny of his coin in every payment: And whereas the +House of Commons and Privy Council have severally addressed his most +sacred majesty representing the ill consequences which the said +coinage may have upon this kingdom: And lastly, whereas it is +universally agreed, that the whole nation to a man (except Mr. Wood +and his confederates) are in the utmost apprehensions of the ruinous +consequences that must follow from the said coinage. Therefore we, +whose names are underwritten, being persons of considerable estates in +this kingdom, and residers therein, do unanimously resolve and declare +that we will never receive one farthing or half-penny of the said +Wood's coining, and that we will direct all our tenants to refuse the +said coin from any person whatsoever; of which, that they may not be +ignorant, we have sent them a copy of this advertisement, to be read +to them by our stewards, receivers, etc.</i></p> + +<p>I could wish, that a paper of this nature might be<a name='Page_80'></a> drawn up, and +signed by two or three hundred principal gentlemen of this kingdom, +and printed copies thereof sent to their several tenants; I am +deceived, if anything could sooner defeat this execrable design of +Wood and his accomplices. This would immediately give the alarm, and +set the kingdom on their guard. This would give courage to the meanest +tenant and cottager. <i>How long, O Lord, righteous and true</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>I must tell you in particular, Mr. Harding, that you are much to +blame. Several hundred persons have enquired at your house for my +Letter to the Shop-keepers, etc., and you had none to sell them. Pray +keep yourself provided with that letter and with this; you have got +very well by the former, but I did not then write for your sake, any +more than I do now. Pray advertise both in every news-paper, and let +it not be your fault or mine if our countrymen will not take warning. +I desire you likewise to sell them as cheap as you can.—I am your +Servant, M.B.</p> + +<p><i>Aug. 4, 1724.</i></p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_81'></a>IV.—'SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE'</h3> + +<h4>BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE</h4> + +<p>(<i>I have found the selection of a suitable sample of Burke to be my +most difficult task in this volume. All his writings, as I have +pointed out in the general introduction, are, after a sort, pamphlets; +and this of itself was an embarrassment. It was partly complicated and +partly lessened by the fact that the form of his speeches naturally +excluded them. Many of his other works—notably the </i>Thoughts on the +Present Discontents<i>, the immortal </i>Reflections on the French +Revolution<i>, and the </i>Appeal from the New Whigs to the Old<i>—were much +too long for a scheme in which I have made it a rule to give in each +case entire works or divisions of works. I at last reduced the +suitable candidates to three—the </i>Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe<i>, +that </i>To a Noble Lord<i>, and the present number of the </i>Letters on a +Regicide Peace<i>. The first<a name='Page_82'></a> went as being to some extent identical in +subject with the examples of another writer, Sydney Smith, which I had +already resolved on giving; the second as being too much in the nature +of a personal apologia. With the third, which I looked on at first +with least favour, I have become increasingly well satisfied. It has +not the gorgeous rhetoric of </i>The Letter to a Noble Lord<i>, the +</i>Reflections<i>, and others. It has nothing so lively as the contrast +between France and Algiers in its immediate predecessor. It may even +seem, to those who have accustomed themselves to think of Burke wholly +or mainly as a gorgeous rhetorician, rather tame as a whole. But if it +does not soar, it never droops; it is admirably proportioned, +admirably written, and admirably argued throughout, and it shows great +knowledge and mastery of foreign politics—the point in which English +statesmen have always been weakest. I may add that it seems to me a +triumphant refutation of the charge—constantly brought against Burke +not merely by extreme democrats, but by the usual advocate of the +</i>juste milieu<i>,—that in his later years, and especially in these very +Letters, he became a mere raving Gallophobe, with no sense of +proportion or circumstance. For my part, I have read scores, probably +hundreds, of books—English, French, and German—on the French +Revolution; I have never read one that made Burke obsolete. Let it +only be added that the author, who was born in 1730, was very near the +end of his career—he died next year—when<a name='Page_83'></a> he wrote these letters, +and that the peace proposals which he deprecated, and which he did not +a little to avert, were dictated on the one side by the sobering down +of the first Revolutionary fervour under the Directory; on the other +by the persistent ill-success of the Allies, and the conflicts of +interest and principle which had arisen among them.</i>)</p> + +<p>My dear Sir—I closed my first letter with serious matter, and I hope +it has employed your thoughts. The system of peace must have a +reference to the system of the war. On that ground, I must therefore +again recall your mind to our original opinions, which time and events +have not taught me to vary.</p> + +<p>My ideas and my principles led me, in this contest, to encounter +France, not as a state, but as a faction. The vast territorial extent +of that country, its immense population, its riches of production, its +riches of commerce and convention—the whole aggregate mass of what, +in ordinary cases, constitutes the force of a state, to me were but +objects of secondary consideration. They might be balanced; and they +have been often more than balanced. Great as these things are, they +are not what make the faction formidable. It is the faction that makes +them truly dreadful. That faction is the evil spirit that possesses +the body of France; that informs it as a soul; that stamps upon<a name='Page_84'></a> its +ambition, and upon all its pursuits, a characteristic mark, which +strongly distinguishes them from the same general passions, and the +same general views, in other men and in other communities. It is that +spirit which inspires into them a new, a pernicious, a desolating +activity. Constituted as France was ten years ago, it was not in that +France to shake, to shatter, and to overwhelm Europe in the manner +that we behold. A sure destruction impends over those infatuated +princes, who, in the conflict with this new and unheard-of power, +proceed as if they were engaged in a war that bore a resemblance to +their former contests; or that they can make peace in the spirit of +their former arrangements of pacification. Here the beaten path is the +very reverse of the safe road.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_85'></a>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 it is the +bank of deposit, and the bank of circulation, of all the pernicious +principles that are forming in every state. It will be 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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_86'></a> 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 +<i>disinterestedness</i> of their personal views; taking up arms for the +purpose of preserving social and political order amongst all civilised +nations, and to secure to <i>each</i> 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 piece '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. And all our +friends who took office acceded to the ministry (whether wisely or +not), as I always<a name='Page_87'></a> understood the matter, on the faith and on the +principles of that declaration.</p> + +<p>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 <i>civil war</i>; 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 <i>centre of Europe</i>; and that secured, they knew, that +whatever might be the event of battles and sieges, their <i>cause</i> 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.<a name='Page_88'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>They saw it was a <i>civil war</i>. It was their business to persuade their +adversaries that it ought to be a <i>foreign</i> 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.<a name='Page_89'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>defensive</i> 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. The<a name='Page_90'></a> aimed, or pretended to aim, at <i>defending</i> +themselves against a danger from which there can be no security in any +<i>defensive</i> plan. If armies and fortresses were a defence against +Jacobinism, Louis the Sixteenth would this day reign a powerful +monarch over a happy people.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_91'></a> weakening the victor, put him but the +further off from his object.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_92'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>It was not of that sort of war that I was amongst the least +considerable, but amongst the most zealous advisers; and it is not by +the sort of peace now talked of, that I wish it concluded. It would +answer no great purpose to enter into the particular errors of the +war. The whole has been but one error. It was but nominally a war of +alliance. As the combined powers pursued it there was nothing to hold +an alliance together. There could be no tie of <i>honour</i>, in a society +for pillage. There could be no tie of a common <i>interest</i> where the +object did not offer such a division amongst the parties as could well +give them a warm concern in the gains of each other, or could indeed +form such a body of equivalents, as might make one of them willing to +abandon a separate object of his ambition for the gratification of any +other member of the alliance. The partition of Poland offered an +object of spoil in which the parties <i>might</i> agree. They were +circumjacent, and each might take a portion convenient to his own +territory. They might dispute about the value of their several shares, +but the contiguity to each of the demandants always furnished the +means of an adjustment. Though hereafter the world will have cause to +rue this iniquitous<a name='Page_93'></a> measure, and they most who were the most +concerned in it, for the moment there was wherewithal in the object to +preserve peace amongst confederates in wrong. But the spoil of France +did not afford the same facilities for accommodation. What might +satisfy the house of Austria in a Flemish frontier, afforded no +equivalent to tempt the cupidity of the king of Prussia. What might be +desired by Great Britain in the West Indies, must be coldly and +remotely, if at all, felt as an interest at Vienna; and it would be +felt as something worse than a negative interest at Madrid. Austria, +long possessed with unwise and dangerous designs on Italy, could not +be very much in earnest about the conservation of the old patrimony of +the house of Savoy; and Sardinia, who owed to an Italian force all her +means of shutting out France from Italy, of which she has been +supposed to hold the key, would not purchase the means of strength +upon one side by yielding it on the other. She would not readily give +the possession of Novara for the hope of Savoy. No continental power +was willing to lose any of its continental objects for the increase of +the naval power of Great Britain; and Great Britain would not give up +any of the objects she sought for as the means of an increase to her +naval power, to further their aggrandisement.</p> + +<p>The moment this war came to be considered as a war merely of profit, +the actual circumstances are<a name='Page_94'></a> such that it never could become really a +war of alliance. Nor can the peace be a peace of alliance, until +things are put upon their right bottom.</p> + +<p>I do not find it denied that when a treaty is entered into for peace, +a demand will be made on the regicides to surrender a great part of +their conquests on the continent. Will they, in the present state of +the war, make that surrender without an equivalent? This continental +cession must of course be made in favour of that party in the alliance +that has suffered losses. That party has nothing to furnish towards an +equivalent. What equivalent, for instance, has Holland to offer, who +has lost her all? What equivalent can come from the Emperor, every +part of whose territories contiguous to France is already within the +pale of the regicide dominions? What equivalent has Sardinia to offer +for Savoy and for Nice, I may say for her whole being? What has she +taken from the faction of France? she has lost very near her all; and +she has gained nothing. What equivalent has Spain to give? Alas! she +has already paid for her own ransom the fund of equivalent, and a +dreadful equivalent it is, to England and to herself. But I put Spain +out of the question; she is a province of the Jacobin empire, and she +must make peace or war according to the orders she receives from the +directory of assassins. In effect and substance, her crown is a fief +of regicide.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_95'></a>Whence then can the compensation be demanded? Undoubtedly from that +power which alone has made some conquests. That power is England. Will +the allies then give away their ancient patrimony, that England may +keep islands in the West Indies? They never can protract the war in +good earnest for that object; nor can they act in concert with us, in +our refusal to grant anything towards their redemption. In that case +we are thus situated. Either we must give Europe, bound hand and foot, +to France; or we must quit the West Indies without any one object, +great or small, towards indemnity and security. I repeat it, without +any advantage whatever: because, supposing that our conquest could +comprise all that France ever possessed in the tropical America, it +never can amount in any fair estimation to a fair equivalent for +Holland, for the Austrian Netherlands, for the lower Germany, that is, +for the whole ancient kingdom or circle of Burgundy, now under the +yoke of regicide, to say nothing of almost all Italy under the same +barbarous domination. If we treat in the present situation of things, +we have nothing in our hands that can redeem Europe. Nor is the +Emperor, as I have observed, more rich in the fund of equivalents.</p> + +<p>If we look to our stock in the eastern world, our most valuable and +systematic acquisitions are made in that quarter. Is it from France +they are made? France has but one or two contemptible factories,<a name='Page_96'></a> +subsisting by the offal of the private fortunes of English individuals +to support them, in any part of India. I look on the taking of the +Cape of Good Hope as the securing of a post of great moment. It does +honour to those who planned, and to those who executed, that +enterprise: but I speak of it always as comparatively good; as good as +anything can be in a scheme of war that repels us from a centre, and +employs all our forces where nothing can be finally decisive. But +giving, as I freely give, every possible credit to these eastern +conquests, I ask one question,—on whom are they made? It is evident, +that if we can keep our eastern conquests we keep them not at the +expense of France, but at the expense of Holland our <i>ally</i>; of +Holland, the immediate cause of the war, the nation whom we had +undertaken to protect, and not of the republic which it was our +business to destroy. If we return the African and the Asiatic +conquests, we put them into the hands of a nominal state (to that +Holland is reduced) unable to retain them; and which will virtually +leave them under the direction of France. If we withhold them, Holland +declines still more as a state. She loses so much carrying trade, and +that means of keeping up the small degree of naval power she holds; +for which policy alone, and not for any commercial gain, she maintains +the Cape, or any settlement beyond it. In that case, resentment, +faction, and even necessity, will<a name='Page_97'></a> throw her more and more into the +power of the new, mischievous republic. But on the probable state of +Holland I shall say more, when in this correspondence I come to talk +over with you the state in which any sort of Jacobin peace will leave +all Europe.</p> + +<p>So far as to the East Indies.</p> + +<p>As to the West Indies, indeed as to either, if we look for matter of +exchange in order to ransom Europe, it is easy to show that we have +taken a terribly roundabout road. I cannot conceive, even if, for the +sake of holding conquests there, we should refuse to redeem Holland, +and the Austrian Netherlands, and the hither Germany, that Spain, +merely as she is Spain, (and forgetting that the regicide ambassador +governs at Madrid,) will see, with perfect satisfaction, Great Britain +sole mistress of the isles. In truth it appears to me, that, when we +come to balance our account, we shall find in the proposed peace only +the pure, simple, and unendowed charms of Jacobin amity. We shall have +the satisfaction of knowing, that no blood or treasure has been spared +by the allies for support of the regicide system. We shall reflect at +leisure on one great truth, that it was ten times more easy totally to +destroy the system itself, than, when established, it would be to +reduce its power; and that this republic, most formidable abroad, was +of all things the weakest at home; that her frontier was terrible, her +interior feeble; that it<a name='Page_98'></a> was matter of choice to attack her where she +is invincible, and to spare her where she was ready to dissolve by her +own internal disorders. We shall reflect, that our plan was good +neither for offence nor defence.</p> + +<p>It would not be at all difficult to prove, that an army of a hundred +thousand men, horse, foot, and artillery, might have been employed +against the enemy on the very soil which he has usurped, at a far less +expense than has been squandered away upon tropical adventures. In +these adventures it was not an enemy we had to vanquish, but a +cemetery to conquer. In carrying on the war in the West Indies, the +hostile sword is merciful; the country in which we engage is the +dreadful enemy. There the European conqueror finds a cruel defeat in +the very fruits of his success. Every advantage is but a new demand on +England for recruits to the West Indian grave. In a West India war, +the regicides have, for their troops, a race of fierce barbarians, to +whom the poisoned air, in which our youth inhale certain death, is +salubrity and life. To them the climate is the surest and most +faithful of allies.</p> + +<p>Had we carried on the war on the side of France which looks towards +the Channel or the Atlantic, we should have attacked our enemy on his +weak and unarmed side. We should not have to reckon on the loss of a +man who did not fall in battle. We<a name='Page_99'></a> should have an ally in the heart +of the country, who, to our hundred thousand, would at one time have +added eighty thousand men at the least, and all animated by principle, +by enthusiasm, and by vengeance; motives which secured them to the +cause in a very different manner from some of those allies whom we +subsidised with millions. This ally, (or rather this principal in the +war,) by the confession of the regicide himself, was more formidable +to him than all his other foes united. Warring there, we should have +led our arms to the capital of Wrong. Defeated, we could not fail +(proper precautions taken) of a sure retreat. Stationary, and only +supporting the royalists, an impenetrable barrier, an impregnable +rampart, would have been formed between the enemy and his naval power. +We are probably the only nation who have declined to act against an +enemy, when it might have been done in his own country; and who having +an armed, a powerful, and a long-victorious ally in that country, +declined all effectual co-operation, and suffered him to perish for +want of support. On the plan of a war in France, every advantage that +our allies might obtain would be doubled in its effect. Disasters on +the one side might have a fair chance of being compensated by +victories on the other. Had we brought the main of our force to bear +upon that quarter, all the operations of the British and Imperial +crowns would have been combined. The war would<a name='Page_100'></a> have had system, +correspondence, and a certain direction. But as the war has been +pursued, the operations of the two crowns have not the smallest degree +of mutual bearing or relation.</p> + +<p>Had acquisitions in the West Indies been our object, on success in +France, everything reasonable in those remote parts might be demanded +with decorum, and justice, and a sure effect. Well might we call for a +recompence in America, for those services to which Europe owed its +safety. Having abandoned this obvious policy connected with principle, +we have seen the regicide power taking the reverse course, and making +real conquests in the West Indies, to which all our dear-bought +advantages (if we could hold them) are mean and contemptible. The +noblest island within the tropics, worth all that we possess put +together, is, by the vassal Spaniard, delivered into her hands. The +island of Hispaniola (of which we have but one poor corner, by a +slippery hold) is perhaps equal to England in extent, and in fertility +is far superior. The part possessed by Spain, of that great island, +made for the seat and centre of a tropical empire, was not improved, +to be sure, as the French division had been, before it was +systematically destroyed by the cannibal republic; but it is not only +the far larger, but the far more salubrious and more fertile part.</p> + +<p>It was delivered into the hands of the barbarians<a name='Page_101'></a> without, as I can +find, any public reclamation on our part, not only in contravention to +one of the fundamental treaties that compose the public law of Europe, +but in defiance of the fundamental colonial policy of Spain herself. +This part of the treaty of Utrecht was made for great general ends +unquestionably; but whilst it provided for those general ends, it was +in affirmance of that particular policy. It was not to injure, but to +save Spain by making a settlement of her estate, which prohibited her +to alienate to France. It is her policy not to see the balance of West +Indian power overturned by France or by Great Britain. Whilst the +monarchies subsisted, this unprincipled cession was what the influence +of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon never dared to attempt on +the younger: but cannibal terror has been more powerful than family +influence. The Bourbon monarchy of Spain is united to the republic of +France, by what may be truly called the ties of blood.</p> + +<p>By this measure the balance of power in the West Indies is totally +destroyed. It has followed the balance of power in Europe. It is not +alone what shall be left nominally to the assassins that is theirs. +Theirs is the whole empire of Spain in America. That stroke finishes +all. I should be glad to see our suppliant negotiator in the act of +putting his feather to the ear of the directory, to make it unclinch +the fist; and, by his tickling, to charm that rich prize out<a name='Page_102'></a> of the +iron gripe of robbery and ambition! It does not require much sagacity +to discern that no power wholly baffled and defeated in Europe can +flatter itself with conquests in the West Indies. In that state of +things it can neither keep nor hold. No! It cannot even long make war +if the grand bank and deposit of its force is at all in the West +Indies. But here a scene opens to my view too important to pass by, +perhaps too critical to touch. Is it possible that it should not +present itself in all its relations to a mind habituated to consider +either war or peace on a large scale, or as one whole?</p> + +<p>Unfortunately other ideas have prevailed. A remote, an expensive, a +murderous, and, in the end, an unproductive adventure, carried on upon +ideas of mercantile knight-errantry, without any of the generous +wildness of Quixotism, is considered as sound, solid sense; and a war +in a wholesome climate, a war at our door, a war directly on the +enemy, a war in the heart of his country, a war in concert with an +internal ally, and in combination with the external, is regarded as +folly and romance.</p> + +<p>My dear friend, I hold it impossible that these considerations should +have escaped the statesmen on both sides of the water, and on both +sides of the House of Commons. 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<a name='Page_103'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>Such is the time proposed for making a <i>common political peace</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_104'></a>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 connexion under the terms of +'<i>the usual relations of peace and amity</i>.' 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.</p> + +<p>All this body of old conventions, composing the vast and voluminous +collection called the <i>corps diplomatique</i>, forms the code or statute +law, as the methodised reasonings of the great publicists and jurists +from the digest and jurisprudence of the Christian world. In these +treasures are to be found the <i>usual</i> relations of peace and amity in +civilised<a name='Page_105'></a> Europe; and there the relations of ancient France were to +be found amongst the rest.</p> + +<p>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 <i>usual</i> relations +of the states of Europe.</p> + +<p>The Revolution in France had the relation of France to other nations +as one of its principal objects. The changes made by that Revolution +were not the better to accommodate her to the old and usual relations, +but to produce new ones. The Revolution was made, not to make France +free, but to make her formidable; not to make her a neighbour, but a +mistress; not to make her more observant of laws, but to put her in a +condition to impose them. To make France truly formidable it was +necessary that France should be new modelled. They, who have not +followed the train of the late proceedings, have been led by deceitful +representations (which deceit made a part in the plan) to conceive +that this totally new model of a state, in which nothing escaped a<a name='Page_106'></a> +change, was made with a view to its internal relations only.</p> + +<p>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 proselytising spirit, in which they were not +exceeded by Mahomet himself.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_107'></a> 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 counterwork 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<a name='Page_108'></a> of some power +can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true +character of any man. Without reading the speeches of Vergniaux, +Françias of Nantz, 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 phrensy 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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_109'></a> 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 straight forward 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. Without question, to bring about the unexampled event of the +French Revolution, the concurrence of a very great number of views and +passions was necessary. In that stupendous work, no one principle, by +which the human mind may have its faculties at once invigorated and +depraved, was left unemployed; but I can speak it to a certainty, and +support it by undoubted proofs, that the ruling principle of those who +acted in the Revolution as <i>statesmen</i>, had the exterior +aggrandisement of France as their ultimate end in the most minute part +of the internal changes that were made. We, who of late years have +been drawn from an attention to foreign affairs by the importance of +our domestic discussions, cannot easily form a conception of the +general eagerness of the active and energetic part of the French +nation, itself the most active and energetic of all nations, previous +to its<a name='Page_110'></a> Revolution, upon that subject. I am convinced that the foreign +speculators in France, under the old government, were twenty to one of +the same description then or now in England; and few of that +description there were, who did not emulously set forward the +Revolution. The whole official system, particularly in the diplomatic +part, the regulars, the irregulars, down to the clerks in office, (a +corps, without comparison, more numerous than the same amongst us,) +co-operated in it. All the intriguers in foreign politics, all the +spies, all the intelligencers, actually or late in function, all the +candidates for that sort of employment, acted solely upon that +principle.</p> + +<p>On that system of aggrandisement there was but one mind: but two +violent factions arose about the means. The first wished France, +diverted from the politics of the continent, to attend solely to her +marine, to feed it by an increase of commerce, and thereby to +overpower England on her own element. They contended, that if England +were disabled, the powers on the continent would fall into their +proper subordination; that it was England which deranged the whole +continental system of Europe. The others, who were by far the more +numerous, though not the most outwardly prevalent at court, considered +this plan for France as contrary to her genius, her situation, and her +natural means. They agree as to the ultimate object, the reduction of +the British power,<a name='Page_111'></a> and, if possible, its naval power; but they +considered an ascendency on the continent as a necessary preliminary +to that undertaking. They argued, that the proceedings of England +herself had proved the soundness of this policy. That her greatest and +ablest statesmen had not considered the support of a continental +balance against France as a deviation from the principle of her naval +power, but as one of the most effectual modes of carrying it into +effect. That such had been her policy ever since the Revolution, +during which period the naval strength of Great Britain had gone on +increasing in the direct ratio of her interference in the politics of +the continent. With much stronger reason ought the politics of France +to take the same direction; as well for pursuing objects which her +situation would dictate to her, though England had no existence, as +for counteracting the politics of that nation; to France continental +politics are primary; they looked on them only of secondary +consideration to England, and, however necessary, but as means +necessary to an end.</p> + +<p>What is truly astonishing, the partisans of those two opposite systems +were at once prevalent, and at once employed, and in the very same +transactions—the one ostensibly, the other secretly, during the +latter part of the reign of Louis XV. Nor was there one court in which +an ambassador resided on the part<a name='Page_112'></a> of the ministers, in which another, +as a spy on him, did not also reside on the part of the king. They who +pursued the scheme for keeping peace on the continent, and +particularly with Austria, acting officially and publicly, the other +faction counteracting and opposing them. These private agents were +continually going from their function to the Bastile, and from the +Bastile to employment, and favour again. An inextricable cabal was +formed, some of persons of rank, others of subordinates. But by this +means the corps of politicians was augmented in number, and the whole +formed a body of active, adventuring, ambitious, discontented people, +despising the regular ministry, despising the courts at which they +were employed, despising the court which employed them.</p> + +<p>The unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth was not the first cause of the +evil by which he suffered. He came to it, as to a sort of inheritance, +by the false politics of his immediate predecessor. This system of +dark and perplexed intrigue had come to its perfection before he came +to the throne: and even then the Revolution strongly operated in all +its causes.</p> + +<p>There was no point on which the discontented diplomatic politicians so +bitterly arraigned their cabinet, as for the decay of French influence +in all others. From quarrelling with the court, they began to complain +of monarchy itself, as a system of government too variable for any +regular plan of<a name='Page_113'></a> national aggrandisement. They observed, that in that +sort of regimen too much depended on the personal character of the +prince; that the vicissitudes produced by the succession of princes of +a different character, and even the vicissitudes produced in the same +man, by the different views and inclinations belonging to youth, +manhood, and age, disturbed and distracted the policy of a country +made by nature for extensive empire, or, what was still more to their +taste, for that sort of general over-ruling influence which prepared +empire or supplied the place of it. They had continually in their +hands the observations of <i>Machiavel</i> on <i>Livy</i>. They had +<i>Montesquieu's Grandeur et Décadence des Romains</i> as a manual; and +they compared, with mortification, the systematic proceedings of a +Roman senate with the fluctuations of a monarchy. They observed the +very small additions of territory which all the power of France, +actuated by all the ambition of France, had acquired in two centuries. +The Romans had frequently acquired more in a single year. They +severely and in every part of it criticised the reign of Louis XIV., +whose irregular and desultory ambition had more provoked than +endangered Europe. Indeed, they who will be at the pains of seriously +considering the history of that period will see that those French +politicians had some reason. They who will not take the trouble of +reviewing it through all its wars and all its negotiations,<a name='Page_114'></a> will +consult the short but judicious criticism of the Marquis de +Montalembert on that subject. It may be read separately from his +ingenious system of fortification and military defence, on the +practical merit of which I am unable to form a judgment.</p> + +<p>The diplomatic politicians of whom I speak, and who formed by far the +majority in that class, made disadvantageous comparisons even between +their more legal and formalising monarchy, and the monarchies of other +states, as a system of power and influence. They observed that France +not only lost ground herself, but, through the languor and +unsteadiness of her pursuits, and from her aiming through commerce at +naval force which she never could attain without losing more on one +side than she could gain on the other, that three great powers, each +of them (as military states) capable of balancing her, had grown up on +the continent. Russia and Prussia had been created almost within +memory; and Austria, though not a new power, and even curtailed in +territory, was, by the very collision in which she lost that +territory, greatly improved in her military discipline and force. +During the reign of Maria Theresa the interior economy of the country +was made more to correspond with the support of great armies than +formerly it had been. As to Prussia, a merely military power, they +observed that one war had enriched her with as considerable a conquest +as<a name='Page_115'></a> France had acquired in centuries. Russia had broken the Turkish +power by which Austria might be, as formerly she had been, balanced in +favour of France. They felt it with pain, that the two northern powers +of Sweden and Denmark were in general under the sway of Russia; or +that, at best, France kept up a very doubtful conflict, with many +fluctuations of fortune, and at an enormous expense, in Sweden. In +Holland, the French party seemed, if not extinguished, at least +utterly obscured, and kept under by a stadtholder, leaning for support +sometimes on Great Britain, sometimes on Prussia, sometimes on both, +never on France. Even the spreading of the Bourbon family had become +merely a family accommodation; and had little effect on the national +politics. This alliance, they said, extinguished Spain by destroying +all its energy, without adding anything to the real power of France in +the accession of the forces of its great rival. In Italy, the same +family accommodation, the same national insignificance, were equally +visible. What cure for the radical weakness of the French monarchy, to +which all the means which wit could devise, or nature and fortune +could bestow, towards universal empire, was not of force to give life, +or vigour, or consistency,—but in a Republic? Out the word came; and +it never went back.</p> + +<p>Whether they reasoned, right or wrong, or that<a name='Page_116'></a> there was some mixture +of right and wrong in their reasoning, I am sure, that in this manner +they felt and reasoned. The different effects of a great military and +ambitious republic, and of a monarchy of the same description, were +constantly in their mouths. The principle was ready to operate when +opportunities should offer, which few of them indeed foresaw in the +extent in which they were afterwards presented; but these +opportunities, in some degree or other, they all ardently wished for.</p> + +<p>When I was in Paris in 1773, the treaty of 1756 between Austria and +France was deplored as a national calamity; because it united France +in friendship with a power at whose expense alone they could hope any +continental aggrandisement. When the first partition of Poland was +made, in which France had no share, and which had further aggrandised +every one of the three powers of which they were most jealous, I found +them in a perfect phrensy of rage and indignation: not that they were +hurt at the shocking and uncoloured violence and injustice of that +partition, but at the debility, improvidence, and want of activity, in +their government, in not preventing it as a means of aggrandisement to +their rivals, or in not contriving, by exchanges of some kind or +other, to obtain their share of advantage from that robbery.</p> + +<p>In that or nearly in that state of things and of opinions, came the +Austrian match; which promised<a name='Page_117'></a> to draw the knot, as afterwards in +effect it did, still more closely between the old rival houses. This +added exceedingly to their hatred and contempt of their monarchy. It +was for this reason that the late glorious queen, who on all accounts +was formed to produce general love and admiration, and whose life was +as mild and beneficent as her death was beyond example great and +heroic, became so very soon and so very much the object of an +implacable rancour, never to be extinguished but in her blood. When I +wrote my letter in answer to M. de Menonville, in the beginning of +January, 1791, I had good reason for thinking that this description of +revolutionists did not so early nor so steadily point their murderous +designs at the martyr king as at the royal heroine. It was accident, +and the momentary depression of that part of the faction, that gave to +the husband the happy priority in death.</p> + +<p>From this their restless desire of an over-ruling influence, they bent +a very great part of their designs and efforts to revive the old +French party, which was a democratic party in Holland, and to make a +revolution there. They were happy at the troubles which the singular +imprudence of Joseph the Second had stirred up in the Austrian +Netherlands. They rejoiced when they saw him irritate his subjects, +profess philosophy, send away the Dutch garrisons, and dismantle his +fortifications. As to Holland,<a name='Page_118'></a> they never forgave either the king or +the ministry, for suffering that object, which they justly looked on +as principal in their design of reducing the power of England, to +escape out of their hands. This was the true secret of the commercial +treaty, made, on their part, against all the old rules and principles +of commerce, with a view of diverting the English nation, by a pursuit +of immediate profit, from an attention to the progress of France in +its designs upon that republic. The system of the economists, which +led to the general opening of commerce, facilitated that treaty, but +did not produce it. They were in despair when they found that by the +vigour of Mr. Pitt, supported in this point by Mr. Fox and the +opposition, the object to which they had sacrificed their manufactures +was lost to their ambition.</p> + +<p>This eager desire of raising France from the condition into which she +had fallen, as they conceived, from her monarchical imbecility, had +been the main-spring of their precedent interference in that unhappy +American quarrel, the bad effects of which to this nation have not, as +yet, fully disclosed themselves. These sentiments had been long +lurking in their breasts, though their views were only discovered now +and then, in heat and as by escapes; but on this occasion they +exploded suddenly. They were professed with ostentation and propagated +with zeal. These sentiments were not produced, as some think,<a name='Page_119'></a> by +their American alliance. The American alliance was produced by their +republican principles and republican policy. This new relation +undoubtedly did much. The discourses and cabals that it produced, the +intercourse that it established, and, above all, the example, which +made it seem practicable to establish a republic in a great extent of +country, finished the work, and gave to that part of the revolutionary +faction a degree of strength which required other energies than the +late king possessed, to resist, or even to restrain. It spread +everywhere; but it was nowhere more prevalent than in the heart of the +court. The palace of Versailles, by its language, seemed a forum of +democracy. To have pointed out to most of those politicians, from +their dispositions and movements, what has since happened, the fall of +their own monarchy, of their own laws, of their own religion, would +have been to furnish a motive the more for pushing forward a system on +which they considered all these things as encumbrances. Such in truth +they were. And we have seen them succeed not only in the destruction +of their monarchy, but in all the objects of ambition that they +proposed from that destruction. 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<a name='Page_120'></a> 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 +<i>peculiar</i> 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 concentred, or made to bear with the whole force of the nation +upon one point.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_121'></a>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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_122'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 complexity 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. In that country entirely to cut off a +branch of commerce, to extinguish a manufacture, to destroy the +circulation of money, to violate credit, to suspend the course of +agriculture, even to burn a city, or to lay waste a province of their +own, does not cost them a moment's anxiety. To them the will, the +wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals, is as +nothing. Individuality is left out of their scheme of government. The +state is all in all. Everything is referred to the production of +force; afterwards, everything is trusted to the use of it. It is +military in its principle, in its maxims, in its spirit, and in all +its movements. The state has dominion and conquest for its sole +objects; dominion over minds by proselytism, over bodies by arms.</p> + +<p>Thus constituted, with an immense body of natural<a name='Page_123'></a> means which are +lessened in their amount only to be increased in their effect, France +has, since the accomplishment of the Revolution, a complete unity in +its direction. It has destroyed every resource of the state which +depends upon opinion and the good-will of individuals. The riches of +convention disappear. The advantages of nature in some measure remain: +even these, I admit, are astonishingly lessened; the command over what +remains is complete and absolute. We go about asking when assignats +will expire, and we laugh at the last price of them. But what +signifies the fate of those tickets of despotism? The despotism will +find despotic means of supply. They have found the short cut to the +productions of nature, while others, in pursuit of them, are obliged +to wind through the labyrinth of a very intricate state of society. +They seize upon the fruit of the labour; they seize upon the labourer +himself. Were France but half of what it is in population, in +compactness, in applicability of its force, situated as it is, and +being what it is, it would be too strong for most of the states of +Europe, constituted as they are, and proceeding as they proceed. Would +it be wise to estimate what the world of Europe, as well as the world +of Asia, had to dread from Genghiz Khân, upon a contemplation of the +resources of the cold and barren spot in the remotest Tartary, from +whence first issued that scourge of the human race? Ought we<a name='Page_124'></a> to judge +from the excise and stamp duties of the rocks, or from the paper +circulation of the sands of Arabia, the power by which Mahomet and his +tribes laid hold at once on the two most powerful empires of the +world; beat one of them totally to the ground, broke to pieces the +other, and, in not much longer space of time than I have lived, +overturned governments, laws, manners, religion, and extended an +empire from the Indus to the Pyrenees?</p> + +<p>Material resources never have supplied, nor ever can supply, the want +of unity in design, and constancy in pursuit. But unity in design, and +perseverance and boldness in pursuit, have never wanted resources, and +never will. We have not considered as we ought the dreadful energy of +a state in which the property has nothing to do with the government. +Reflect, my dear Sir, reflect again and again, on a government, in +which the property is in complete subjection, and where nothing rules +but the mind of desperate men. The condition of a commonwealth not +governed by its property was a combination of things which the learned +and ingenious speculator Harrington, who has tossed about society into +all forms, never could imagine to be possible. We have seen it; the +world has felt it; and if the world will shut their eyes to this state +of things, they will feel it more. The rulers there have found their +resources in crimes. The discovery is dreadful; the mine exhaustless.<a name='Page_125'></a> +They have everything to gain, and they have nothing to lose. They have +a boundless inheritance in hope; and there is no medium for them, +betwixt the highest elevation, and death with infamy. Never can they, +who; from the miserable servitude of the desk, have been raised to +empire, again submit to the bondage of a starving bureau, or the +profit of copying music, or writing plaidoyers by the sheet. It has +made me often smile in bitterness, when I have heard talk of an +indemnity to such men, provided they return to their allegiance.</p> + +<p>From all this, what is my inference? It is, that this new system of +robbery in France cannot be rendered safe by any art; that it <i>must</i> +be destroyed, or that it will destroy all Europe; that to destroy that +enemy, by some means or other, the force opposed to it should be made +to bear some analogy and resemblance to the force and spirit which +that system exerts; that war ought to be made against it, in its +vulnerable parts. These are my inferences. In one word, with this +republic nothing independent can co-exist The errors of Louis XVI. +were more pardonable to prudence, than any of those of the same kind +into which the allied courts may fall. They have the benefit of his +dreadful example.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_126'></a> +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 impostors. 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.</p> + +<p>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 all 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<a name='Page_127'></a> 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 +negotiations, 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 XIII. had force enough to +destroy the republican system of the Protestants at home.</p> + +<p>Louis XVI. 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<a name='Page_128'></a> 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 connexions, 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 violently 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<a name='Page_129'></a> +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 XVI., 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 +XVI. 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 out-work +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.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_130'></a>With this example before their eyes, do any ministers in England, do +any ministers in Austria, really flatter themselves that they can +erect, not on the remote shores of the Atlantic, but in their view, in +their vicinity, in absolute contact with one of them, not a commercial +but a martial republic—a republic not of simple husbandmen or +fishermen, but of intriguers, and of warriors—a republic of a +character the most restless, the most enterprising, the most impious, +the most fierce and bloody, the most hypocritical and perfidious, the +most bold and daring, that ever has been seen, or indeed that can be +conceived to exist, without bringing on their own certain ruin?</p> + +<p>Such is the republic to which we are going to give a place in +civilised fellowship: the republic, which, with joint consent, we are +going to establish in the centre of Europe, in a post that overlooks +and commands every other state, and which eminently confronts and +menaces this kingdom.</p> + +<p>You cannot fail to observe that I speak as if the allied powers were +actually consenting, and not compelled by events to the establishment +of this faction in France. The words have not escaped me. You will +hereafter naturally expect that I should make them good. But whether +in adopting this measure we are madly active, or weakly passive, or +pusillanimously panic struck, the effects will be the same. You may +call this faction, which has eradicated<a name='Page_131'></a> the monarchy,—expelled the +proprietary, persecuted religion, and trampled upon law,—you may call +this France if you please: but of the ancient France nothing remains +but its central geography; its iron frontier; its spirit of ambition; +its audacity of enterprise; its perplexing intrigue. These, and these +alone, remain: and they remain heightened in their principle and +augmented in their means. All the former correctives, whether of +virtue or of weakness, which existed in the old monarchy, are gone. No +single new corrective is to be found in the whole body of the new +institutions. How should such a thing be found there, when everything +has been chosen with care and selection to forward all those ambitious +designs and dispositions, not to control them? The whole is a body of +ways and means for the supply of dominion, without one heterogeneous +particle in it.</p> + +<p>Here I suffer you to breathe, and leave to your meditation what has +occurred to me on the <i>genius and character</i> of the French Revolution. +From having this before us, we may be better able to determine on the +first question I proposed, that is, how far nations, called foreign, +are likely to be affected with the system established within that +territory. I intended to proceed next on the question of her +facilities, from <i>the internal state of other nations, and +particularly of this</i>, for obtaining her ends: but I ought to be<a name='Page_132'></a> +aware that my notions are controverted.—I mean, therefore, in my next +letter, to take notice of what, in that way, has been recommended to +me as the most deserving of notice. In the examination of those +pieces, I shall have occasion to discuss some others of the topics to +which I have called your attention. You know that the letters which I +now send to the press, as well as a part of what is to follow, have +been in their substance long since written. A circumstance which your +partiality alone could make of importance to you, but which to the +public is of no importance at all, retarded their appearance. The late +events which press upon us obliged me to make some additions; but no +substantial change in the matter.</p> + +<p>This discussion, my friend, will be long. But the matter is serious; +and if ever the fate of the world could be truly said to depend on a +particular measure, it is upon this peace. For the present, farewell.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_133'></a>V.—'PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS'</h3> + +<h4>BY SYDNEY SMITH</h4> + +<h5>(LETTERS II., VI., VII., IX.)</h5> + +<p>(<i>The pamphleteering spirit is strong in almost all Sydney Smith's +'Contributions to the </i>Edinburgh Review<i>,' but the form and subjects +of those contributions exclude them here. Of his two great pamphlet +issues proper, </i>Peter Plymley's Letters<i> and those </i>To Archdeacon +Singleton<i>, the former are, though perhaps of less polished and +perfect wit than the latter, more distinctly political, and have more +of that </i>diable au corps<i> which Voltaire considered necessary to +success in the arts. They have also the advantage that, while the +</i>Letters to Archdeacon Singleton<i>, though not an avowed recantation, +are in the nature of a palinode—always an awkward thing—</i>Plymley<i> is +frankly and confidently, not to say wantonly, aggressive. These +</i>Letters<i>, ten in number, were written just after the fall of the +mainly Whig Ministry of 'All the Talents,' to which Sydney had been +indebted for his prefer<a name='Page_134'></a>ment of Foston, and which lost its position +not least owing to its intended support of the 'Catholic' claims. +Those claims were not admitted for twenty years later; and Sydney's +advocacy of them was regarded as a little too exuberant by some even +of his own party. But there is no doubt that the </i>Letters<i> had a great +influence in laughing if not in arguing sections of the public round +to the Emancipation side.</i>)</p> + +<h3>LETTER II.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—The Catholic not respect an oath! why not? What upon +earth has kept him out of Parliament, or excluded him from all the +offices whence he is excluded, but his respect for oaths? There is no +law which prohibits a Catholic to sit in Parliament. There could be no +such law; because it is impossible to find out what passes in the +interior of any man's mind. Suppose it were in contemplation to +exclude all men from certain offices who contended for the legality of +taking tithes: the only mode of discovering that fervid love of +decimation which I know you to possess would be to tender you an oath +"against that damnable doctrine, that it is lawful for a spiritual man +to take, abstract, appropriate, subduct, or lead away the tenth calf, +sheep, lamb, ox, pigeon, duck," etc., etc., etc., and every other +animal that ever existed, which of course the lawyers would take care +to enumerate. Now this<a name='Page_135'></a> oath I am sure you would rather die than take; +and so the Catholic is excluded from Parliament because he will not +swear that he disbelieves the leading doctrines of his religion! The +Catholic asks you to abolish some oaths which oppress him; your answer +is that he does not respect oaths. Then why subject him to the test of +oaths? The oaths keep him out of Parliament; why, then, he respects +them. Turn which way you will, either your laws are nugatory, or the +Catholic is bound by religious obligations as you are; but no eel in +the well-sanded fist of a cook-maid, upon the eve of being skinned, +ever twisted and writhed as an orthodox parson does when he is +compelled by the gripe of reason to admit anything in favour of a +dissenter.</p> + +<p>I will not dispute with you whether the Pope be or be not the Scarlet +Lady of Babylon. I hope it is not so; because I am afraid it will +induce His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer to introduce several +severe bills against popery, if that is the case; and though he will +have the decency to appoint a previous committee of inquiry as to the +fact, the committee will be garbled, and the report inflammatory. +Leaving this to be settled as he pleases to settle it, I wish to +inform you, that, previously to the bill last passed in favour of the +Catholics, at the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, and for his satisfaction, +the opinions of six of the most celebrated of the foreign Catholic +universities<a name='Page_136'></a> were taken as to the right of the Pope to interfere in +the temporal concerns of any country. The answer cannot possibly leave +the shadow of a doubt, even in the mind of Baron Maseres; and Dr. +Rennel would be compelled to admit it, if three Bishops lay dead at +the very moment the question were put to him. To this answer might be +added also the solemn declaration and signature of all the Catholics +in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>I should perfectly agree with you, if the Catholics admitted such a +dangerous dispensing power in the hands of the Pope; but they all deny +it, and laugh at it, and are ready to abjure it in the most decided +manner you can devise. They obey the Pope as the spiritual head of +their Church; but are you really so foolish as to be imposed upon by +mere names? What matters it the seven-thousandth part of a farthing +who is the spiritual head of any Church? Is not Mr. Wilberforce at the +head of the Church of Clapham? Is not Dr. Letsom at the head of the +Quaker Church? Is not the General Assembly at the head of the Church +of Scotland? How is the government disturbed by these many-headed +Churches? or in what way is the power of the Crown augmented by this +almost nominal dignity?</p> + +<p>The King appoints a fast-day once a year, and he makes the bishops: +and if the government would take half the pains to keep the Catholics +out of the arms of France that it does to widen Temple Bar, or +improve<a name='Page_137'></a> Snow Hill, the King would get into his hands the appointments +of the titular Bishops of Ireland. Both Mr. C——'s sisters enjoy +pensions more than sufficient to place the two greatest dignitaries of +the Irish Catholic Church entirely at the disposal of the Crown. +Everybody who knows Ireland knows perfectly well, that nothing would +be easier, with the expenditure of a little money, than to preserve +enough of the ostensible appointment in the hands of the Pope to +satisfy the scruples of the Catholics, while the real nomination +remained with the Crown. But, as I have before said, the moment the +very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to +common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the +barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots.</p> + +<p>Whatever your opinion may be of the follies of the Roman Catholic +religion, remember they are the follies of four millions of human +beings, increasing rapidly in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, who, +if firmly united with this country, would set at defiance the power of +France, and if once wrested from their alliance with England, would in +three years render its existence as an independent nation absolutely +impossible. You speak of danger to the Establishment: I request to +know when the Establishment was ever so much in danger as when Hoche +was in Bantry Bay, and whether all the books of Bossuet, or the arts +of<a name='Page_138'></a> the Jesuits, were half so terrible? Mr. Perceval and his parsons +forget all this, in their horror lest twelve or fourteen old women may +be converted to holy water and Catholic nonsense. They never see that, +while they are saving these venerable ladies from perdition, Ireland +may be lost, England broken down, and the Protestant Church, with all +its deans, prebendaries, Percevals, and Rennels, be swept into the +vortex of oblivion.</p> + +<p>Do not, I beseech you, ever mention to me again the name of Dr. +Duigenan. I have been in every corner of Ireland, and have studied its +present strength and condition with no common labour. Be assured +Ireland does not contain at this moment less than five millions of +people. There were returned in the year 1791 to the hearth tax 701,000 +houses, and there is no kind of question that there were about 50,000 +houses omitted in that return. Taking, however, only the number +returned for the tax, and allowing the average of six to a house (a +very small average for a potato-fed people), this brings the +population to 4,200,000 people in the year 1791: and it can be shown +from the clearest evidence (and Mr. Newenham in his book shows it), +that Ireland for the last fifty years has increased in its population +at the rate of 50 or 60,000 per annum; which leaves the present +population of Ireland at about five millions, after every possible +deduction for <i>existing circumstances, just and necessary <a name='Page_139'></a>wars, +monstrous and unnatural rebellions</i>, and all other sources of human +destruction. Of this population, two out of ten are Protestants; and +the half of the Protestant population are Dissenters, and as inimical +to the Church as the Catholics themselves. In this state of things +thumbscrews and whipping—admirable engines of policy as they must be +considered to be—will not ultimately avail. The Catholics will hang +over you; they will watch for the moment, and compel you hereafter to +give them ten times as much, against your will, as they would now be +contented with, if it were voluntarily surrendered. Remember what +happened in the American war, when Ireland compelled you to give her +everything she asked, and to renounce, in the most explicit manner, +your claim of Sovereignty over her. God Almighty grant the folly of +these present men may not bring on such another crisis of public +affairs!</p> + +<p>What are your dangers which threaten the Establishment?—Reduce this +declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean. The most +ample allowance does not calculate that there would be more than +twenty members who were Roman Catholics in one house, and ten in the +other, if the Catholic emancipation were carried into effect. Do you +mean that these thirty members would bring in a bill to take away the +tithes from the Protestant, and to pay them to the Catholic clergy? Do +you mean that a Catholic<a name='Page_140'></a> general would march his army into the House +of Commons, and purge it of Mr. Perceval and Dr. Duigenan? or, that +the theological writers would become all of a sudden more acute or +more learned, if the present civil incapacities were removed? Do you +fear for your tithes, or your doctrines, or your person, or the +English Constitution? Every fear, taken separately, is so glaringly +absurd, that no man has the folly or the boldness to state it. Every +one conceals his ignorance, or his baseness, in a stupid general +panic, which, when called on, he is utterly incapable of explaining. +Whatever you think of the Catholics, there they are—you cannot get +rid of them; your alternative is to give them a lawful place for +stating their grievances, or an unlawful one: if you do not admit them +to the House of Commons, they will hold their parliament in Potatoe +Place, Dublin, and be ten times as violent and inflammatory as they +would be in Westminster. Nothing would give me such an idea of +security as to see twenty or thirty Catholic gentlemen in Parliament, +looked upon by all the Catholics as the fair and proper organ of their +party. I should have thought it the height of good fortune that such a +wish existed on their part, and the very essence of madness and +ignorance to reject it. Can you murder the Catholics? Can you neglect +them? They are too numerous for both these expedients. What remains to +be done is obvious to every human being—<a name='Page_141'></a>but to that man who, instead +of being a Methodist preacher, is, for the curse of us and our +children, and for the ruin of Troy and the misery of good old Priam +and his sons, become a legislator and a politician.</p> + +<p>A distinction, I perceive, is taken by one of the most feeble noblemen +in Great Britain, between persecution and the deprivation of political +power; whereas, there is no more distinction between these two things +than there is between him who makes the distinction and a booby. If I +strip off the relic-covered jacket of a Catholic, and give him twenty +stripes ... I persecute; if I say, Everybody in the town where you +live shall be a candidate for lucrative and honourable offices, but +you, who are a Catholic ... I do not persecute! What barbarous +nonsense is this! as if degradation was not as great an evil as bodily +pain or as severe poverty: as if I could not be as great a tyrant by +saying, You shall not enjoy—as by saying, You shall suffer. The +English, I believe, are as truly religious as any nation in Europe: I +know no greater blessing; but it carries with it this evil in its +train, that any villain who will bawl out, '<i>The Church is in +danger!</i>' may get a place and a good pension; and that any +administration who will do the same thing may bring a set of men into +power who, at a moment of stationary and passive piety, would be +hooted by the very boys in the streets. But it is not all religion; it +is, in great part, the narrow and ex<a name='Page_142'></a>clusive spirit which delights to +keep the common blessings of sun and air and freedom from other human +beings. 'Your religion has always been degraded; you are in the dust, +and I will take care you never rise again. I should enjoy less the +possession of an earthly good by every additional person to whom it +was extended.' You may not be aware of it yourself, most reverend +Abraham, but you deny their freedom to the Catholics upon the same +principle that Sarah your wife refuses to give the receipt for a ham +or a gooseberry dumpling: she values her receipts, not because they +secure to her a certain flavour, but because they remind her that her +neighbours want it:—a feeling laughable in a priestess, shameful in a +priest; venial when it withholds the blessings of a ham, tyrannical +and execrable when it narrows the boon of religious freedom.</p> + +<p>You spend a great deal of ink about the character of the present prime +minister. Grant you all that you write—I say, I fear he will ruin +Ireland, and pursue a line of policy destructive to the true interest +of his country: and then you tell me, he is faithful to Mrs. Perceval, +and kind to the Master Percevals! These are, undoubtedly, the first +qualifications to be looked to in a time of the most serious public +danger; but somehow or another (if public and private virtues must +always be incompatible), I should prefer that he destroyed the +domestic happiness of Wood or Cockell,<a name='Page_143'></a> owed for the veal of the +preceding year, whipped his boys, and saved his country.</p> + +<p>The late administration did not do right; they did not build their +measures upon the solid basis of facts. They should have caused +several Catholics to have been dissected after death by surgeons of +either religion; and the report to have been published with +accompanying plates. If the viscera, and other organs of life, had +been found to be the same as in Protestant bodies; if the provisions +of nerves, arteries, cerebrum, and cerebellum, had been the same as we +are provided with, or as the Dissenters are now known to possess; +then, indeed, they might have met Mr. Perceval upon a proud eminence, +and convinced the country at large of the strong probability that the +Catholics are really human creatures, endowed with the feelings of +men, and entitled to all their rights. But instead of this wise and +prudent measure, Lord Howick, with his usual precipitation, brings +forward a bill in their favour, without offering the slightest proof +to the country that they were anything more than horses and oxen. The +person who shows the lama at the corner of Piccadilly has the +precaution to write up—<i>Allowed by Sir Joseph Banks to be a real +quadruped</i>, so his Lordship might have said—<i>Allowed by the bench of +Bishops to be real human creatures</i>.... I could write you twenty +letters upon this subject; but I am tired, and so I suppose are you. +Our friendship is now of<a name='Page_144'></a> forty years' standing; you know me to be a +truly religious man; but I shudder to see religion treated like a +cockade, or a pint of beer, and made the instrument of a party. I love +the king, but I love the people as well as the king; and if I am sorry +to see his old age molested, I am much more sorry to see four millions +of Catholics baffled in their just expectations. If I love Lord +Grenville, and Lord Howick, it is because they love their country; if +I abhor ... it is because I know there is but one man among them who +is not laughing at the enormous folly and credulity of the country, +and that he is an ignorant and mischievous bigot. As for the light and +frivolous jester, of whom it is your misfortune to think so highly, +learn, my dear Abraham, that this political Killigrew, just before the +breaking-up of the last administration, was in actual treaty with them +for a place; and if they had survived twenty-four hours longer, he +would have been now declaiming against the cry of No Popery! instead +of inflaming it. With this practical comment on the baseness of human +nature, I bid you adieu!</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>LETTER VI.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—What amuses me the most is to hear of the <i>indulgences</i> +which the Catholics have received, and their exorbitance in not being +satisfied with those indulgences: now if you complain to me<a name='Page_145'></a> that a +man is obtrusive and shameless in his requests, and that it is +impossible to bring him to reason, I must first of all hear the whole +of your conduct towards him; for you may have taken from him so much +in the first instance that, in spite of a long series of restitution, +a vast latitude for petition may still remain behind.</p> + +<p>There is a village, no matter where, in which the inhabitants, on one +day in the year, sit down to a dinner prepared at the common expense: +by an extraordinary piece of tyranny, which Lord Hawkesbury would call +the wisdom of the village ancestors, the inhabitants of three of the +streets, about a hundred years ago, seized upon the inhabitants of the +fourth street, bound them hand and foot, laid them upon their backs, +and compelled them to look on while the rest were stuffing themselves +with beef and beer; the next year the inhabitants of the persecuted +street, though they contributed an equal quota of the expense, were +treated precisely in the same manner. The tyranny grew into a custom; +and, as the manner of our nature is, it was considered as the most +sacred of all duties to keep these poor fellows without their annual +dinner. The village was so tenacious of this practice, that nothing +could induce them to resign it; every enemy to it was looked upon as a +disbeliever in Divine Providence, and any nefarious churchwarden who +wished to succeed in his election had nothing to<a name='Page_146'></a> do but to represent +his antagonist as an abolitionist, in order to frustrate his ambition, +endanger his life, and throw the village into a state of the most +dreadful commotion. By degrees, however, the obnoxious street grew to +be so well peopled, and its inhabitants so firmly united, that their +oppressors, more afraid of injustice, were more disposed to be just. +At the next dinner they are unbound, the year after allowed to sit +upright, then a bit of bread and a glass of water; till at last, after +a long series of concessions, they are emboldened to ask, in pretty +plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at the bottom of the +table, and to fill their bellies as well as the rest. Forthwith a +general cry of shame and scandal: 'Ten years ago, were you not laid +upon your backs? Don't you remember what a great thing you thought it +to get a piece of bread? How thankful you were for cheese parings? +Have you forgotten that memorable era, when the lord of the manor +interfered to obtain for you a slice of the public pudding? And now, +with an audacity only equalled by your ingratitude, you have the +impudence to ask for knives and forks, and to request, in terms too +plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down to table with the rest, +and be indulged even with beef and beer: there are not more than half +a dozen dishes which we have reserved for ourselves; the rest has been +thrown open to you in the utmost profusion; you have potatoes, and<a name='Page_147'></a> +carrots, suet dumplings, sops in the pan, and delicious toast and +water in incredible quantities. Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal are +ours; and if you were not the most restless and dissatisfied of human +beings, you would never think of aspiring to enjoy them.'</p> + +<p>Is not this, my dainty Abraham, the very nonsense and the very insult +which is talked to and practised upon the Catholics? You are surprised +that men who have tasted of partial justice should ask for perfect +justice; that he who has been robbed of coat and cloak will not be +contented with the restitution of one of his garments. He would be a +very lazy blockhead if he were content, and I (who, though an +inhabitant of the village, have preserved, thank God, some sense of +justice) most earnestly counsel these half-fed claimants to persevere +in their just demands, till they are admitted to a more complete share +of a dinner for which they pay as much as the others; and if they see +a little attenuated lawyer squabbling at the head of their opponents, +let them desire him to empty his pockets, and to pull out all the +pieces of duck, fowl, and pudding which he has filched from the public +feast, to carry home to his wife and children.</p> + +<p>You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this country +to the Irish before the Union. I deny that any voluntary concession +was ever made by England to Ireland. What did Ireland ever ask that +was granted? What did she ever demand that<a name='Page_148'></a> was not refused? How did +she get her Mutiny Bill—a limited Parliament—a repeal of Poyning's +Law—a constitution? Not by the concessions of England, but by her +fears. When Ireland asked for all these things upon her knees, her +petitions were rejected with Percevalism and contempt; when she +demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, they were granted +with every mark of consternation and dismay. Ask of Lord Auckland the +fatal consequences of trifling with such a people as the Irish. He +himself was the organ of these refusals. As secretary to the Lord +Lieutenant, the insolence and the tyranny of this country passed +through his hands. Ask him if he remembers the consequences. Ask him +if he has forgotten that memorable evening when he came down booted +and mantled to the House of Commons, when he told the House he was +about to set off for Ireland that night, and declared before God, if +he did not carry with him a compliance with all their demands, Ireland +was for ever lost to this country. The present generation have +forgotten this; but I have not forgotten it; and I know, hasty and +undignified as the submission of England then was, that Lord Auckland +was right, that the delay of a single day might very probably have +separated the two peoples for ever. The terms submission and fear are +galling terms when applied from the lesser nation to the greater; but +it is the plain historical truth, it is the natural<a name='Page_149'></a> consequence of +injustice, it is the predicament in which every country places itself +which leaves such a mass of hatred and discontent by its side. No +empire is powerful enough to endure it; it would exhaust the strength +of China, and sink it with all its mandarins and tea-kettles to the +bottom of the deep. By refusing them justice now when you are strong +enough to refuse them anything more than justice, you will act over +again, with the Catholics, the same scene of mean and precipitate +submission which disgraced you before America, and before the +volunteers of Ireland. We shall live to hear the Hampstead Protestant +pronouncing such extravagant panegyrics upon holy water, and paying +such fulsome compliments to the thumbs and offals of departed saints, +that parties will change sentiments, and Lord Henry Petty and Sam +Whitbread take a spell at No Popery. The wisdom of Mr. Fox was alike +employed in teaching his country justice when Ireland was weak, and +dignity when Ireland was strong. We are fast pacing round the same +miserable circle of ruin and imbecility. Alas! where is our guide?</p> + +<p>You say that Ireland is a millstone about our necks; that it would be +better for us if Ireland were sunk at the bottom of the sea; that the +Irish are a nation of irreclaimable savages and barbarians. How often +have I heard these sentiments fall from the plump and thoughtless +squire, and from the thriving<a name='Page_150'></a> English shopkeeper, who has never felt +the rod of an Orange master upon his back. Ireland a millstone about +your neck! Why is it not a stone of Ajax in your hand? I agree with +you most cordially that, governed as Ireland now is, it would be a +vast accession of strength if the waves of the sea were to rise and +engulf her to-morrow. At this moment, opposed as we are to all the +world, the annihilation of one of the most fertile islands on the face +of the globe, containing five millions of human creatures, would be +one of the most solid advantages which could happen to this country. I +doubt very much, in spite of all the just abuse which has been +lavished upon Bonaparte, whether there is any one of his conquered +countries the blotting out of which would be as beneficial to him as +the destruction of Ireland would be to us: of countries I speak +differing in language from the French, little habituated to their +intercourse, and inflamed with all the resentments of a recently +conquered people. Why will you attribute the turbulence of our people +to any cause but the right—to any cause but your own scandalous +oppression? If you tie your horse up to a gate, and beat him cruelly, +is he vicious because he kicks you? If you have plagued and worried a +mastiff dog for years, is he mad because he flies at you whenever he +sees you? Hatred is an active, troublesome passion. Depend upon it, +whole nations have always some<a name='Page_151'></a> reason for their hatred. Before you +refer the turbulence of the Irish to incurable defects in their +character, tell me if you have treated them as friends and equals? +Have you protected their commerce? Have you respected their religion? +Have you been as anxious for their freedom as your own? Nothing of all +this. What then? Why you have confiscated the territorial surface of +the country twice over: you have massacred and exported her +inhabitants: you have deprived four-fifths of them of every civil +privilege: you have at every period made her commerce and manufactures +slavishly subordinate to your own: and yet the hatred which the Irish +bear to you is the result of an original turbulence of character, and +of a primitive, obdurate wildness, utterly incapable of civilisation. +The embroidered inanities and the sixth-form effusions of Mr. Canning +are really not powerful enough to make me believe this; nor is there +any authority on earth (always excepting the Dean of Christ Church) +which could make it credible to me. I am sick of Mr. Canning. There is +not a 'ha'porth of bread to all this sugar and sack.' I love not the +cretaceous and incredible countenance of his colleague. The only +opinion in which I agree with these two gentlemen is that which they +entertain of each other. I am sure that the insolence of Mr. Pitt, and +the unbalanced accounts of Melville, were far better than the perils +of this new ignorance:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p><a name='Page_152'></a>Nonne fuit satiùs, tristes Amaryllidis iras<br /> +Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan?<br /> +Quamvis ille <i>niger</i>?</p></div> + +<p>In the midst of the most profound peace, the secret articles of the +Treaty of Tilsit, in which the destruction of Ireland is resolved +upon, induce you to rob the Danes of their fleet. After the expedition +sailed comes the Treaty of Tilsit, containing no article, public or +private, alluding to Ireland. The state of the world, you tell me, +justified us in doing this. Just God! do we think only of the state of +the world when there is an opportunity for robbery, for murder, and +for plunder; and do we forget the state of the world when we are +called upon to be wise, and good, and just? Does the state of the +world never remind us that we have four millions of subjects whose +injuries we ought to atone for, and whose affections we ought to +conciliate? Does the state of the world never warn us to lay aside our +infernal bigotry, and to arm every man who acknowledges a God, and can +grasp a sword? Did it never occur to this administration that they +might virtuously get hold of a force ten times greater than the force +of the Danish fleet? Was there no other way of protecting Ireland but +by bringing eternal shame upon Great Britain, and by making the earth +a den of robbers? See what the men whom you have supplanted would have +done. They would have rendered the invasion<a name='Page_153'></a> of Ireland impossible, by +restoring to the Catholics their long-lost rights: they would have +acted in such a manner that the French would neither have wished for +invasion nor dared to attempt it: they would have increased the +permanent strength of the country while they preserved its reputation +unsullied. Nothing of this kind your friends have done, because they +are solemnly pledged to do nothing of this kind; because, to tolerate +all religions, and to equalise civil rights to all sects, is to oppose +some of the worst passions of our nature—to plunder and to oppress is +to gratify them all. They wanted the huzzas of mobs, and they have for +ever blasted the fame of England to obtain them. Were the fleets of +Holland, France, and Spain destroyed by larceny? You resisted the +power of 150 sail of the line by sheer courage, and violated every +principle of morals from the dread of fifteen hulks, while the +expedition itself cost you three times more than the value of the +larcenous matter brought away. The French trample on the laws of God +and man, not for old cordage, but for kingdoms, and always take care +to be well paid for their crimes. We contrive, under the present +administration, to unite moral with intellectual deficiency, and to +grow weaker and worse by the same action. If they had any evidence of +the intended hostility of the Danes, why was it not produced? Why have +the nations of Europe been allowed to feel an indignation against this +country<a name='Page_154'></a> beyond the reach of all subsequent information? Are these +times, do you imagine, when we can trifle with a year of universal +hatred, dally with the curses of Europe, and then regain a lost +character at pleasure, by the parliamentary perspirations of the +Foreign Secretary, or the solemn asseverations of the pecuniary Rose? +Believe me, Abraham, it is not under such ministers as these that the +dexterity of honest Englishmen will ever equal the dexterity of French +knaves; it is not in their presence that the serpent of Moses will +ever swallow up the serpents of the magician.</p> + +<p>Lord Hawkesbury says that nothing is to be granted to the Catholics +from fear. What! not even justice? Why not? There are four millions of +disaffected people within twenty miles of your own coast. I fairly +confess that the dread which I have of their physical power is with me +a very strong motive for listening to their claims. To talk of not +acting from fear is mere parliamentary cant. From what motive but +fear, I should be glad to know, have all the improvements in our +constitution proceeded? I question if any justice has ever been done +to large masses of mankind from any other motive. By what other +motives can the plunderers of the Baltic suppose nations to be +governed in their intercourse <i>with each other</i>? If I say, Give this +people what they ask because it is just, do you think I should get ten +people to listen to me? Would not the lesser<a name='Page_155'></a> of the two Jenkinsons be +the first to treat me with contempt? The only true way to make the +mass of mankind see the beauty of justice is by showing to them, in +pretty plain terms, the consequences of injustice. If any body of +French troops land in Ireland, the whole population of that country +will rise against you to a man, and you could not possibly survive +such an event three years. Such, from the bottom of my soul, do I +believe to be the present state of that country; and so far does it +appear to me to be impolitic and unstatesman-like to conceed anything +to such a danger, that if the Catholics, in addition to their present +just demands, were to petition for the perpetual removal of the said +Lord Hawkesbury from his Majesty's councils, I think, whatever might +be the effect upon the destinies of Europe, and however it might +retard our own individual destruction, that the prayer of the petition +should be instantly complied with. Canning's crocodile tears should +not move me; the hoops of the maids of honour should not hide him. I +would tear him from the banisters of the back stairs, and plunge him +in the fishy fumes of the dirtiest of all his Cinque Ports.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>LETTER VII.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—In the correspondence which is passing between us, you +are perpetually alluding to<a name='Page_156'></a> the Foreign Secretary; and in answer to +the dangers of Ireland, which I am pressing upon your notice, you have +nothing to urge but the confidence which you repose in the discretion +and sound sense of this gentleman. I can only say, that I have +listened to him long and often with the greatest attention; I have +used every exertion in my power to take a fair measure of him, and it +appears to me impossible to hear him upon any arduous topic without +perceiving that he is eminently deficient in those solid and serious +qualities upon which, and upon which alone, the confidence of a great +country can properly repose. He sweats and labours, and works for +sense, and Mr. Ellis seems always to think it is coming, but it does +not come; the machine can't draw up what is not to be found in the +spring; Providence has made him a light, jesting, paragraph-writing +man, and that he will remain to his dying day. When he is jocular he +is strong, when he is serious he is like Samson in a wig; any ordinary +person is a match for him: a song, an ironical letter, a burlesque +ode, an attack in the newspaper upon Nicoll's eye, a smart speech of +twenty minutes, full of gross misrepresentations and clever turns, +excellent language, a spirited manner, lucky quotation, success in +provoking dull men, some half information picked up in Pall Mall in +the morning; these are your friend's natural weapons; all these things +he can do: here I allow him to be truly great;<a name='Page_157'></a> nay, I will be just, +and go still further, if he would confine himself to these things, and +consider the <i>facete</i> and the playful to be the basis of his +character, he would, for that species of man, be universally regarded +as a person of a very good understanding; call him a legislator, a +reasoner, and the conductor of the affairs of a great nation, and it +seems to me as absurd as if a butterfly were to teach bees to make +honey. That he is an extraordinary writer of small poetry, and a diner +out of the highest lustre, I do most readily admit. After George +Selwyn, and perhaps Tickell, there has been no such man for this +half-century. The Foreign Secretary is a gentleman, a respectable as +well as a highly agreeable man in private life; but you may as well +feed me with decayed potatoes as console me for the miseries of +Ireland by the resources of his <i>sense</i> and his <i>discretion</i>. It is +only the public situation which this gentleman holds which entitles me +or induces me to say so much about him. He is a fly in amber, nobody +cares about the fly; the only question is, How the devil did it get +there? Nor do I attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of +utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke for fear it +should flood a province.</p> + +<p>The friends of the Catholic question are, I observe, extremely +embarrassed in arguing when they come to the loyalty of the Irish +Catholics. As for me, I shall<a name='Page_158'></a> go straight forward to my object, and +state what I have no manner of doubt, from an intimate knowledge of +Ireland, to be the plain truth. Of the great Roman Catholic +proprietors, and of the Catholic prelates, there may be a few, and but +a few, who would follow the fortunes of England at all events: there +is another set of men who, thoroughly detesting this country, have too +much property and too much character to lose, not to wait for some +very favourable event before they show themselves; but the great mass +of Catholic population, upon the slightest appearance of a French +force in that country, would rise upon you to a man. It is the most +mistaken policy to conceal the plain truth. There is no loyalty among +the Catholics: they detest you as their worst oppressors, and they +will continue to detest you till you remove the cause of their hatred. +It is in your power in six months' time to produce a total revolution +of opinions among this people; and in some future letter I will show +you that this is clearly the case. At present, see what a dreadful +state Ireland is in. The common toast among the low Irish is, the +feast of the <i>passover</i>. Some allusion to <i>Bonaparte</i>, in a play +lately acted at Dublin, produced thunders of applause from the pit and +the galleries; and a politician should not be inattentive to the +public feelings expressed in theatres. Mr. Perceval thinks he has +disarmed the Irish: he has no more disarmed the Irish than he has +resigned<a name='Page_159'></a> a shilling of his own public emoluments. An Irish peasant +fills the barrel of his gun full of tow dipped in oil, butters up the +lock, buries it in a bog, and allows the Orange bloodhound to ransack +his cottage at pleasure. Be just and kind to the Irish, and you will +indeed disarm them; rescue them from the degraded servitude in which +they are held by a handful of their own countrymen, and you will add +four millions of brave and affectionate men to your strength. Nightly +visits, Protestant inspectors, licenses to possess a pistol, or a +knife and fork, the odious vigour of the <i>evangelical</i> Perceval—acts +of Parliament, drawn up by some English attorney, to save you from the +hatred of four millions of people—the guarding yourselves from +universal disaffection by a police; a confidence in the little cunning +of Bow Street, when you might rest your security upon the eternal +basis of the best feelings: this is the meanness and madness to which +nations are reduced when they lose sight of the first elements of +justice, without which a country can be no more secure than it can be +healthy without air. I sicken at such policy and such men. The fact +is, the Ministers know nothing about the present state of Ireland; Mr. +Perceval sees a few clergymen, Lord Castlereagh a few general +officers, who take care, of course, to report what is pleasant rather +than what is true. As for the joyous and lepid consul, he jokes upon +neutral flags and frauds,<a name='Page_160'></a> jokes upon Irish rebels, jokes upon +northern and western and southern foes, and gives himself no trouble +upon any subject; nor is the mediocrity of the idolatrous deputy of +the slightest use. Dissolved in grins, he reads no memorials upon the +state of Ireland, listens to no reports, asks no questions, and is the</p> + +<div class='blkquot'>"<i>Bourn</i> from whom no traveller returns."<br /></div> + +<p>The danger of an immediate insurrection is now, I <i>believe</i>, blown +over. You have so strong an army in Ireland, and the Irish are become +so much more cunning from the last insurrection, that you may perhaps +be tolerably secure just at present from that evil: but are you secure +from the efforts which the French may make to throw a body of troops +into Ireland? and do you consider that event to be difficult and +improbable? From Brest Harbour to Cape St. Vincent, you have above +three thousand miles of hostile sea coast, and twelve or fourteen +harbours quite capable of containing a sufficient force for the +powerful invasion of Ireland. The nearest of these harbours is not two +days' sail from the southern coast of Ireland, with a fair leading +wind; and the furthest not ten. Five ships of the line, for so very +short a passage, might carry five or six thousand troops with cannon +and ammunition; and Ireland presents to their attack a southern coast +of more than<a name='Page_161'></a> 500 miles, abounding in deep bays, admirable harbours, +and disaffected inhabitants. Your blockading ships may be forced to +come home for provisions and repairs, or they may be blown off in a +gale of wind and compelled to bear away for their own coast; and you +will observe that the very same wind which locks you up in the British +Channel, when you are got there, is evidently favourable for the +invasion of Ireland. And yet this is called Government, and the people +huzza Mr. Perceval for continuing to expose his country day after day +to such tremendous perils as these; cursing the men who would have +given up a question in theology to have saved us from such a risk. The +British empire at this moment is in the state of a peach-blossom—if +the wind blows gently from one quarter, it survives; if furiously from +the other, it perishes. A stiff breeze may set in from the north, the +Rochefort squadron will be taken, and the Minister will be the most +holy of men: if it comes from some other point, Ireland is gone; we +curse ourselves as a set of monastic madmen, and call out for the +unavailing satisfaction of Mr. Perceval's head. Such a state of +political existence is scarcely credible: it is the action of a mad +young fool standing upon one foot, and peeping down the crater of +Mount Ætna, not the conduct of a wise and sober people deciding upon +their best and dearest interests: and in the name, the much-injured +name, of heaven, what is it all for that<a name='Page_162'></a> we expose ourselves to these +dangers? Is it that we may sell more muslin? Is it that we may acquire +more territory? Is it that we may strengthen what we have already +acquired? No; nothing of all this; but that one set of Irishmen may +torture another set of Irishmen—that Sir Phelim O'Callaghan may +continue to whip Sir Toby M'Tackle, his next door neighbour, and +continue to ravish his Catholic daughters; and these are the measures +which the honest and consistent Secretary supports; and this is the +Secretary whose genius in the estimation of Brother Abraham is to +extinguish the genius of Bonaparte. Pompey was killed by a slave, +Goliath smitten by a stripling. Pyrrhus died by the hand of a woman; +tremble, thou great Gaul, from whose head an armed Minerva leaps forth +in the hour of danger; tremble, thou scourge of God, a pleasant man is +come out against thee, and thou shall be laid low by a joker of jokes, +and he shall talk his pleasant talk against thee, and thou shall be no +more!</p> + +<p>You tell me, in spite of all this parade of sea-coast, Bonaparte has +neither ships nor sailors: but this is a mistake. He has not ships and +sailors to contest the empire of the seas with Great Britain, but +there remains quite sufficient of the navies of France, Spain, +Holland, and Denmark, for these short excursions and invasions. Do you +think, too, that Bonaparte does not add to his navy every year? Do +you<a name='Page_163'></a> suppose, with all Europe at his feet, that he can find any +difficulty in obtaining timber, and that money will not procure for +him any quantity of naval stores he may want? The mere machine, the +empty ship, he can build as well, and as quickly, as you can; and +though he may not find enough of practised sailors to man large +fighting-fleets—it is not possible to conceive that he can want +sailors for such sort of purposes as I have stated. He is at present +the despotic monarch of above twenty thousand miles of sea-coast, and +yet you suppose he cannot procure sailors for the invasion of Ireland. +Believe, if you please, that such a fleet met at sea by any number of +our ships at all comparable to them in point of force, would be +immediately taken, let it be so; I count nothing upon their power of +resistance, only upon their power of escaping unobserved. If +experience has taught us anything, it is the impossibility of +perpetual blockades. The instances are innumerable, during the course +of this war, where whole fleets have sailed in and out of harbour, in +spite of every vigilance used to prevent it. I shall only mention +those cases where Ireland is concerned. In December, 1796, seven ships +of the line, and ten transports, reached Bantry Bay from Brest, +without having seen an English ship in their passage. It blew a storm +when they were off shore, and therefore England still continues to be +an independent kingdom. You will observe that at the very time the<a name='Page_164'></a> +French fleet sailed out of Brest Harbour, Admiral Colpoys was cruising +off there with a powerful squadron, and still, from the particular +circumstances of the weather, found it impossible to prevent the +French from coming out. During the time that Admiral Colpoys was +cruising off Brest, Admiral Richery, with six ships of the line, +passed him, and got safe into the harbour. At the very moment when the +French squadron was lying in Bantry Bay, Lord Bridport with his fleet +was locked up by a foul wind in the Channel, and for several days +could not stir to the assistance of Ireland. Admiral Colpoys, totally +unable to find the French fleet, came home. Lord Bridport, at the +change of the wind, cruised for them in vain, and they got safe back +to Brest, without having seen a single one of those floating bulwarks, +the possession of which we believe will enable us with impunity to set +justice and common sense at defiance. Such is the miserable and +precarious state of an anemocracy, of a people who put their trust in +hurricanes, and are governed by wind. In August, 1798, three forty-gun +frigates landed 1100 men under Humbert, making the passage from +Rochelle to Killala without seeing any English ship. In October of the +same year, four French frigates anchored in Killala Bay with 2000 +troops; and though they did not land their troops they returned to +France in safety. In the same month, a line-of-<a name='Page_165'></a>battle ship, eight +stout frigates, and a brig, all full of troops and stores, reached the +coast of Ireland, and were fortunately, in sight of land, destroyed, +after an obstinate engagement, by Sir John Warren.</p> + +<p>If you despise the little troop which, in these numerous experiments, +did make good its landing, take with you, if you please, this <i>précis</i> +of its exploits: eleven hundred men, commanded by a soldier raised +from the ranks, put to rout a select army of 6000 men, commanded by +General Lake, seized their ordnance, ammunition, and stores, advanced +150 miles into a country containing an armed force of 150,000 men, and +at last surrendered to the Viceroy, an experienced general, gravely +and cautiously advancing at the head of all his chivalry and of an +immense army to oppose him. You must excuse these details about +Ireland, but it appears to me to be of all other subjects the most +important. If we conciliate Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do +not, we can do nothing well. If Ireland was friendly, we might equally +set at defiance the talents of Bonaparte and the blunders of his +rival, Mr. Canning; we could then support the ruinous and silly bustle +of our useless expeditions, and the almost incredible ignorance of our +commercial orders in council. Let the present administration give up +but this one point, and there is nothing which I would not consent to +grant them. Mr. Perceval shall have full liberty to insult the tomb<a name='Page_166'></a> +of Mr. Fox, and to torment every eminent Dissenter in Great Britain; +Lord Camden shall have large boxes of plums; Mr. Rose receive +permission to prefix to his name the appellative of virtuous; and to +the Viscount Castlereagh a round sum of ready money shall be well and +truly paid into his hand. Lastly, what remains to Mr. George Canning, +but that he ride up and down Pall Mall glorious upon a white horse, +and that they cry out before him, Thus shall it be done to the +statesman who hath written 'The Needy Knife-Grinder,' and the German +play? Adieu only for the present; you shall soon hear from me again; +it is a subject upon which I cannot long be silent.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>LETTER IX.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—No Catholic can be chief Governor or Governor of this +kingdom, Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord High Treasurer, +Chief of any of the Courts of Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, +Puisne Judge, Judge in the Admiralty, Master of the Rolls, Secretary +of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer or his Deputy, +Teller or Cashier of Exchequer, Auditor or General, Governor or Gustos +Rotulorum of Counties, Chief Governor's Secretary, Privy Councillor, +King's Counsel, Serjeant, Attorney, Solicitor-General, Master in +Chancery, Provost or Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, +Postmaster-General,<a name='Page_167'></a> Master and Lieutenant-General of Ordnance, +Commander-in-Chief, General on the Staff, Sheriff, Sub-Sheriff, Mayor, +Bailiff, Recorder, Burgess, or any other officer in a City, or a +Corporation. No Catholic can be guardian to a Protestant, and no +priest guardian at all; no Catholic can be a gamekeeper, or have for +sale, or otherwise, any arms or warlike stores; no Catholic can +present to a living, unless he choose to turn Jew in order to obtain +that privilege; the pecuniary qualification of Catholic jurors is made +higher than that of Protestants, and no relaxation of the ancient +rigorous code is permitted, unless to those who shall take an oath +prescribed by 13 and 14 George III. Now if this is not picking the +plums out of the pudding and leaving the mere batter to the Catholics, +I know not what is. If it were merely the Privy Council, it would be +(I allow) nothing but a point of honour for which the mass of +Catholics were contending, the honour of being chief-mourners or +pall-bearers to the country; but surely no man will contend that every +barrister may not speculate upon the possibility of being a Puisne +Judge; and that every shopkeeper must not feel himself injured by his +exclusion from borough offices.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest practical evils which the Catholics suffer in +Ireland is their exclusion from the offices of Sheriff and Deputy +Sheriff. Nobody who is unacquainted with Ireland can conceive the +obstacles<a name='Page_168'></a> which this opposes to the fair administration of justice. +The formation of juries is now entirely in the hands of the +Protestants; the lives, liberties, and properties of the Catholics in +the hands of the juries; and this is the arrangement for the +administration of justice in a country where religious prejudices are +inflamed to the greatest degree of animosity! In this country, if a +man be a foreigner, if he sell slippers, and sealing wax, and +artificial flowers, we are so tender of human life that we take care +half the number of persons who are to decide upon his fate should be +men of similar prejudices and feelings with himself: but a poor +Catholic in Ireland may be tried by twelve Percevals, and destroyed +according to the manner of that gentleman in the name of the Lord, and +with all the insulting forms of justice. I do not go the length of +saying that deliberate and wilful injustice is done. I have no doubt +that the Orange Deputy Sheriff thinks it would be a most unpardonable +breach of his duty if he did not summon a Protestant panel. I can +easily believe that the Protestant panel may conduct themselves very +conscientiously in hanging the gentlemen of the crucifix; but I blame +the law which does not guard the Catholic against the probable tenor +of those feelings which must unconsciously influence the judgments of +mankind. I detest that state of society which extends unequal degrees +of protection to different creeds and persuasions; and I cannot<a name='Page_169'></a> +describe to you the contempt I feel for a man who, calling himself a +statesman, defends a system which fills the heart of every Irishman +with treason, and makes his allegiance prudence, not choice.</p> + +<p>I request to know if the vestry taxes in Ireland are a mere matter of +romantic feeling which can affect only the Earl of Fingal? In a parish +where there are four thousand Catholics and fifty Protestants, the +Protestants may meet together in a vestry meeting at which no Catholic +has the right to vote, and tax all the lands in the parish 1s. 6d. per +acre, or in the pound, I forget which, for the repairs of the +church—and how has the necessity of these repairs been ascertained? A +Protestant plumber has discovered that it wants new leading; a +Protestant carpenter is convinced the timbers are not sound; and the +glazier who hates holy water (as an accoucheur hates celibacy, because +he gets nothing by it) is employed to put in new sashes.</p> + +<p>The grand juries in Ireland are the great scene of jobbing. They have +a power of making a county rate to a considerable extent for roads, +bridges, and other objects of general accommodation. 'You suffer the +road to be brought through my park, and I will have the bridge +constructed in a situation where it will make a beautiful object to +your house. You do my job, and I will do yours.' These are the sweet +and interesting subjects which occasionally<a name='Page_170'></a> occupy Milesian gentlemen +while they are attendant upon this grand inquest of justice. But there +is a religion, it seems, even in jobs; and it will be highly +gratifying to Mr. Perceval to learn that no man in Ireland who +believes in seven sacraments can carry a public road, or bridge, one +yard out of the direction most beneficial to the public, and that +nobody can cheat the public who does not expound the Scriptures in the +purest and most orthodox manner. This will give pleasure to Mr. +Perceval: but, from his unfairness upon these topics I appeal to the +justice and the proper feelings of Mr. Huskisson. I ask him if the +human mind can experience a more dreadful sensation than to see its +own jobs refused, and the jobs of another religion perpetually +succeeding? I ask him his opinion of a jobless faith, of a creed which +dooms a man through life to a lean and plunderless integrity. He knows +that human nature cannot and will not bear it; and if we were to paint +a political Tartarus, it would be an endless series of snug +expectations and cruel disappointments. These are a few of many +dreadful inconveniences which the Catholics of all ranks suffer from +the laws by which they are at present oppressed. Besides, look at +human nature: what is the history of all professions? Joel is to be +brought up to the bar: has Mrs. Plymley the slightest doubt of his +being Chancellor? Do not his two shrivelled aunts live in the +certainty of seeing him in<a name='Page_171'></a> that situation, and of cutting out with +their own hands his equity habiliments? And I could name a certain +minister of the Gospel who does not, in the bottom of his heart, much +differ from these opinions. Do you think that the fathers and mothers +of the holy Catholic Church are not as absurd as Protestant papas and +mammas? The probability I admit to be, in each particular case, that +the sweet little blockhead will in fact never get a brief;—but I will +venture to say there is not a parent from the Giant's Causeway to +Bantry Bay who does not conceive that his child is the unfortunate +victim of the exclusion, and that nothing short of positive law could +prevent his own dear, pre-eminent Paddy from rising to the highest +honours of the State. So with the army and parliament; in fact, few +are excluded; but, in imagination, all: you keep twenty or thirty +Catholics out, and you lose the affections of four millions; and, let +me tell you, that recent circumstances have by no means tended to +diminish in the minds of men that hope of elevation beyond their own +rank which is so congenial to our nature: from pleading for John Roe +to taxing John Bull, from jesting for Mr. Pitt and writing in the +<i>Anti-Jacobin</i>, to managing the affairs of Europe—these are leaps +which seem to justify the fondest dreams of mothers and of aunts.</p> + +<p>I do not say that the disabilities to which the Catholics are exposed +amount to such intolerable<a name='Page_172'></a> grievances, that the strength and industry +of a nation are overwhelmed by them: the increasing prosperity of +Ireland fully demonstrates to the contrary. But I repeat again, what I +have often stated in the course of our correspondence, that your laws +against the Catholics are exactly in that state in which you have +neither the benefits of rigour nor of liberality: every law which +prevented the Catholic from gaining strength and wealth is repealed; +every law which can irritate remains; if you were determined to insult +the Catholics you should have kept them weak; if you resolved to give +them strength, you should have ceased to insult them—at present your +conduct is pure, unadulterated folly.</p> + +<p>Lord Hawkesbury says, 'We heard nothing about the Catholics till we +began to mitigate the laws against them; when we relieved them in part +from this oppression they began to be disaffected.' This is very true; +but it proves just what I have said, that you have either done too +much or too little; and as there lives not, I hope, upon earth, so +depraved a courtier that he would load the Catholics with their +ancient chains, what absurdity it is, then, not to render their +dispositions friendly, when you leave their arms and legs free!</p> + +<p>You know, and many Englishmen know, what passes in China; but nobody +knows or cares what passes in Ireland. At the beginning of the +present<a name='Page_173'></a> reign no Catholic could realise property, or carry on any +business; they were absolutely annihilated, and had no more agency in +the country than so many trees. They were like Lord Mulgrave's +eloquence and Lord Camden's wit; the legislative bodies did not know +of their existence. For these twenty-five years last past the +Catholics have been engaged in commerce; within that period the +commerce of Ireland has doubled—there are four Catholics at work for +one Protestant, and eight Catholics at work for one Episcopalian. Of +course, the proportion which Catholic wealth bears to Protestant +wealth is every year altering rapidly in favour of the Catholics. I +have already told you what their purchases of land were the last year: +since that period I have been at some pains to find out the actual +state of the Catholic wealth: it is impossible upon such a subject to +arrive at complete accuracy; but I have good reason to believe that +there are at present 2000 Catholics in Ireland possessing an income of +£500 and upwards, many of these with incomes of one, two, three, and +four thousand, and some amounting to fifteen and twenty thousand per +annum:—and this is the kingdom, and these the people, for whose +conciliation we are to wait Heaven knows when, and Lord Hawkesbury +why! As for me, I never think of the situation of Ireland without +feeling the same necessity for immediate interference as I should do +if I saw blood<a name='Page_174'></a> flowing from a great artery. I rush towards it with +the instinctive rapidity of a man desirous of preventing death, and +have no other feeling but that in a few seconds the patient may be no +more.</p> + +<p>I could not help smiling, in the times of No Popery, to witness the +loyal indignation of many persons at the attempt made by the last +ministry to do something for the relief of Ireland. The general cry in +the country was, that they would not see their beloved Monarch used +ill in his old age, and that they would stand by him to the last drop +of their blood. I respect good feelings, however erroneous be the +occasions on which they display themselves; and therefore I saw in all +this as much to admire as to blame. It was a species of affection, +however, which reminded me very forcibly of the attachment displayed +by the servants of the Russian ambassador at the beginning of the last +century. His Excellency happened to fall down in a kind of apoplectic +fit, when he was paying a morning visit in the house of an +acquaintance. The confusion was of course very great, and messengers +were despatched in every direction to find a surgeon: who, upon his +arrival, declared that his Excellency must be immediately blooded, and +prepared himself forthwith to perform the operation: the barbarous +servants of the embassy, who were there in great numbers, no sooner +saw the surgeon prepared to wound the arm of their master<a name='Page_175'></a> with a +sharp, shining instrument, than they drew their swords, put themselves +in an attitude of defence, and swore in pure Sclavonic, 'that they +would murder any man who attempted to do him the slightest injury: he +had been a very good master to them, and they would not desert him in +his misfortunes, or suffer his blood to be shed while he was off his +guard, and incapable of defending himself.' By good fortune, the +secretary arrived about this period of the dispute, and his +Excellency, relieved from superfluous blood and perilous affection, +was, after much difficulty, restored to life.</p> + +<p>There is an argument brought forward with some appearance of +plausibility in the House of Commons, which certainly merits an +answer: You know that the Catholics now vote for members of parliament +in Ireland, and that they outnumber the Protestants in a very great +proportion; if you allow Catholics to sit in parliament, religion will +be found to influence votes more than property, and the greater part +of the 100 Irish members who are returned to parliament will be +Catholics. Add to these the Catholic members who are returned in +England, and you will have a phalanx of heretical strength which every +minister will be compelled to respect, and occasionally to conciliate +by concessions incompatible with the interests of the Protestant +Church. The fact is, however, that you are at this moment subjected to +every danger of this<a name='Page_176'></a> kind which you can possibly apprehend hereafter. +If the spiritual interests of the voters are more powerful than their +temporal interests, they can bind down their representatives to +support any measures favourable to the Catholic religion, and they can +change the objects of their choice till they have found Protestant +members (as they easily may do) perfectly obedient to their wishes. If +the superior possessions of the Protestants prevent the Catholics from +uniting for a common political object, then danger you fear cannot +exist: if zeal, on the contrary, gets the better of acres, then the +danger at present exists, from the right of voting already given to +the Catholics, and it will not be increased by allowing them to sit in +parliament. There are, as nearly as I can recollect, thirty seats in +Ireland for cities and counties, where the Protestants are the most +numerous, and where the members returned must of course be +Protestants. In the other seventy representations the wealth of the +Protestants is opposed to the number of the Catholics; and if all the +seventy members returned were of the Catholic persuasion, they must +still plot the destruction of our religion in the midst of 588 +Protestants. Such terrors would disgrace a cook-maid, or a toothless +aunt—when they fall from the lips of bearded and senatorial men, they +are nauseous, antiperistaltic, and emetical.</p> + +<p>How can you for a moment doubt of the rapid<a name='Page_177'></a> effects which would be +produced by the emancipation? In the first place, to my certain +knowledge the Catholics have long since expressed to his Majesty's +Ministers their perfect readiness <i>to vest in his Majesty, either with +the consent of the Pope, or without it if it cannot be obtained, the +nomination of the Catholic prelacy</i>. The Catholic prelacy in Ireland +consists of twenty-six bishops and the warden of Galway, a dignitary +enjoying Catholic jurisdiction. The number of Roman Catholic priests +in Ireland exceeds one thousand. The expenses of his peculiar worship +are, to a substantial farmer or mechanic, five shillings per annum; to +a labourer (where he is not entirely excused) one shilling per annum; +this includes the contribution of the whole family, and for this the +priest is bound to attend them when sick, and to confess them when +they apply to him; he is also to keep his chapel in order, to +celebrate divine service, and to preach on Sundays and holydays. In +the northern district a priest gains from £30 to £50; in the other +parts of Ireland from £60 to £90 per annum. The best paid Catholic +bishops receive about £400 per annum; the others from £300 to £350. My +plan is very simple: I would have 300 Catholic parishes at £100 per +annum, 300 at £200 per annum, and 400 at £300 per annum; this, for the +whole thousand parishes, would amount to £190,000. To the prelacy I +would allot £20,000 in unequal proportions,<a name='Page_178'></a> from £1000 to £500; and I +would appropriate £40,000 more for the support of Catholic Schools, +and the repairs of Catholic churches; the whole amount of which sum is +£250,000, about the expense of three days of one of our genuine, good +English <i>just and necessary wars</i>. The clergy should all receive their +salaries at the Bank of Ireland, and I would place the whole patronage +in the hands of the Crown. Now, I appeal to any human being, except +Spencer Perceval, Esq., of the parish of Hampstead, what the +disaffection of a clergy would amount to, gaping after this graduated +bounty of the Crown, and whether Ignatius Loyola himself, if he were a +living blockhead instead of a dead saint, could withstand the +temptation of bouncing from £100 a year at Sligo, to £300 in +Tipperary? This is the miserable sum of money for which the merchants +and landowners and nobility of England are exposing themselves to the +tremendous peril of losing Ireland. The sinecure places of the Roses +and the Percevals, and the 'dear and near relations,' put up to +auction at thirty years' purchase, would almost amount to the money.</p> + +<p>I admit that nothing can be more reasonable than to expect that a +Catholic priest should starve to death, genteelly and pleasantly, for +the good of the Protestant religion; but is it equally reasonable to +expect that he should do so for the Protestant pews, and Protestant +brick and mortar? On an Irish Sabbath<a name='Page_179'></a> the bell of a neat parish +church often summons to church only the parson and an occasionally +conforming clerk; while, two hundred yards off, a thousand Catholics +are huddled together in a miserable hovel, and pelted by all the +storms of heaven. Can anything be more distressing than to see a +venerable man pouring forth sublime truths in tattered breeches, and +depending for his food upon the little offal he gets from his +parishioners? I venerate a human being who starves for his principles, +let them be what they may; but starving for anything is not at all to +the taste of the honourable flagellants: strict principles, and good +pay, is the motto of Mr. Perceval: the one he keeps in great measure +for the faults of his enemies, the other for himself.</p> + +<p>There are parishes in Connaught in which a Protestant was never +settled nor even seen. In that province, in Munster, and in parts of +Leinster, the entire peasantry for sixty miles are Catholics; in these +tracts the churches are frequently shut for want of a congregation, or +opened to an assemblage of from six to twenty persons. Of what +Protestants there are in Ireland, the greatest part are gathered +together in Ulster, or they live in towns. In the country of the other +three provinces the Catholics see no other religion but their own, and +are at the least as fifteen to one Protestant. In the diocese of Tuam +they are sixty to one; in the parish of St. Mulins, diocese of<a name='Page_180'></a> +Leghlin, there are four thousand Catholics and one Protestant; in the +town of Grasgenamana, in the county of Kilkenny, there are between +four and five hundred Catholic houses, and three Protestant houses. In +the parish of Allen, county Kildare, there is no Protestant, though it +is very populous. In the parish of Arlesin, Queen's County, the +proportion is one hundred to one. In the whole county of Kilkenny, by +actual enumeration, it is seventeen to one; in the diocese of +Kilmacduagh, province of Connaught, fifty-two to one, by ditto. These +I give you as a few specimens of the present state of Ireland; and yet +there are men impudent and ignorant enough to contend that such evils +require no remedy, and that mild family man who dwelleth in Hampstead +can find none but the cautery and the knife.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>----'Omne per ignem<br /> +Excoquitur vitium.'<br /></p></div> + +<p>I cannot describe the horror and disgust which I felt at hearing Mr. +Perceval call upon the then Ministry for measures of vigour in +Ireland. If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I +walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my own +begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly combed; +if the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort—how awfully +would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the +cabins of the poor,<a name='Page_181'></a> brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of +Ireland! How easy it is to shed human blood; how easy it is to +persuade ourselves that it is our duty to do so, and that the decision +has cost us a severe struggle; how much in all ages have wounds and +shrieks and tears been the cheap and vulgar resources of the rulers of +mankind; how difficult and how noble it is to govern in kindness and +to found an empire upon the everlasting basis of justice and +affection! But what do men call vigour? To let loose hussars and to +bring up artillery, to govern with lighted matches, and to cut, and +push, and prime; I call this not vigour, but the <i>sloth of cruelty and +ignorance</i>. The vigour I love consists in finding out wherein subjects +are aggrieved, in relieving them, in studying the temper and genius of +a people, in consulting their prejudices, in selecting proper persons +to lead and manage them, in the laborious, watchful, and difficult +task of increasing public happiness by allaying each particular +discontent. In this way Hoche pacified La Vendée—and in this way only +will Ireland ever be subdued. But this, in the eyes of Mr. Perceval, +is imbecility and meanness. Houses are not broken open, women are not +insulted, the people seem all to be happy; they are not rode over by +horses, and cut by whips. Do you call this vigour? Is this government?</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_182'></a>VI.—'LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW.'</h3> + +<h4>BY WILLIAM COBBETT</h4> + +<p>(<i>Although Cobbett produced not a few political pamphlets in the +strictest sense of the term, the infinitely greater part of his work +is comprised during his earlier days in the volumes of </i>Peter +Porcupine's Gazette<i>, during his later in those of the </i>Weekly +Register<i>. This latter, however, he himself for a time actually +entitled </i>The Weekly Political Pamphlet<i>, while he alluded to it under +that name even at other times; and his whole work was imbued even more +deeply than that of Defoe with the pamphlet character. I have selected +two examples from the critical time when he was still exasperated by +his imprisonment, and stung into fresh efforts by debt and the +prospect of fresh difficulties. They exhibit in the most striking form +all Cobbett's pet<a name='Page_183'></a> hatreds—of the unreformed Parliament, of paper +money, of political economy, of potatoes, and of many other things. +The first is the </i>Register<i> of 2d November 1816, the first number of +the cheapened form, which was sold at twopence, and so acquired the +name of 'Twopenny Trash,' from a phrase of, as some say, Canning's, +others Castlereagh's. The second is an early number of the papers +written from America. They will, with the notes, explain themselves.</i>)</p> + +<h3>LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND, ON THE CAUSE OF THEIR PRESENT MISERIES; ON THE MEASURES +WHICH HAVE PRODUCED THAT CAUSE; ON THE REMEDIES WHICH SOME FOOLISH AND +SOME CRUEL AND INSOLENT MEN HAVE PROPOSED; AND ON THE LINE OF CONDUCT +WHICH JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OUGHT TO PURSUE, IN ORDER TO OBTAIN +EFFECTUAL RELIEF, AND TO ASSIST IN PROMOTING THE TRANQUILLITY AND +RESTORING THE HAPPINESS OF THEIR COUNTRY.</h3> + +<p>Friends And Fellow-countrymen—Whatever the pride of rank, of riches, +or of scholarship may have induced some men to believe, or to affect +to believe, the real strength and all the resources of a country<a name='Page_184'></a> ever +have sprung and ever must spring from the <i>labour</i> of its people; and +hence it is that this nation, which is so small in numbers and so poor +in climate and soil compared with many others, has, for many ages, +been the most powerful nation in the world: it is the most +industrious, the most laborious, and, therefore, the most powerful. +Elegant dresses, superb furniture, stately buildings, fine roads and +canals, fleet horses and carriages, numerous and stout ships, +warehouses teeming with goods; all these, and many other objects that +fall under our view, are so many marks of national wealth and +resources. But all these spring from <i>labour</i>. Without the journeyman +and the labourer none of them could exist; without the assistance of +their hands the country would be a wilderness, hardly worth the notice +of an invader.</p> + +<p>As it is the labour of those who toil which makes a country abound in +resources, so it is the same class of men, who must, by their arms, +secure its safety and uphold its fame. Titles and immense sums of +money have been bestowed upon numerous Naval and Military Commanders. +Without calling the justice of these in question, we may assert that +the victories were obtained by <i>you</i> and your fathers and brothers and +sons, in co-operation with those Commanders, who, with <i>your</i> aid, +have done great and wonderful things; but who, without that aid, would +have been as impotent as children at the breast.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_185'></a>With this correct idea of your own worth in your minds, with what +indignation must you hear yourselves called the Populace, the Rabble, +the Mob, the Swinish Multitude; and with what greater indignation, if +possible, must you hear the projects of those cool and cruel and +insolent men, who, now that you have been, without any fault of yours, +brought into a state of misery, propose to narrow the limit of parish +relief, to prevent you from marrying in the days of your youth, or to +thrust you out to seek your bread in foreign lands, never more to +behold your parents or friends? But suppress your indignation, until +we return to this topic, after we have considered the <i>cause</i> of your +present misery, and the measures which have produced that cause.</p> + +<p>The times in which we live are full of peril. The nation, as described +by the very creatures of Government, is fast advancing to that period +when an important change must take place. It is the lot of mankind +that some shall labour with their limbs and others with their minds; +and, on all occasions, more especially on an occasion like the +present, it is the duty of the latter to come to the assistance of the +former. We are all equally interested in the peace and happiness of +our common country. It is of the utmost importance that, in the +seeking to obtain these objects, our endeavours should be uniform, and +tend all to the same point. Such an uniformity cannot<a name='Page_186'></a> exist without +an uniformity of sentiment as to public matters, and to produce this +latter uniformity amongst you is the object of this address.</p> + +<p>As to the cause of our present miseries, it is the enormous amount of +the taxes which the Government compels us to pay for the support of +its army, its placemen, its pensioners, etc., and for the payment of +the interest of its debt. That this is the <i>real</i> cause has been a +thousand times proved; and it is now so acknowledged by the creatures +of the Government themselves. Two hundred and five of the +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture ascribe the ruin of the +country to taxation. Numerous writers, formerly the friends of the +Pitt system, now declare that taxation has been the cause of our +distress. Indeed, when we compare our present state to the state of +the country previous to the wars against France, we must see that our +present misery is owing to no other cause. The taxes then annually +raised amounted to about fifteen millions: they amounted last year to +seventy millions. The nation was then happy; it is now miserable.</p> + +<p>The writers and speakers who labour in the cause of corruption, have +taken great pains to make the labouring classes believe that <i>they</i> +are <i>not taxed</i>; that the taxes which are paid by the landlords, +farmers, and tradesmen, do not affect you, the journeymen and +labourers; and that the tax-makers have been very<a name='Page_187'></a> lenient towards +you. But, I hope that you see to the bottom of these things now. You +must be sensible that if all your employers were totally ruined in one +day, you would be wholly without employment and without bread; and, of +course, in whatever degree your employers are deprived of their means, +they must withhold means from you. In America the most awkward common +labourer receives five shillings a day, while provisions are cheaper +in that country than in this. Here, a carter, boarded in the house, +receives about seven pounds a year; in America, he receives about +thirty pounds a year. What is it that makes this difference? Why, in +America the whole of the taxes do not amount to more than about ten +shillings a head upon the whole of the population; while in England +they amount to nearly six pounds a head! <i>There</i>, a journeyman or +labourer may support his family well, and save from thirty to sixty +pounds a year: <i>here</i>, he amongst you is a lucky man, who can provide +his family with food and with decent clothes to cover them, without +any hope of possessing a penny in the days of sickness or of old age. +<i>There</i>, the Chief Magistrate receives six thousand pounds a year; +<i>here</i>, the civil list surpasses a million of pounds in amount, and as +much is allowed to each of the Princesses in one year, as the chief +magistrate of America receives in two years, though that country is +nearly equal to this in population.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_188'></a>A Mr. Preston, a lawyer of great eminence, and a great praiser of +Pitt, has just published a pamphlet, in which is this remark: 'It +should always be remembered, that the eighteen pounds a year paid to +any placeman or pensioner, withdraws from the public the means of +giving active employment to one individual as the head of a family; +thus depriving five persons of the means of sustenance from the fruits +of honest industry and active labour, and rendering them paupers.' +Thus this supporter of Pitt acknowledges the great truth that the +taxes are the cause of a people's poverty and misery and degradation. +We did not stand in need of this acknowledgment; the fact has been +clearly proved before; but it is good for us to see the friends and +admirers of Pitt brought to make this confession.</p> + +<p>It has been attempted to puzzle you with this sort of question: 'If +taxes be the cause of the people's misery, how comes it that they were +not so miserable before the taxes were reduced as they are now?' Here +is a fallacy which you will be careful to detect. I know that the +taxes have been reduced; that is to say, <i>nominally</i> reduced, but not +so in fact; on the contrary, they have, in reality, been greatly +augmented. This has been done by the sleight-of-hand of paper money. +Suppose, for instance, that four years ago, I had a hundred pounds to +pay in taxes, then a hundred and thirty bushels of wheat would have +paid my share. If I have now seventy-five pounds to pay in taxes, it<a name='Page_189'></a> +will require a hundred and ninety bushels of wheat to pay my share of +taxes. Consequently, though my taxes are nominally reduced, they are, +in reality, greatly augmented. This has been done by the legerdemain +of paper money. In 1812, the pound-note was worth only thirteen +shillings in silver. It is now worth twenty shillings. Therefore, when +we now pay a pound-note to the tax-gatherer, we really pay him twenty +shillings where we before paid him thirteen shillings; and the +Landholders who lent pound-notes worth thirteen shillings each, are +now paid their interest in pounds worth twenty shillings each. And the +thing is come to what Sir Francis Burdett told the Parliament it would +come to. He told them in 1811, that if they ever attempted to pay the +interest of their debt in gold and silver, or in paper money equal in +value to gold and silver, the farmers and tradesmen must be ruined, +and the journeymen and labourers reduced to the last stage of misery.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, it is clear that it is the weight of the taxes, under +which you are sinking, which has already pressed so many of you down +into the state of paupers, and which now threatens to deprive many of +you of your existence. We next come to consider what have been the +causes of this weight of taxes. Here we must go back a little in our +history, and you will soon see that this intolerable weight has all +proceeded from the want of a Parliamentary Reform.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_190'></a>In the year 1764, soon after the present king came to the throne, the +annual interest of the Debt amounted to about five millions, and the +whole of the taxes to about nine millions. But, soon after this, a war +was entered on to compel the Americans to submit to be taxed by the +Parliament, without being represented in that Parliament. The +Americans triumphed, and, after the war was over, the annual interest +of the Debt amounted to about nine millions, and the whole of the +taxes to about fifteen millions. This was our situation when the +French people began their Revolution. The French people had so long +been the slaves of a despotic government, that the friends of freedom +in England rejoiced at their emancipation. The cause of Reform, which +had never ceased to have supporters in England for a great many years, +now acquired new life, and the Reformers urged the Parliament to grant +reform, instead of going to war against the people of France. The +Reformers said: 'Give the nation reform, and you need fear no +revolution.' The Parliament, instead of listening to the Reformers, +crushed them, and went to war against the people of France; and the +consequence of these wars is, that the annual interest of the Debt now +amounts to forty-five millions, and the whole of the taxes, during +each of the last several years, to seventy millions. So that these +wars have ADDED thirty-six millions a year to the interest of the +Debt, and fifty-<a name='Page_191'></a>five millions a year to the amount of the whole of +the taxes! This is the price that we have paid for having checked (for +it is only checked) the progress of liberty in France; for having +forced upon that people the family of Bourbon, and for having enabled +another branch of that same family to restore the bloody Inquisition, +which Napoleon had put down.</p> + +<p>Since the restoration of the Bourbons and of the old Government of +France has been, as far as possible, the grand result of the contest; +since this has been the end of all our fightings and all our past +sacrifices and present misery and degradation; let us see (for the +inquiry is now very full of interest) what sort of Government that was +which the French people had just destroyed, when our Government began +its wars against that people.</p> + +<p>If, only twenty-eight years ago, any man in England had said that the +Government of France was one that ought to be suffered to exist, he +would have been hooted out of any company. It is notorious that that +Government was a cruel despotism; and that we and our forefathers +always called it such. This description of that Government is to be +found in all our histories, in all our Parliamentary debates, in all +our books on Government and politics. It is notorious, that the family +of Bourbon has produced the most perfidious and bloody monsters that +ever disgraced the human form. It is notorious that millions of +Frenchmen<a name='Page_192'></a> have been butchered, and burnt, and driven into exile by +their commands. It is recorded, even in the history of France, that +one of them said that the putrid carcass of a Protestant smelt sweet +to him. Even in these latter times, so late as the reign of Louis +XIV., it is notorious that hundreds of thousands of innocent people +were put to the most cruel death. In some instances, they were burnt +in their houses; in others they were shut into lower rooms, while the +incessant noise of kettle-drums over their heads, day and night, drove +them to raving madness. To enumerate all the infernal means employed +by this tyrant to torture and kill the people, would fill a volume. +Exile was the lot of those who escaped the swords, the wheels, the +axes, the gibbets, the torches of his hell-hounds. England was the +place of refuge for many of these persecuted people. The grandfather +of the present Earl of Radnor, and the father of the venerable Baron +Maseres were amongst them; and it is well known that England owes no +inconsiderable part of her manufacturing skill and industry to that +atrocious persecution. Enemies of freedom, wherever it existed, this +family of Bourbon, in the reign of Louis XIV. and XV., fitted out +expeditions for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the throne of +England, and thereby caused great expense and blood-shed to this +nation; and, even the Louis who was beheaded by his subjects, did, in +the most perfidious<a name='Page_193'></a> manner, make war upon England, during her war +with America. No matter what was the nature of the cause, his conduct +was perfidious; he professed peace while he was preparing for war. His +object could not be to assist freedom, because his own subjects were +slaves.</p> + +<p>Such was the family that were ruling in France when the French +Revolution began. After it was resolved to go to war against the +people of France, all the hirelings of corruption were set to work to +gloss over the character and conduct of the old Government, and to +paint in the most horrid colours the acts of vengeance which the +people were inflicting on the numerous tyrants, civil, military, and +ecclesiastical, whom the change of things had placed at their mercy. +The people's turn was now come, and, in the days of their power, they +justly bore in mind the oppressions which they and their forefathers +had endured. The taxes imposed by the Government became at last +intolerable. It had contracted a great debt to carry on its wars. In +order to be able to pay the interest of this debt, and to support an +enormous standing army in time of peace, it laid upon the people +burdens which they could no longer endure. It fined and flogged +fathers and mothers if their children were detected in smuggling. Its +courts of justice were filled with cruel and base judges. The nobility +treated the common people like dogs; these latter<a name='Page_194'></a> were compelled to +serve as soldiers, but were excluded from all share, or chance of +honour and command, which were engrossed by the nobility.</p> + +<p>Now, when the time came for the people to have the power in their +hands, was it surprising that the first use they made of it was to +take vengeance on their oppressors? I will not answer this question +myself. It shall be answered by Mr. Arthur Young, the present +Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. He was in France at the time, +and living upon the very spot, and having examined into the causes of +the Revolution, he wrote and published the following remarks, in his +<i>Travels</i>, vol. i. page 603:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>'It is impossible to justify the excesses of the people on + their taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of + cruelties; it is idle to deny the facts, for they have been + proved too clearly to admit of doubt. But is it really the + people to whom we are to impute the whole? Or to their + oppressors, who had kept them so long in a state of bondage? + He who chooses to be served by slaves and by ill-treated + slaves, must know that he holds both his property and his + life by a tenure far different from those who prefer the + service of well-treated freemen; and he who dines to the + music of groaning sufferers, must not, in the moment of + insurrection, complain that his sons' throats are cut. When + such evils happen, they surely are more imputable to the + tyranny of the master than to the cruelty of the servant. The + analogy holds with the French peasants. The murder of a + seigneur, or a country seat in flames, is recorded in every + newspaper; the rank of the person who suffers attracts + notice; but where do we find the registers of that seigneur's + oppressions of<a name='Page_195'></a> his peasantry, and his exactions of feudal + services from those whose children were dying around them for + want of bread? Where do we find the minutes that assigned + these starving wretches to some vile pettifogger, to be + fleeced by impositions, and mockery of justice, in the + seigneural courts? Who gives us the awards of the Intendant + and his <i>sub-delegues</i>, which took off the taxes of a man of + fashion, and laid them with accumulated weight on the poor, + who were so unfortunate as to be his neighbours? Who has + dwelt sufficiently upon explaining all the ramifications of + despotism, regal, aristocratical, and ecclesiastical, + pervading the whole mass of the people; reaching, like a + circulating fluid, the most distant capillary tubes of + poverty and wretchedness? In these cases the sufferers are + too ignoble to be known; and the mass too indiscriminate to + be pitied. But should a philosopher feel and reason thus? + Should he mistake the cause for the effect? and, giving all + his pity to the few, feel no compassion for the many, because + they suffer in his eyes not individually but by millions? The + excesses of the people cannot, I fear, be justified; it would + undoubtedly have done them credit, both as men and as + Christians, if they had possessed their new acquired power + with moderation. But let it be remembered that the populace + in no country ever use power with moderation; excess is + inherent in their aggregate constitution: and as every + Government in the world knows that violence infallibly + attends power in such hands, it is doubly bound in common + sense, and for common safety, so to conduct itself, that the + people may not find an interest in public confusions. They + will always suffer much and long, before they are effectually + roused; nothing, therefore, can kindle the flame but such + oppressions of some classes or order in society as give able + men the opportunity of seconding the general mass; discontent + will diffuse itself around; and if the Government take not + warning in time, it is alone answerable for all the burnings + and all the plunderings and all the devastation and all the + blood that follow.' </p></div> + +<p><a name='Page_196'></a>Who can deny the justice of these observations? It was the Government +alone that was justly chargeable with the excesses committed in this +early stage, and, in fact, in every other stage, of the Revolution of +France. If the Government had given way in time, none of these +excesses would have been committed. If it had listened to the +complaints, the prayers, the supplications, the cries of the +cruelly-treated and starving people; if it had changed its conduct, +reduced its expenses, it might have been safe under the protection of +the peace-officers, and might have disbanded its standing army. But it +persevered; it relied upon the bayonet, and upon its judges and +hangmen. The latter were destroyed, and the former went over to the +side of the people. Was it any wonder that the people burnt the houses +of their oppressors, and killed the owners and their families? The +country contained thousands upon thousands of men that had been ruined +by taxation, and by judgments of infamous courts of justice, 'a +mockery of justice'; and, when these ruined men saw their oppressors +at their feet, was it any wonder that they took vengeance upon them? +Was it any wonder that the son, who had seen his father and mother +flogged, because he, when a child, had smuggled a handful of salt, +should burn for an occasion to shoot through the head the ruffians who +had thus lacerated the bodies of his parents? Moses slew<a name='Page_197'></a> the insolent +Egyptian who had smitten one of his countrymen in bondage. Yet Moses +has never been called either a murderer or a cruel wretch for this +act; and the bondage of the Israelites was light as a feather compared +to the tyranny under which the people of France had groaned for ages. +Moses resisted oppression in the only way that resistance was in his +power. He knew that his countrymen had no chance of justice in any +court; he knew that petitions against his oppressors were all in vain; +and 'looking upon the burdens' of his countrymen, he resolved to begin +the only sort of resistance that was left him. Yet it was little more +than a mere insult that drew forth his anger and resistance; and, if +Moses was justified, as he clearly was, what needs there any apology +for the people of France?</p> + +<p>It seems at first sight very strange that the Government of France +should not have 'taken warning in time.' But it had so long been in +the habit of despising the people that its mind was incapable of +entertaining any notion of danger from the oppressions heaped upon +them. It was surrounded with panders and parasites who told it nothing +but flattering falsehoods; and it saw itself supported by two hundred +and fifty thousand bayonets, which it thought irresistible; though it +found in the end that those who wielded those bayonets were not long +so base as to be induced, either by threats or promises, to butcher +their<a name='Page_198'></a> brothers and sisters and parents. And, if you ask me how it +came to pass that they did not 'take warning in time,' I answer that +they did take warning, but that, seeing that the change which was +coming would deprive them of a great part of their power and +emoluments, they resolved to resist the change, and to destroy the +country, if possible, rather than not have all its wealth and power to +themselves. The ruffian whom we read of, a little time ago, who +stabbed a young woman because she was breaking from him to take the +arm of another man whom she preferred, acted upon the principle of the +ministers, the noblesse, and the clergy of France. They could no +longer unjustly possess, therefore they would destroy. They saw that +if a just government were established; that if the people were fairly +represented in a national council; they saw that if this were to take +place, they would no longer be able to wallow in wealth at the expense +of the people; and, seeing this, they resolved to throw all into +confusion, and, if possible, to make a heap of ruins of that country +which they could no longer oppress, and the substance of which they +could no longer devour.</p> + +<p>Talk of violence indeed! Was there anything too violent, anything too +severe to be inflicted on these men? It was they who produced +confusion; it was they who caused the massacres and guillotinings; it +was they who destroyed the kingly government; it was<a name='Page_199'></a> they who brought +the king to the block. They were answerable for all and for every +single part of the mischief, as much as Pharaoh was for the plagues in +Egypt, which history of Pharaoh seems, by the bye, to be intended as a +lesson to all future tyrants. He 'set taskmasters over the Israelites +to afflict them with burdens; and he made them build treasure cities +for him; he made them serve with rigour; he made their lives bitter +with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of +service of the field; he denied them straw, and insisted upon their +making the same quantity of bricks, and because they were unable to +obey, the taskmasters called them idle and beat them.' Was it too much +to scourge and to destroy all the first-born of men who could +tolerate, assist, and uphold a tyrant like this? Yet was Pharaoh less +an oppressor than the old government of France.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, we have a view of the former state of that country, by +wars against the people of which we have been brought into our present +state of misery. There are many of the hirelings of corruption, who +actually insist on it that we ought now to go to war again for the +restoring of all the cruel despotism which formerly existed in France. +This is what cannot be done, however. Our wars have sent back the +Bourbons; but the tithes, the seigneurs, and many other curses have +not been restored. The French people still enjoy much of the benefit +of the Revolu<a name='Page_200'></a>tion; and great numbers of their ancient petty tyrants +have been destroyed. So that even were things to remain as they are, +the French people have gained greatly by their Revolution. But things +cannot remain as they are. Better days are at hand.</p> + +<p>In proceeding now to examine the remedies for your distresses, I shall +first notice some of those which foolish, or cruel and insolent men +have proposed. Seeing that the cause of your misery is the weight of +taxation, one would expect to hear of nothing but a reduction of +taxation in the way of remedy; but from the friends of corruption +never do we hear of any such remedy. To hear them, one would think +that <i>you</i> had been the guilty cause of the misery you suffer; and +that you, and you alone, ought to be made answerable for what has +taken place. The emissaries of corruption are now continually crying +out against the weight of the Poor-rates, and they seem to regard all +that is taken in that way as a dead loss to the Government! Their +project is to deny relief to all who are able to work. But what is the +use of your being able to work, if no one will, or can, give you work? +To tell you that you must work for your bread, and, at the same time, +not to find any work for you, is full as bad as it would be to order +you to make bricks without straw. Indeed, it is rather more cruel and +insolent; for Pharaoh's taskmasters did point out to the Israelites +that they might go into the fields and<a name='Page_201'></a> get <i>stubble</i>. The <i>Courier</i> +newspaper of the 9th of October, says, 'We must thus be cruel only to +be kind.' I am persuaded that you will not understand this kindness, +while you will easily understand the cruelty. The notion of these +people seems to be that everybody that receives money out of the taxes +has a right to receive it, except you. They tremble at the fearful +amount of the Poor-rates: they say, and very truly, that those rates +have risen from two and a half to eight or ten millions since the +beginning of the wars against the people of France; they think, and +not without reason, that these rates will soon swallow up nearly all +the rent of the land. These assertions and apprehensions are perfectly +well founded; but how can <i>you</i> help it? You have not had the +management of the affairs of the nation. It is not you who have ruined +the farmers and tradesmen. You only want food and raiment: you are +ready to work for it; but you cannot go naked and without food.</p> + +<p>But the complaints of these persons against you are the more +unreasonable, because they say not a word against the sums paid to +sinecure placemen and pensioners. Of the five hundred and more +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture, there are scarcely ten who +do not complain of the weight of the Poor-rates, of the immense sums +taken away from them by the poor, and many of them complain of the +idleness of the poor. But not one single man<a name='Page_202'></a> complains of the immense +sums taken away to support sinecure placemen, who do nothing for their +money, and to support pensioners, many of whom are women and children, +the wives and daughters of the nobility and other persons in high +life, and who can do nothing, and never can have done anything for +what they receive. There are of these places and pensions all sizes, +from twenty pounds to thirty thousand and nearly forty thousand pounds +a year! And surely these ought to be done away before any proposition +be made to take the parish allowance from any of you who are unable to +work, or to find work to do. There are several individual placemen, +the profits of each of which would maintain a thousand families. The +names of the ladies upon the pension list would, if printed, one under +another, fill a sheet of paper like this. And is it not, then, base +and cruel at the same time in these Agricultural correspondents to cry +out so loudly against the charge of supporting the unfortunate poor, +while they utter not a word of complaint against the sinecure places +and pensions?</p> + +<p>The unfortunate journeymen and labourers and their families have a +right, they have a just claim, to relief from the purses of the rich. +For there can exist no riches and no resources which they by their +labour have not assisted to create. But I should be glad to know how +the sinecure placemen and lady pensioners<a name='Page_203'></a> have assisted to create +food and raiment, or the means of producing them. The labourer who is +out of work or ill, to-day, may be able to work, and set to work +to-morrow. While those placemen and pensioners never can work; or, at +least, it is clear that they never intend to do it.</p> + +<p>You have been represented by the <i>Times</i> newspaper, by the <i>Courier</i>, +by the <i>Morning Post</i>, by the <i>Morning Herald</i>, and others, as the +<i>scum</i> of society. They say that you have no business at public +meetings; that you are rabble, and that you pay no taxes. These +insolent hirelings, who wallow in wealth, would not be able to put +their abuse of you in print were it not for your labour. You create +all that is an object of taxation; for even the land itself would be +good for nothing without your labour. But are you not taxed? Do you +pay no taxes? One of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture +has said that care has been taken to lay as little tax as possible on +the articles used by you. One would wonder how a man could be found +impudent enough to put an assertion like this upon paper. But the +people of this country have so long been insulted by such men, that +the insolence of the latter knows no bounds.</p> + +<p>The tax gatherers do not, indeed, come to you and demand money of you: +but there are few articles which you use, in the purchase of which you +do not pay a tax.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_204'></a>On your shoes, salt, beer, malt, hops, tea, sugar, candles, soap, +paper, coffee, spirits, glass of your windows, bricks and tiles, +tobacco: on all these, and many other articles you pay a tax, and even +on your loaf you pay a tax, because everything is taxed from which the +loaf proceeds. In several cases the tax amounts to more than one half +of what you pay for the article itself; these taxes go in part to +support sinecure placemen and pensioners; and the ruffians of the +hired press call you the scum of society, and deny that you have any +right to show your faces at any public meeting to petition for a +reform, or for the removal of any abuse whatever!</p> + +<p>Mr. Preston, whom I quoted before, and who is a member of Parliament +and has a large estate, says upon this subject, 'Every family, even of +the poorest labourer, consisting of five persons, may be considered as +paying, in indirect taxes, at least ten pounds a year, or more than +half his wages at seven shillings a week!' And yet the insolent +hirelings call you the mob, the rabble, the scum, the swinish +multitude, and say that your voice is nothing; that you have no +business at public meetings; and that you are, and ought to be +considered as nothing in the body politic! Shall we never see the day +when these men will change their tone! Will they never cease to look +upon us [as on] brutes! I trust they will change their tone, and that +the day of the change is at no great distance!</p> + +<p><a name='Page_205'></a>The weight of the Poor-rate, which must increase while the present +system continues, alarms the corrupt, who plainly see that what is +paid to relieve you, they cannot have. Some of them, therefore, hint +at your early marriages as a great evil, and a clergyman named Malthus +has seriously proposed measures for checking you in this respect; +while one of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture complains +of the increase of bastards, and proposes severe punishment on the +parents! How hard these men are to please! What would they have you +do? As some have called you the swinish multitude, would it be much +wonder if they were to propose to serve you as families of young pigs +are served? Or if they were to bring forward the measure of Pharaoh, +who ordered the midwives to kill all the male children of the +Israelites?</p> + +<p>But, if you can restrain your indignation at these insolent notions +and schemes, with what feelings must you look upon the condition of +your country, where the increase of the people is now looked upon as a +curse! Thus, however, has it always been, in all countries where taxes +have produced excessive misery. Our countryman, Mr. Gibbon, in his +History of the <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i>, has the +following passage: 'The horrid practice of murdering their new-born +infants was become every day more frequent in the provinces. It was +the effect of <i>distress</i>, and the distress was principally occasioned +by the<a name='Page_206'></a> <i>intolerable burden of taxes</i>, and by the vexatious as well as +cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their +insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of +mankind, instead of rejoicing at an increase of family, deemed it an +act of paternal tenderness to release the children from the impending +miseries of a life which they themselves were unable to support.'</p> + +<p>But that which took place under the base Emperor Constantine will not +take place in England. You will not murder your new-born infants, nor +will you, to please the corrupt and insolent, debar yourselves from +enjoyments to which you are invited by the very first of Nature's +laws. It is, however, a disgrace to the country that men should be +found in it capable of putting ideas so insolent upon paper. So, then, +a young man arm-in-arm with a rosy-cheeked girl must be a spectacle of +evil omen! What! and do they imagine that you are thus to be +extinguished, because some of you are now (without any fault of yours) +unable to find work? As far as you were wanted to labour, to fight, or +to pay taxes, you were welcome, and they boasted of your numbers; but +now that your country has been brought into a state of misery, these +corrupt and insolent men are busied with schemes for getting rid of +you. Just as if you had not as good a right to live and to love and to +marry as they have! They do not propose, far from it, to<a name='Page_207'></a> check the +breeding of sinecure placemen and pensioners, who are supported in +part by the taxes which you help to pay. They say not a word about the +whole families who are upon the pension list. In many cases there are +sums granted in trust for <i>the children</i> of such a lord or such a +lady. And while labourers and journeymen who have large families too, +are actually paying taxes for the support of these lords' and ladies' +children, these cruel and insolent men propose that they shall have no +relief, and that their having children ought to be checked! To such a +subject no words can do justice. You will feel as you ought to feel; +and to the effect of your feelings I leave these cruel and insolent +men.</p> + +<p>There is one more scheme to notice, which, though rather less against +nature is not less hateful and insolent; namely, to encourage you to +emigrate to foreign countries. This scheme is distinctly proposed to +the Government by one of the correspondents of the Board of +Agriculture. What he means by encouragement must be to send away by +force, or by paying for the passage; for a man who has money stands in +no need of relief. But, I trust, that not a man of you will move, let +the <i>encouragement</i> be what it may. It is impossible for many to go, +though the prospect be ever so fair. We must stand by our country, and +it is base not to stand by her, as long as there is a chance of seeing +her what she ought to be. But the proposition is,<a name='Page_208'></a> nevertheless, base +and insolent This man did not propose to encourage the sinecure +placemen and pensioners to emigrate; yet, surely, you who help to +maintain them by the taxes which you pay, have as good a right to +remain in the country as they have! You have fathers and mothers and +sisters and brothers and children and friends as well as they; but +this base projector recommends that you may be encouraged to leave +your relations and friends for ever; while he would have the sinecure +placemen and pensioners remain quietly where they are!</p> + +<p>No: you will not leave your country. If you have suffered much and +long, you have the greater right to remain in the hope of seeing +better days. And I beseech you not to look upon yourselves as the +<i>scum</i>; but, on the contrary, to be well persuaded that a great deal +will depend upon your exertions; and therefore, I now proceed to point +out to you what appears to me to be the line of conduct which +journeymen and labourers ought to pursue in order to obtain effectual +relief, and to assist in promoting tranquillity and restoring the +happiness of the country.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the cause of our miseries is the burden of taxes +occasioned by wars, by standing armies, by sinecures, by pensions, +etc. It would be endless and useless to enumerate all the different +heads or sums of expenditure. The remedy is what<a name='Page_209'></a> we have now to look +to, and that remedy consists wholly and solely of such a reform in the +Commons' or People's House of Parliament, as shall give to every payer +of direct taxes a vote at elections, and as shall cause the Members to +be elected annually.</p> + +<p>In a late <i>Register</i> I have pointed out how easily, how peaceably, how +fairly, such a Parliament might be chosen. I am aware that it may, and +not without justice, be thought wrong to deprive those of the right of +voting who pay indirect taxes. Direct taxes are those which are +directly paid by any person into the hands of the tax-gatherers, as +the assessed rates and taxes. Indirect taxes are those which are paid +indirectly through the maker or seller of goods, as the tax on soap or +candles or salt or malt. And, as no man ought to be taxed without his +consent, there has always been a difficulty upon this head. There has +been no question about the <i>right</i> of every man who is free to +exercise his will, who has a settled place in society, and who pays a +tax of any sort, to vote for Members of Parliament. The difficulty is +in taking the votes by any other means than by the Rate-book; for if +there be no list of tax-payers in the hands of any person, mere menial +servants, vagrants, pickpockets, and scamps of all sorts might not +only come to the poll, but they might poll in several parishes or +places, on one and the same day. A corrupt rich man might employ +scores of persons of this description, and<a name='Page_210'></a> in this way would the +purpose of reform be completely defeated. In America, where one branch +of the Congress is elected for four years and the other for two years, +they have still adhered to the principle of direct taxation, and in +some of the States they have made it necessary for a voter to be worth +one hundred pounds. Yet they have, in that country, duties on goods, +custom duties, and excise duties also; and, of course, there are many +persons who really pay taxes, and who, nevertheless, are not permitted +to vote. The people do not complain of this. They know that the number +of votes is so great that no corruption can take place, and they have +no desire to see livery servants, vagrants, and pickpockets take part +in their elections. Nevertheless it would be very easy for a reformed +Parliament, when once it had taken root, to make a just arrangement of +this matter. The most likely method would be to take off the indirect +taxes, and to put a small direct tax upon every master of a house, +however low his situation in life.</p> + +<p>But this and all other good things, must be done by a reformed +Parliament. We must have that first, or we shall have nothing good; +and any man who would beforehand take up your time with the detail of +what a reformed Parliament ought to do in this respect, or with +respect to any changes in the form of government, can have no other +object than that of defeating<a name='Page_211'></a> the cause of reform; and, indeed, the +very act must show, that to raise obstacles is his wish.</p> + +<p>Such men, now that they find you justly irritated, would persuade you +that, because things have been perverted from their true ends, there +is nothing good in our constitution and laws. For what, then, did +Hampden die in the field, and Sydney on the scaffold? And has it been +discovered at last that England has always been an enslaved country +from top to toe? The Americans, who are a very wise people, and who +love liberty with all their hearts, and who take care to enjoy it too, +took special care not to part with any of the great principles and +laws which they derived from their forefathers. They took special care +to speak with reverence of, and to preserve Magna Charta, the Bill of +Rights, the Habeas Corpus, and not only all the body of the Common Law +of England, but most of the rules of our courts, and all our form of +jurisprudence. Indeed it is the greatest glory of England that she has +thus supplied with sound principles of freedom those immense regions +which will be peopled perhaps by hundreds of millions.</p> + +<p>I know of no enemy of reform and of the happiness of the country so +great as that man who would persuade you that we possess nothing good, +and that all must be torn to pieces. There is no principle, no +precedent, no regulations (except as to mere matter of detail), +favourable to freedom, which is not to be found in the<a name='Page_212'></a> Laws of +England or in the example of our ancestors. Therefore I say we may ask +for, and we want nothing new. We have great constitutional laws and +principles to which we are immovably attached. We want great +alteration, but we want nothing new. Alteration, modification, to suit +the times and circumstances; but the great principles ought to be and +must, be the same, or else confusion will follow.</p> + +<p>It was the misfortune of the French people that they had no great and +settled principles to refer to in their laws or history. They sallied +forth and inflicted vengeance on their oppressors; but, for want of +settled principles to which to refer they fell into confusion; they +massacred each other; they next flew to a military chief to protect +them even against themselves; and the result has been what we too well +know. Let us therefore congratulate ourselves that we have great +constitutional principles and laws, to which we can refer, and to +which we are attached.</p> + +<p>That reform will come I know, if the people do their duty; and all +that we have to guard against is confusion, which cannot come if +reform take place in time. I have before observed to you that when the +friends of corruption in France saw that they could not prevent a +change, they bent their endeavours to produce confusion, in which they +fully succeeded. They employed numbers of unprincipled men to go about +the country proposing all sorts of mad schemes. They pro<a name='Page_213'></a>duced first a +confusion in men's minds, and next a civil war between provinces, +towns, villages and families. The tyrant Robespierre, who was exceeded +in cruelty only by some of the Bourbons, was proved to have been in +league with the open enemies of France. He butchered all the real +friends of freedom whom he could lay his hands on, except Paine, whom +he shut up in a dungeon till he was reduced to a skeleton. This +monster was at last put to death himself; and his horrid end ought to +be a warning to any man who may wish to walk in the same path. But I +am, for my part, in little fear of the influence of such men. They +cannot cajole you as Robespierre cajoled the people of Paris. It is, +nevertheless, necessary for you to be on your guard against them, and +when you hear a man talking big and hectoring about projects which go +further than a real and radical reform of the Parliament, be you well +assured that that man would be a second Robespierre if he could, and +that he would make use of you and sacrifice the life of the very last +man of you; that he would ride upon the shoulders of some through +rivers of the blood of others, for the purpose of gratifying his own +selfish and base and insolent ambition.</p> + +<p>In order effectually to avoid the rock of confusion, we should keep +steadily in our eye not only what we wish to be done but what can be +done now. We know that such a reform as would send up a Parliament, +chosen by all payers of direct taxes, is not only just and<a name='Page_214'></a> +reasonable, but easy of execution. I am therefore for accomplishing +that object first; and I am not at all afraid that a set of men who +would really hold the purse of the people, and who had been just +chosen freely by the people, would very soon do everything that the +warmest friend of freedom could wish to see done.</p> + +<p>While, however, you are upon your guard against false friends, you +should neglect no opportunity of doing all that is within your power +to give support to the cause of reform. Petition is the channel for +your sentiments, and there is no village so small that its petition +would not have some weight. You ought to attend at every public +meeting within your reach. You ought to read to and to assist, each +other in coming at a competent knowledge of all public matters. Above +all things, you ought to be unanimous in your object, and not suffer +yourselves to be divided.</p> + +<p>The subject of religion has nothing to do with this great question of +reform. A reformed Parliament would soon do away with all religious +distinctions and disabilities. In their eyes, a Catholic and a +Protestant would both appear in the same light.</p> + +<p>The <i>Courier</i>, the <i>Times</i>, and other emissaries of corruption, are +constantly endeavouring to direct your wrath against bakers, brewers, +butchers, and other persons who deal in the necessaries of life. But, +I trust that you are not to be stimulated to such a species of +violence. These tradesmen are as much<a name='Page_215'></a> in distress as you. They cannot +help their malt and hops and beer and bread and meat being too dear +for you to purchase. They all sell as cheap as they can, without being +absolutely ruined. The beer you drink is more than half <i>tax</i>, and +when the tax has been paid by the seller he must have payment back +again from you who drink, or he must be ruined. The baker has numerous +taxes to pay, and so has the butcher, and so has the miller and the +farmer. Besides, all men are eager to sell, and, if they could sell +cheaper they certainly would, because that would be the sure way of +getting more custom. It is the weight of the taxes which presses us +all to the earth, except those who receive their incomes out of those +taxes. Therefore I exhort you most earnestly not to be induced to lay +violent hands on those who really suffer as much as yourselves.</p> + +<p>On the subject of lowering wages too, you ought to consider that your +employers cannot give to you that which they have not. At present, +corn is high in price, but that high price is no benefit to the +farmer, because it has risen from the badness of the crop, which Mr. +Hunt foretold at the Common Hall, and for the foretelling of which he +was so much abused by the hirelings of the press, who, almost up to +this very moment, have been boasting and thanking God for the goodness +of the crop! The farmer whose corn is half destroyed, gains nothing by +selling the remaining<a name='Page_216'></a> half for double the price at which he would +have sold the whole. If I grow 10 quarters of wheat, and if I save it +all and sell it for two pounds a quarter, I receive as much money as +if I had sold the one-half of it for four pounds a quarter. And I am +better off in the former case, because I want wheat for seed, and +because I want some to consume myself. These matters I recommend to +your serious consideration; because it being unjust to fall upon your +employers to force them to give that which they have not to give, your +conduct in such cases must tend to weaken the great cause in which we +ought all now to be engaged, namely the removal of our burdens through +the means of a reformed Parliament. It is the interest of vile men of +all descriptions to set one part of the people against the other part; +and therefore it becomes you to be constantly on your guard against +their allurements.</p> + +<p>When journeymen find their wages reduced, they should take time to +reflect on the real cause, before they fly on their employers, who are +in many cases in as great or greater distress than themselves. How +many of those employers have of late gone to jail for debt and left +helpless families behind them! The employer's trade falls off. His +goods are reduced in price. His stock loses the half of its value. He +owes money. He is ruined; and how can he continue to pay high wages? +The cause of his ruin is the weight of the taxes, which presses so +heavily on us<a name='Page_217'></a> all, that we lose the power of purchasing goods. But it +is certain that a great many, a very large portion of the farmers, +tradesmen, and manufacturers, have, by their supineness and want of +public spirit, contributed towards the bringing of this ruin upon +themselves and upon you. They have <i>skulked</i> from their public duty. +They have kept aloof from, or opposed all measures for a redress of +grievances; and indeed, they still skulk, though ruin and destruction +stare them in the face. Why do they not now come forward and explain +to you the real cause of the reduction of your wages? Why do they not +put themselves at your head in petitioning for redress? This would +secure their property much better than the calling in of troops, which +can never afford them more than a short and precarious security. In +the days of their prosperity they were amply warned of what has now +come to pass; and the far greater part of them abused and calumniated +those who gave them the warning. Even if they would now act the part +of men worthy of being relieved, the relief to us all would speedily +follow. If they will not; if they will still skulk, they will merit +all the miseries which they are destined to suffer.</p> + +<p>Instead of coming forward to apply for a reduction of those taxes +which are pressing them as well as you to the earth, what are they +doing? Why, they are applying to the Government to add to their +receipts by passing Corn Bills, by preventing foreign wool from<a name='Page_218'></a> being +imported; and many other silly schemes. Instead of asking for a +reduction of taxes they are asking for the means of paying taxes! +Instead of asking for the abolition of sinecure places and pensions, +they pray to be enabled to continue to pay the amount of those places +and pensions! They know very well that the salaries of the judges and +of many other persons were greatly raised, some years ago, on the +ground of the rise in the price of labour and provisions, why then do +they not ask to have those salaries reduced, now that labour is +reduced? Why do they not apply to the case of the judges and others +the arguments which they apply to you? They can talk boldly enough to +you; but they are too great cowards to talk to the Government, even in +the way of petition! Far more honourable is it to be a ragged pauper +than to be numbered among such men.</p> + +<p>These people call themselves the <i>respectable</i> part of the nation. +They are, as they pretend, the virtuous part of the people, because +they are quiet; as if virtue consisted in immobility! There is a +canting Scotchman in London, who publishes a paper called the +'<i>Champion</i>' who is everlastingly harping upon the virtues of the +'fireside,' and who inculcates the duty of quiet submission. Might we +ask this Champion of the teapot and milk-jug whether Magna Charta and +the Bill of Rights were won by the fireside? Whether the tyrants of +the House of Stuart<a name='Page_219'></a> and of Bourbon were hurled down by fireside +virtues? Whether the Americans gained their independence, and have +preserved their freedom, by sitting by the fireside? O, no! these were +all achieved by action, and amidst bustle and noise. Quiet indeed! Why +in this quality a log, or a stone, far surpasses even the pupils of +this Champion of quietness; and the chairs round his fireside exceed +those who sit in them. But in order to put these quiet, fireside, +respectable people to the test, let us ask them if they approve of +drunkenness, breaches of the peace, black eyes, bloody noses, fraud, +bribery, corruption, perjury, and subornation of perjury; and if they +say no, let us ask them whether these are not going on all over the +country at every general election. If they answer yes, as they must +unless they be guilty of wilful falsehood, will they then be so good +as to tell us how they reconcile their inactivity with sentiments of +virtue? Some men, in all former ages, have been held in esteem for +their wisdom, their genius, their skill, their valour, their devotion +to country, etc., but never until this age, was <i>quietness</i> deemed a +quality to be extolled. It would be no difficult matter to show that +the quiet, fireside gentry are the most callous and cruel, and, +therefore, the most wicked part of the nation. Amongst them it is that +you find all the peculators, all the blood-suckers of various degrees, +all the borough-voters and their offspring, all the selfish and +unfeeling wretches, who, rather than risk the dis<a name='Page_220'></a>turbing of their +ease for one single month, rather than go a mile to hold up their hand +at a public meeting, would see half the people perish with hunger and +cold. The humanity, which is continually on their lips, is all +fiction. They weep over the tale of woe in a novel; but round their +'decent fireside,' never was compassion felt for a real sufferer, or +indignation at the acts of a powerful tyrant.</p> + +<p>The object of the efforts of such writers is clearly enough seen. Keep +all <i>quiet</i>! Do not rouse! Keep still! Keep down! Let those who +perish, perish in silence! It will, however, be out of the power of +these quacks, with all their laudanum, to allay the blood which is now +boiling in the veins of the people of this kingdom; who, if they are +doomed to perish, are at any rate resolved not to perish in silence. +The writer whom I have mentioned above, says that he, of course, does +not count 'the lower classes, who, under the pressure of need or under +the influence of ignorant prejudice, may blindly and weakly rush upon +certain and prompt punishment; but that the security of every decent +fireside, every respectable father's best hopes for his children, +still connect themselves with the Government.' And by Government he +clearly means all the mass as it now stands. There is nobody so +callous and so insolent as your sentimental quacks and their patients. +How these 'decent fireside' people would stare, if some morning they +were<a name='Page_221'></a> to come down and find them occupied by uninvited visitors! I +hope they never will. I hope that things will never come to this pass: +but if one thing more than any other tends to produce so sad an +effect, it is the cool insolence with which such men as this writer +treats the most numerous and most suffering classes of the people.</p> + +<p>Long as this Address already is, I cannot conclude without some +observations on the 'Charity Subscriptions' at the London Tavern. The +object of this subscription professes to be to afford relief to the +distressed labourers, etc. About forty thousand pounds have been +subscribed, and there is no probability of its going much further. +There is an absurdity on the face of the scheme; for, as all parishes +are compelled by law to afford relief to every person in distress, it +is very clear that, as far as money is given by these people to +relieve the poor, there will be so much saved in the parish rates. But +the folly of the thing is not what I wish you most to attend to. +Several of the subscribers to this fund receive each of them more than +ten thousand pounds and some more than thirty thousand pounds each, +out of those taxes which you help to pay, and which emoluments not a +man of them proposes to give up. The clergy appear very forward in +this subscription. An Archbishop and a Bishop assisted at the forming +of the scheme. Now then, observe that there has been given out of the +taxes,<a name='Page_222'></a> for several years past, one hundred thousand pounds a year, +for what, think you? Why for the relief of the poor clergy! I have no +account at hand later than that delivered last year, and there I find +this sum!—for the poor clergy! The rich clergy do not pay this sum; +but it comes out of those taxes, part, and a large part of which you +pay on your beer, malt, salt, shoes, etc. I daresay that the 'decent +firesides' of these poor clergy still connect themselves with the +Government. Amongst all our misery we have had to support the +intolerable disgrace of being an object of the charity of a Bourbon +Prince, while we are paying for supporting that family upon the throne +of France. Well! But is this all? We are taxed, at the very same +moment, for the support of the French Emigrants! And you shall see to +what amount. Nay, not only French, but Dutch and others, as appears +from the forementioned account laid before Parliament last year. The +sum, paid out of the taxes, in one year, for the relief of suffering +French Clergy and Laity, St. Domingo Sufferers, Dutch Emigrants, +Corsican Emigrants, was one hundred and eighty-seven thousand seven +hundred and fifty pounds; yes, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand +seven hundred and fifty pounds paid to this set in one year out of +those taxes of which you pay so large a share, while you are insulted +with a subscription to relieve you, and while there are projectors who +have the audacity to recommend schemes for preventing you from +marrying<a name='Page_223'></a> while young, and to induce you to emigrate from your +country! I'll venture my life that the 'decent firesides' of all this +swarm of French clergy and laity, and Dutch, and Corsicans, and St. +Domingo sufferers 'still connect themselves closely with the +Government'; and I will also venture my life that you do not stand in +need of one more word to warm every drop of blood remaining in your +bodies! As to the money subscribed by regiments of soldiers, whose pay +arises from taxes in part paid by you, though it is a most shocking +spectacle to behold, I do not think so much of it. The soldiers are +your fathers, brothers, and sons. But if they were all to give their +whole pay, and if they amount to one hundred and fifty thousand men, +it would not amount to one-half of what is now paid in Poor-rates, and +of course would not add half a pound of bread to every pound which the +unhappy paupers now receive. All the expenses of the Army and Ordnance +amount to an enormous sum—to sixteen or eighteen millions; but the +pay of one hundred and fifty thousand men, at a shilling a day each, +amounts to no more than two million seven hundred and twelve thousand +five hundred pounds. So that, supposing them all to receive a shilling +a day each, the soldiers receive only about a third part of the sum +now paid annually in Poor-rates.</p> + +<p>I have no room, nor have I any desire, to appeal to your passions upon +this occasion. I have laid before you, with all the clearness I am +master of, the causes<a name='Page_224'></a> of our misery, the measures which have led to +those causes, and I have pointed out what appears to me to be the only +remedy—namely a reform of the Commons', or People's House of +Parliament. I exhort you to proceed in a peaceable and lawful manner, +but at the same time to proceed with zeal and resolution in the +attainment of this object. If the skulkers will not join you, if the +'decent fireside' gentry still keep aloof, proceed by yourselves. Any +man can draw up a petition, and any man can carry it up to London, +with instructions to deliver it into trusty hands, to be presented +whenever the House shall meet. Some further information will be given +as to this matter in a future Number. In the meanwhile, I remain your +Friend, WM. COBBETT.</p> +<p> </p> + +<hr /> +<p> </p> + +<h3>TO JACK HARROW, AN ENGLISH LABOURER</h3> + +<h4><i>On the new Cheat which is now on foot, and which goes under the name +of Savings Banks</i></h4> + +<div class='address'><b>NORTH HAMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND,<br /> +<i>November 7th, 1818.</i></b></div> + +<p>Friend Jack—You sometimes hear the Parson talk about deceivers, who +go about in sheep's clothing; but who inwardly are ravening wolves. +You frequently hear of the tricks of the London cheats, and I dare<a name='Page_225'></a>say +you have often enough witnessed those of mountebanks and gypsies. But, +Jack, all the tricks of these deceivers and cheaters, if the trickery +of them all were put together, would fall far short of the trick now +playing off under the name of Savings Banks. And seeing that it is +possible that you may be exposed to the danger of having a few pounds +picked out of your pocket by this trick, I think it right to put you +on your guard against the cheat.</p> + +<p>You have before been informed of who and what the Boroughmongers are. +Therefore, at present, I shall enter into no explanation of their +recent conduct. But, in order to give you a clear view of their +motives in this new trick, and which, I think, is about the last in +their budget, I must go back and tell you something of the history of +their Debt, and of what are called the Funds. Some years ago the +Boroughmongers put me into a loathsome prison for two years, made me +pay a thousand pounds fine, and made me enter into recognisances for +seven years, only because I expressed my indignation at the flogging +of Englishmen, in the heart of England, under the superintendence of +hired German troops brought into the country to keep the people in +awe. It pleased God, Jack, to preserve my life and health, while I was +in that prison. And I employed a part of my time in writing a little +book entitled <i>Paper against Gold</i>. In this little book I fully +explained all the frauds of<a name='Page_226'></a> what is called the <i>National Debt</i>, and +of what are called the <i>Funds</i>. But as it is possible that you may not +have seen that little book, I will here tell you enough about these +things to make you see the reasons for the Boroughmongers using this +trick of Savings Banks.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers are, you know, those persons (some Lords, some +Baronets, and some Esquires, as they call themselves) who fill, or +nominate others to fill, the seats in the House of Commons. <i>Commons</i> +means the mass of the <i>people</i>. So that this is the House of the +People, according to the law of the land. The people—you, I, and all +of us, ought to vote for the men who sit in this House. But the said +Lords, Baronets, and Esquires have taken our rights away, and they +nominate the Members themselves. A <i>monger</i> is a <i>dealer</i>, as +ironmonger, cheesemonger, and the like: and as the Lords, Baronets, +and Esquires sometimes sell and sometimes buy seats, and as the seats +are said to be filled by the people in certain Boroughs, these Lords, +Baronets, and Esquires are very properly called <i>Boroughmongers</i>; that +is to say, dealers in boroughs or in the seats of boroughs. As all +laws and all other matters of government are set up and enforced at +the will of the two Houses, against whose will the king cannot stir +hand or foot; and as the Boroughmongers fill the seats of the two +Houses, they have all the power, and, of course, the king<a name='Page_227'></a> and the +people have none. Being possessed of all the power; being able to tax +us at their pleasure; being able to hang us for whatever they please +to call a crime; they will, of course, do with our property and +persons just what they please. And accordingly, they take from us more +than the half of our earnings; and they keep soldiers (whom they +deceive) to shoot at us and kill us, if we attempt to resist. They put +us in dungeons when they like. And, in Ireland, they compel people to +remain shut up in their houses from sunset to sunrise, and if any man, +contrary to their commands, goes out of his house in the night, in +order to go to the privy, they punish him very severely; and in that +unhappy country they transport men and women to Botany Bay without any +trial by jury, and merely by the orders of two justices of the peace +appointed by themselves.</p> + +<p>This, Jack, is horrid work to be going on amongst a people who call +themselves <i>free</i>; amongst a people who boast of their liberties. But +the facts are so; and now I shall explain to you how the +Boroughmongers, who are so few in number compared to the whole people, +are able to commit these cruel acts and to carry on this abominable +tyranny; and you will see that the trick of Savings Banks makes a part +of the means, which they now intend to use for the perpetuating of +this tyranny.</p> + +<p>Formerly, more than a hundred years ago, when<a name='Page_228'></a> the kings of England +had some real power, and before the Boroughmongers took all the powers +of king and people into their hands, the people, when the kings +behaved amiss, used to rise against them and compel them to act +justly. They beheaded Charles the First about one hundred and seventy +years ago; and they drove James the Second out of the kingdom; they +went so far as to set his family aside for ever, and they put up the +present royal family in its stead.</p> + +<p>This was all very well; but when King James had been driven out, the +Lords and Baronets and Squires conceived the notion of ruling for ever +over king and people. They made Parliaments, which used to be annual, +three years of duration; and when the members had been elected for +three years, the members themselves made a law to make the people obey +them for seven years. Thus was the usurpation completed; and from that +time to this the Boroughmongers have filled the seats just as it has +pleased them to do it; and they have, as I said before, done with our +property and our persons just what they have pleased to do.</p> + +<p>Now it will naturally be matter of wonder to you, friend Jack, that +this small band of persons, and of debauched wretched persons too, any +half dozen of whom you would be able to beat with one hand tied down; +it will be matter of wonder to you that this contemptible band should +have been able thus to subjugate, and hold in bondage so degrading, +the whole<a name='Page_229'></a> of the English people. But, Jack, recollect that once a +parcel of fat, lazy, drinking, and guttling monks and friars were able +to make this same people to work and support them in their laziness +and debaucheries, aye, and almost to adore them, too; to go to them, +and kneel down and confess their sins to them, and to believe that it +was in their power to absolve them of their sins. Now how was it that +these fat, these bastard-propagating rascals succeeded in making the +people do this? Why by fraud; by deception; by cheatery; by making +them believe lies; by frightening them half out of their wits; by +making them believe that they would go to hell if they did not work +for them. A ten-thousandth part of the people were able to knock the +greasy vagabonds on the head; and they would have done it too; but +they were afraid of going to hell if they had no priest to pardon +them.</p> + +<p>Thus did these miscreants govern by fraud. The Boroughmongers, as I +shall by and by show, have of late been compelled to resort to open +force; but for a long while they governed by fraud alone. First they, +by the artful and able agents which they have constantly kept in pay, +frightened the people with the pretended dangers of a return of the +old king's family. The people were amused with this scarecrow, while +the chains were silently forging to bind them with. But the great +fraud, the cheat of all cheats, was what they call the national debt. +And now, Jack, pray attend to<a name='Page_230'></a> me; for I am going to explain the chief +cause of all the disgraces and sufferings of the labourers in England; +and am also going to explain the reasons or motives which the +Boroughmongers have for setting on foot this new fraud of Savings +Banks. I beg you, Jack, if you have no other leisure time, to stay at +home instead of going to church, for one single Sunday. Shave +yourself, put on a clean shirt, and sit down and read this letter ten +times over, until you understand every word of it. And if you do that, +you will laugh at the parson and tax-gatherer's coaxings about Savings +Banks. You will keep your odd pennies to yourself; or lay them out in +bread or bacon.</p> + +<p>You have heard, I daresay, a great deal about the national debt; and +now I will tell you what this thing is, and how it came, and then you +will see what an imposture it is, and how shamefully the people of +England have been duped and robbed.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers having usurped all the powers of government, and +having begun to pocket the public money at a great rate, the people +grew discontented. They began to think that they had done wrong in +driving King James away. In a pretty little fable-book, there is a +fable which says that the frogs, who had a log of wood for king, +prayed to Jupiter to send them something more active. He sent them a +stork, or heron, which gobbled them up alive by scores! The people of +England found in the Boroughmongers<a name='Page_231'></a> what the poor frogs found in the +stork; and they began to cry out against them and to wish for the old +king back again.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers saw their danger, and they adopted measures to +prevent it. They saw that if they could make it the interest of a +great many rich people to uphold them and their system they should be +able to get along. They therefore passed a law to enable themselves to +borrow money of rich people; and by the same law they imposed it on +the people at large to pay, for ever, the interest of the money so by +them borrowed.</p> + +<p>The money which they thus borrowed they spent in wars, or divided +amongst themselves, in one shape or another. Indeed the money spent in +wars was pocketed, for the greater part, by themselves. Thus they +owed, in time, immense sums of money; and as they continued to pass +laws to compel the nation at large to pay the interest of what they +borrowed, spent and pocketed, they called and still call this debt, +the debt of the nation; or, in the usual words, the national debt.</p> + +<p>It is curious to observe that there has seldom been known in the world +any very wicked and mischievous scheme of which a priest of some +description or other was not at the bottom. This scheme, certainly as +wicked in itself as any that was ever known, and far more mischievous +in its consequences than any other,<a name='Page_232'></a> was the offspring of a Bishop of +Salisbury, whose name was Burnet; a name that we ought to teach our +very children to execrate. This crafty priest was made a Bishop for +his invention of this scheme; a fit reward for such a service.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers began this debt one hundred and twenty-four years +ago. They have gone on borrowing ever since; and have never paid off +one farthing, and never can. They have continued to pass Acts to make +the people pay the interest of what has been borrowed; till, at last, +the debt itself amounts to more than all the lands, all the houses, +all the trees, all the canals and all the mines would sell for at +their full sterling value; and the money to pay the interest is taken +out of men's rents and out of their earnings; and you, Jack, as I +shall by and by prove to you, pay to the Boroughmongers more than the +half of what you receive in weekly wages from your master.</p> + +<p>Is not this a pretty state of things? Pray observe, Jack, the debt far +exceeds the real full value of the whole kingdom, if there could be a +purchaser found for it. So that, you see, as to private property no +man has any, as long as this debt hangs upon the country. Your master, +Farmer Gripe, for instance, calls his farm <i>his</i>. It is none of his, +according to the Boroughmongers' law; for that law has pawned it for +the payment of the interest of the Boroughmongers' debt; and the pawn<a name='Page_233'></a> +must remain as long as the Boroughmongers' law remains. Gripe is +compelled to pay out of the yearly value of his farm a certain portion +to the debt. He may, indeed, sell the farm; but he can get only a part +of the value; because the purchaser will have to pay a yearly sum on +account of the pawn. In short, the Boroughmongers have, in fact, +passed laws to take every man's private property away from him, in +whatever portions their debt may demand such taking away; and a man +who thinks himself an owner of land, is at best only a steward who +manages it for the Boroughmongers.</p> + +<p>This, however, is only a small part of the evil; for the whole of the +rents of the houses and lands and mines and canals would not pay the +interest of this debt; no, and not much more than the half of it. The +labour is therefore pawned too. Every man's labour is pawned for the +payment of the interest of this debt. Aye, Jack, you may think that +you are working for yourself, and that, when on a Saturday night you +take nine shillings from Farmer Gripe, the shillings are for your own +use. You are grievously deceived, for more than half the sum is paid +to the Boroughmongers on account of the pawn. You do not see this, but +the fact is so. Come, what are the things in which you expend the nine +shillings? Tea, sugar, tobacco, candles, salt, soap, shoes, beer, +bread; for no meat do you ever taste. On the articles taken together, +except bread, you pay far more than half tax; and you will<a name='Page_234'></a> observe +that your master's taxes are, in part, pinched out of you. There is an +army employed in Ireland to go with the excisemen and other taxers to +make the people pay. If the taxers were to wait at the ale houses and +grocers' shops, and receive their portion from your own hands, you +would then clearly see that the Boroughmongers take away more than the +half of what you earn. You would then clearly see what it is that +makes you poor and ragged, and that makes your children cry for the +want of a bellyful. You would clearly see that what the hypocrites +tell you about this being your lot, and about Providence placing you +in such a state in order to try your patience and faith, is all a base +falsehood. Why does not Providence place the Boroughmongers and the +parsons in a state to try their patience and faith? Is Providence less +anxious to save them than to save you? If you could see clearly what +you pay on account of the Boroughmongers' pawn, you would see that +your misery arises from the designs of a benevolent Providence being +counteracted by the measures of the Borough-tyrants.</p> + +<p>Your lot, indeed! Your lot assigned by Providence! This is real +blasphemy! Just as if Providence, which sends the salt on shore all +round our coast, had ordained that you should not have any of it +unless you would pay the Boroughmongers fifteen shillings a bushel tax +upon it! But what a Providence must that be which would ordain that an +Englishman should pay<a name='Page_235'></a> fifteen shillings tax on a bushel of English +salt, while a Long Islander pays only two shillings and sixpence for a +bushel of the same salt, after it is brought to America from England? +What an idea must we have of such a Providence as this? Oh no, Jack; +this is not the work of Providence. It is the work of the +Boroughmongers; the pretext about Providence has been invented to +deceive and cheat you, and to perpetuate your slavery.</p> + +<p>Well: all is pawned then. The land, the houses, the canals, the mines, +and the labour are pawned for the payment of the interest of the +Boroughmongers debt. Your labour, mind, Jack, is pawned for the +one-half of its worth. But you will naturally ask, how is it that the +nation, that everybody submits to this? There's your mistake, Jack. It +is not <i>everybody</i> that submits. In the first place there are the +Boroughmongers themselves and all their long tribe of relations, +legitimate and spurious, who profit from the taxes, and who have the +church livings, which they enjoy without giving the poor any part of +their legal share of those livings. Then there are all the officers of +army and navy, and all the endless hosts of place-men and place-women, +pensioned men and pensioned women, and all the hosts of tax-gatherers, +who alone, these last I mean, swallow more than would be necessary to +carry on the Government under a reformed Parliament. But have you +forgotten the lenders of<a name='Page_236'></a> the money which makes the debt? These people +live wholly upon the interest of the debt; and of course they approve +of your labour, and the labour of every man being pawned. The +Boroughmongers have pawned your labour to them. Therefore they like +that your labour should be taxed. They cannot be said to submit to the +tyranny; they applaud it, and to their utmost they support it.</p> + +<p>But you will say, still the mass of the people would, if they had a +mind to bestir themselves, be too strong for all these. Very true. But +you forget the army, Jack. This is a great military force, armed with +bayonets, bullets and cannon-balls, ready at all times and in all +places to march or gallop to attack the people, if they attempt to eat +sugar or salt without paying the tax. There are forts, under the name +of barracks, all over the kingdom, where armed men are kept in +readiness for this purpose. In Ireland they actually go in person to +help to collect the taxes; and in England they are always ready to do +the same. Now, suppose, Jack, that a man who has a bit of land by the +seaside, were to take up a little of the salt that Providence sends on +shore. He would be prosecuted. He would resist the process. Soldiers +would come and take him away to be tried and <i>hanged</i>. Suppose you, +Jack, were to dip your rushes into grease, till they came to farthing +candles. The Excise would prosecute you. The sheriff would send men to +drag you to jail. You<a name='Page_237'></a> would fight in defence of your house and home. +You would beat off the sheriff's men. Soldiers would come and kill +you, or would take you away to be hanged.</p> + +<p>This is the thing by which the Boroughmongers govern. There are enough +who would gladly not submit to their tyranny; but there is nobody but +themselves who has an army at command.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless they are not altogether easy under these circumstances. +An army is a two-edged weapon. It may cut the employer as well as the +thing that it is employed upon. It is made up of flesh and blood, and +of English flesh and blood too. It may not always be willing to move, +or to strike when moved. The Boroughmongers see that their titles and +estates hang upon the army. They would fain coax the people back again +to feelings of reverence and love. They would fain wheedle them into +something that shall blunt their hostility. They have been trying +Bible-schemes, school-schemes, and soup-schemes. And at last they are +trying the Savings Banks scheme, upon which I shall now more +particularly address you.</p> + +<p>This thing is of the same nature, and its design is the same, as those +of the grand scheme of Bishop Burnet. The people are discontented. +They feel their oppressions; they seek a change; and some of them have +decidedly protested against paying any longer any<a name='Page_238'></a> part of the +interest of the debt, which they say ought to be paid, if at all, by +those who have borrowed and spent, or pocketed, the money. Now then, +in order to enlist great numbers of labourers and artisans on their +side, the Boroughmongers have fallen upon the scheme of coaxing them +to put small sums into what they call <i>banks</i>. These sums they pay +large interest upon, and suffer the parties to take them out whenever +they please. By this scheme they think to bind great numbers to them +and their tyranny. They think that great numbers of labourers and +artisans, seeing their little sums increase, as they will imagine, +will begin to conceive the hopes of becoming rich by such means; and +as these persons are to be told that their money is in the <i>funds</i>, +they will soon imbibe the spirit of fundholders, and will not care who +suffers, or whether freedom or slavery prevail, so that the funds be +but safe.</p> + +<p>Such is the scheme and such the motives. It will fail of its object, +though not unworthy the inventive powers of the servile knaves of +Edinburgh. It will fail, first because the men from whom alone the +Borough-tyrants have anything to dread, will see through the scheme +and despise it; and will, besides, well know that the funds are a mere +bubble that may burst, or be bursted at any moment. The parsons appear +to be the main tools in this coaxing scheme. They are always at the +head of everything<a name='Page_239'></a> which they think likely to support tyranny. The +depositors will be domestic servants, particularly women, who will be +tickled with the idea of having a fortune in the funds. The +Boroughmongers will hint to their tenants that they must get their +labourers into the Savings Banks. A preference will be given to such +as deposit. The Ladies, the 'Parsons' Ladies,' will scold poor people +into the funds. The parish officers will act their part in this +compulsory process: and thus will the Boroughmongers get into their +hands some millions of the people's money by a sort of 'forced loan': +or in other words, a robbery. In order to swell the thing out, the +parsons and other tools of the Boroughmongers will lend money in this +way themselves, under feigned names; and we shall, if the system last +a year or two, hear boastings of how rich the poor are become.</p> + +<p>Now then, Jack, supposing it possible that Farmer Gripe may, under +pain of being turned out of your cottage, have made you put your +twopence a week into one of these banks, let us see what is the +natural consequence of your so doing. Twopence a week is eight +shillings and eightpence a year; and the interest will make the amount +about nine shillings perhaps. What use is this to you? Will you let it +remain; and will you go on thus for years? You must go on a great many +years, indeed, before your deposit amounts to as much as the +Boroughmongers take from you in one<a name='Page_240'></a> year! Twopence will buy you a +quarter of a pound of meat. This is a dinner for your wife or +yourself. You never taste meat. And why are you to give up half a +pound of your bread to the Boroughmongers. You are ill; your wife is +ill; your children are ill. 'Go to the bank and take out your money,' +says the overseer; 'for I'll give you no aid till that be spent.' Thus +then, you will have been robbing your own starved belly weekly, to no +other end than that of favouring the parish purse, upon which you have +a just and legal claim, until the clergy restore to the poor what they +have taken from them. As the thing now stands, the poor are starved by +others, this scheme is intended to make them assist in the work +themselves, at the same time that it binds them to the tyranny.</p> + +<p>But, Jack, what a monstrous thing is this, that the Boroughmongers +should kindly pass an Act to induce you to save your money, while they +take from you five shillings out of every nine that you earn? Why not +take less from you! That would be the more natural way to go to work, +surely. Why not leave you all your earnings to yourself? Oh, no! They +cannot do that. It is from the labour of men like you that the far +greater part of the money comes to enrich the Boroughmongers, their +relations and dependants.</p> + +<p>However, suppose you have gotten together five pounds in a Savings +Bank. That is to say in the funds. This is a great deal for you, +though it is not half so<a name='Page_241'></a> much as you are compelled to give to the +Boroughmongers in one year. This is a great sum. It is much more than +you ever will have; but suppose you have it. It is <i>in the funds</i>, +mind. And now let me tell you what the funds are; which is necessary +if you have not read my little book called <i>Paper against Gold.</i> The +funds is <i>no place</i> at all, Jack. It is nothing, Jack. It is +moonshine. It is a lie, a bubble, a fraud, a cheat, a humbug. And it +is all these in the most perfect degree. People think that the funds +is a place where money is kept. They think that it is a place which +contains that which they have deposited. But the fact is, that the +funds is a word which means nothing that the most of the people think +it means. It means the <i>descriptions of the several sorts of the +debt</i>. Suppose I owed money to a tailor, to a smith, to a shoemaker, +to a carpenter, and that I had their several bills in my house. I +should in the language of the Boroughmongers, call these bills my +<i>funds</i>. The Boroughmongers owe some people annuities at three pounds +for a hundred; some at four pounds for a hundred; some at five pounds +for a hundred; and these annuities, or debts they call their funds. +And, Jack, if the Savings Bank people lend them a good parcel of +money, they will have that money in these debts or funds. They will be +owners of some of those debts which never will and never can be paid.</p> + +<p>But what is this money too in which you are to be<a name='Page_242'></a> paid back again? It +is no money. It is paper; and though that paper will pass just at this +time; it will not long pass, I can assure you, Jack. When you have +worked a fortnight, and get a pound note for it, you set a high value +upon the note, because it brings you food. But suppose nobody would +take the note from you. Suppose no one would give you anything in +exchange for it. You would go back to Farmer Gripe and fling the note +in his face. You would insist upon real money, and you would get it, +or you would tear down his house. This is what will happen, Jack, in a +very short time.</p> + +<p>I will explain to you, Jack, how this matter stands. Formerly +bank-notes were as good as real money, because anybody that had one +might go at any moment, and get real money for it at the Bank. But now +the thing is quite changed. The Bank broke some years ago; that is to +say, it could not pay its notes in real money; and it never has been +able to do it from that time to this; and what is more, it never can +do it again. To be sure the paper passes at present. You take it for +your work, and others take it of you for bread and tea. But the time +may be, and I believe is, very near at hand, when this paper will not +pass at all; and then as the Boroughmongers and the Savings Bank +people have, and can have, no real money, how are you to get your five +pounds back again?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_243'></a>The bank-notes may be all put down at any moment, if any man of +talent and resolution choose to put them down; and why may not such a +man exist, and have the Disposition to put them down? They are now of +value, as I said before, because they will pass; because people will +take them and will give victuals and drink for them; but, if nobody +would give bread and tea and beer for them, would they then be good +for anything? They are taken because people are pretty sure that they +can pass them again; but who will take them when he does not think +that he can pass them again? And I assure you, Jack, that even I +myself could, before next May-day, do that which would prevent any man +in England from ever taking a bank-note any more. If you should put +five pounds into a Savings Bank, therefore, you could, in such case, +never see a farthing in exchange for it.</p> + +<p>This being a matter of so much importance to you, I will clearly +explain to you how I might easily do the thing. Mind, I do not say +that I will do the thing. Indeed, I will not; and I do not know any +one that intends to do it. But I will show you how I <i>might</i> do it; +because it is right that you should know what a ticklish state your +poor five pounds will be in if you deposit them in the Savings Bank.</p> + +<p>You know, Jack, that <i>forged</i> notes pass till people find them out. +They keep passing very quietly till they<a name='Page_244'></a> come to the Bank, and there +being known for forged notes, the man who carries them to the Bank, or +owns them at the time, loses the amount of them. Suppose now, that Tom +were to forge a note, and pay it to Dick for a pig. Dick would pay it +to Bob for some tea. Bob would send it up to London to pay his +tea-man. The tea-man would send it to the Bank. The Bank would keep +it, and give him nothing for it. If the tea-man forgot whom he got it +from, he must lose. If he could prove that he got it from Bob, Bob +must lose it; and so on; but either Dick or Bob or the tea-man must +lose it. There must be a loss somewhere.</p> + +<p>Now, it is clear that if there were a great quantity of forged notes +in circulation, people would be afraid to take notes at all; and that +if this great quantity came out all of a sudden, it would for a while +put an end to all payments and all trade. And if such great quantity +can with safety be put out, I leave you to guess, Jack, at the +situation of your five pounds. I will now show you, then, that I could +do this myself, and with perfect safety and ease.</p> + +<p>I could have made, at a very trifling expense, a million of pounds in +bank-notes of various amounts. There are fourteen different ways in +which I could send them to England, and lodge them safely there, +without the smallest chance of their arrival being known to any soul +except the man to whom they<a name='Page_245'></a> should be confided. The Banks might +search and ransack every vessel that arrived from America. They might +do what they would. They would never detect the cargo!</p> + +<p>There they are then, safe in London; a famous stock of bank-notes, so +well executed that no human being except the Bank people would be able +to discover the counterfeit. The agent takes a parcel at a time, and +drops them in the street in the dark. This work he carries on for a +week or two in such streets as are best calculated for the purpose, +till he has well stocked the town. He may do the same at Portsmouth +and other great towns if he please, and he may send off large supplies +by post.</p> + +<p>Now, Jack, suppose you were up at London with your master's waggon. +You might find a parcel of notes. You would go to the first shop to +buy your wife a gown and your children some clothes, yourself a hat, a +greatcoat, and some shoes. The rest you would lay out at shops on the +road home; for the sooner you got rid of this <i>foundal</i>, the less +chance of having it taken from you. The shopkeepers would thank you +for your custom, and your wife's heart would bound with joy.</p> + +<p>The notes would travel about most merrily. At last they would come to +the Bank. The holders would lose them; but you would gain by them. So +that, upon the whole, there would be no loss, and the maker of the<a name='Page_246'></a> +notes would have no gain. Others would find, and nearly all would do +like you. In a few days the notes would find their way to the Bank in +great numbers, where they would all be stopped. The news would spread +abroad. The thieftakers would be busy. Every man who had had his note +stopped at the Bank would alarm his neighbourhood. The country would +ring with the news. Nobody would take a bank-note. All business would +be at a stand. The farmers would sell no corn for bank-notes. The +millers would have nothing else to pay with. No markets, because no +money. The baker would be able to get no flour. He could sell no +bread, for nobody would have money to pay him.</p> + +<p>Jack, this thing will assuredly take place. Mind, I tell you so. I +have been right in my predictions on former occasions; and I am not +wrong now. I beg you to believe me; or, at any rate, to blame yourself +if you lose by such an event. In the midst of this hubbub what will +you do? Farmer Gripe will, I daresay, give you something to eat for +your labour. But what will become of your five pounds? That sum you +have in the Savings Bank, and as you are to have it out at any time +when you please, your wife sets off to draw it. The banker gives her a +five-pound note. She brings it; but nobody will take it of you for a +pig, for bread, for clothing, or for anything else! And this, Jack, +will be the fate of all<a name='Page_247'></a> those who shall be weak enough to put their +money into those banks!</p> + +<p>I beg you, Jack, not to rely on the power of the Boroughmongers in +this case. Anything that is to be done with halters, gags, dungeons, +bayonets, powder, or ball, they can do a great deal at; but they are +not conjurers; they are not wizards. They cannot prevent a man from +dropping bank-notes in the dark; and they cannot make people believe +in the goodness of that which they must know to be bad. If they could +hold a sword to every man's breast, they might indeed do something; +but short of this, nothing that they can do would be of any avail. +However, the truth is that they, in such case, will have no sword at +all. An army is a powerful weapon; but an army must be paid. Soldiers +have been called machines; but they are eating and drinking machines. +With good food and drink they will go far and do much; but without +them, they will not stir an inch. And in such a case whence is to come +the money to pay them? In short, Jack, the Boroughmongers would drop +down dead, like men in an apoplexy, and you would, as soon as things +got to rights, have your bread and beer and meat and everything in +abundance.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers possess no means of preventing the complete success +of the dropping plan. If they do, they ought to thank me for giving +them a warning of their danger; and for telling them that if<a name='Page_248'></a> they do +prevent the success of such a plan, they are the cleverest fellows in +this world.</p> + +<p>I now, Jack, take my leave of you, hoping that you will not be coaxed +out of your money, and assuring you that I am your friend,</p> + +<p>WM. COBBETT.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_249'></a>VII.—'THE LETTERS OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER'</h3> + +<h4>BY SIR WALTER SCOTT</h4> + +<p>(<i>To what has been said in the Introduction respecting the </i>Letters of +Malachi Malagrowther<i> it is only necessary to add that their immediate +cause was a Bill due to the very commercial crisis which indirectly +ruined Scott himself, and introduced in the spring of 1826 for +stopping the note circulation of private banks altogether, while +limiting that of the Bank of England to notes of £5 and upwards. The +scheme, which was to extend to the whole of Great Britain, was from +the first unpopular in Scotland, and Scott plunged into the fray. The +letters excited or coincided with such violent opposition throughout +the country that the Bill was limited to England only. As Scott was a +strong Tory, his friends in the Government, especially Lord Melville +and Croker (who was officially employed to answer 'Malachi'), were +rather sore at his action.<a name='Page_250'></a> He defended himself in some spirited +private letters, which will be found in Lockhart.</i>)</p> + +<h3>A LETTER ON THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY</h3> + +<p><i>To the Editor of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal</i></p> + +<p>My dear Mr. Journalist—I am by pedigree a discontented person, so +that you may throw this letter into the fire, if you have any +apprehensions of incurring the displeasure of your superiors. I am, in +fact, the lineal descendant of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who makes a +figure in the <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, and have retained a reasonable +proportion of his ill-luck, and, in consequence, of his ill-temper. +If, therefore, I should chance to appear too warm and poignant in my +observations, you must impute it to the hasty and peevish humour which +I derive from my ancestor. But, at the same time, it often happens +that this disposition leads me to speak useful, though unpleasant +truths, when more prudent men hold their tongues and eat their +pudding. A lizard is an ugly and disgusting thing enough; but, +methinks, if a lizard were to run over my face and awaken me, which is +said to be their custom when they observe a snake approach a sleeping +person, I should neither scorn his intimation,<a name='Page_251'></a> nor feel justifiable +in crushing him to death, merely because he is a filthy little +abridgment of a crocodile. Therefore, 'for my love, I pray you, wrong +me not.'</p> + +<p>I am old, sir, poor, and peevish, and therefore I may be wrong; but +when I look back on the last fifteen or twenty years, and more +especially on the last ten, I think I see my native country of +Scotland, if it is yet to be called by a title so discriminative, +falling, so far as its national, or rather, perhaps, I ought now to +say its <i>provincial</i>, interests are concerned, daily into more +absolute contempt. Our ancestors were a people of some consideration +in the councils of the empire. So late as my own younger days, an +English minister would have paused, even in a favourite measure, if a +reclamation of national rights had been made by a member for Scotland, +supported as it uniformly then was, by the voice of her +representatives and her people. Such ameliorations in our peculiar +system as were thought necessary, in order that North Britain might +keep pace with her sister in the advance of improvement, were +suggested by our own countrymen, persons well acquainted with our +peculiar system of laws (as different from those of England as from +those of France), and who knew exactly how to adapt the desired +alteration to the principle of our legislative enactments, so that the +whole machine might, as mechanics say, work well<a name='Page_252'></a> and easily. For a +long time this wholesome check upon innovation, which requires the +assimilation of a proposed improvement with the general constitution +of the country to which it has been recommended, and which ensures +that important point, by stipulating that the measure shall originate +with those to whom the spirit of the constitution is familiar, has +been, so far as Scotland is concerned, considerably disused. Those who +have stepped forward to repair the gradual failure of our +constitutional system of law, have been persons that, howsoever +qualified in other respects, have had little further knowledge of its +construction than could be acquired by a hasty and partial survey, +taken just before they commenced their labours. Scotland and her laws +have been too often subjected to the alterations of any person who +chose to found himself a reputation, by bringing in a bill to cure +some defect which had never been felt in practice, but which was +represented as a frightful bugbear to English statesmen, who, wisely +and judiciously tenacious of the legal practice and principles +received at home, are proportionally startled at the idea of anything +abroad which cannot be brought to assimilate with them.</p> + +<p>The English seem to have made a compromise with the active tendency to +innovation, which is one great characteristic of the day. Wise and +sagacious themselves, they are nervously jealous of innovations<a name='Page_253'></a> in +their own laws—<i>Nolumus leges Angliae mutari</i>, is written on the +skirts of their judicial robes, as the most sacred texts of Scripture +were inscribed on the phylacteries of the Rabbis. The belief that the +Common Law of England constitutes the perfection of human reason, is a +maxim bound upon their foreheads. Law Monks they have been called in +other respects, and like monks they are devoted to their own Rule, and +admit no question of its infallibility. There can be no doubt that +their love of a system, which, if not perfect, has so much in it that +is excellent, originates in the most praiseworthy feelings. Call it if +you will the prejudice of education, it is still a prejudice +honourable in itself, and useful to the public. I only find fault with +it, because, like the Friars in the Duenna monopolising the bottle, +these English monks will not tolerate in their lay brethren of the +north the slightest pretence to a similar feeling.</p> + +<p>In England, therefore, no innovation can be proposed affecting the +administration of justice, without being subjected to the strict +enquiry of the Guardians of the Law, and afterwards resisted +pertinaciously, until time and the most mature and reiterated +discussion shall have proved its utility, nay, its necessity. The old +saying is still true in all its points—Touch but a cobweb in +Westminster Hall, and the old spider will come out in defence of it. +This caution may<a name='Page_254'></a> sometimes postpone the adoption of useful +amendments, but it operates to prevent all hasty and experimental +innovations; and it is surely better that existing evils should be +endured for some time longer, than that violent remedies should be +hastily adopted, the unforeseen and unprovided for consequences of +which are often so much more extensive than those which had been +foreseen and reckoned upon. An ordinary mason can calculate upon the +exact gap which will be made by the removal of a corner stone in an +old building; but what architect, not intimately acquainted with the +whole edifice, can presume even to guess how much of the structure is, +or is not, to follow?</p> + +<p>The English policy in this respect is a wise one, and we have only to +wish they would not insist in keeping it all to themselves. But those +who are most devoted to their own religion have least sympathy for the +feelings of dissenters; and a spirit of proselytism has of late shown +itself in England for extending the benefits of their system, in all +its strength and weakness, to a country which has been hitherto +flourishing and contented under its own. They adopted the conclusion +that all English enactments are right; but the system of municipal law +in Scotland is not English, therefore it is wrong. Under sanction of +this syllogism, our rulers have indulged and encouraged a spirit of +experiment and innovation at our expense, which they<a name='Page_255'></a> resist +obstinately when it is to be carried through at their own risk.</p> + +<p>For more than half of last century, this was a practice not to be +thought of. Scotland was during that period disaffected, in bad +humour, armed too, and smarting under various irritating +recollections. This is not the sort of patient for whom an +experimental legislator chooses to prescribe. There was little chance +of making Saunders take the patent pill by persuasion—main force was +a dangerous argument, and some thought claymores had edges.</p> + +<p>This period passed away, a happier one arrived, and Scotland, no +longer the object of terror, or at least great uneasiness, to the +British Government, was left from the year 1750 under the guardianship +of her own institutions, to win her silent way to national wealth and +consequence. Contempt probably procured for her the freedom from +interference, which had formerly been granted out of fear; for the +medical faculty are as slack in attending the garrets of paupers as +the caverns of robbers. But neglected as she was, and perhaps +<i>because</i> she was neglected, Scotland, reckoning her progress during +the space from the close of the American War to the present day, has +increased her prosperity in a ratio more than five times greater than +that of her more fortunate and richer sister. She is now worth the +attention of the learned faculty, and God knows she has had<a name='Page_256'></a> plenty of +it. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall, and <i>talked</i> into +courses of physic, for which she had little occasion. She has been of +late a sort of experimental farm, upon which every political student +has been permitted to try his theory—a kind of common property, where +every juvenile statesman has been encouraged to make his inroads, as +in Moray land, where, anciently, according to the idea of the old +Highlanders, all men had a right to take their prey—a subject in a +common dissecting room, left to the scalpel of the junior students, +with the degrading inscription,—<i>fiat experimentum in corpore vili</i>.</p> + +<p>I do not mean to dispute, Sir, that much alteration was necessary in +our laws, and that much benefit has followed many of the great changes +which have taken place. I do not mean to deprecate a gradual approach +to the English system, especially in commercial law. The Jury Court, +for example, was a fair experiment, in my opinion, cautiously +introduced as such, and placed under such regulations as might best +assimilate its forms with those of the existing Supreme Court. I beg, +therefore, to be considered as not speaking of the alterations +themselves, but of the apparent hostility towards our municipal +institutions, as repeatedly manifested in the course of late +proceedings, tending to force and wrench them into a similarity with +those of England.</p> + +<p>The opinions of our own lawyers, nay, of our<a name='Page_257'></a> Judges, than whom wiser +and more honourable men never held that character, have been, if +report speaks true, something too much neglected and controlled in the +course of these important changes, in which, methinks, they ought to +have had a leading and primary voice. They have been almost avowedly +regarded not as persons the best qualified to judge of proposed +innovations, but as prejudiced men, determined to oppose them, right +or wrong. The last public Commission was framed on the very principle, +that if Scotch lawyers were needs to be employed, a sufficient number +of these should consist of gentlemen, who, whatever their talents and +respectability might be in other respects, had been too long estranged +from the study of Scottish law to retain any accurate recollection of +an abstruse science, or any decided partiality for its technical +forms. This was done avowedly for the purpose of evading the natural +partiality of the Scottish Judges and practitioners to their own +system; that partiality which the English themselves hold so sacred a +feeling in their own Judges and Counsel learned in the law. I am not, +I repeat, complaining of the result of the Commissions, but of the +spirit in which the alterations were undertaken. Unquestionably much +was done in brushing up and improving the old machinery of Scottish +Law Courts, and in making it move more rapidly, though scarce, I +think, more correctly than before. Dispatch has<a name='Page_258'></a> been much attended +to. But it may be ultimately found that the timepiece which runs +fastest does not intimate the hour most accurately. At all events, the +changes have been made and established—there let them rest. And had +I, Malachi Malagrowther, the sole power to-morrow of doing so, I would +not restore the old forms of judicial proceedings; because I hold the +constitution of Courts of Justice too serious matters to be put back +or forward at pleasure, like a boy's first watch, merely for +experiment's sake.</p> + +<p>What I <i>do</i> complain of is the general spirit of slight and dislike +manifested to our national establishments by those of the sister +country who are so very zealous in defending their own; and not less +do I complain of their jealousy of the opinions of those who cannot +but be much better acquainted than they, both with the merits and +deficiencies of the system, which hasty and imperfectly informed +judges have shown themselves so anxious to revolutionise.</p> + +<p>There is no explanation to be given of this but one—namely, the +entire conviction and belief of our English brethren that the true +Themis is worshipped in Westminster Hall, and that her adorers cannot +be too zealous in her service; while she, whose image an ingenious +artist has depicted balancing herself upon a <i>tee-totum</i> on the +southern window of the Parliament House of Edinburgh, is a mere +idol,—a Diana of Ephesus,—whom her votaries worship, either because<a name='Page_259'></a> +her shrine brings great gain to the craftsmen, or out of an ignorant +and dotard superstition, which induces them to prefer the old Scottish +<i>Mumpsimus</i> to the modern English <i>Sumpsimus</i>. Now, this is not fair +construction in our friends, whose intentions in our behalf, we allow, +are excellent, but who certainly are scarcely entitled to beg the +question at issue without inquiry or discussion, or to treat us as the +Spaniards treated the Indians, whom they massacred for worshipping the +image of the Sun, while they themselves bowed down to that of the +Virgin Mary. Even Queen Elizabeth was contented with the evasive +answer of Melville, when hard pressed with the trying question, +whether Queen Mary or she were the fairest. We are willing, in the +spirit of that answer, to say that the Themis of Westminster Hall is +the best fitted to preside over the administration of the larger, and +more fertile country of beef and pudding; while she of the tee-totum +(placed in that precarious position, we presume, to express her +instability, since these new lights were struck out) claims a more +limited but equally respectful homage, within her ancient +jurisdiction—<i>sua paupera regna</i>—the Land of Cakes. If this +compromise does not appease the ardour of our brethren for converting +us to English forms and fashions, we must use the scriptural question, +"Who hath required these things at your hands?"</p> + +<p>The inquiries and result of another Commission<a name='Page_260'></a> are too much to the +purpose to be suppressed. The object was to investigate the conduct of +the Revenue Boards in Ireland and Scotland. In the former, it is well +known, great mismanagement was discovered; for Pat, poor fellow, had +been playing the loon to a considerable extent. In Scotland, <i>not a +shadow of abuse prevailed</i>. You would have thought, Mr. Journalist, +that the Irish Boards would have been reformed in some shape, and the +Scotch Establishments honourably acquitted, and suffered to continue +on the footing of independence which they had so long enjoyed, and of +which they had proved themselves so worthy. Not so, sir. The Revenue +Boards, in both countries, underwent exactly the same regulation, were +deprived of their independent consequence, and placed under the +superintendence of English control; the innocent and the guilty being +treated in every respect alike. Now, on the side of Scotland, this was +like Trinculo losing his bottle in the pool—there was not only +dishonour in the thing, but an infinite loss.</p> + +<p>I have heard two reasons suggested for this indiscriminating +application of punishment to the innocent and to the culpable.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it was honestly confessed that Ireland would never +have quietly submitted to the indignity offered to her, unless poor +inoffensive Scotland had been included in the regulation. The Green +Isle, it seems, was of the mind of a celebrated lady of quality,<a name='Page_261'></a> who, +being about to have a decayed tooth drawn, refused to submit to the +operation till she had seen the dentist extract a sound and +serviceable grinder from the jaws of her waiting-woman—and her humour +was to be gratified. The lady was a termagant dame—the wench a +tame-spirited simpleton—the dentist an obliging operator—and the +teeth of both were drawn accordingly.</p> + +<p>This gratification of his humours is gained by Pat's being up with the +pike and shillelagh on any or no occasion. God forbid Scotland should +retrograde towards such a state—much better that the Deil, as in +Burns's song, danced away with the whole excisemen in the country. We +do not want to hear her prate of her number of millions of men, and +her old military exploits. We had better remain in union with England, +even at the risk of becoming a subordinate species of Northumberland, +as far as national consequence is concerned, than remedy ourselves by +even hinting the possibility of a rupture. But there is no harm in +wishing Scotland to have just so much ill-nature, according to her own +proverb, as may keep her good-nature from being abused; so much +national spirit as may determine her to stand by her own rights, +conducting her assertion of them with every feeling of respect and +amity toward England.</p> + +<p>The other reason alleged for this equal distribution of <i>punishment</i>, +as if it had been the influence of the<a name='Page_262'></a> common sun, or the general +rain, to the just and the unjust, was one which is extremely +predominant at present with our Ministers—the <i>necessity</i> of +<i>Uniformity</i> in all such cases; and the consideration what an awkward +thing it would be to have a Board of Excise or Customs remaining +independent in the one country, solely because they had, without +impeachment, discharged their duty; while the same establishment was +cashiered in another, for no better reason than that it had been +misused.</p> + +<p>This reminds us of an incident, said to have befallen at the Castle of +Glammis, when these venerable towers were inhabited by a certain old +Earl of Strathmore, who was as great an admirer of uniformity as the +Chancellor of the Exchequer could have desired. He and his gardener +directed all in the garden and pleasure grounds upon the ancient +principle of exact correspondence between the different parts, so that +each alley had its brother; a principle which, renounced by gardeners, +is now adopted by statesmen. It chanced once upon a time that a fellow +was caught committing some petty theft, and, being taken in the +manner, was sentenced by the Bailie Macwheeble of the jurisdiction to +stand for a certain time in the baronial pillory, called the <i>jougs</i>, +being a collar and chain, one of which contrivances was attached to +each side of the portal of the great avenue which led to the castle. +The thief was turned over accordingly to the<a name='Page_263'></a> gardener, as +ground-officer, to see the punishment duly inflicted. When the Thane +of Glammis returned from his morning ride, he was surprised to find +both sides of the gateway accommodated each with a prisoner, like a +pair of heraldic supporters, <i>chained</i> and <i>collared proper</i>. He asked +the gardener, whom he found watching the place of punishment, as his +duty required, whether another delinquent had been detected? "No, my +Lord," said the gardener, in the tone of a man excellently well +satisfied with himself,—"but I thought the single fellow looked very +awkward standing on one side of the gateway, so I gave half a crown to +one of the labourers to stand on the other side for <i>uniformity's +sake</i>." This is exactly a case in point, and probably the only one +which can be found—with this sole difference, that I do not hear that +the members of the Scottish Revenue Board got any boon for standing in +the pillory with those of Ireland—for uniformity's sake.</p> + +<p>Lastly, sir, I come to this business of extending the provisions of +the Bill prohibiting the issue of notes under five pounds to Scotland, +in six months after the period that the regulation shall be adopted in +England.</p> + +<p>I am not about to enter upon the question which so much agitates +speculative writers upon the wealth of nations, or attempt to discuss +what proportion of the precious metals ought to be detained within a +country; what are the best means of keeping it there; or to<a name='Page_264'></a> what +extent the want of specie can be supplied by paper credit: I will not +ask if a poor man can be made a rich one, by compelling him to buy a +service of plate, instead of the delf ware which served his turn. +These are questions I am not adequate to solve. But I beg leave to +consider the question in a practical point of view, and to refer +myself entirely to experience.</p> + +<p>I assume, without much hazard of contradiction, that Banks have +existed in Scotland for near one hundred and twenty years—that they +have flourished, and the country has flourished with them—and that +during the last fifty years particularly, provincial Banks, or +branches of the principal established and chartered Banks, have +gradually extended themselves in almost every Lowland district in +Scotland; that the notes, and especially the small notes, which they +distribute, entirely supply the demand for a medium of currency; and +that the system has so completely expelled gold from the country of +Scotland, that you never by any chance espy a guinea there, unless in +the purse of an accidental stranger, or in the coffers of these Banks +themselves. This is granting the facts of the case as broadly as can +be asked.</p> + +<p>It is not less unquestionable that the consequence of this Banking +system, as conducted in Scotland, has been attended with the greatest +advantage to the country. The facility which it has afforded to the +industrious and enterprising agriculturalist or manufacturer, as well +as<a name='Page_265'></a> to the trustees of the public in executing national works, has +converted Scotland from a poor, miserable, and barren country, into +one, where, if nature has done less, art and industry have done more, +than in perhaps any country in Europe, England herself not excepted. +Through means of the credit which this system has afforded, roads have +been made, bridges built, and canals dug, opening up to reciprocal +communication the most sequestered districts of the +country—manufactures have been established, unequalled in extent or +success—wastes have been converted into productive farms—the +productions of the earth for human use have been multiplied +twentyfold, while the wealth of the rich and the comforts of the poor +have been extended in the same proportion. And all this in a country +where the rigour of the climate, and sterility of the soil, seem +united to set improvement at defiance. Let those who remember Scotland +forty years since, bear witness if I speak truth or falsehood.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that this change has been produced by the facilities +of procuring credit, which the Scottish Banks held forth, both by +discounting bills, and by granting cash-accounts. Every undertaking of +consequence, whether by the public or by individuals, has been carried +on by such means; at least exceptions are extremely rare.</p> + +<p>There is as little doubt that the Banks could not have furnished these +necessary funds of cash, without<a name='Page_266'></a> enjoying the reciprocal advantage of +their own notes being circulated in consequence, and by means of the +accommodation thus afforded. It is not to be expected that every +undertaking which the system enabled speculators or adventurers to +commence, should be well-judged, attentively carried on, or successful +in issue. Imprudence in some cases, misfortune in others, have had +their usual quantity of victims. But in Scotland, as elsewhere, it has +happened in many instances that improvements, which turned out ruinous +to those who undertook them, have, notwithstanding, themselves +ultimately produced the most beneficial advantages to the country, +which derived in such instances an addition to its general prosperity, +even from the undertakings which had proved destructive to the private +fortune of the projectors.</p> + +<p>Not only did the Banks dispersed throughout Scotland afford the means +of bringing the country to an unexpected and almost marvellous degree +of prosperity, but in no considerable instance, save one, have their +own over-speculating undertakings been the means of interrupting that +prosperity. The solitary exception was the undertaking called the Ayr +Bank, rashly entered into by a large body of country gentlemen and +others, unacquainted with commercial affairs, and who had moreover the +misfortune not only to set out on false principles, but to get false +rogues for their principal agents and managers. The fall<a name='Page_267'></a> of this Bank +brought much calamity on the country; but two things are remarkable in +its history: First, that under its too prodigal, yet beneficial +influence, a fine county (that of Ayr) was converted from a desert +into a fertile land. Secondly, that, though at a distant interval, the +Ayr Bank paid all its engagements, and the loss only fell on the +original stockholders. The warning was, however, a terrible one, and +has been so well attended to in Scotland, that very few attempts seem +to have been afterwards made to establish Banks prematurely—that is, +where the particular district was not in such an advanced state as to +require the support of additional credit; for in every such case, it +was judiciously foreseen, the forcing a capital on the district could +only lead to wild speculation, instead of supporting solid and +promising undertakings.</p> + +<p>The character and condition of the persons pursuing the profession +ought to be noticed, however slightly. The Bankers of Scotland have +been, generally speaking, <i>good</i> men, in the mercantile phrase, +showing, by the wealth of which they have died possessed, that their +credit was sound; and <i>good</i> men also, many of them eminently so, in +the more extensive and better sense of the word, manifesting, by the +excellence of their character, the fairness of the means by which +their riches were acquired. There may have been, among so numerous a +body, men of a different character, fishers in troubled waters, +capitalists who sought gain<a name='Page_268'></a> not by the encouragement of fair trade +and honest industry, but by affording temporary fuel to rashness or +avarice. But the number of upright traders in the profession has +narrowed the means of mischief which such Christian Shylocks would +otherwise have possessed. There was loss, there was discredit, in +having recourse to such characters, when honest wants could be fairly +supplied by upright men, and on liberal terms. Such reptiles have been +confined in Scotland to batten upon their proper prey of folly, and +feast, like worms, on the corruption in which they are bred.</p> + +<p>Since the period of the Ayr Bank, now near half a century, I recollect +very few instances of Banking Companies issuing notes which have +become insolvent. One, about thirty years since, was the Merchant Bank +of Stirling, which never was in high credit, having been known almost +at the time of its commencement by the odious nickname of <i>Black in +the West</i>. Another was within these ten years, the East Lothian +Banking Company, whose affairs had been very ill conducted by a +villainous manager. In both cases, the notes were paid up in full. In +the latter case, they were taken up by one of the most respectable +houses in Edinburgh; so that all current engagements were paid without +the least check to the circulation of their notes, or inconvenience to +poor or rich, who happened to have them in possession. The Union Bank +of Falkirk also became insolvent<a name='Page_269'></a> within these fifteen years, but paid +up its engagements without much loss to the creditors. Other cases +there may have occurred, not coming within my recollection; but I +think none which made any great sensation, or could at all affect the +general confidence of the country in the stability of the system. None +of these bankruptcies excited much attention, or, as we have seen, +caused any considerable loss.</p> + +<p>In the present unhappy commercial distress, I have always heard and +understood that the Scottish Banks have done all in their power to +alleviate the evils which came thickening on the country; and far from +acting illiberally, that they have come forward to support the +tottering credit of the commercial world with a frankness which +augured the most perfect confidence in their own resources. We have +heard of only one provincial Bank being even for a moment in the +predicament of suspicion; and of that copartnery the funds and credit +were so well understood, that their correspondents in Edinburgh, as in +the case of the East Lothian Bank formerly mentioned, at once +guaranteed the payment of their notes, and saved the public even from +momentary agitation, and individuals from the possibility of distress. +I ask what must be the stability of a system of credit of which such +an universal earthquake could not displace or shake even the slightest +individual portion?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_270'></a>Thus stands the case in Scotland; and it is clear any restrictive +enactment affecting the Banking system, or their mode of issuing +notes, must be adopted in consequence of evils, operating elsewhere +perhaps, but certainly unknown in this country.</p> + +<p>In England, unfortunately, things have been very different, and the +insolvency of many provincial Banking Companies, of the most +established reputation for stability, has greatly distressed the +country, and alarmed London itself, from the necessary reaction of +their misfortunes upon their correspondents in the capital.</p> + +<p>I do not think, sir, that the advocate of Scotland is called upon to +go further, in order to plead an exemption from any experiment which +England may think proper to try to cure her own malady, than to say +such malady does not exist in her jurisdiction. It is surely enough to +plead, 'We are well, our pulse and complexion prove it—let those who +are sick take physic.' But the opinion of the English Ministers is +widely different; for, granting our premisses, they deny our +conclusion.</p> + +<p>The peculiar humour of a friend, whom I lost some years ago, is the +only one I recollect, which jumps precisely with the reasoning of the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. My friend was an old Scottish laird, a +bachelor and a humorist—wealthy, convivial, and hospitable, and of +course having always plenty of<a name='Page_271'></a> company about him. He had a regular +custom of swallowing every night in the world one of Dr. Anderson's +pills, for which reasons may be readily imagined. But it is not so +easy to account for his insisting on every one of his guests taking +the same medicine, and whether it was by way of patronising the +medicine, which is in some sense a national receipt, or whether the +mischievous old wag amused himself with anticipating the scenes of +delicate embarrassment, which the dispensation sometimes produced in +the course of the night, I really cannot even guess. What is equally +strange, he pressed the request with a sort of eloquence which +succeeded with every guest. No man escaped, though there were few who +did not make resistance. His powers of persuasion would have been +invaluable to a minister of state. 'What! not one <i>Leetle Anderson</i>, +to oblige your friend, your host, your entertainer! He had taken one +himself—he would take another, if you pleased—surely what was good +for his complaint must of course be beneficial to yours?' It was in +vain you pleaded your being perfectly well,—your detesting the +medicine,—your being certain it would not agree with you—none of the +apologies were received as valid. You might be warm, pathetic or +sulky, fretful or patient, grave or serious in testifying your +repugnance, but you were equally a doomed man; escape was impossible. +Your host was in his turn eloquent,—authoritative,—facetious, +—argumentative,—precatory,—pathetic, <a name='Page_272'></a>above all, pertinacious. No +guest was known to escape the <i>Leetle Anderson</i>. The last time I +experienced the laird's hospitality there were present at the evening +meal the following catalogue of guests:—a Bond-street dandy, of the most +brilliant water, drawn thither by the temptation of grouse-shooting—a +writer from the neighbouring borough (the lairds <i>doer</i>, I +believe),—two country lairds, men of reserved and stiff habits—three +sheep-farmers, as stiff-necked and stubborn as their own haltered +rams—and I, Malachi Malagrowther, not facile or obvious to persuasion. +There was also the Esculapius of the vicinity—one who gave, but +elsewhere was never known to <i>take</i> medicine. All succumbed—each took, +after various degrees of resistance according to his peculiar fashion, +his own <i>Leetle Anderson</i>. The doer took a brace. On the event I +am silent. None had reason to congratulate himself on his complaisance. +The laird has slept with his ancestors for some years, remembered +sometimes with a smile on account of his humorous eccentricities, always +with a sigh when his surviving friends and neighbours reflect on his +kindliness and genuine beneficence. I have only to add that I hope he +has not bequeathed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, otherwise so +highly gifted, his invincible powers of persuading folks to take +medicine, which their constitutions do not require.</p> + +<p>Have I argued my case too high in supposing that<a name='Page_273'></a> the present intended +legislative enactment is as inapplicable to Scotland as a pair of +elaborate knee-buckles would be to the dress of a kilted Highlander? I +think not.</p> + +<p>I understand Lord Liverpool and the Chancellor of the Exchequer +distinctly to have admitted the fact, that no distress whatever had +originated in Scotland from the present issuing of small notes of the +bankers established there, whether provincial in the strict sense, or +sent abroad by branches of the larger establishments settled in the +metropolis. No proof can be desired better than the admission of the +adversary.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, we have been positively informed by the newspapers that +Ministers see no reason why any law adopted on this subject should not +be imperative over all his Majesty's dominions, including Scotland, +<i>for uniformity's sake</i>. In my opinion they might as well make a law +that the Scotsman, for uniformity's sake, should not eat oatmeal, +because it is found to give Englishmen the heartburn. If an ordinance +prohibiting the oatcake, can be accompanied with a regulation capable +of being enforced, that in future, for uniformity's sake, our moors +and uplands shall henceforth bear the purest wheat, I for one have no +objection to the regulation. But till Ben Nevis be level with +Norfolkshire, though the natural wants of the two nations may be the +same, the extent of these wants, natural or commercial, and the mode +of supplying<a name='Page_274'></a> them, must be widely different, let the rule of +uniformity be as absolute as it will. The nation which cannot raise +wheat, must be allowed to eat oat-bread; the nation which is too poor +to retain a circulating medium of the precious metals, must be +permitted to supply its place with paper credit; otherwise, they must +go without food, and without currency.</p> + +<p>If I were called on, Mr. Journalist, I think I could give some reasons +why the system of banking which has been found well adapted for +Scotland is not proper for England, and why there is no reason for +inflicting upon us the intended remedy; in other words, why this +political balsam of Fierabras which is to relieve Don Quixote, may +have a great chance to poison Sancho. With this view, I will mention +briefly some strong points of distinction affecting the comparative +credit of the banks in England and in Scotland; and they seem to +furnish, to one inexperienced in political economies (upon the +transcendental doctrines of which so much stress is now laid), very +satisfactory reasons for the difference which is not denied to exist +betwixt the effects of the same general system in different countries.</p> + +<p>In Scotland, almost all Banking Companies consist of a considerable +number of persons, many of them men of landed property, whose landed +estates, with the burthens legally affecting them, may be learned from +the records, for the expense of a few shillings; so that<a name='Page_275'></a> all the +world knows, or may know, the general basis on which their credit +rests, and the extent of real property, which, independent of their +personal means, is responsible for their commercial engagements. In +most banking establishments this fund of credit is considerable, in +others immense; especially in those where the shares are numerous, and +are held in small proportions, many of them by persons of landed +estates, whose fortunes, however large, and however small their share +of stock, must all be liable to the engagements of the Bank. In +England, as I believe, the number of the partners engaged in a banking +concern cannot exceed five; and though of late years their landed +property has been declared subject to be attacked by their commercial +creditors, yet no one can learn, without incalculable trouble, the +real value of that land, or with what mortgages it is burthened. Thus, +<i>cæteris paribus</i>, the English banker cannot make his solvency +manifest to the public, therefore cannot expect, or receive, the same +unlimited trust, which is willingly and securely reposed in those of +the same profession in Scotland.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the circulation of the Scottish bank-notes is free and +unlimited; an advantage arising from their superior degree of credit. +They pass without a shadow of objection through the whole limits of +Scotland, and, though they cannot be legally tendered, are current +nearly as far as York in England. Those of English Banking Companies +seldom extend beyond a very<a name='Page_276'></a> limited horizon: in two or three stages +from the place where they are issued, many of them are objected to, +and give perpetual trouble to any traveller who has happened to take +them in change on the road. Even the most creditable provincial notes +never approach London in a free tide—never circulate like blood to +the heart, and from thence to the extremities, but are current within +a limited circle; often, indeed, so very limited, that the notes +issued in the morning, to use an old simile, fly out like pigeons from +the dovecot, and are sure to return in the evening to the spot which +they have left at break of day.</p> + +<p>Owing to these causes, and others which I forbear mentioning, the +profession of provincial Bankers in England is limited in its regular +profits, and uncertain in its returns, to a degree unknown in +Scotland; and is, therefore, more apt to be adopted in the South by +men of sanguine hopes and bold adventure (both frequently +disproportioned to the extent of their capital), who sink in mines or +other hazardous speculations the funds which their banking credit +enables them to command, and deluge the country with notes, which, on +some unhappy morning, are found not worth a penny—as those to whom +the foul fiend has given apparent treasures are said in due time to +discover they are only pieces of slate.</p> + +<p>I am aware it may be urged that the restrictions imposed on those +English provincial Banks are<a name='Page_277'></a> necessary to secure the supremacy of the +Bank of England; on the same principle on which dogs, kept near the +purlieus of a royal forest, were anciently lamed by the cutting off of +one of the claws, to prevent their interfering with the royal sport. +This is a very good regulation for England, for what I know; but why +should the Scottish institutions, which do not, and cannot interfere +with the influence of the Bank of England, be put on a level with +those of which such jealousy is, justly or unjustly, entertained? We +receive no benefit from that immense establishment, which, like a +great oak, overshadows England from Tweed to Cornwall. Why should our +national plantations be cut down or cramped for the sake of what +affords us neither shade nor shelter, and which, besides, can take no +advantage by the injury done to us? Why should we be subjected to a +monopoly from which we derive no national benefit?</p> + +<p>I have only to add that Scotland has not felt the slightest +inconvenience from the want of specie, nay, that it has never been in +request among them. A tradesman will take a guinea more unwillingly +than a note of the same value—to the peasant the coin is unknown. No +one ever wishes for specie save when upon a journey to England. In +occasional runs upon particular houses, the notes of other Banking +Companies have always been the value asked for—no holder of these +notes ever demanded specie. The<a name='Page_278'></a> credit of one establishment might be +doubted for the time—that of the general system was never brought +into question. Even avarice, the most suspicious of passions, has in +no instance I ever heard of, desired to compose her hoards by an +accumulation of the precious metals. The confidence in the credit of +our ordinary medium has not been doubted even in the dreams of the +most irritable and jealous of human passions.</p> + +<p>All these considerations are so obvious that a statesman so acute as +Mr. Robinson must have taken them in at the first glance, and must at +the same time have deemed them of no weight, compared with the +necessary conformity between the laws of the two kingdoms. I must, +therefore, speak to the justice of this point of uniformity.</p> + +<p>Sir, my respected ancestor, Sir Mungo, when he had the distinguished +honour to be <i>whipping</i>, or rather <i>whipped boy</i>, to his Majesty King +James the Sixth of gracious memory, was always, in virtue of his +office, scourged when the king deserved flogging; and the same +equitable rule seems to distinguish the conduct of Government towards +Scotland, as one of the three United Kingdoms. If Pat is guilty of +peculation, Sister Peg loses her Boards of Revenue—if John Bull's +cashiers mismanage his money-matters, those who have conducted Sister +Margaret's to their own great honour, and her no less advantage, must<a name='Page_279'></a> +be deprived of the power of serving her in future; at least that power +must be greatly restricted and limited.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>'Quidquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi.' </p></div> + +<p>That is to say, if our superiors of England and Ireland eat sour +grapes, the Scottish teeth must be set on edge as well as their own. +An uniformity in benefits may be well—an uniformity in penal +measures, towards the innocent and the guilty, in prohibitory +regulations, whether necessary or not, seems harsh law, and worse +justice.</p> + +<p>This levelling system, not equitable in itself, is infinitely unjust, +if a story, often told by my poor old grandfather, was true, which I +own I am inclined to doubt. The old man, sir, had learned in his +youth, or dreamed in his dotage, that Scotland had become an integral +part of England,—not in right of conquest, or rendition, or through +any right of inheritance—but in virtue of a solemn Treaty of Union. +Nay, so distinct an idea had he of this supposed Treaty, that he used +to recite one of its articles to this effect:—'That the laws in use +within the kingdom of Scotland, do, after the Union, remain in the +same force as before, but alterable by the Parliament of Great +Britain, with this difference between the laws concerning public +right, policy, and civil government, and those which concern private +right, that the former may be made the same through the whole<a name='Page_280'></a> United +Kingdom; but that no alteration be made on laws which concern private +right, <i>excepting for the evident utility of the subjects within +Scotland</i>.' When the old gentleman came to the passage, which you will +mark in italics, he always clenched his fist, and exclaimed, 'Nemo me +impune lacessit!' which, I presume, are words belonging to the black +art, since there is no one in the Modern Athens conjuror enough to +understand their meaning, or at least to comprehend the spirit of the +sentiment which my grandfather thought they conveyed.</p> + +<p>I cannot help thinking, sir, that if there had been any truth in my +grandfather's story, some Scottish member would, on the late occasion, +have informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that, in virtue of this +Treaty, it was no sufficient reason for innovating upon the private +rights of Scotsmen in a most tender and delicate point, merely that +the Right Honourable Gentleman saw no reason why the same law should +not be current through the whole of his Majesty's dominions; and that, +on the contrary, it was incumbent upon him to go a step further, and +to show that the alteration proposed <i>was</i> for the EVIDENT UTILITY <i>of +the subjects within Scotland</i>,—a proposition disavowed by the Right +Honourable Gentleman's candid admission, as well as by that of the +Prime Minister, and contradicted in every circumstance by the actual +state of the case.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_281'></a>Methinks, sir, our 'Chosen Five and Forty,' supposing they had bound +themselves to Ministers by such oaths of silence and obedience as are +taken by Carthusian friars, must have had free-will and speech to +express their sentiments, had they been possessed of so irrefragable +an argument in such a case of extremity. The sight of a father's life +in danger is said to have restored the power of language to the dumb; +and truly, the necessary defence of the rights of our native country +is not, or at least ought not to be, a less animating motive. Lord +Lauderdale almost alone interfered, and procured, to his infinite +honour, a delay of six months in the extension of this act,—a sort of +reprieve from the southern <i>jougs</i>,—by which we may have some chance +of profiting, if, during the interval, we can show ourselves true +Scotsmen, by some better proof than merely by being 'wise behind the +hand.'</p> + +<p>In the first place, sir, I would have this old Treaty searched for, +and should it be found to be still existing, I think it decides the +question. For, how can it be possible that it should be for the +'evident utility' of Scotland to alter her laws of private right, to +the total subversion of a system under which she is admitted to have +flourished for a century, and which has never within North Britain +been attended with the inconveniences charged against it in the sister +country, where, by the way, it never existed? Even if the old<a name='Page_282'></a> +parchment should be voted obsolete, there would be some satisfaction +in having it looked out and preserved—not in the Register-Office, or +Advocates' Library, where it might awaken painful recollections—but +in the Museum of the Antiquaries, where, with the Solemn League and +Covenant, the Letter of the Scottish Nobles to the Pope on the +independence of their country, and other antiquated documents, once +held in reverence, it might silently contract dust, yet remain to bear +witness that such things had been.</p> + +<p>I earnestly hope, however, that an international league of such +importance may still be found obligatory on both the <i>high</i> and the +<i>low</i> contracting parties; on that which has the power, and apparently +the will, to break it, as well as on the weaker nation, who cannot, +without incurring still worse, and more miserable consequences, oppose +aggression, otherwise than by invoking the faith of treaties, and the +national honour of Old England.</p> + +<p>In the second place, all ranks and bodies of men in North Britain (for +all are concerned, the poor as well as the rich) should express by +petition their sense of the injustice which is offered to the country, +and the distress which will probably be the necessary consequence. +Without the power of issuing their own notes the Banks cannot supply +the manufacturer with that credit which enables him to pay his +workmen, and wait his return; or accommodate the farmer<a name='Page_283'></a> with that +fund which makes it easy for him to discharge his rent, and give wages +to his labourers, while in the act of performing expensive operations +which are to treble or quadruple the produce of his farm. The trustees +on the high-roads and other public works, so ready to stake their +personal credit for carrying on public improvements, will no longer +possess the power of raising funds by doing so. The whole existing +state of credit is to be altered from top to bottom, and Ministers are +silent on any remedy which such a state of things would imperiously +require.</p> + +<p>These are subjects worth struggling for, and rather of more importance +than generally come before County Meetings. The English legislature +seems inclined to stultify our Law Authorities in their department; +but let us at least try if they will listen to the united voice of a +Nation in matters which so intimately concern its welfare, that almost +every man must have formed a judgment on the subject, from something +like personal experience. For my part, I cannot doubt the result.</p> + +<p>Times are undoubtedly different from those of Queen Anne, when, Dean +Swift having in a political pamphlet passed some sarcasms on the +Scottish nation, as a poor and fierce people, the Scythians of +Britain,—the Scottish peers, headed by the Duke of Argyll, went in +a body to the ministers, and<a name='Page_284'></a> compelled them to disown the sentiments +which had been expressed by their partisan, and offer a reward of +three hundred pounds for the author of the libel, well known to be the +best advocate and most intimate friend of the existing administration. +They demanded also that the printer and publisher should be prosecuted +before the House of Peers; and Harley, however unwillingly, was +obliged to yield to their demand.</p> + +<p>In the celebrated case of Porteous, the English legislature saw +themselves compelled to desist from vindictive measures, on account of +a gross offence committed in the metropolis of Scotland. In that of +the Roman Catholic bill they yielded to the voice of the Scottish +people, or rather of the Scottish mob, and declared the proposed +alteration of the law should not extend to North Britain. The cases +were different, in point of merit, though the Scots were successful in +both. In the one, a boon of clemency was extorted; in the other, +concession was an act of decided weakness. But ought the present +administration of Great Britain to show less deference to our +temperate and general remonstrance on a matter concerning ourselves +only, than their predecessors did to the passions, and even the +ill-founded and unjust prejudices, of our ancestors?</p> + +<p>Times, indeed, have changed since those days, and circumstances also. +We are no longer a poor,<a name='Page_285'></a> that is, so <i>very poor</i> a country and +people; and as we have increased in wealth, we have become somewhat +poorer in spirit, and more loath to incur displeasure by contests upon +mere etiquette, or national prejudice. But we have some grounds to +plead for favour with England. We have borne our pecuniary impositions +during a long war, with a patience the more exemplary, as they lay +heavier on us from our comparative want of means—our blood has flowed +as freely as that of England or of Ireland—our lives and fortunes +have become unhesitatingly devoted to the defence of the empire—our +loyalty as warmly and willingly displayed towards the person of our +Sovereign. We have consented with submission, if not with +cheerfulness, to reductions and abolitions of public offices, required +for the good of the state at large, but which must affect materially +the condition, and even the respectability, of our overburthened +aristocracy. We have in every respect conducted ourselves as good and +faithful subjects of the general empire.</p> + +<p>We do not boast of these things as actual merits; but they are at +least duties discharged, and in an appeal to men of honour and of +judgment, must entitle us to be heard with patience, and even +deference, on the management of our own affairs, if we speak +unanimously, lay aside party feeling, and use the voice of one leaf of +the holy Trefoil,—one distinct and component part of the United +Kingdoms.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_286'></a>Let no consideration deter us from pleading our own cause temperately +but firmly, and we shall certainly receive a favourable audience. Even +our acquisition of a little wealth, which might abate our courage on +other occasions, should invigorate us to unanimous perseverance at the +present crisis, when the very source of our national prosperity is +directly, though unwittingly, struck at. Our plaids are, I trust, not +yet sunk into Jewish gaberdines, to be wantonly spit upon; nor are we +yet bound to 'receive the insult with a patient shrug.' But exertion +is now demanded on other accounts than those of mere honourable +punctilio. Misers themselves will struggle in defence of their +property, though tolerant of all aggressions by which that is not +threatened. Avarice herself, however mean-spirited, will rouse to +defend the wealth she possesses, and preserve the means of gaining +more. Scotland is now called upon to rally in defence of the sources +of her national improvement, and the means of increasing it; upon +which, as none are so much concerned in the subject, none can be such +competent judges as Scotsmen themselves.</p> + +<p>I cannot believe so generous a people as the English, so wise an +administration as the present, will disregard our humble +remonstrances, merely because they are made in the form of peaceful +entreaty, and not <i>secundum perfervidum ingenium<a name='Page_287'></a> Scotorum</i>, with +'durk and pistol at our belt.' It would be a dangerous lesson to teach +the empire at large, that threats can extort what is not yielded to +reasonable and respectful remonstrance.</p> + +<p>But this is not all. The principle of 'uniformity of laws,' if not +manfully withstood, may have other blessings in store for us. Suppose, +that when finished with blistering Scotland when in perfect health, +England should find time and courage to withdraw the veil from the +deep cancer which is gnawing her own bowels, and make an attempt to +stop the fatal progress of her <i>poor-rates</i>. Some system or other must +be proposed in its place—a grinding one it must be, for it is not an +evil to be cured by palliatives. Suppose the English, for uniformity's +sake, insist that Scotland, which is at present free from this foul +and shameful disorder, should nevertheless be included in the severe +<i>treatment</i> which the disease demands, how would the landholders of +Scotland like to undergo the scalpel and cautery, merely because +England requires to be scarified?</p> + +<p>Or again;—Supposing England should take a fancy to impart to us her +sanguinary criminal code, which, too cruel to be carried into effect, +gives every wretch that is condemned a chance of one to twelve that he +shall not be executed, and so turns the law into a lottery—would this +be an agreeable boon to North Britain?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_288'></a>Once more;—What if the English ministers should feel disposed to +extend to us their equitable system of process respecting civil debt, +which divides the advantages so admirably betwixt debtor and +creditor—<i>That</i> equal dispensation of justice, which provides that an +imprisoned debtor, if a rogue, may remain in undisturbed possession of +a great landed estate, and enjoy in a jail all the luxuries of +Sardanapalus, while the wretch to whom he owes money is starving; and +that, to balance the matter, a creditor, if cruel, may detain a debtor +in prison for a lifetime, and make, as the established phrase goes, +<i>dice of his bones</i>—would this admirable reciprocity of privilege, +indulged alternately to knave and tyrant, please Saunders better than +his own humane action of Cessio, and his equitable process of +Adjudication?</p> + +<p>I will not insist further on such topics, for I daresay that these +apparent enormities in principle are, in England where they have +operation, modified and corrected in practice by circumstances unknown +to me; so that, in passing judgment on them, I may myself fall into +the error I deprecate, of judging of foreign laws without being aware +of all the premisses. Neither do I mean that we should struggle with +illiberality against any improvements which can be borrowed from +English principle. I would only desire that such ameliorations were +adopted, not merely because they are English, but because they are +suited to be assimilated with the laws of Scotland, and lead, in +short,<a name='Page_289'></a> <i>to her evident utility</i>; and this on the principle, that in +transplanting a tree, little attention need be paid to the character +of the climate and soil from which it is brought, although the +greatest care must be taken that those of the situation to which it is +transplanted are fitted to receive it. It would be no reason for +planting mulberry-trees in Scotland, that they luxuriate in the south +of England. There is sense in the old proverb, 'Ilk land has its ain +lauch.'</p> + +<p>In the present case, it is impossible to believe the extension of +these restrictions to Scotland can be for the <i>evident utility</i> of the +country, which has prospered so long and so uniformly under directly +the contrary system.</p> + +<p>It is very probable I may be deemed illiberal in all this reasoning; +but if to look for information to practical results, rather than to +theoretical principles, and to argue from the effect of the experience +of a century, rather than the deductions of a modern hypothesis, be +illiberal, I must sit down content with a censure, which will include +wiser men than I. The philosophical tailors of Laputa, who wrought by +mathematical calculation, had, no doubt, a supreme contempt for those +humble fashioners who went to work by measuring the person of their +customer; but Gulliver tells us, that the worst clothes he ever wore, +were constructed upon abstract principles; and truly, I think, we have +seen some laws, and may see more,<a name='Page_290'></a> not much better adapted to existing +circumstances, than the Captain's philosophical uniform to his actual +person.</p> + +<p>It is true, that every wise statesman keeps sound and general +political principles in his eye, as the pilot looks upon his compass +to discover his true course. But this true course cannot always be +followed out straight and diametrically; it must be altered from time +to time, nay sometimes apparently abandoned, on account of shoals, +breakers, and headlands, not to mention contrary winds. The same +obstacles occur to the course of the statesman. The point at which he +aims may be important, the principle on which he steers may be just; +yet the obstacles arising from rooted prejudices, from intemperate +passions, from ancient practices, from a different character of +people, from varieties in climate and soil, may cause a direct +movement upon his ultimate object to be attended with distress to +individuals, and loss to the community, which no good man would wish +to occasion, and with dangers which no wise man would voluntarily +choose to encounter.</p> + +<p>Although I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been rather +precipitate in the decided opinion which he is represented to have +expressed on this occasion, I am far from entertaining the slightest +disrespect for the right honourable gentleman. 'I hear as good +exclamation upon him as on any man in<a name='Page_291'></a> Messina, and though I am but a +poor man, I am glad to hear it.' But a decided attachment to abstract +principle, and to a spirit of generalising, is—like a rash rider on a +headstrong horse—very apt to run foul of local obstacles, which might +have been avoided by a more deliberate career, where the nature of the +ground had been previously considered.</p> + +<p>I make allowance for the temptation natural to an ingenious and active +mind. There is a natural pride in following out an universal and +levelling principle. It seems to augur genius, force of conception, +and steadiness of purpose; qualities which every legislator is +desirous of being thought to possess. On the other hand, the study of +local advantages and impediments demands labour and inquiry, and is +rewarded after all only with the cold and parsimonious praise due to +humble industry. It is no less true, however, that measures which go +straight and direct to a great general object, without noticing +intervening impediments, must often resemble the fierce progress of +the thunderbolt or the cannon-ball, those dreadful agents, which, in +rushing right to their point, care not what ruin they make by the way. +The sounder and more moderate policy, accommodating its measures to +exterior circumstances, rather resembles the judicious course of a +well-conducted highway, which, turning aside frequently from its +direct course,</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>'Winds round the corn-field and the hill of vines,' +<a name='Page_292'></a></p></div> + +<p>and becomes devious, that it may respect property and avoid obstacles; +thus escaping even temporary evils, and serving the public no less in +its more circuitous, than it would have done in its direct course.</p> + +<p>Can you tell me, sir, if this <i>uniformity</i> of civil institutions, +which calls for such sacrifices, be at all descended from, or related +to, a doctrine nearly of the same nature, called Conformity in +religious doctrine, very fashionable about one hundred and fifty years +since, which undertook to unite the jarring creeds of the United +Kingdom to one common standard, and excited a universal strife by the +vain attempt, and a thousand fierce disputes, in which she</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><span style='margin-left: 4em;'>'———umpire sate,</span><br /> +And by decision more embroiled the fray'?<br /></div> + +<p>Should Uniformity have the same pedigree, Malachi Malagrowther +proclaims her 'a hawk of a very bad nest.'</p> + +<p>The universal opinion of a whole kingdom, founded upon a century's +experience, ought not to be lightly considered as founded in ignorance +and prejudice. I am something of an agriculturist; and in travelling +through the country I have often had occasion to wonder that the +inhabitants of particular districts had not adopted certain obvious +improvements in cultivation. But, upon inquiry, I have usually found +out that appearances had deceived me, and that I had not reckoned on +particular local circumstances,<a name='Page_293'></a> which either prevented the execution +of the system I should have theoretically recommended, or rendered +some other more advantageous in the particular circumstances.</p> + +<p>I do not therefore resist theoretical innovation in general; I only +humbly desire it may not outrun the suggestions arising from the +experience of ages. I would have the necessity felt and acknowledged +before old institutions are demolished—the <i>evident utility</i> of every +alteration demonstrated before it is adopted upon mere speculation. I +submit our ancient system to the primary knife of the legislature, but +would not willingly see our reformers employ a weapon, which, like the +sword of Jack the Giant-Killer, <i>cuts before the point</i>.</p> + +<p>It is always to be considered, that in human affairs, the very best +imaginable result is seldom to be obtained, and that it is wise to +content ourselves with the best which can be got. This principle +speaks with a voice of thunder against violent innovation, for the +sake of possible improvement, where things are already well. We ought +not to desire better bread than is made of wheat. Our Scotch proverb +warns us to <i>Let weel bide</i>; and all the world has heard of the +untranslatable Italian epitaph upon the man, who died of taking physic +to make him better, when he was already in health.—I am, Mr. +Journalist, yours,</p> + +<p>MALACHI MALAGROWTHER.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> + +<h4><a name='Page_294'></a>POSTSCRIPT</h4> + +<p>Since writing these hasty thoughts, I hear it reported that we are to +have an extension of our precarious reprieve, and that our six months +are to be extended to six years. I would not have Scotland trust to +this hollow truce. The measure ought, like all others, to be canvassed +on its merits, and frankly admitted or rejected; it has been stirred +and ought to be decided. I request my countrymen not to be soothed +into inactivity by that temporising, and, I will say, unmanly +vacillation. Government is pledged to nothing by taking an open +course; for if the bill, so far as applicable to Scotland, is at +present absolutely laid aside, there can be no objection to their +resuming it at any period, when from change of circumstances, it may +be advantageous to Scotland, and when, for what I know, it may be +welcomed as a boon.</p> + +<p>But if held over our heads as a minatory measure, to take place within +a certain period, what can the event be but to cripple and ultimately +destroy the present system, on which a direct attack is found at +present inexpedient? Can the bankers continue to conduct their +profession on the same secure footing, with an abrogation of it in +prospect? Must it not cease to be what it has hitherto been—a +business carried on both for their own profit, and for the<a name='Page_295'></a> +accommodation of the country? Instead of employing their capital in +the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming +others? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from +that species of commerce? And may not the place of these be supplied +by men of daring adventure, without corresponding capital, who will +take a chance of wealth or ruin in the chances of the game?</p> + +<p>If it is the absolute and irrevocable determination that the bill is +to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the +better; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of +life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and +protracted suspense.</p> + + +<p><a name='Page_297'></a><a name='Page_296'></a></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> + +<h3>NOTES</h3> +<p> </p> +<ul> + <li><a href='#Page_3'>P. 3.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The exclusion</i>—of James from the succession.<br /> +<br /> +<i>The rebellion</i>—Monmouth's.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_6'>P. 6.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The Quakers</i>.—A hit, of course, at Penn.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_17'>P. 17.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Piqueer</i>, 'do outpost duty,' 'raid.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_18'>P. 18.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Lords of the Articles</i>.—A well-known body in the older Scottish +Constitution, through whom only legislation could be originated, and who +thus almost nullified the powers of Parliament.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_20'>P. 20.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Squeaziness</i> = 'squeamishness,' 'queasiness.'<br /> +<br /> +<i>It is impossible</i>.—Another form of 'No bishop no king.'<br /><a name='Page_298'></a> +<br /> +<i>The new converts</i>.—After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_22'>P. 22.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>T.W.</i> is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for +'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William +Temple.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_27'>P. 27.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Neither</i>, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the +famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in <i>Hamlet</i>.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_47'>P. 47.</a><br /> +<br /> +I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics +with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the +vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described (p. 50) as <i>'a mean ordinary +man, a hard-ware dealer</i>.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly +independent of them.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_50'>P. 50.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Written</i>—by Swift himself.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_54'>P. 54.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Bere</i>, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated +in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, +and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher +climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought +to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_55'>P. 55.</a><br /><a name='Page_299'></a> +<br /> +<i>Conolly</i>.—Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_56'>P. 56.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Pistole</i>—about ten shillings.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_60'>P. 60.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Brought to the bullion</i> seems here to have the meaning of the +French <i>billonner</i> or <i>envoyer au billon</i>, 'to melt for recoining.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_74'>P. 74.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Our Cæsar's statue</i>.—The statue of George I. on Essex Bridge, +Dublin.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_89'>P. 89.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Contignation</i>.—This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite +obsolete word (from <i>tignum</i>, 'beam') means 'having a common or +continuous roof.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_99'>P. 99.</a><br /> +<br /> +The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendéan and Chouan +movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully +explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of +the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and +though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little +positive evidence to support them.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_107'>P. 107.</a><br /><a name='Page_300'></a> +<br /> +<i>But when the possibility ... that the</i>.—It will probably seem +to a modern reader that either 'that' or 'the' has crept in improperly. +It might be so; but Burke still maintained the authoritative but rather +inelegant tradition by which 'that,' like the French <i>que</i>, could +replace any such antecedent word as 'when,' 'because,' etc.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_112'>P. 112.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Louis the Sixteenth</i>.—To this is appended a note in the editions +beginning, 'It may be right to do justice to Louis XVI. He did what he +could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.' The subject has of +late years received considerable illustration in the Duke of Broglie's +<i>Le Secret du Roi</i>, and other works by the same author.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_114'>P. 114.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Montalembert</i>.—Marc René, Marquis de (1714-1800), a voluminous +military writer.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_124'>P. 124.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Harrington</i>—of the <i>Oceana</i>.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_134'>P. 134.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Dear Abraham</i>.—'Peter Plymley' addresses his <i>Letters</i> to +'my brother Abraham, who lives in the country,' and is a +parson.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_136'>P. 136.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Baron Maseres</i>.—Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a descendant +of Huguenots, very well thought of by his contemporaries. Dr. Rennel I +know not, unless he was the Herodotus man.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_137'>P. 137.</a><br /><a name='Page_301'></a> +<br /> +<i>C——</i>, Canning.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_138'>P. 138.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Dr. Duigenan</i>.—A delightful person who, in his hot youth, as a +junior Fellow of T.C., D., threatened to 'bulge the Provost's' [Provost +Hely Hutchinson's] 'eye,' and was afterwards a pillar of Protestantism.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_144'>P. 144.</a><br /> +<br /> +This <i>light and frivolous jester</i> was <i>not</i> the Rev. Sydney +Smith, but George Canning, Esq.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_154'>P. 154.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The pecuniary Rose</i>.—'Old George' Rose, Pitt's right hand. He +was rather heavily rewarded with places and pensions; but even Liberals +now admit that the country has hardly had an abler official.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Lord Hawkesbury</i>, Jenkinson, better known as Lord Liverpool.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_157'>P. 157.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Tickell</i>—the <i>Rolliad</i> Tickell.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_170'>P. 170.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Joel</i>—Peter's nephew and Abraham's son.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_193'>P. 193.</a><br /><a name='Page_302'></a> +<br /> +<i>Paint in the most horrid colours</i>.—See, for instance, <i>The +Bloody Buoy</i> and <i>The Cannibal's Progress</i>, by William Cobbett.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_225'>P. 225.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Flogging</i>.—Some of the militia mutinied at Ely, and were +punished, the guard on the occasion being furnished by the cavalry of +the German Legion. Cobbett noticed this in the most inflammatory +manner, and it being war time, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and +sentenced as he describes.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_229'>P. 229.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Monks and friars</i>.—A time came when Cobbett thought and wrote +very differently of these persons. But that was his way.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_245'>P. 245.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Foundal</i>.—I do not know whether Cobbett invented this equivalent +for <i>trouvaille</i>, 'windfall,' or not. His notable scheme for breaking +the Bank is a good example of him in his insaner moods.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_253'>P. 253.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The Duenna</i>—Sheridan's.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_256'>P. 256.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The Jury Court</i>.—Trial by jury in <i>civil</i> cases was only introduced +into Scotland in 1815.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_259'>P. 259.</a><br /><a name='Page_303'></a> +<br /> +<i>Evasive answer</i>—to the effect that each queen was the fairest +woman in her own country.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_272'>P. 272.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Doer</i> = 'factor' or agent.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_277'>P. 277.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Them</i>—as if 'Scotsmen' had been written for 'Scotland.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_281'>P. 281.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Chosen Five and Forty</i>—the original number of members +assigned to Scotland.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_283'>P. 283.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Political pamphlet</i>—'The Public Spirit of the Whigs.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_287'>P. 287.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Durk, sic</i> in original.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_288'>P. 288.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Cessio, sc. bonorum</i>, whereby a debtor on giving up his property +could be relieved of liabilities.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Adjudication</i>, whereby a creditor could attach landed as +well as personal property.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_289'>P. 289.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Lauch</i> = 'laugh.' +</li> + +</ul> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13943 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71200e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13943 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13943) diff --git a/old/13943-8.txt b/old/13943-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bf179a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13943-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7658 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Political Pamphlets, by George Saintsbury + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Political Pamphlets + +Author: George Saintsbury + +Release Date: November 3, 2004 [EBook #13943] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL PAMPHLETS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE POCKET LIBRARY +OF +ENGLISH LITERATURE + +Edited by GEORGE SAINTSBURY + + +A collection, in separate volumes, partly of extracts from +long books, partly of short pieces, by the same writer, on the +same subject, or of the same class. + +Vol I.--Tales of Mystery. + II.--Political Verse. + III.--Defoe's Minor Novels. + IV.--Political Pamphlets. + V.--Seventeenth Century Lyrics. + VI.--Elizabethan and Jacobean Pamphlets. + + + + +POLITICAL PAMPHLETS + + +EDITED BY +GEORGE SAINTSBURY + + +LONDON +PERCIVAL AND CO. +1892 + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. (By George Savile, Marquess of Halifax) + +II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS. (By Daniel Defoe) + +III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. (By Jonathan Swift) +To the Tradesmen, Shop-Keepers, Farmers, and Common-People in general, +of the Kingdom of Ireland; concerning the Brass half-pence coined by +Mr. Wood + +A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer, upon occasion of a Paragraph in +his News-Paper of August 1, 1724, relating to Mr. Wood's Half-pence + +IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. (By the Right Honourable +Edmund Burke) + +V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. (By Sydney Smith) + +VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW. (By William Cobbett) + +VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. (By Sir Walter Scott) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +It is sometimes thought, and very often said, that political writing, +after its special day is done, becomes more dead than any other kind +of literature, or even journalism. I do not know whether my own +judgment is perverted by the fact of a special devotion to the +business, but it certainly seems to me that both the thought and the +saying are mistakes. Indeed, a rough-and-ready refutation of them is +supplied by the fact that, in no few cases, political pieces have +entered into the generally admitted stock of the best literary things. +If they are little read, can we honestly say that other things in the +same rank are read much more? And is there not the further plea, by no +means contradictory, nor even merely alternative, that the best +examples of them are, as a rule, merged in huge collected 'Works,' or, +in the case of authors who have not attained to that dignity, simply +inaccessible to the general? At any rate my publishers have consented +to let me try the experiment of gathering certain famous things of the +sort in this volume, and the public must decide. + +I do not begin very early, partly because examples of the Elizabethan +political pamphlet, or what supplied its place, will be given in +another volume of the series exclusively devoted to the pamphlet +literature of the reigns of Eliza and our James, partly for a still +better reason presently to be explained. On the other hand, though +another special volume is devoted to Defoe, the immortal _Shortest Way +with the Dissenters_ is separated from the rest of his work, and given +here. Most of the contents, however, represent authors not otherwise +represented in the series, and though very well known indeed by name, +less read than quoted. The suitableness of the political pamphlet, +both by size and self-containedness, for such a volume as this, needs +no justification except that which it, like everything else, must +receive, by being put to the proof of reading. + +There is no difficulty in showing, with at least sufficient critical +exactness, why it is not possible or not desirable to select examples +from very early periods even of strictly modern history. The causes +are in part the same as those which delayed the production of really +capital political verse (which has been treated in another volume), +but they are not wholly the same. The Martin Marprelate pamphlets are +strictly political; so are many things earlier, later, and +contemporary with them, by hands known and unknown, great and small, +skilled and unskilled; so are some even in the work of so great a man +as Bacon. But very many things were wanting to secure the conditions +necessary to the perfect pamphlet. There was not the political +freedom; there was not the public; there was not the immediate object; +there was not, last and most of all, the style. Political utterances +under a more or less despotic, or, as the modern euphemism goes, +'personal' government, were almost necessarily those of a retained +advocate, who expected his immediate reward, on the one hand; or of a +rebel, who stood to make his account with office if he succeeded, or +with savage punishment if he failed, on the other. A distant prospect +of impeachment, of the loss of ears, hands, or life if the tide turns, +is a stimulant to violence rather than to vigour. I do not think, +however, that this is the most important factor in the problem. +Parliamentary government, with a limited franchise of tolerably +intelligent voters, a party system, and newspapers comparatively +undeveloped, may not suit an ideally perfect _politeia_, but it is +the very hotbed in which to nourish the pamphlet. There is also a +style, as there is a time, for all things; and no style could be so +well suited for the pamphlet as the balanced, measured, pointed, and +polished style which Dryden and Tillotson and Temple brought in during +the third quarter of the seventeenth century, and which did not go out +of fashion till the second quarter of the nineteenth. We have indeed +seen pamphlets proper exercising considerable influence in quite +recent times; but in no instance that I can remember has this been due +to any literary merits, and I doubt whether even the bare fact will be +soon or often renewed in our days. The written word--the written word +of condensed, strengthened, spirited literature--has lost much, if not +all, of its force with an enormously increased electorate, and a +bewildering multiplicity of print and speech of all kinds. + +Whatever justice these reasonings may have or may lack, the facts +speak for themselves, as facts intelligently regarded have a habit of +doing. The first pamphlets proper of great literary merit and great +political influence are those of Halifax in the first movement of real +party struggle during the reign of Charles the Second; the last which +unite the same requisites are those of Scott on the eve of the first +Reform Bill. The leaflet and circular war of the anti-Corn Law League +must be ruled out as much as Mr. Gladstone's _Bulgarian Horrors_. + +This leaves us a period of almost exactly a hundred and fifty years, +during which the kind, whether in good or bad examples, was of +constant influence; while its best instances enriched literature with +permanent masterpieces in little. I do not think that any moderately +instructed person will find much difficulty in comprehending the +specimens here given. I am sure that no moderately intelligent one +will fail, with a very little trouble, to take delight in them. I do +not know whether an artful generaliser could get anything out of the +circumstances in which the best of them grew; I should say myself that +nothing more than the system of government, the conditions of the +electorate and the legislature, and the existence from time to time of +a superheated state in political feeling, can or need be collected. In +some respects, to my own taste, the first of these examples is also +the best. To Halifax full justice has never been done, for we have had +no capable historian of the late seventeenth century but Macaulay, and +Halifax's defect of fervour as a Jacobite was more than made up to +Macaulay by his defect of fervour as a Williamite. As for the moderns, +I have myself more than once failed to induce editors of 'series' to +give Halifax a place. Yet Macaulay himself has been fairer to the +great Trimmer than to most persons with whom he was not in full +sympathy. The weakness of Halifax's position is indeed obvious. When +you run first to one side of the boat and then to the other, you have +ten chances of sinking to one of trimming her. To hold fast to one +party only, and to keep that from extremes, is the only secret, and it +is no great disgrace to Halifax, that in the very infancy of the party +and parliamentary system, he did not perceive it. But this hardly +interferes at all with the excellence of his pamphlets. The polished +style, the admirable sense, the subdued and yet ever present wit, the +avoidance of excessive cleverness (the one thing that the average +Briton will not stand), the constant eye on the object, are +unmistakable. They are nearly as forcible as Dryden's political and +controversial prefaces, which are pamphlets themselves in their way, +and they excel them in knowledge of affairs, in urbanity, in +adaptation to the special purpose. In all these points they resemble +more than anything else the pamphlets of Paul Louis Courier, and +there can be no higher praise than this. + +No age in English history was more fertile in pamphlets than the +reigns of William and of Anne. Some men of real distinction +occasionally contributed to them, and others (such as Ferguson and +Maynwaring) obtained such literary notoriety as they possess by their +means. The total volume of the kind produced during the quarter of a +century between the Revolution and the accession of George the First +would probably fill a considerable library. But the examples which +really deserve exhumation are very few, and I doubt whether any can +pretend to vie with the masterpieces of Defoe and Swift. Both these +great writers were accomplished practitioners in the art, and the +characteristics of both lent themselves with peculiar yet strangely +different readiness to the work. They addressed, indeed, different +sections of what was even then the electorate. Defoe's unpolished +realism and his exact adaptation of tone, thought, taste, and fancy to +the measure of the common Englishman were what chiefly gave him a +hearing. Swift aimed and flew higher, but also did not miss the lower +mark. No one has ever doubted that Johnson's depreciation of _The +Conduct of the Allies_ was half special perversity (for he was always +unjust to Swift), half mere humorous paradox. For there was much more +of this in the doctor's utterances than his admirers, either in his +own day or since, have always recognised, or have sometimes been +qualified by Providence to recognise. As for the _Drapier's Letters_ I +can never myself admire them enough, and they seem to me to have been +on the whole under-rather than over-valued by posterity. + +The 'Great Walpolian Battle' and the attacks on Bute and other +favourite ministers were very fertile in the pamphlet, but already +there were certain signs of alteration in its character. Pulteney and +Walpole's other adversaries had already glimmerings of the newspaper +proper, that is to say, of the continual dropping fire rather than the +single heavy broadside; to adopt a better metaphor still, of a +regimental and professional soldiery rather than of single volunteer +champions. The _Letters of Junius_, which for some time past have been +gradually dropping from their former somewhat undue pride of place +(gained and kept as much by the factitious mystery of their origin as +by anything else) to a station more justly warranted, are no doubt +themselves pamphlets of a kind; but they are separated from pamphlets +proper not less by their contents than by their form and continuity. +The real difference is this, that the pamphlet, though often if not +always personal enough, should always and generally does affect at +least to discuss a general question of principle or policy, whereas +Junius is always personal first, and very generally last also. On the +other hand, Burke, whether his productions be called Speeches or +Letters, Thoughts or Reflections, is always a pamphleteer in heart and +soul, in form and matter. If the resemblance of his pamphlets to +speeches gives the force and fire, it is certain that the resemblance +of his speeches to pamphlets accounts for that 'dinner-bell' effect of +his which has puzzled some people and shocked others. Burke always +argued the point, if he only argued one side of it, and it is the +special as it is the saving grace of the pamphlet that it must, or at +least should, be an argument, and not merely an invective or an +innuendo, a sermon or a lampoon. + +Sydney Smith belonged both to the old school and the new. He was both +pamphleteer and journalist; but he kept the form and even to some +extent the style of his pamphlets and his articles well apart. I may +seem likely to have some difficulty in admitting the claim of Cobbett +after disallowing that of Junius under the definition just given, but +I have no very great fear of being unable to making it good. Much as +Cobbett disliked persons, and crotchety as he was in his dislikes, +they were always dislikes of principle in the bottom. The singular +Tory-Radicalism which Cobbett exhibited, and which has made some rank +him unduly low, was no doubt partly due to accidents of birth and +education, and to narrowness of intellectual form. But boroughmongering +after all was a Whig rather than a Tory institution, and Cobbett's +hatred of it, as well as that desire for the maintenance of a kind of +manufacturing yeomanry (not wholly different from the later ideal of +Mr. William Morris,) which was his other guiding principle throughout, +was by no means alien from pure Toryism. His work in relation to Reform, +moreover, is unmistakable--as unmistakable as is that of Sydney Smith, +who precedes him here, with regard to Catholic Emancipation. I should +have voted and written against both these things had I lived then; but +this does not make me enjoy Cobbett or Sydney any the less. + +As for the latest example I have selected, it is a crucial one. The +_Letters of Malachi Malagrowther_ come from a man who is not often +rated high as a political thinker, even by those who sympathise with +his political views. But here as elsewhere the politician, no less +than the poet, the critic, the historian, bears the penalty of the +pre-eminent greatness of the novelist. Nothing is more uncritical than +to regard Scott as a mere sentimentalist in politics, and I cannot +think that any competent judge can do so after reading _Malagrowther_, +even after reading Scott's own Diary and letters on the subject. As he +there explains, he was not greatly carried, as a rule, to interest +himself in the details of politics. As both Lockhart and he admit, he +might not have been so interested even at this juncture had it not +been for the chagrin at his own misfortunes, which, nobly and +stoically repressed as it was, required some issue. But his general +principle on this occasion was clear; it can be thoroughly apprehended +and appreciated even by an Englishman of Englishmen. It was thoroughly +justified by the event, and, I may perhaps be permitted to observe, +ran exactly contrary to a sentiment rather widely adopted of late. No +man, whether in public writings or private conduct, could be more set +than Scott was against a spurious Scotch particularism. He even earned +from silly Scots maledictions for the chivalrous justice he dealt to +England in _The Lord of the Isles_, and the common-sense justice he +dealt to her in the mouth of Bailie Jarvie. But he was not more +staunch for the political Union than he was for the preservation of +minor institutions, manners, and character; and the proposed +interference with Scotch banking seemed to him to be one of the things +tending to make good Scotchmen, as he bluntly told Croker, 'damned +mischievous Englishmen.' Therefore he arose and spoke, and though he +averted the immediate attempt, yet the prophecies which he uttered +were amply fulfilled in other ways after the Reform Bill. + +These, then, are the principles on which I have selected the pieces +that follow (some minor reasons for the particular choices being given +in the special introductions):--That they should be pamphlets proper +(_Malachi_ appeared first in a newspaper, but that was a sign of the +time chiefly, and the numbers of Cobbett's _Register_ were practically +independent pieces); that they should deal with special subjects of +burning political, and not merely personal, interest; and that they +should either directly or in the long-run have exercised an actual +determining influence on the course of politics and history. This last +point is undoubted in the case of the examples from Halifax, Swift, +Burke (who more than any one man pointed and steeled the resistance +of England to Jacobin tyranny), and Scott; it was less immediate, but +scarcely more dubious in those of Defoe, Cobbett, and Sydney Smith. +And so in all humility I make my bow as introducer once more to the +English public of these Seven Masters of English political writing. + + + + +I.--'LETTER TO A DISSENTER' + +BY GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUESS OF HALIFAX + + +(_There is no doubt that Halifax's work deserves to rank first in a +collection of political pamphlets. He signed none; it was indeed +almost impossible for a prominent person in the State then safely or +decently to do so, and different attributions were made at the time of +some of them, as of the _Character of a Trimmer_ to Coventry, and of +this _Letter_ (this 'masterly little tract,' as Macaulay justly calls +it) to Temple. But shortly after his death all were published as his +unchallenged, and there never has been any doubt of their authorship +in the minds of good judges. Four of them are so good that extrinsic +reasons have to be brought in for preferring one to the other. The +_Character of a Trimmer_ is rather too long for my scheme; the _Anatomy +of an Equivalent_ is too technical, and requires too much illustration +and exegesis; the _Cautions for Choice of Members of Parliament_, +though practically valuable to the present day, is a little too +general. The _Letter to a Dissenter_ escapes all these objections. It +is brief, it is thoroughly to the point, it is comprehensible almost +without note or comment to any one who remembers the broad fact that +by his Declaration of Indulgence James the Second attempted to detach, +and almost succeeded in detaching, the Dissenters from their common +cause with the Church in opposing his enfranchisement of the Roman +Catholics, and his preferment of them to great offices. As for its +author, his most eminent acts are written in the pages of the +universally read historian above quoted. But he was in reality more of +a Tory than it suited Macaulay to represent him, though he gloried in +the name of Trimmer, and certainly showed what is called in modern +political slang a 'crossbench mind' not only during the madness of the +Popish plot, during the greater madness of James's assaults on the +Church, the Constitution, and private rights, but also (after the +Revolution) towards William of Orange. Born about 1630 he died in +April 1695, leaving the fame, unjustified by any samples in those +unreported days, of the greatest orator of his time, a reputation as a +wit which was partly inherited by his grandson, Chesterfield, and the +small volume of _Miscellanies_, on which we here draw. The pamphlet +itself appeared in April 1687._) + + + + +A LETTER TO A DISSENTER, UPON OCCASION OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE GRACIOUS +DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE + + +Sir--Since addresses are in fashion, give me leave to make one to you. +This is neither the effect of fear, interest, or resentment; therefore +you may be sure it is sincere: and for that reason it may expect to be +kindly received. Whether it will have power enough to convince, +dependeth upon the reasons of which you are to judge; and upon your +preparation of mind, to be persuaded by truth, whenever it appeareth +to you. It ought not to be the less welcome for coming from a friendly +hand, one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of +opinion, and who will not let his thoughts for the public be so tied +or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants as to stifle +the charity, which besides all other arguments, is at this time become +necessary to preserve us. + +I am neither surprised nor provoked, to see that in the condition you +were put into by the laws, and the ill circumstances you lay under, by +having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your charge, you were +desirous to make yourselves less uneasy and obnoxious to authority. +Men who are sore, run to the nearest remedy with too much haste to +consider all the consequences: grains of allowance are to be given, +where nature giveth such strong influences. When to men under +sufferings it offereth ease, the present pain will hardly allow time +to examine the remedies; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a +fair audience from our mind, whilst so possessed, till the smart is a +little allayed. + +I do not know whether the warmth that naturally belongeth to new +friendships, may not make it a harder task for me to persuade you. It +is like telling lovers, in the beginning of their joys, that they will +in a little time have an end. Such an unwelcome style doth not easily +find credit. But I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new +passion, but that you will hear still; and therefore I am also under +the less discouragement, when I offer to your consideration two +things. The _first_ is, the cause you have to suspect your new +friends. The _second_, the duty incumbent upon you, in Christianity +and prudence, not to hazard the public safety, neither by desire of +ease nor of revenge. + +To the _first_. Consider that notwithstanding the smooth language +which is now put on to engage you, these new friends did not make you +their choice, but their refuge. They have ever made their first +courtships to the Church of England, and when they were rejected +there, they made their application to you in the second place. The +instances of this might be given in all times. I do not repeat them, +because whatsoever is unnecessary must be tedious; the truth of this +assertion being so plain as not to admit a dispute. You cannot +therefore reasonably flatter yourselves that there is any inclination +to you. They never pretended to allow you any quarter, but to usher in +liberty for themselves under that shelter. I refer you to Mr. +Coleman's Letters, and to the Journals of Parliament, where you may be +convinced, if you can be so mistaken as to doubt; nay, at this very +hour they can hardly forbear, in the height of their courtship, to let +fall hard words of you. So little is nature to be restrained; it will +start out sometimes, disdaining to submit to the usurpation of art and +interest. + +This alliance, between liberty and infallibility, is bringing together +the two most contrary things that are in the world. The Church of Rome +doth not only dislike the allowing liberty, but by its principles it +cannot do it. Wine is not more expressly forbid to the Mahometans, +than giving heretics liberty to the Papists. They are no more able to +make good their vows to you, than men married before, and their wife +alive, can confirm their contract with another. The continuance of +their kindness would be a habit of sin, of which they are to repent; +and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms than their +promise to destroy you. You are therefore to be hugged now, only that +you may be the better squeezed at another time. There must be +something extraordinary when the Church of Rome setteth up bills, and +offereth plaisters, for tender consciences. By all that hath hitherto +appeared, her skill in chirurgery lieth chiefly in a quick hand to cut +off limbs; but she is the worst at healing of any that ever pretended +to it. + +To come so quick from another extreme is such an unnatural motion that +you ought to be upon your guard. The other day you were Sons of +Belial; now you are Angels of Light. This is a violent change, and it +will be fit for you to pause upon it before you believe it. If your +features are not altered, neither is their opinion of you, whatever +may be pretended. Do you believe less than you did that there is +idolatry in the Church of Rome? Sure you do not. See, then, how they +treat, both in words and writing, those who entertain that opinion. +Conclude from hence, how inconsistent their favour is with this single +article, except they give you a dispensation for this too, and not by +a _non obstante_, secure you that they will not think the worse of +you. + +Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of +paradoxes. Popery now is the only friend to liberty, and the known +enemy to persecution. The men of Taunton and Tiverton are above all +other eminent for Loyalty. The Quakers, from being declared by the +Papists not to be Christians, are now made favourites, and taken into +their particular protection; they are on a sudden grown the most +accomplished men of the kingdom in good breeding, and give thanks with +the best grace in double-refined language. So that I should not +wonder, though a man of that persuasion, in spite of his hat, should +be Master of the Ceremonies. Not to say harsher words, these are such +very new things, that it is impossible not to suspend our belief, till +by a little more experience, we may be informed whether they are +realities or apparitions. We have been under shameful mistakes, if +these opinions are true; but for the present we are apt to be +incredulous, except that we could be convinced that the priest's words +in this case too are able to make such a sudden and effectual change; +and that their power is not limited to the Sacrament, but that it +extendeth to alter the nature of all other things, as often as they +are so disposed. + +Let me now speak of the instruments of your friendship, and then leave +you to judge whether they do not afford matter of suspicion. No +sharpness is to be mingled, where healing only is intended; so nothing +will be said to expose particular men, how strong soever the +temptation may be, or how clear the proofs to make it out. A word or +two in general, for your better caution, shall suffice. Suppose then, +for argument's sake, that the mediators of this new alliance should +be such as have been formerly employed in treaties of the same kind, +and there detected to have acted by order, and to have been empowered +to give encouragements and rewards. Would not this be an argument to +suspect them? + +If they should plainly be under engagements to one side, their +arguments to the other ought to be received accordingly. Their fair +pretences are to be looked upon as a part of their commission, which +may not improbably give them a dispensation in the case of truth, when +it may bring a prejudice upon the service of those by whom they are +employed. + +If there should be men, who having formerly had means and authority to +persuade by secular arguments, have, in pursuance of that power, +sprinkled money among the Dissenting ministers; and if those very men +should now have the same authority, practise the same methods, and +disburse where they cannot otherwise persuade; it seemeth to me to be +rather an evidence than a presumption of the deceit. + +If there should be ministers amongst you, who by having fallen under +temptations of this kind, are in some sort engaged to continue their +frailty, by the awe they are in lest it should be exposed; the +persuasions of these unfortunate men must sure have the less force, +and their arguments, though never so specious, are to be suspected, +when they come from men who have mortgaged themselves to severe +creditors, that expect a rigorous observance of the contract, let it +be never so unwarrantable. If these, or any others, should at this +time preach up anger and vengeance against the Church of England; may +it not without injustice be suspected that a thing so plainly out of +season springeth rather from corruption than mistake; and that those +who act this choleric part, do not believe themselves, but only pursue +higher directions, and endeavour to make good that part of their +contract, which obligeth them, upon a forfeiture, to make use of their +enflaming eloquence? They might apprehend their wages would be +retrenched if they should be moderate: and therefore, whilst violence +is their interest, those who have not the same arguments have no +reason to follow such a partial example. + +If there should be men, who by the load of their crimes against the +Government, have been bowed down to comply with it against their +conscience; who by incurring the want of a pardon, have drawn upon +themselves a necessity of an entire resignation, such men are to be +lamented, but not to be believed. Nay, they themselves, when they have +discharged their unwelcome talk, will be inwardly glad that their +forced endeavours do not succeed, and are pleased when men resist +their insinuations; which are far from being voluntary or sincere, but +are squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so obnoxious. + +If, in the height of this great dearness, by comparing things, it +should happen that at this instant there is much a surer friendship +with those who are so far from allowing liberty that they allow no +living to a Protestant under them--let the scene lie in what part of +the world it will, the argument will come home, and sure it will +afford sufficient ground to suspect. Apparent contradictions must +strike us; neither nature nor reason can digest them. Self-flattery, +and the desire to deceive ourselves, to gratify present appetite, with +all their power, which is great, cannot get the better of such broad +conviction, as some things carry along with them. Will you call these +vain and empty suspicions? Have you been at all times so void of fears +and jealousies, as to justify your being so unreasonably valiant in +having none upon this occasion? Such an extraordinary courage at this +unseasonable time, to say no more, is too dangerous a virtue to be +commended. + +If then, for these and a thousand other reasons, there is cause to +suspect, sure your new friends are not to dictate to you, or advise +you. For instance: the Addresses that fly abroad every week, and +murder us with _another to the same_; the first draughts are made by +those who are not very proper to be secretaries to the Protestant +Religion: and it is your part only to write them out fairer again. + +Strange! that you, who have been formerly so much against _set +forms_, should now be content the priests should indite for you. The +nature of thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being pleased or +obliged; they grow in the heart, and from thence show themselves +either in looks, speech, writing, or action. No man was ever thankful +because he was bid to be so, but because he had, or thought he had +some reason for it. If then there is cause in this case to pay such +extravagant acknowledgments, they will flow naturally, without taking +such pains to procure them; and it is unkindly done to tire all the +Post-horses with carrying circular letters, to solicit that which +would be done without any trouble or constraint. If it is really in +itself such a favour, what needeth so much pressing men to be +thankful, and with such eager circumstances, that where persuasions +cannot delude, threatenings are employed to fright them into a +compliance? Thanks must be voluntary, not only unconstrained but +unsolicited, else they are either trifles or snares, that either +signify nothing or a great deal more than is intended by those that +give them. If an inference should be made, that whosoever thanketh the +King for his Declaration, is by that engaged to justify it in point of +law; it is a greater stride than I presume all those care to make who +are persuaded to address. It shall be supposed that all the thankers +will be repealers of the Test, whenever a Parliament shall meet; such +an expectation is better prevented before than disappointed +afterwards; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal +is not to do anything that may give a colour to the mistake. These +bespoken thanks are little less improper than love-letters that were +solicited by the lady to whom they are to be directed: so that, +besides the little ground there is to give them, the manner of getting +them doth extremely lessen their value. It might be wished that you +would have suppressed your impatience, and have been content, for the +sake of religion, to enjoy it within yourselves, without the liberty +of a public exercise, till a Parliament had allowed it; but since that +could not be, and that the articles of some amongst you have made use +of the well-meant zeal of the generality to draw them into this +mistake, I am so far from blaming you with that sharpness, which +perhaps the matter in strictness would bear, that I am ready to err on +the side of the more gentle construction. + +There is a great difference between enjoying quietly the advantages of +an act irregularly done by others, and the going about to support it +against the laws in being. The law is so sacred that no trespass +against it is to be defended; yet frailties may in some measure be +excused when they cannot be justified. The desire of enjoying liberty, +from which men have been so long restrained, may be a temptation that +their reason is not at all times able to resist. If in such a case +some objections are leapt over, indifferent men will be more inclined +to lament the occasion than to fall too hard upon the fault, whilst it +is covered with the apology of a good intention. But where, to rescue +yourselves from the severity of one law, you give a blow to all the +laws, by which your religion and liberty are to be protected; and +instead of silently receiving the benefit of this indulgence, you set +up for advocates to support it, you become voluntary aggressors, and +look like counsel retained by the prerogative against your old friend +Magna Charta, who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under +your displeasure. + +If the case then should be, that the price expected from you for this +liberty is giving up your right in the laws, sure you will think twice +before you go any further in such a losing bargain. After giving +thanks for the breach of one law, you lose the right of complaining of +the breach of all the rest; you will not very well know how to defend +yourselves when you are pressed; and having given up the question when +it was for your advantage, you cannot recall it when it shall be to +your prejudice. If you will set up at one time a power to help you, +which at another time, by parity of reason, shall be made use of to +destroy you, you will neither be pitied nor relieved against a +mischief which you draw upon yourselves by being so unreasonably +thankful. It is like calling in auxiliaries to help, who are strong +enough to subdue you. In such a case your complaints will come too +late to be heard, and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of +compassion. + +If you think, for your excuse, to expound your thanks, so as to +restrain them to this particular case; others, for their ends, will +extend them further: and in these differing interpretations, that +which is backed by authority will be the most likely to prevail; +especially when, by the advantage you have given them, they have in +truth the better of the argument, and that the inferences from your +own concessions are very strong and express against you. This is so +far from being a groundless supposition, that there was a late +instance of it in the last session of Parliament, in the House of +Lords, where the first thanks, though things of course, were +interpreted to be the approbation of the King's whole speech, and a +restraint from the further examination of any part of it, though never +so much disliked; and it was with difficulty obtained, not to be +excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty prerogative of +dispensing, merely by this innocent and usual piece of good manners, +by which no such thing could possibly be intended. + +This showeth that some bounds are to be put to your good breeding, and +that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be +ventured upon a compliment. Now that you have for some time enjoyed +the benefit of the end, it is time for you to look into the danger of +the means. The same reason that made you desirous to get liberty must +make you solicitous to preserve it, so that the next thought will +naturally be, not to engage yourself beyond retreat; and to agree so +far with the principles of all religion, as not to rely upon a +death-bed repentance. + +There are certain periods of time, which being once past, make all +cautions ineffectual, and all remedies desperate. Our understandings +are apt to be hurried on by the first heats, which, if not restrained +in time, do not give us leave to look back till it is too late. +Consider this in the case of your anger against the Church of England, +and take warning by their mistake in the same kind, when after the +late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of +your rough usage to them in other times, that it made them forget +their interest and sacrifice it to their revenge. + +Either you will blame this proceeding in them, and for that reason not +follow it; or, if you allow it, you have no reason to be offended with +them; so that you must either dismiss your anger or lose your excuse; +except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of +your morality and understanding. + +If you had now to do with those rigid prelates who made it a matter of +conscience to give you the least indulgence, but kept you at an +uncharitable distance, and even to your most reasonable scruples +continued stiff and inexorable, the argument might be fairer on your +side; but since the common danger has so laid open that mistake, that +all the former haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished, and +that it hath turned the spirit of persecution into a spirit of peace, +charity, and condescension; shall this happy change only affect the +Church of England? And are you so in love with separation as not to be +moved by this example? It ought to be followed, were there no other +reason than that it is virtue; but when, besides that, it is become +necessary to your preservation, it is impossible to fail the having +its effect upon you. + +If it should be said that the Church of England is never humble but +when she is out of power, and therefore loseth the right of being +believed when she pretendeth to it: the answer is, _first_, It would +be an uncharitable objection, and very much mistimed; an unseasonable +triumph, not only ungenerous but unsafe: so that in these respects it +cannot be urged without scandal, even though it could be said with +truth. _Secondly_, This is not so in fact, and the argument must fall, +being built upon a false foundation; for whatever may be told you at +this very hour, and in the heat and glare of your perfect sunshine, +the Church of England can in a moment bring clouds again, and turn +the royal thunder upon your heads, blow you off the stage with a +breath, if she would give but a smile or a kind word; the least +glimpse of her compliance would throw you back into the state of +suffering, and draw upon you all the arrears of severity which have +accrued during the time of this kindness to you; and yet the Church of +England, with all her faults, will not allow herself to be rescued by +such unjustifiable means, but chooseth to bear the weight of power +rather than lie under the burden of being criminal. + +It cannot be said that she is unprovoked: books and letters come out +every day to call for answers, yet she will not be stirred. From the +supposed authors and the style, one would swear they were undertakers, +and had made a contract to fall out with the Church of England. There +are lashes in every address, challenges to draw the pen in every +pamphlet. In short, the fairest occasions in the world given to +quarrel; but she wisely distinguisheth between the body of Dissenters, +whom she will suppose to act, as they do, with no ill intent, and +these small skirmishers, picked and sent out to piqueer, and to begin +a fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the +advantage of the Church of Rome. + +This conduct is so good, that it will be scandalous not to applaud it. +It is not equal dealing to blame our adversaries for doing ill, and +not commend them when they do well. + +To hate them because they are persecuted, and not to be reconciled to +them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the +advantages that can be gained by a criminal compliance, is a principle +no sort of Christians can own, since it would give an objection to +them never to be answered. + +Think a little who they were that promoted your former persecutions, +and then consider how it will look to be angry with the instruments, +and at the same time to make a league with the authors of your +sufferings. + +Have you enough considered what will be expected from you? Are you +ready to stand in every borough by virtue of a _congé d'élire_, and +instead of election be satisfied if you are returned? + +Will you, in parliament, justify the dispensing power, with all its +consequences, and repeal the test, by which you will make way for the +repeal of all the laws that were made to preserve your religion, and +to enact others that shall destroy it? + +Are you disposed to change the liberty of debate into the merit of +obedience; and to be made instruments to repeal or enact laws, when +the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles? + +Are you so linked to your new friends as to reject any indulgence a +parliament shall offer you, if it shall not be so comprehensive as to +include the Papists in it? + +Consider that the implied conditions of your new treaty are no less +than that you are to do everything you are desired, without examining; +and that for this pretended liberty of conscience, your real freedom +is to be sacrificed; your former faults hang like chains still about +you, you are let loose only upon bail; the first act of non-compliance +sendeth you to gaol again. + +You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the legality +of this power which you are to justify, since the being so very +earnest to get it established by a law, and the doing such very hard +things in order, as they think, to obtain it, is a clear evidence that +they do not think that the single power of the Crown is in this case a +good foundation; especially when this is done under a prince so very +tender of the rights of sovereignty that he would think it a +diminution to his prerogative, where he conceiveth it strong enough to +go alone, to call in the legislative help to strengthen and support +it. + +You have formerly blamed the Church of England, and not without +reason, for going so far as they did in their compliance; and yet so +soon as they stopped, you see they are not only deserted, but +prosecuted. Conclude, then, from this example, that you must either +break off your friendship or resolve to have no bounds in it. If they +do succeed in their design, they will leave you first: if they do, you +must either leave them, when it will be too late for your safety, or +else, after the squeaziness of starting at a surplice, you must be +forced to swallow Transubstantiation. + +Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were +Trimmers for enduring you; and now, by a sudden turn, you are become +the favourites. Do not deceive yourselves; it is not the nature of +lasting plants thus to shoot up in a night; you may look gay and green +for a little time, but you want a root to give you a continuance. It +is not so long since, as to be forgotten, that the maxim was, It is +impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBEL. Consider at this time in +France, even the new converts are so far from being employed that they +are disarmed; their sudden change maketh them still to be distrusted, +notwithstanding that they are reconciled; what are you to expect then +from your dear friends, to whom, whenever they shall think fit to +throw you off again, you have in other times given such arguments for +their excuse? + +Besides all this you act very unskilfully against your visible +interest, if you throw away the advantages of which you can hardly +fail in the next probable Revolution. Things tend naturally to what +you would have, if you would let them alone, and not by an +unseasonable activity lose the influences of your good star, which +promiseth you everything that is prosperous. + +The Church of England, convinced of its error in being severe to you; +the Parliament, whenever it meeteth sure to be gentle to you; the next +heir, bred in the country which you have so often quoted for a pattern +of indulgence; a general agreement of all thinking men, that we must +no more cut ourselves off from the Protestants abroad, but rather +enlarge the foundations upon which we are to build our defences +against the common enemy; so that in truth, all things seem to +conspire to give you ease and satisfaction, if by too much haste to +anticipate your good fortune you do not destroy it. + +The Protestants have but one article of human strength to oppose the +power which is now against them, and that is not to lose the advantage +of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided. + +We all agree in our duty to our prince; our objections to his belief +do not hinder us from seeing his virtues; and our not complying with +his religion hath no effect upon our allegiance. We are not to be +laughed out of our passive obedience, and the doctrine of +non-resistance, though even those who perhaps owe the best part of +their security to that principle are apt to make a jest of it. + +So that if we give no advantage by the fatal mistake of misapplying +our anger, by the natural course of things this danger will pass away +like a shower of hail; fair weather will succeed, as lowering as the +sky now looketh, and all this by a plain and easy receipt. Let us be +still, quiet, and undivided, firm at the same time to our religion, +our loyalty, and our laws; and so long as we continue this method it +is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose +the bet; except the Church of Rome, which hath been so long barren of +miracles, should now, in her declining age, be brought to bed of one +that would outdo the best she can brag of in her legend. + +To conclude, the short question will be, Whether you will join with +those who must in the end run the same fate with you? If Protestants +of all sorts, in their behaviour to one another, have been to blame, +they are upon more equal terms, and, for that very reason, it is +fitter for them now to be reconciled. Our disunion is not only a +reproach, but a danger to us. Those who believe in modern miracles +have more right, or at least more excuse, to neglect all secular +caution; but for us, it is as justifiable to have no religion as +wilfully to throw away the human means of preserving it.--I am, Dear +Sir, your most affectionate humble Servant, T.W. + + + + +II.--'THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS' + +BY DANIEL DEFOE + + +(_Defoe wrote an enormous number of pamphlets; for great part of his +life he might almost have been described as a pamphleteer pure and +simple. In the vast lists of publications which his biographers and +bibliographers have compiled, partly by industry and partly by +imagination, by far the larger number of entries is of the pamphlet +kind. Indeed, as most people know, Defoe did not take to the +composition of the fiction which has made his name famous till very +late in life. Born in the year 1661, he began pamphleteering when he +was scarcely of age, and continued in that way (with occasional +excursions into work larger in scale, but not very different in style +or matter) for nearly forty years before the publication of _Robinson +Crusoe_. His two most famous and most effective pamphlets were the +so-called _Legion Letter_ and _The Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ +(given here), to which may perhaps be added the _Reasons against War +with France_. All these, with many others, appeared within the +compass of the years 1700-1702. The three together touched upon the +three most burning questions of the late seventeenth and early +eighteenth centuries--parliamentary factiousness, an aggressive policy +abroad, and toleration at home. Little or no annotation is required +for their comprehension, but the reader may amuse himself if he likes +by meditating whether the _Shortest Way_ is irony or not. My own +opinion is that it is not; being a simple statement of the actual +views of the other side. The anecdotic history of the piece--how it +was taken for serious by both sides, was prosecuted by Government, the +author proclaimed, and a reward offered for his detection; how, the +printer and publisher being arrested, Defoe surrendered, was tried, +pleaded guilty, was fined, pilloried, and imprisoned--may be read in +the biographies. His imprisonment lasted till August 1704, when Harley +let him out, and he entered upon a course of rather mysterious service +as a Government free-lance, which was continued under various +ministries, and has not on the whole brought him credit with +posterity. For many years, his remarkable _Review_, a political +journal which he conducted single-handed, served as his chief organ; +but he never gave up writing pamphlets till his death in 1731, though +he never approached either the merit or the effect of that here +given._) + + +Sir Roger L'Estrange tells us a story in his collection of fables, of +the cock and the horses. The cock was gotten to roost in the stable +among the horses, and there being no racks or other conveniences for +him, it seems he was forced to roost upon the ground. The horses +jostling about for room, and putting the cock in danger of his life, +he gives them this grave advice, 'Pray, gentlefolks, let us stand +still, for fear we should tread upon one another.' + +There are some people in the world, who now they are unperched, and +reduced to an equality with other people, and under strong and very +just apprehensions of being further treated as they deserve, begin, +with Æsop's cock, to preach up peace and union, and the Christian +duties of moderation, forgetting that, when they had the power in +their hands, these graces were strangers in their gates. + +It is now near fourteen years that the glory and peace of the purest +and most flourishing Church in the world has been eclipsed, buffeted, +and disturbed by a sort of men whom God in His providence has suffered +to insult over her and bring her down. These have been the days of her +humiliation and tribulation. She has borne with invincible patience +the reproach of the wicked, and God has at last heard her prayers, and +delivered her from the oppression of the stranger. + +And now they find their day is over, their power gone, and the throne +of this nation possessed by a royal, English, true, and ever-constant +member of, and friend to, the Church of England. Now they find that +they are in danger of the Church of England's just resentments; now +they cry out peace, union, forbearance, and charity, as if the Church +had not too long harboured her enemies under her wing, and nourished +the viperous brood till they hiss and fly in the face of the mother +that cherished them. + +No, gentlemen, the time of mercy is past, your day of grace is over; +you should have practised peace, and moderation, and charity, if you +expected any yourselves. + +We have heard none of this lesson for fourteen years past. We have +been huffed and bullied with your Act of Toleration; you have told us +that you are the Church established by law, as well as others; have +set up your canting synagogues at our church doors, and the Church and +members have been loaded with reproaches, with oaths, associations, +abjurations, and what not. Where has been the mercy, the forbearance, +the charity, you have shown to tender consciences of the Church of +England, that could not take oaths as fast as you made them; that +having sworn allegiance to their lawful and rightful King, could not +dispense with that oath, their King being still alive, and swear to +your new hodge-podge of a Dutch Government? These have been turned out +of their livings, and they and their families left to starve; their +estates double taxed to carry on a war they had no hand in, and you +got nothing by. What account can you give of the multitudes you have +forced to comply, against their consciences, with your new sophistical +politics, who, like new converts in France, sin because they cannot +starve? And now the tables are turned upon you; you must not be +persecuted; it is not a Christian spirit. + +You have butchered one king, deposed another king, and made a mock +king of a third, and yet you could have the face to expect to be +employed and trusted by the fourth. Anybody that did not know the +temper of your party would stand amazed at the impudence, as well as +folly, to think of it. + +Your management of your Dutch monarch, whom you reduced to a mere King +of Clouts, is enough to give any future princes such an idea of your +principles as to warn them sufficiently from coming into your +clutches; and God be thanked the Queen is out of your hands, knows +you, and will have a care of you. + +There is no doubt but the supreme authority of a nation has in itself +a power, and a right to that power, to execute the laws upon any part +of that nation it governs. The execution of the known laws of the +land, and that with a weak and gentle hand neither, was all this +fanatical party of this land have ever called persecution; this they +have magnified to a height, that the sufferings of the Huguenots in +France were not to be compared with. Now, to execute the known laws +of a nation upon those who transgress them, after voluntarily +consenting to the making those laws, can never be called persecution, +but justice. But justice is always violence to the party offending, +for every man is innocent in his own eyes. The first execution of the +laws against Dissenters in England was in the days of King James the +First; and what did it amount to truly? The worst they suffered was at +their own request: to let them go to New England and erect a new +colony, and give them great privileges, grants, and suitable powers, +keep them under protection, and defend them against all invaders, and +receive no taxes or revenue from them. This was the cruelty of the +Church of England. Fatal leniency! It was the ruin of that excellent +prince, King Charles the First. Had King James sent all the Puritans +in England away to the West Indies, we had been a national, unmixed +Church; the Church of England had been kept undivided and entire. + +To requite the lenity of the father they take up arms against the son; +conquer, pursue, take, imprison, and at last put to death the anointed +of God, and destroy the very being and nature of government, setting +up a sordid impostor, who had neither title to govern nor +understanding to manage, but supplied that want with power, bloody and +desperate counsels, and craft without conscience. + +Had not King James the First withheld the full execution of the laws, +had he given them strict justice, he had cleared the nation of them, +and the consequences had been plain: his son had never been murdered +by them nor the monarchy overwhelmed. It was too much mercy shown them +was the ruin of his posterity and the ruin of the nation's peace. One +would think the Dissenters should not have the face to believe that we +are to be wheedled and canted into peace and toleration when they know +that they have once requited us with a civil war, and once with an +intolerable and unrighteous persecution for our former civility. + +Nay, to encourage us to be easy with them, it is apparent that they +never had the upper hand of the Church, but they treated her with all +the severity, with all the reproach and contempt that was possible. +What peace and what mercy did they show the loyal gentry of the Church +of England in the time of their triumphant Commonwealth? How did they +put all the gentry of England to ransom, whether they were actually in +arms for the King or not, making people compound for their estates and +starve their families? How did they treat the clergy of the Church of +England, sequestered the ministers, devoured the patrimony of the +Church, and divided the spoil by sharing the Church lands among their +soldiers, and turning her clergy out to starve? Just such measure as +they have meted should be measured them again. + +Charity and love is the known doctrine of the Church of England, and +it is plain she has put it in practice towards the Dissenters, even +beyond what they ought, till she has been wanting to herself, and in +effect unkind to her sons, particularly in the too much lenity of King +James the First, mentioned before. Had he so rooted the Puritans from +the face of the land, which he had an opportunity early to have done, +they had not had the power to vex the Church as since they have done. + +In the days of King Charles the Second how did the Church reward their +bloody doings with lenity and mercy, except the barbarous regicides of +the pretended court of justice? Not a soul suffered for all the blood +in an unnatural war. King Charles came in all mercy and love, +cherished them, preferred them, employed them, withheld the rigour of +the law, and oftentimes, even against the advice of his Parliament, +gave them liberty of conscience; and how did they requite him with the +villanous contrivance to depose and murder him and his successor at +the Rye Plot? + +King James, as if mercy was the inherent quality of the family, began +his reign with unusual favour to them. Nor could their joining with +the Duke of Monmouth against him move him to do himself justice upon +them; but that mistaken prince thought to win them by gentleness and +love, proclaimed an universal liberty to them, and rather +discountenanced the Church of England than them. How they requited him +all the world knows. + +The late reign is too fresh in the memory of all the world to need a +comment; how, under pretence of joining with the Church in redressing +some grievances, they pushed things to that extremity, in conjunction +with some mistaken gentlemen, as to depose the late King, as if the +grievance of the nation could not have been redressed but by the +absolute ruin of the prince. Here is an instance of their temper, +their peace, and charity. To what height they carried themselves +during the reign of a king of their own; how they crept into all +places of trust and profit; how they insinuated into the favour of the +King, and were at first preferred to the highest places in the nation; +how they engrossed the ministry, and above all, how pitifully they +managed, is too plain to need any remarks. + +But particularly their mercy and charity, the spirit of union, they +tell us so much of, has been remarkable in Scotland. If any man would +see the spirit of a Dissenter, let him look into Scotland. There they +made entire conquest of the Church, trampled down the sacred orders, +and suppressed the Episcopal government with an absolute, and, as they +suppose, irretrievable victory, though it is possible they may find +themselves mistaken. Now it would be a very proper question to ask +their impudent advocate, the Observator, pray how much mercy and +favour did the members of the Episcopal Church find in Scotland from +the Scotch Presbyterian Government? and I shall undertake for the +Church of England that the Dissenters shall still receive as much +here, though they deserve but little. + +In a small treatise of the sufferings of the Episcopal clergy in +Scotland, it will appear what usage they met with; how they not only +lost their livings, but in several places were plundered and abused in +their persons; the ministers that could not conform turned out with +numerous families and no maintenance, and hardly charity enough left +to relieve them with a bit of bread. And the cruelties of the parties +are innumerable, and not to be attempted in this short piece. + +And now to prevent the distant cloud which they perceived to hang over +their heads from England, with a true Presbyterian policy they put in +for a union of nations, that England might unite their Church with the +Kirk of Scotland, and their Presbyterian members sit in our House of +Commons, and their Assembly of Scotch canting long-cloaks in our +Convocation. What might have been if our fanatic Whiggish statesmen +continued, God only knows; but we hope we are out of fear of that now. + +It is alleged by some of the faction--and they began to bully us with +it--that if we won't unite with them they will not settle the crown +with us again, but when Her Majesty dies, will choose a king for +themselves. + +If they won't, we must make them, and it is not the first time we have +let them know that we are able. The crowns of these kingdoms have not +so far disowned the right of succession but they may retrieve it +again; and if Scotland thinks to come off from a successive to an +elective state of government, England has not promised not to assist +the right heir and put them into possession without any regard to +their ridiculous settlements. + +These are the gentlemen, these their ways of treating the Church, both +at home and abroad. Now let us examine the reasons they pretend to +give why we should be favourable to them, why we should continue and +tolerate them among us. + +First, they are very numerous, they say; they are a great part of the +nation, and we cannot suppress them. + +To this may be answered:-- + +1. They are not so numerous as the Protestants in France, and yet the +French King effectually cleared the nation of them at once, and we +don't find he misses them at home. But I am not of the opinion they +are so numerous as is pretended; their party is more numerous than +their persons, and those mistaken people of the Church who are misled +and deluded by their wheedling artifices to join with them, make +their party the greater; but these will open their eyes when the +Government shall set heartily about the work, and come off from them, +as some animals, which they say always desert a house when it is +likely to fall. + +2. The more numerous the more dangerous, and therefore the more need +to suppress them; and God has suffered us to bear them as goads in our +sides for not utterly extinguishing them long ago. + +3. If we are to allow them only because we cannot suppress them, then +it ought to be tried whether we can or not; and I am of opinion it is +easy to be done, and could prescribe ways and means, if it were +proper; but I doubt not the Government will find effectual methods for +the rooting the contagion from the face of this land. + +Another argument they use, which is this, that it is a time of war, +and we have need to unite against the common enemy. + +We answer, this common enemy had been no enemy if they had not made +him so. He was quiet, in peace, and no way disturbed or encroached +upon us, and we know no reason we had to quarrel with him. + +But further, we make no question but we are able to deal with this +common enemy without their help; but why must we unite with them +because of the enemy? Will they go over to the enemy if we do not +prevent it by a union with them? We are very well contented they +should, and make no question we shall be ready to deal with them and +the common enemy too, and better without them than with them. + +Besides, if we have a common enemy, there is the more need to be +secure against our private enemies. If there is one common enemy, we +have the less need to have an enemy in our bowels. + +It was a great argument some people used against suppressing the old +money, that it was a time of war, and it was too great a risk for the +nation to run; if we should not master it, we should be undone. And +yet the sequel proved the hazard was not so great but it might be +mastered, and the success was answerable. The suppressing the +Dissenters is not a harder work nor a work of less necessity to the +public. We can never enjoy a settled, uninterrupted union and +tranquillity in this nation till the spirit of Whiggism, faction, and +schism is melted down like the old money. + +To talk of the difficulty is to frighten ourselves with chimeras and +notions of a powerful party, which are indeed a party without power. +Difficulties often appear greater at a distance than when they are +searched into with judgment and distinguished from the vapours and +shadows that attend them. + +We are not to be frightened with it; this age is wiser than that by +all our own experience and theirs too. King Charles the First had +early suppressed this party if he had taken more deliberate measures. +In short, it is not worth arguing to talk of their arms. Their +Monmouths, and Shaftesburys, and Argyles are gone; their Dutch +sanctuary is at an end; Heaven has made way for their destruction, and +if we do not close with the Divine occasion we are to blame ourselves, +and may remember that we had once an opportunity to serve the Church +of England by extirpating her implacable enemies, and having let slip +the minute that Heaven presented, may experimentally complain, _Post +est occasio calva_. + +Here are some popular objections in the way:-- + +As first, the Queen has promised them to continue them in their +tolerated liberty, and has told us she will be a religious observer of +her word. + +What Her Majesty will do we cannot help; but what, as head of the +Church, she ought to do, is another case. Her Majesty has promised to +protect and defend the Church of England, and if she cannot +effectually do that without the destruction of the Dissenters, she +must of course dispense with one promise to comply with another. But +to answer this cavil more effectually: Her Majesty did never promise +to maintain the toleration to the destruction of the Church; but it is +upon supposition that it may be compatible with the well-being and +safety of the Church, which she had declared she would take especial +care of. Now if these two interests clash, it is plain Her Majesty's +intentions are to uphold, protect, defend, and establish the Church, +and this we conceive is impossible. + +Perhaps it may be said that the Church is in no immediate danger from +the Dissenters, and therefore it is time enough. But this is a weak +answer. + +For first, if a danger be real, the distance of it is no argument +against, but rather a spur to quicken us to prevention, lest it be too +late hereafter. + +And secondly, here is the opportunity, and the only one perhaps that +ever the Church had, to secure herself and destroy her enemies. + +The representatives of the nation have now an opportunity; the time is +come which all good men have wished for, that the gentlemen of England +may serve the Church of England. Now they are protected and encouraged +by a Church of England Queen. + +What will you do for your sister in the day that she shall be spoken +for? + +If ever you will establish the best Christian Church in the world; if +ever you will suppress the spirit of enthusiasm; if ever you will free +the nation from the viperous brood that have so long sucked the blood +of their mother; if ever you will leave your posterity free from +faction and rebellion, this is the time. This is the time to pull up +this heretical weed of sedition that has so long disturbed the peace +of our Church and poisoned the good corn. + +But, says another hot and cold objector, this is renewing fire and +faggot, reviving the act _De Heretico Comburendo_; this will be +cruelty in its nature, and barbarous to all the world. + +I answer, it is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but +the poison of their nature makes it a charity to our neighbours to +destroy those creatures, not for any personal injury received, but for +prevention; not for the evil they have done, but the evil they may do. + +Serpents, toads, vipers, etc., are noxious to the body, and poison the +sensitive life; these poison the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare +our children, destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future +felicity, and contaminate the whole mass. + +Shall any law be given to such wild creatures? Some beasts are for +sport, and the huntsmen give them advantages of ground; but some are +knocked on the head by all possible ways of violence and surprise. + +I do not prescribe fire and faggot, but, as Scipio said of Carthage, +_Delenda est Carthago_. They are to be rooted out of this nation, if +ever we will live in peace, serve God, or enjoy our own. As for the +manner, I leave it to those hands who have a right to execute God's +justice on the nation's and the Church's enemies. + +But if we must be frighted from this justice under the specious +pretences and odious sense of cruelty, nothing will be effected: it +will be more barbarous to our own children and dear posterity when +they shall reproach their fathers, as we do ours, and tell us, 'You +had an opportunity to root out this cursed race from the world under +the favour and protection of a true English queen; and out of your +foolish pity you spared them, because, forsooth, you would not be +cruel; and now our Church is suppressed and persecuted, our religion +trampled under foot, our estates plundered, our persons imprisoned and +dragged to jails, gibbets, and scaffolds: your sparing this Amalekite +race is our destruction, your mercy to them proves cruelty to your +poor posterity.' + +How just will such reflections be when our posterity shall fall under +the merciless clutches of this uncharitable generation, when our +Church shall be swallowed up in schism, faction, enthusiasm, and +confusion; when our Government shall be devolved upon foreigners, and +our monarchy dwindled into a republic. + +It would be more rational for us, if we must spare this generation, to +summon our own to a general massacre, and as we have brought them into +the world free, send them out so, and not betray them to destruction +by our supine negligence, and then cry, 'It is mercy.' + +Moses was a merciful, meek man, and yet with what fury did he run +through the camp, and cut the throats of three and thirty thousand of +his dear Israelites that were fallen into idolatry. What was the +reason? It was mercy to the rest to make these examples, to prevent +the destruction of the whole army. + +How many millions of future souls we save from infection and delusion +if the present race of poisoned spirits were purged from the face of +the land! + +It is vain to trifle in this matter, the light, foolish handling of +them by mulcts, fines, etc.,--it is their glory and their advantage. +If the gallows instead of the Counter, and the galleys instead of the +fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, to preach or hear, +there would not be so many sufferers. The spirit of martyrdom is over; +they that will go to church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors would go +to forty churches rather than be hanged. + +If one severe law were made and punctually executed, that whoever was +found at a conventicle should be banished the nation and the preacher +be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale. They would all come +to church, and one age would make us all one again. + +To talk of five shillings a month for not coming to the sacrament, and +one shilling per week for not coming to church, this is such a way of +converting people as never was known; this is selling them a liberty +to transgress for so much money. If it be not a crime, why don't we +give them full license? And if it be, no price ought to compound for +the committing it, for that is selling a liberty to people to sin +against God and the Government. + +If it be a crime of the highest consequence both against the peace and +welfare of the nation, the glory of God, the good of the Church, and +the happiness of the soul, let us rank it among capital offences, and +let it receive a punishment in proportion to it. + +We hang men for trifles, and banish them for things not worth naming; +but an offence against God and the Church, against the welfare of the +world and the dignity of religion, shall be bought off for five +shillings! This is such a shame to a Christian Government that it is +with regret I transmit it to posterity. + +If men sin against God, affront His ordinances, rebel against His +Church, and disobey the precepts of their superiors, let them suffer +as such capital crimes deserve. So will religion flourish, and this +divided nation be once again united. + +And yet the title of barbarous and cruel will soon be taken off from +this law too. I am not supposing that all the Dissenters in England +should be hanged or banished, but, as in cases of rebellions and +insurrections, if a few of the ringleaders suffer, the multitude are +dismissed; so, a few obstinate people being made examples, there is no +doubt but the severity of the law would find a stop in the compliance +of the multitude. + +To make the reasonableness of this matter out of question, and more +unanswerably plain, let us examine for what it is that this nation is +divided into parties and factions, and let us see how they can justify +a separation, or we of the Church of England can justify our bearing +the insults and inconveniences of the party. + +One of their leading pastors, and a man of as much learning as most +among them, in his answer to a pamphlet, entitled 'An Inquiry into the +Occasional Conformity,' has these words, p. 27, 'Do the religion of +the Church and the meeting-houses make two religions? Wherein do they +differ? The substance of the same religion is common to them both; and +the modes and accidents are the things in which only they differ.' P. +28: 'Thirty-nine articles are given us for the summary of our +religion; thirty-six contain the substance of it, wherein we agree; +three the additional appendices, about which we have some +differences.' + +Now, if, as by their own acknowledgment, the Church of England is a +true Church, and the difference between them is only in a few modes +and accidents, why should we expect that they will suffer galleys, +corporeal punishment, and banishment for these trifles? There is no +question but they will be wiser; even their own principles will not +bear them out in it; they will certainly comply with the laws and with +reason; and though at the first severity they may seem hard, the next +age will feel nothing of it; the contagion will be rooted out; the +disease being cured, there will be no need of the operation; but if +they should venture to transgress and fall into the pit, all the world +must condemn their obstinacy, as being without ground from their own +principles. + +Thus the pretence of cruelty will be taken off, and the party actually +suppressed, and the disquiets they have so often brought upon the +nation prevented. + +Their numbers and their wealth make them haughty, and that is so far +from being an argument to persuade us to forbear them, that it is a +warning to us, without any delay, to reconcile them to the unity of +the Church or remove them from us. + +At present, Heaven be praised, they are not so formidable as they have +been, and it is our own fault if ever we suffer them to be so. +Providence and the Church of England seem to join in this particular, +that now the destroyers of the nation's peace may be overturned, and +to this end the present opportunity seems to be put into our hands. + +To this end her present Majesty seems reserved to enjoy the crown, +that the ecclesiastic as well as civil rights of the nation may be +restored by her hand. To this end the face of affairs have received +such a turn in the process of a few months as never has been before; +the leading men of the nation, the universal cry of the people, the +unanimous request of the clergy, agree in this, that the deliverance +of our Church is at hand. For this end has Providence given us such a +Parliament, such a Convocation, such a gentry, and such a Queen as we +never had before. And what may be the consequences of a neglect of +such opportunities? The succession of the crown has but a dark +prospect; another Dutch turn may make the hopes of it ridiculous and +the practice impossible. Be the house of our future princes never so +well inclined, they will be foreigners, and many years will be spent +in suiting the genius of strangers to this crown and the interests of +the nation; and how many ages it may be before the English throne be +filled with so much zeal and candour, so much tenderness and hearty +affection to the Church as we see it now covered with, who can +imagine? + +It is high time, then, for the friends of the Church of England to +think of building up and establishing her in such a manner that she +may be no more invaded by foreigners nor divided by factions, schisms, +and error. + +If this could be done by gentle and easy methods, I should be glad; +but the wound is corroded, the vitals begin to mortify, and nothing +but amputation of members can complete the cure; all the ways of +tenderness and compassion, all persuasive arguments, have been made +use of in vain. + +The humour of the Dissenters has so increased among the people that +they hold the Church in defiance, and the house of God is an +abomination among them; nay, they have brought up their posterity in +such prepossessed aversions to our holy religion that the ignorant mob +think we are all idolaters and worshippers of Baal, and account it a +sin to come within the walls of our churches. + +The primitive Christians were not more shy of a heathen temple or of +meat offered to idols, nor the Jews of swine's flesh, than some of our +Dissenters are of the Church, and the divine service selemnised +therein. + +This obstinacy must be rooted out with the profession of it; while the +generation are less at liberty daily to affront God Almighty and +dishonour His holy worship, we are wanting in our duty to God and our +mother, the Church of England. + +How can we answer it to God, to the Church, and to our posterity, to +leave them entangled with fanaticism, error, and obstinacy in the +bowels of the nation; to leave them an enemy in their streets, that in +time may involve them in the same crimes, and endanger the utter +extirpation of religion in the nation? + +What is the difference betwixt this and being subjected to the power +of the Church of Rome, from whence we have reformed? If one be an +extreme on one hand, and one on another, it is equally destructive to +the truth to have errors settled among us, let them be of what nature +they will. + +Both are enemies of our Church and of our peace; and why should it not +be as criminal to admit an enthusiast as a Jesuit? Why should the +Papist with his seven sacraments be worse than the Quaker with no +sacraments at all? Why should religious houses be more intolerable +than meeting-houses? Alas, the Church of England! What with Popery on +one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified +between two thieves! + +Now let us crucify the thieves. Let her foundations be established +upon the destruction of her enemies. The doors of mercy being always +open to the returning part of the deluded people, let the obstinate be +ruled with the rod of iron. + +Let all true sons of so holy and oppressed a mother, exasperated by +her afflictions, harden their hearts against those who have oppressed +her. + +And may God Almighty put it into the hearts of all the friends of +truth to lift up a standard against pride and Antichrist, that the +posterity of the sons of error may be rooted out from the face of this +land for ever. + + + + +III.--THE 'DRAPIER'S LETTERS' + +(NOS. I AND 2) + +BY JONATHAN SWIFT + + +(_The two pamphlets entitled _The Conduct of the Allies_ and _The +Public Spirit of the Whigs_--which are sometimes considered the +capital examples of the political efforts of Swift's magnificent +genius--were the very Jachin and Boaz of the Tory administration in +the last years of Anne, and the effect of them has been admitted by +such a violent Whig and such a good critic as Jeffrey. They seemed, +however, not wholly suitable for insertion here; first, because of +their length (for one would have occupied nearly a third, the other +nearly a fourth of this volume), and secondly, because the greater +part of each does really, to some extent, underlie the charge brought +against political pamphlets generally, and, being occupied with a +great number of personal and particular matters, requires either much +intimacy with the period or elaborate and probably tedious comparison +and elucidation, to make it intelligible. No such drawback attaches +to the almost more famous _Drapier's Letters_, of which I give the +first and second. They were written at the very zenith of their +author's marvellous powers, and at the time when his _sæva indignatio_ +was heated seven times hotter than usual by the conviction that his +last hope of English promotion was gone. Their circumstances are +simple and well known. Wood had received a patent to coin copper money +for Ireland to the amount of £108,000. Most commentators seem to think +that he would have done this honestly enough; to me the simple fact +that on the revocation of his patent a pension of £3000 a year was +given to him in compensation is proof enough of the contrary. It is +impossible to imagine any honest profit on a transaction of such a +nature to such an amount which could rise to the capital value of such +a pension. That Swift was instigated to take up his pen against the +transaction by private griefs against the Ministry is extremely +probable; that the thing was not a job less so. As before, I must +refer to biographers for the details of the matter; the text is what +interests us here. I shall only remind the reader that Swift was +fifty-seven when the 'Drapier' wrote, that _Gulliver_ appeared about +three years later, and that Swift himself expired--lunatic and +miserable beyond utterance--on the 19th October 1745, twenty-one years +after all Dublin and half England had rung with the boldness and the +triumph of the 'Drapier.'_) + + +I + +TO THE TRADESMEN, SHOP-KEEPERS, FARMERS, AND COMMON-PEOPLE IN GENERAL, +OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND; CONCERNING THE BRASS HALF-PENCE COINED BY +MR. WOOD. + +Brethren, Friends, Countrymen, and Fellow Subjects--What I intend now +to say to you, is, next to your duty to God, and the care of your +salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves, and your children; +your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life entirely +depend upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men, as +Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country, to read this +paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; +which that you may do at the less expence, I have ordered the printer +to sell it at the lowest rate. + +It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no other +intention than to do you good you will not be at the pains to read his +advices: one copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you, which will +be less than a farthing a-piece. It is your folly that you have no +common or general interest in your view, not even the wisest among +you, neither do you know or enquire, or care who are your friends or +who are your enemies. + +About four years ago, a little book was written, to advise all people +to wear the manufactures of this our own dear country: it had no other +design, said nothing against the king or Parliament, or any man, yet +the poor printer was prosecuted two years, with the utmost violence, +and even some weavers themselves, for whose sake it was written, being +upon the jury, found him guilty. This would be enough to discourage +any man from endeavouring to do you good, when you will either neglect +him or fly in his face for his pains, and when he must expect only +danger to himself and loss of money, perhaps to his ruin. + +However, I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest destruction +before your eyes, if you do not behave yourselves as you ought. + +I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact; and then +I will lay before you how you ought to act in common prudence, and +according to the laws of your country. + +The fact is thus, It having been many years since copper half-pence or +farthings were last coined in this kingdom, they have been for some +time very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about under the name of +raps. Several applications were made to England, that we might have +liberty to coin new ones, as in former times we did; but they did not +succeed. At last one Mr. Wood a mean ordinary man, a hard-ware dealer, +procured a patent under his Majesty's Broad Seal to coin fourscore and +ten thousand pounds in copper for this kingdom, which patent however +did not oblige any one here to take them, unless they pleased. Now you +must know, that the half-pence and farthings in England pass for very +little more than they are worth. And if you should beat them to +pieces, and sell them to the brazier, you would not lose above a penny +in a shilling. But Mr. Wood made his half-pence of such base metal, +and so much smaller than the English ones, that the brazier would not +give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of his; so that +this sum of fourscore and ten thousand pounds in good gold and silver, +must be given for trash that will not be worth above eight or nine +thousand pounds real value. But this is not the worst, for Mr. Wood, +when he pleases, may by stealth send over another and another +fourscore and ten thousand pounds, and buy all our goods for eleven +parts in twelve, under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a +dozen of hats for five shillings a-piece, which amounts to three +pounds, and receives the payment in Mr. Wood's coin, he really +receives only the value of five shillings. + +Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood +could have so much interest as to get his Majesty's Broad Seal for so +great a sum of bad money to be sent to this poor country, and that +all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and +let us make our own half-pence, as we used to do. Now I will make that +matter very plain. We are at a great distance from the king's court, +and have nobody there to solicit for us, although a great number of +lords and squires, whose estates are here, and are our countrymen, +spend all their lives and fortunes there. But this same Mr. Wood was +able to attend constantly for his own interest; he is an Englishman +and had great friends, and it seems knew very well where to give money +to those that would speak to others that could speak to the king and +could tell a fair story. And his majesty, and perhaps the great lord +or lords who advised him, might think it was for our country's good; +and so, as the lawyers express it, the king was deceived in his grant, +which often happens in all reigns. And I am sure if his majesty knew +that such a patent, if it should take effect according to the desire +of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin this kingdom, which hath given such +great proofs of its loyalty, he would immediately recall it, and +perhaps show his displeasure to somebody or other: but a word to the +wise is enough. Most of you must have heard, with what anger our +honourable House of Commons receiv'd an account of this Wood's patent. +There were several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proofs that +it was all a wicked cheat from the bottom to the top, and several +smart votes were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to +answer likewise in print, and in so confident a way, as if he were a +better man than our whole Parliament put together. + +This Wood, as soon as his patent was passed, or soon after, sends over +a great many barrels of those half-pence, to Cork and other seaport +towns, and to get them off, offered an hundred pounds in his coin for +seventy or eighty in silver: but the collectors of the king's customs +very honestly refused to take them, and so did almost everybody else. +And since the Parliament hath condemned them, and desired the king +that they might be stopped, all the kingdom do abominate them. + +But Wood is still working under hand to force his half-pence upon us, +and if he can by help of his friends in England prevail so far as to +get an order that the commissioners and collectors of the king's money +shall receive them, and that the army is to be paid with them, then he +thinks his work shall be done. And this is the difficulty you will be +under in such a case: for the common soldier when he goes to the +market or ale-house will offer this money, and if it be refused, +perhaps he will swagger and hector, and threaten to beat the butcher +or ale-wife, or take the goods by force, and throw them the bad +half-pence. In this and the like cases the shop-keeper, or victualler, +or any other tradesman, has no more to do than to demand ten times +the price of his goods if it is to be paid in Wood's money; for +example, twenty pence of that money for a quart of ale, and so in all +things else, and not part with his goods till he gets the money. + +For suppose you go to an ale-house with that base money, and the +landlord gives you a quart for four of these half-pence, what must the +victualler do? His brewer will not be paid in that coin, or if the +brewer should be such a fool, the farmers will not take it from them +for their bere, because they are bound by their leases to pay their +rents in good and lawful money of England, which this is not, nor of +Ireland neither, and the Squire their landlord will never be so +bewitched to take such trash for his land; so that it must certainly +stop somewhere or other, and where-ever it stops it is the same thing, +and we are all undone. + +The common weight of these half-pence is between four and five to an +ounce; suppose five, then three shillings and fourpence will weigh a +pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pounds butter +weight. Now there are many hundred farmers who pay two hundred pound a +year rent. Therefore when one of these farmers comes with his half +year's rent, which is one hundred pound, it will be at least six +hundred pound weight, which is three horses load. + +If a squire has a mind to come to town to buy clothes and wine and +spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter here, he +must bring with him five or six horses loaden with sacks as the +farmers bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach to our +shops, it must be followed by a car loaded with Mr. Wood's money. And +I hope we shall have the grace to take it for no more than it is +worth. + +They say Squire Conolly has sixteen thousand pounds a year; now if he +sends for his rent to town, as it is likely he does, he must have two +hundred and fifty horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or +three great cellars in his house for stowage. But what the bankers +will do I cannot tell. For I am assured that some great bankers keep +by them forty thousand pounds in ready cash, to answer all payments, +which sum, in Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to +carry it. + +For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a pretty +good shop of Irish stuffs and silks, and instead of taking Mr. Wood's +bad copper, I intend to truck with my neighbours the butchers, and +bakers, and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods, and the little +gold and silver I have I will keep by me like my heart's blood till +better times, or till I am just ready to starve, and then I will buy +Mr. Wood's money, as my father did the brass money in K. James's time, +who could buy ten pound of it with a guinea, and I hope to get as +much for a pistole, and so purchase bread from those who will be such +fools as to sell it me. + +These half-pence, if they once pass, will soon be counterfeit, because +it may be cheaply done, the stuff is so base. The Dutch likewise will +probably do the same thing, and send them over to us to pay for our +goods; and Mr. Wood will never be at rest but coin on: so that in some +years we shall have at least five times fourscore and ten thousand +pounds of this lumber. Now the current money of this kingdom is not +reckoned to be above four hundred thousand pounds in all; and while +there is a silver sixpence left, these blood-suckers will never be +quiet. + +When once the kingdom is reduced to such a condition I will tell you +what must be the end: the gentlemen of estates will all turn off their +tenants for want of payment, because, as I told you before, the +tenants are obliged by their leases to pay sterling, which is lawful +current money of England; then they will turn their own farmers, as +too many of them do already, run all into sheep where they can, +keeping only such other cattle as are necessary; then they will be +their own merchants, and send their wool and butter and hides and +linen beyond sea for ready money and wine and spices and silks. They +will keep only a few miserable cottiers. The farmers must rob or beg, +or leave their country. The shop-keepers in this and every other town +must break and starve: for it is the landed man that maintains the +merchant, and shop-keeper, and handicraftsman. + +But when the squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the good +money he gets from abroad he will hoard up to send for England, and +keep some poor tailor or weaver and the like in his own house, who +will be glad to get bread at any rate. + +I should never have done, if I were to tell you all the miseries that +we shall undergo if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this cursed +coin. It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into one +scale, and this sorry fellow Wood into the other, that Mr. Wood should +weigh down this whole kingdom, by which England gets above a million +of good money every year clear into their pockets, and that is more +than the English do by all the world besides. + +But your great comfort is, that, as his majesty's patent does not +oblige you to take this money, so the laws have not given the Crown a +power of forcing the subjects to take what money the king pleases: for +then, by the same reason, we might be bound to take pebble-stones or +cockle-shells, or stamped leather for current coin, if ever we should +happen to live under an ill prince, who might likewise by the same +power make a guinea pass for ten pounds, a shilling for twenty +shillings, and so on, by which he would in a short time get all the +silver and gold of the kingdom into his own hands, and leave us +nothing but brass or leather or what he pleased. Neither is anything +reckoned more cruel or oppressive in the French Government than their +common practice of calling in all their money after they have sunk it +very low, and then coining it a-new at a much higher value, which +however is not the thousandth part so wicked as this abominable +project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects silver for +silver, and gold for gold; but this fellow will not so much as give us +good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a twelfth part +of their worth. + +Having said this much, I will now go on to tell you the judgments of +some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose for your +sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be sure +I went upon good grounds. + +A famous law-book call'd the _Mirrour of Justice_, discoursing of the +articles (or laws) ordained by our ancient kings, declares the law to +be as follows: It was ordained that no king of this realm should +change, impair, or amend the money or make any other money than of +gold or silver without the assent of all the counties, that is, as my +Lord Coke says, without the assent of Parliament. + +This book is very ancient, and of great authority for the time in +which it was wrote, and with that character is often quoted by that +great lawyer my Lord Coke. By the laws of England, several metals are +divided into lawful or true metal and unlawful or false metal; the +former comprehends silver or gold, the latter all baser metals: that +the former is only to pass in payments appears by an Act of Parliament +made the twentieth year of Edward the First, called the statute +concerning the passing of pence, which I give you here as I got it +translated into English; for some of our laws at that time were, as I +am told, writ in Latin: Whoever in buying or selling presumeth to +refuse an half-penny or farthing of lawful money, bearing the stamp +which it ought to have, let him be seized on as a contemner of the +king's majesty, and cast to prison. + +By this statute, no person is to be reckoned a contemner of the king's +majesty, and for that crime to be committed to prison, but he who +refuses to accept the king's coin made of lawful metal, by which, as I +observ'd before, silver and gold only are intended. + +That this is the true construction of the Act, appears not only from +the plain meaning of the words, but from my Lord Coke's observation +upon it. By this Act (says he) it appears that no subject can be +forc'd to take in buying or selling or other payments, any money made +but of lawful metal; that is, of silver or gold. + +The law of England gives the king all mines of gold and silver, but +not the mines of other metals; the reason of which prerogative or +power, as it is given by my Lord Coke, is, because money can be made +of gold and silver, but not of other metals. + +Pursuant to this opinion half-pence and farthings were anciently made +of silver, which is more evident from the Act of Parliament of Henry +the IVth. chap. 4, by which it is enacted as follows: Item, for the +great scarcity that is at present within the realm of England of +half-pence and farthings of silver, it is ordained and established +that the third part of all the money of silver plate which shall be +brought to the bullion, shall be made in half-pence and farthings. +This shows that by the words half-penny and farthing of lawful money +in that statute concerning the passing of pence, is meant a small coin +in half-pence and farthings of silver. + +This is further manifest from the statute of the ninth year of Edward +the IIId. chap. 3, which enacts, That no sterling half-penny or +farthing be molten for to make vessel, or any other thing by the +goldsmiths, nor others, upon forfeiture of the money so molten (or +melted). + +By another Act in this king's reign black money was not to be current +in England, and by an Act made in the eleventh year of his reign, +chap. 5, galley half-pence were not to pass: what kind of coin these +were I do not know, but I presume they were made of base metal, and +that these Acts were no new laws, but further declarations of the old +laws relating to the coin. + +Thus the law stands in relation to coin, nor is there any example to +the contrary, except one in Davis's _Reports_, who tells us, that in +the time of Tyrone's rebellion Queen Elizabeth ordered money of mixt +metal to be coined in the Tower of London, and sent over hither for +payment of the army, obliging all people to receive it, and commanding +that all silver money should be taken only as bullion, that is, for as +much as it weighed. Davis tells us several particulars in this matter +too long here to trouble you with, and that the Privy Council of this +kingdom obliged a merchant in England to receive this mixt money for +goods transmitted hither. + +But this proceeding is rejected by all the best lawyers as contrary to +law, the Privy Council here having no such power. And, besides, it is +to be considered that the Queen was then under great difficulties by a +rebellion in this kingdom, assisted from Spain, and whatever is done +in great exigences and dangerous times should never be an example to +proceed by in seasons of peace and quietness. + +I will now, my dear friends, to save you the trouble, set before you, +in short, what the law obliges you to do, and what it does not oblige +you to. + +First, You are oblig'd to take all money in payments which is coin'd +by the king and is of the English standard or weight, provided it be +of gold or silver. + +Secondly, You are not oblig'd to take any money which is not of gold +or silver, not only the half-pence or farthings of England, or of any +other country; and it is only for convenience, or ease, that you are +content to take them, because the custom of coining silver half-pence +and farthings hath long been left off, I will suppose on account of +their being subject to be lost. + +Thirdly, Much less are we oblig'd to take those vile half-pence of +that same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven-pence in every +shilling. + +Therefore, my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy +trash: it is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood; his majesty in his +patent obliges nobody to take these half-pence; our gracious prince +hath no so ill advisers about him; or if he had, yet you see the laws +have not left it in the king's power, to force us to take any coin but +what is lawful, of right standard, gold and silver; therefore you have +nothing to fear. + +And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who are +the poor sort of tradesmen: perhaps you may think you will not be so +great losers as the rich if these half-pence should pass, because you +seldom see any silver, and your customers come to your shops or stalls +with nothing but brass, which you likewise find hard to be got; but +you may take my word, whenever this money gains footing among you, you +will be utterly undone; if you carry these half-pence to a shop for +tobacco or brandy, or any other thing you want, the shop-keeper will +advance his goods accordingly, or else he must break and leave the key +under the door. Do you think I will sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff +for twenty of Mr. Wood's half-pence? No, not under two hundred at +least, neither will I be at the trouble of counting, but weigh them in +a lump. I will tell you one thing further, that if Mr. Wood's project +should take it will ruin even our beggars: for when I give a beggar an +half-penny, it will quench his thirst, or go a good way to fill his +belly; but the twelfth part of a half-penny will do him no more +service than if I should give him three pins out of my sleeve. + +In short those half-pence are like the accursed thing, which, as the +Scripture tells us, the children of Israel were forbidden to touch; +they will run about like the plague and destroy every one who lays his +hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told a king +that he had invented a way to torment people by putting them into a +bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the projector +first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment; this very much +resembles the project of Mr. Wood; and the like of this may possibly +be Mr. Wood's fate, that the brass he contrived to torment this +kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his destruction at last. + +_N.B._--The author of this paper is inform'd by persons who have made +it their business to be exact in their observations on the true value +of these half-pence, that any person may expect to get a quart of +twopenny ale for thirty-six of them. + +I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to refresh +their memories whenever they shall have further notice of Mr. Wood's +half-pence or any other the like imposture. + + +II. + +A LETTER TO MR. HARDING THE PRINTER, UPON OCCASION OF A PARAGRAPH IN +HIS NEWS-PAPER OF AUGUST 1, 1724, RELATING TO MR. WOOD'S HALF-PENCE. + +In your news-letter of the first instant there is a paragraph dated +from London, July 25th, relating to Wood's half-pence; whereby it is +plain, what I foretold in my letter to the shop-keepers, etc., that +this vile fellow would never be at rest, and that the danger of our +ruin approaches nearer, and therefore the kingdom requires new and +fresh warning; however I take that paragraph to be, in a great +measure, an imposition upon the public, at least I hope so, because I +am informed that Wood is generally his own news-writer. I cannot but +observe from that paragraph that this public enemy of ours, not +satisfied to ruin us with his trash, takes every occasion to treat +this kingdom with the utmost contempt. He represents several of our +merchants and traders upon examination before a committee of a +council, agreeing that there was the utmost necessity of copper-money +here, before his patent, so that several gentlemen have been forced to +tally with their workmen, and give them bits of cards sealed and +subscribed with their names. What then? If a physician prescribe to a +patient a dram of physic, shall a rascal apothecary cram him with a +pound, and mix it up with poison? And is not a landlord's hand and +seal to his own labourers a better security for five or ten shillings, +than Wood's brass seven times below the real value, can be to the +kingdom, for an hundred and four thousand pounds? + +But who are these merchants and traders of Ireland that make this +report of the utmost necessity we are under of copper money? They are +only a few betrayers of their country, confederates with Wood, from +whom they are to purchase a great quantity of his coin, perhaps at +half value, and vend it among us to the ruin of the public and their +own private advantage. Are not these excellent witnesses, upon whose +integrity the fate of a kingdom must depend, who are evidences in +their own cause, and sharers in this work of iniquity? + +If we could have deserved the liberty of coining for ourselves, as we +formerly did (and why we have not is everybody's wonder as well as +mine), ten thousand pounds might have been coined here in Dublin of +only one fifth below the intrinsic value, and this sum, with the stock +of half-pence we then had, would have been sufficient: but Wood by his +emissaries, enemies to God and this kingdom, hath taken care to buy up +as many of our old half-pence as he could, and from thence the present +want of change arises; to remove which, by Mr. Wood's remedy, would +be, to cure a scratch on the finger by cutting off the arm. But +supposing there were not one farthing of change in the whole nation, I +will maintain that five and twenty thousand pounds would be a sum +fully sufficient to answer all our occasions. I am no inconsiderable +shop-keeper in this town, I have discoursed with several of my own and +other trades, with many gentlemen both of city and country, and also +with great numbers of farmers, cottagers, and labourers, who all agree +that two shillings in change for every family would be more than +necessary in all dealings. Now by the largest computation (even before +that grievous discouragement of agriculture, which hath so much +lessened our numbers) the souls in this kingdom are computed to be +one million and a half, which, allowing but six to a family, makes two +hundred and fifty thousand families, and consequently two shillings to +each family will amount only to five and twenty thousand pounds, +whereas this honest liberal hard-ware-man Wood, would impose upon us +above four times that sum. + +Your paragraph relates further, that Sir Isaac Newton reported an +assay taken at the Tower, of Wood's metal, by which it appears that +Wood had in all respects performed his contract. His contract! With +whom? Was it with the Parliament or people of Ireland? Are not they to +be the purchasers? But they detest, abhor, and reject it, as corrupt, +fraudulent, mingled with dirt and trash. Upon which he grows angry, +goes to law, and will impose his goods upon us by force. + +But your news-letter says that an assay was made of the coin. How +impudent and insupportable is this? Wood takes care to coin a dozen or +two half-pence of good metal, sends them to the Tower and they are +approved, and these must answer all that he hath already coined or +shall coin for the future. It is true, indeed, that a gentleman often +sends to my shop for a pattern of stuff, I cut it fairly off, and if +he likes it he comes or sends and compares the pattern with the whole +piece, and probably we come to a bargain. But if I were to buy an +hundred sheep, and the grazier should bring me one single weather fat +and well fleeced by way of pattern, and expect the same price round +for the whole hundred, without suffering me to see them before he was +paid, or giving me good security to restore my money for those that +were lean or shorn or scabby, I would be none of his customer. I have +heard of a man who had a mind to sell his house, and therefore carried +a piece of brick in his pocket, which he showed as a pattern to +encourage purchasers: and this is directly the case in point with Mr. +Wood's assay. + +The next part of the paragraph contains Mr. Wood's voluntary proposals +for preventing any future objections or apprehensions. + +His first proposal is, that whereas he hath already coined seventeen +thousand pounds, and has copper prepared to make it up forty thousand +pounds, he will be content to coin no more, unless the exigences of +trade require it, though his patent empowers him to coin a far greater +quantity. + +To which if I were to answer it should be thus: Let Mr. Wood and his +crew of founders and tinkers coin on till there is not an old kettle +left in the kingdom; let them coin old leather, tobacco-pipe clay, or +the dirt in the streets, and call their trumpery by what name they +please from a guinea to a farthing, we are not under any concern to +know how he and his tribe or accomplices think fit to employ +themselves. But I hope and trust that we are all to a man fully +determined to have nothing to do with him or his ware. + +The king has given him a patent to coin half-pence, but hath not +obliged us to take them, and I have already shown in my Letter to the +Shop-keepers, etc., that the law hath not left it in the power of the +prerogative to compel the subject to take any money, beside gold and +silver of the right sterling and standard. + +Wood further proposes, (if I understand him right, for his expressions +are dubious) that he will not coin above forty thousand pounds unless +the exigences of trade require it: First, I observe that this sum of +forty thousand pounds is almost double to what I proved to be +sufficient for the whole kingdom, although we had not one of our old +half-pence left. Again I ask, who is to be judge when the exigences of +trade require it? Without doubt he means himself, for as to us of this +poor kingdom, who must be utterly ruined if his project should +succeed, we were never once consulted till the matter was over, and he +will judge of our exigences by his own; neither will these be ever at +an end till he and his accomplices will think they have enough: and it +now appears that he will not be content with all our gold and silver, +but intends to buy up our goods and manufactures with the same coin. + +I shall not enter into examination of the prices for which he now +proposes to sell his half-pence or what he calls his copper, by the +pound; I have said enough of it in my former letter, and it hath +likewise been considered by others. It is certain that, by his own +first computation, we were to pay three shillings for what was +intrinsically worth but one, although it had been of the true weight +and standard for which he pretended to have contracted; but there is +so great a difference both in weight and badness in several of his +coins that some of them have been nine in ten below the intrinsic +value, and most of them six or seven. + +His last proposal being of a peculiar strain and nature, deserves to +be very particularly consider'd, both on account of the matter and the +style. It is as follows. + +Lastly, in consideration of the direful apprehensions which prevail in +Ireland, that Mr. Wood will by such coinage drain them of their gold +and silver, he proposes to take their manufactures in exchange, and +that no person be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +at one payment. + +First, observe this little impudent hard-ware-man turning into +ridicule the direful apprehensions of a whole kingdom, priding himself +as the cause of them, and daring to prescribe what no king of England +ever attempted, how far a whole nation shall be obliged to take his +brass coin. And he has reason to insult; for sure there was never an +example in history of a great kingdom kept in awe for above a year in +daily dread of utter destruction, not by a powerful invader at the +head of twenty thousand men, not by a plague or a famine, not by a +tyrannical prince (for we never had one more gracious) or a corrupt +administration, but by one single, diminutive, insignificant, +mechanic. + +But to go on. To remove our direful apprehensions that he will drain +us of our gold and silver by his coinage, this little arbitrary +mock-monarch most graciously offers to take our manufactures in +exchange. Are our Irish understandings indeed so low in his opinion? +Is not this the very misery we complain of? That his cursed project +will put us under the necessity of selling our goods for what is equal +to nothing. How would such a proposal sound from France or Spain, or +any other country we deal with, if they should offer to deal with us +only upon this condition, that we should take their money at ten times +higher than the intrinsic value? Does Mr. Wood think, for instance, +that we will sell him a stone of wool for a parcel of his counters not +worth sixpence, when we can send it to England and receive as many +shillings in gold and silver? Surely there was never heard such a +compound of impudence, villainy and folly. + +His proposals conclude with perfect high-treason. He promises, that +no person shall be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +of his coin in one payment: by which it is plain that he pretends to +oblige every subject in this kingdom to take so much in every payment, +if it be offered; whereas his patent obliges no man, nor can the +prerogative by law claim such a power, as I have often observed; so +that here Mr. Wood takes upon him the entire legislature, and an +absolute dominion over the properties of the whole nation. + +Good God! Who are this wretch's advisers? Who are his supporters, +abettors, encouragers, or sharers? Mr. Wood will oblige me to take +five-pence half-penny of his brass in every payment. And I will shoot +Mr. Wood and his deputies through the head, like highway-men or +house-breakers, if they dare to force one farthing of their coin upon +me in the payment of an hundred pounds. It is no loss of honour to +submit to the lion; but who, with the figure of a man can think with +patience of being devoured alive by a rat? He has laid a tax upon the +people of Ireland of seventeen shillings at least in the pound; a tax, +I say, not only upon lands, but interest-money, goods, manufactures, +the hire of handicraftsmen, labourers and servants. Shop-keepers, look +to yourselves. Wood will oblige and force you to take five-pence +half-penny of his trash in every payment, and many of you receive +twenty, thirty, forty, payments in one day, or else you can hardly +find bread: and pray consider how much that will amount to in a year; +twenty times five-pence half-penny is nine shillings and two-pence, +which is above an hundred and sixty pounds a year, whereof you will be +losers of at least one hundred and forty pounds by taking your +payments in his money. If any of you be content to deal with Mr. Wood +on such conditions they may. But for my own particular, let his money +perish with him. If the famous Mr. Hampden rather chose to go to +prison than pay a few shillings to King Charles I. without authority +of Parliament, I will rather choose to be hanged than have all my +substance taxed at seventeen shillings in the pound, at the arbitrary +will and pleasure of the venerable Mr. Wood. + +The paragraph concludes thus. _N.B._ (that is to say _nota bene_, or +mark well) No evidence appeared from Ireland or elsewhere, to prove +the mischiefs complained of, or any abuses whatsoever committed in the +execution of the said grant. + +The impudence of this remark exceeds all that went before. First, the +House of Commons in Ireland, which represents the whole people of the +kingdom; and secondly the Privy Council, addressed his majesty against +these half-pence. What could be done more to express the universal +sense and opinion of the nation? If his copper were diamonds, and the +kingdom were entirely against it, would not that be sufficient to +reject it? Must a committee of the House of Commons, and our whole +Privy Council go over to argue pro and con with Mr. Wood? To what end +did the king give his patent for coining of half-pence in Ireland? Was +it not, because it was represented to his sacred majesty, that such a +coinage would be of advantage to the good of this kingdom, and of all +his subjects here? It is to the patentee's peril if his representation +be false, and the execution of his patent be fraudulent and corrupt. +Is he so wicked and foolish to think that his patent was given him to +ruin a million and a half of people, that he might be a gainer of +three or fourscore thousand pounds to himself? Before he was at the +charge of passing a patent, much more of raking up so much filthy +dross, and stamping it with his majesty's image and superscription, +should he not first in common sense, in common equity, and common +manners, have consulted the principal party concerned; that is to say, +the people of the kingdom, the House of Lords or Commons, or the Privy +Council? If any foreigner should ask us, whose image and +superscription there is on Wood's coin, we should be ashamed to tell +him, it was Cæsar's. In that great want of copper half-pence, which +he alleges we were, our city set up our Cæsar's statue in excellent +copper, at an expence that is equal in value to thirty thousand +pounds of his coin; and we will not receive his image in worse metal. + +I observe many of our people putting a melancholy case on this +subject. It is true say they, we are all undone if Wood's half-pence +must pass; but what shall we do, if his majesty puts out a +proclamation commanding us to take them? This has been often dinned in +my ears. But I desire my countrymen to be assured that there is +nothing in it. The king never issues out a proclamation but to enjoin +what the law permits him. He will not issue out a proclamation against +law, or if such a thing should happen by a mistake, we are no more +obliged to obey it than to run our heads into the fire. Besides, his +majesty will never command us by a proclamation, what he does not +offer to command us in the patent itself. There he leaves it to our +discretion, so that our destruction must be entirely owing to +ourselves. Therefore let no man be afraid of a proclamation, which +will never be granted; and if it should, yet upon this occasion, will +be of no force. The king's revenues here are near four hundred +thousand pounds a year, can you think his ministers will advise him to +take them in Wood's brass, which will reduce the value to fifty +thousand pounds? England gets a million sterl. by this nation, which, +if this project goes on, will be almost reduc'd to nothing: and do you +think those who live in England upon Irish estates will be content to +take an eighth or a tenth part, by being paid in Wood's dross? + +If Wood and his confederates were not convinced of our stupidity, they +never would have attempted so audacious an enterprise. He now sees a +spirit hath been raised against him, and he only watches till it +begins to flag, he goes about watching when to devour us. He hopes we +shall be weary of contending with him, and at last out of ignorance, +or fear, or of being perfectly tired with opposition, we shall be +forced to yield. And therefore I confess it is my chief endeavour to +keep up your spirits and resentments. If I tell you there is a +precipice under you, and that if you go forwards you will certainly +break your necks--if I point to it before your eyes, must I be at the +trouble of repeating it every morning? Are our people's hearts waxed +gross? Are their ears dull of hearing, and have they closed their +eyes? I fear there are some few vipers among us, who, for ten or +twenty pounds' gain, would sell their souls and their country, though +at last it would end in their own ruin as well as ours. Be not like +the deaf adder, who refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he +never so wisely. + +Though my letter be directed to you, Mr. Harding, yet I intend it for +all my countrymen. I have no interest in this affair but what is +common to the public; I can live better than many others, I have some +gold and silver by me, and a shop well furnished, and shall be able +to make a shift when many of my betters are starving. But I am grieved +to see the coldness and indifference of many people with whom I +discourse. Some are afraid of a proclamation, others shrug up their +shoulders, and cry, what would you have us to do? Some give out, there +is no danger at all. Others are comforted that it will be a common +calamity and they shall fare no worse than their neighbours. Will a +man, who hears midnight-robbers at his door, get out of bed, and raise +his family for a common defence, and shall a whole kingdom lie in a +lethargy, while Mr. Wood comes at the head of his confederates to rob +them of all they have, to ruin us and our posterity for ever? If an +high-way-man meets you on the road, you give him your money to save +your life; but, God be thanked, Mr. Wood cannot touch a hair of your +heads. You have all the laws of God and man on your side. When he or +his accomplices offer you his dross, it is but saying No, and you are +safe. If a madman should come to my shop with a handful of dirt raked +out of the kennel, and offer it in payment for ten yards of stuff, I +would pity or laugh at him, or, if his behaviour deserved it, kick him +out of my doors. And if Mr. Wood comes to demand any gold or silver, +or commodities for which I have paid my gold and silver, in exchange +for his trash, can he deserve or expect better treatment? + +When the evil day is come (if it must come) let us mark and observe +those who presume to offer these half-pence in payment. Let their +names and trades, and places of abode be made public, that every one +may be aware of them, as betrayers of their country, and confederates +with Mr. Wood. Let them be watched at markets and fairs, and let the +first honest discoverer give the word about, that Wood's half-pence +have been offered, and caution the poor innocent people not to receive +them. + +Perhaps I have been too tedious; but there would never be an end, if I +attempt to say all that this melancholy subject will bear. I will +conclude with humbly offering one proposal, which if it were put in +practice, would blow up this destructive project at once. Let some +skilful judicious pen draw up an advertisement to the following +purpose: + +_Whereas one William Wood, hard-ware-man, now or lately sojourning in +the city of London, hath, by many misrepresentations, procured a +patent for coining an hundred and forty thousand pounds in copper +half-pence for this kingdom, which is a sum five times greater than +our occasions require: And whereas it is notorious that the said Wood +hath coined his half-pence of such base metal and false weight, that +they are, at least, six parts in seven below the real value: And +whereas we have reason to apprehend that the said Wood may, at any +time hereafter, clandestinely coin as many more half-pence as he +pleases: And whereas the said patent neither doth nor can oblige his +majesty's subjects to receive the said half-pence in any payment, but +leaves it to their voluntary choice, because, by law the subject +cannot be obliged to take any money except gold or silver: And +whereas, contrary to the letter and meaning of the said patent, the +said Wood hath declared that every person shall be obliged to take +five-pence half-penny of his coin in every payment: And whereas the +House of Commons and Privy Council have severally addressed his most +sacred majesty representing the ill consequences which the said +coinage may have upon this kingdom: And lastly, whereas it is +universally agreed, that the whole nation to a man (except Mr. Wood +and his confederates) are in the utmost apprehensions of the ruinous +consequences that must follow from the said coinage. Therefore we, +whose names are underwritten, being persons of considerable estates in +this kingdom, and residers therein, do unanimously resolve and declare +that we will never receive one farthing or half-penny of the said +Wood's coining, and that we will direct all our tenants to refuse the +said coin from any person whatsoever; of which, that they may not be +ignorant, we have sent them a copy of this advertisement, to be read +to them by our stewards, receivers, etc._ + +I could wish, that a paper of this nature might be drawn up, and +signed by two or three hundred principal gentlemen of this kingdom, +and printed copies thereof sent to their several tenants; I am +deceived, if anything could sooner defeat this execrable design of +Wood and his accomplices. This would immediately give the alarm, and +set the kingdom on their guard. This would give courage to the meanest +tenant and cottager. _How long, O Lord, righteous and true_, etc. + +I must tell you in particular, Mr. Harding, that you are much to +blame. Several hundred persons have enquired at your house for my +Letter to the Shop-keepers, etc., and you had none to sell them. Pray +keep yourself provided with that letter and with this; you have got +very well by the former, but I did not then write for your sake, any +more than I do now. Pray advertise both in every news-paper, and let +it not be your fault or mine if our countrymen will not take warning. +I desire you likewise to sell them as cheap as you can.--I am your +Servant, M.B. + +_Aug. 4, 1724._ + + + + +IV.--'SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE' + +BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE + + +(_I have found the selection of a suitable sample of Burke to be my +most difficult task in this volume. All his writings, as I have +pointed out in the general introduction, are, after a sort, pamphlets; +and this of itself was an embarrassment. It was partly complicated and +partly lessened by the fact that the form of his speeches naturally +excluded them. Many of his other works--notably the _Thoughts on the +Present Discontents_, the immortal _Reflections on the French +Revolution_, and the _Appeal from the New Whigs to the Old_--were much +too long for a scheme in which I have made it a rule to give in each +case entire works or divisions of works. I at last reduced the +suitable candidates to three--the _Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe_, +that _To a Noble Lord_, and the present number of the _Letters on a +Regicide Peace_. The first went as being to some extent identical in +subject with the examples of another writer, Sydney Smith, which I had +already resolved on giving; the second as being too much in the nature +of a personal apologia. With the third, which I looked on at first +with least favour, I have become increasingly well satisfied. It has +not the gorgeous rhetoric of _The Letter to a Noble Lord_, the +_Reflections_, and others. It has nothing so lively as the contrast +between France and Algiers in its immediate predecessor. It may even +seem, to those who have accustomed themselves to think of Burke wholly +or mainly as a gorgeous rhetorician, rather tame as a whole. But if it +does not soar, it never droops; it is admirably proportioned, +admirably written, and admirably argued throughout, and it shows great +knowledge and mastery of foreign politics--the point in which English +statesmen have always been weakest. I may add that it seems to me a +triumphant refutation of the charge--constantly brought against Burke +not merely by extreme democrats, but by the usual advocate of the +_juste milieu_,--that in his later years, and especially in these very +Letters, he became a mere raving Gallophobe, with no sense of +proportion or circumstance. For my part, I have read scores, probably +hundreds, of books--English, French, and German--on the French +Revolution; I have never read one that made Burke obsolete. Let it +only be added that the author, who was born in 1730, was very near the +end of his career--he died next year--when he wrote these letters, +and that the peace proposals which he deprecated, and which he did not +a little to avert, were dictated on the one side by the sobering down +of the first Revolutionary fervour under the Directory; on the other +by the persistent ill-success of the Allies, and the conflicts of +interest and principle which had arisen among them._) + + +My dear Sir--I closed my first letter with serious matter, and I hope +it has employed your thoughts. The system of peace must have a +reference to the system of the war. On that ground, I must therefore +again recall your mind to our original opinions, which time and events +have not taught me to vary. + +My ideas and my principles led me, in this contest, to encounter +France, not as a state, but as a faction. The vast territorial extent +of that country, its immense population, its riches of production, its +riches of commerce and convention--the whole aggregate mass of what, +in ordinary cases, constitutes the force of a state, to me were but +objects of secondary consideration. They might be balanced; and they +have been often more than balanced. Great as these things are, they +are not what make the faction formidable. It is the faction that makes +them truly dreadful. That faction is the evil spirit that possesses +the body of France; that informs it as a soul; that stamps upon its +ambition, and upon all its pursuits, a characteristic mark, which +strongly distinguishes them from the same general passions, and the +same general views, in other men and in other communities. It is that +spirit which inspires into them a new, a pernicious, a desolating +activity. Constituted as France was ten years ago, it was not in that +France to shake, to shatter, and to overwhelm Europe in the manner +that we behold. A sure destruction impends over those infatuated +princes, who, in the conflict with this new and unheard-of power, +proceed as if they were engaged in a war that bore a resemblance to +their former contests; or that they can make peace in the spirit of +their former arrangements of pacification. Here the beaten path is the +very reverse of the safe road. + +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 it is the +bank of deposit, and the bank of circulation, of all the pernicious +principles that are forming in every state. It will be 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 civilised +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 piece '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. 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. The 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. + +It was not of that sort of war that I was amongst the least +considerable, but amongst the most zealous advisers; and it is not by +the sort of peace now talked of, that I wish it concluded. It would +answer no great purpose to enter into the particular errors of the +war. The whole has been but one error. It was but nominally a war of +alliance. As the combined powers pursued it there was nothing to hold +an alliance together. There could be no tie of _honour_, in a society +for pillage. There could be no tie of a common _interest_ where the +object did not offer such a division amongst the parties as could well +give them a warm concern in the gains of each other, or could indeed +form such a body of equivalents, as might make one of them willing to +abandon a separate object of his ambition for the gratification of any +other member of the alliance. The partition of Poland offered an +object of spoil in which the parties _might_ agree. They were +circumjacent, and each might take a portion convenient to his own +territory. They might dispute about the value of their several shares, +but the contiguity to each of the demandants always furnished the +means of an adjustment. Though hereafter the world will have cause to +rue this iniquitous measure, and they most who were the most +concerned in it, for the moment there was wherewithal in the object to +preserve peace amongst confederates in wrong. But the spoil of France +did not afford the same facilities for accommodation. What might +satisfy the house of Austria in a Flemish frontier, afforded no +equivalent to tempt the cupidity of the king of Prussia. What might be +desired by Great Britain in the West Indies, must be coldly and +remotely, if at all, felt as an interest at Vienna; and it would be +felt as something worse than a negative interest at Madrid. Austria, +long possessed with unwise and dangerous designs on Italy, could not +be very much in earnest about the conservation of the old patrimony of +the house of Savoy; and Sardinia, who owed to an Italian force all her +means of shutting out France from Italy, of which she has been +supposed to hold the key, would not purchase the means of strength +upon one side by yielding it on the other. She would not readily give +the possession of Novara for the hope of Savoy. No continental power +was willing to lose any of its continental objects for the increase of +the naval power of Great Britain; and Great Britain would not give up +any of the objects she sought for as the means of an increase to her +naval power, to further their aggrandisement. + +The moment this war came to be considered as a war merely of profit, +the actual circumstances are such that it never could become really a +war of alliance. Nor can the peace be a peace of alliance, until +things are put upon their right bottom. + +I do not find it denied that when a treaty is entered into for peace, +a demand will be made on the regicides to surrender a great part of +their conquests on the continent. Will they, in the present state of +the war, make that surrender without an equivalent? This continental +cession must of course be made in favour of that party in the alliance +that has suffered losses. That party has nothing to furnish towards an +equivalent. What equivalent, for instance, has Holland to offer, who +has lost her all? What equivalent can come from the Emperor, every +part of whose territories contiguous to France is already within the +pale of the regicide dominions? What equivalent has Sardinia to offer +for Savoy and for Nice, I may say for her whole being? What has she +taken from the faction of France? she has lost very near her all; and +she has gained nothing. What equivalent has Spain to give? Alas! she +has already paid for her own ransom the fund of equivalent, and a +dreadful equivalent it is, to England and to herself. But I put Spain +out of the question; she is a province of the Jacobin empire, and she +must make peace or war according to the orders she receives from the +directory of assassins. In effect and substance, her crown is a fief +of regicide. + +Whence then can the compensation be demanded? Undoubtedly from that +power which alone has made some conquests. That power is England. Will +the allies then give away their ancient patrimony, that England may +keep islands in the West Indies? They never can protract the war in +good earnest for that object; nor can they act in concert with us, in +our refusal to grant anything towards their redemption. In that case +we are thus situated. Either we must give Europe, bound hand and foot, +to France; or we must quit the West Indies without any one object, +great or small, towards indemnity and security. I repeat it, without +any advantage whatever: because, supposing that our conquest could +comprise all that France ever possessed in the tropical America, it +never can amount in any fair estimation to a fair equivalent for +Holland, for the Austrian Netherlands, for the lower Germany, that is, +for the whole ancient kingdom or circle of Burgundy, now under the +yoke of regicide, to say nothing of almost all Italy under the same +barbarous domination. If we treat in the present situation of things, +we have nothing in our hands that can redeem Europe. Nor is the +Emperor, as I have observed, more rich in the fund of equivalents. + +If we look to our stock in the eastern world, our most valuable and +systematic acquisitions are made in that quarter. Is it from France +they are made? France has but one or two contemptible factories, +subsisting by the offal of the private fortunes of English individuals +to support them, in any part of India. I look on the taking of the +Cape of Good Hope as the securing of a post of great moment. It does +honour to those who planned, and to those who executed, that +enterprise: but I speak of it always as comparatively good; as good as +anything can be in a scheme of war that repels us from a centre, and +employs all our forces where nothing can be finally decisive. But +giving, as I freely give, every possible credit to these eastern +conquests, I ask one question,--on whom are they made? It is evident, +that if we can keep our eastern conquests we keep them not at the +expense of France, but at the expense of Holland our _ally_; of +Holland, the immediate cause of the war, the nation whom we had +undertaken to protect, and not of the republic which it was our +business to destroy. If we return the African and the Asiatic +conquests, we put them into the hands of a nominal state (to that +Holland is reduced) unable to retain them; and which will virtually +leave them under the direction of France. If we withhold them, Holland +declines still more as a state. She loses so much carrying trade, and +that means of keeping up the small degree of naval power she holds; +for which policy alone, and not for any commercial gain, she maintains +the Cape, or any settlement beyond it. In that case, resentment, +faction, and even necessity, will throw her more and more into the +power of the new, mischievous republic. But on the probable state of +Holland I shall say more, when in this correspondence I come to talk +over with you the state in which any sort of Jacobin peace will leave +all Europe. + +So far as to the East Indies. + +As to the West Indies, indeed as to either, if we look for matter of +exchange in order to ransom Europe, it is easy to show that we have +taken a terribly roundabout road. I cannot conceive, even if, for the +sake of holding conquests there, we should refuse to redeem Holland, +and the Austrian Netherlands, and the hither Germany, that Spain, +merely as she is Spain, (and forgetting that the regicide ambassador +governs at Madrid,) will see, with perfect satisfaction, Great Britain +sole mistress of the isles. In truth it appears to me, that, when we +come to balance our account, we shall find in the proposed peace only +the pure, simple, and unendowed charms of Jacobin amity. We shall have +the satisfaction of knowing, that no blood or treasure has been spared +by the allies for support of the regicide system. We shall reflect at +leisure on one great truth, that it was ten times more easy totally to +destroy the system itself, than, when established, it would be to +reduce its power; and that this republic, most formidable abroad, was +of all things the weakest at home; that her frontier was terrible, her +interior feeble; that it was matter of choice to attack her where she +is invincible, and to spare her where she was ready to dissolve by her +own internal disorders. We shall reflect, that our plan was good +neither for offence nor defence. + +It would not be at all difficult to prove, that an army of a hundred +thousand men, horse, foot, and artillery, might have been employed +against the enemy on the very soil which he has usurped, at a far less +expense than has been squandered away upon tropical adventures. In +these adventures it was not an enemy we had to vanquish, but a +cemetery to conquer. In carrying on the war in the West Indies, the +hostile sword is merciful; the country in which we engage is the +dreadful enemy. There the European conqueror finds a cruel defeat in +the very fruits of his success. Every advantage is but a new demand on +England for recruits to the West Indian grave. In a West India war, +the regicides have, for their troops, a race of fierce barbarians, to +whom the poisoned air, in which our youth inhale certain death, is +salubrity and life. To them the climate is the surest and most +faithful of allies. + +Had we carried on the war on the side of France which looks towards +the Channel or the Atlantic, we should have attacked our enemy on his +weak and unarmed side. We should not have to reckon on the loss of a +man who did not fall in battle. We should have an ally in the heart +of the country, who, to our hundred thousand, would at one time have +added eighty thousand men at the least, and all animated by principle, +by enthusiasm, and by vengeance; motives which secured them to the +cause in a very different manner from some of those allies whom we +subsidised with millions. This ally, (or rather this principal in the +war,) by the confession of the regicide himself, was more formidable +to him than all his other foes united. Warring there, we should have +led our arms to the capital of Wrong. Defeated, we could not fail +(proper precautions taken) of a sure retreat. Stationary, and only +supporting the royalists, an impenetrable barrier, an impregnable +rampart, would have been formed between the enemy and his naval power. +We are probably the only nation who have declined to act against an +enemy, when it might have been done in his own country; and who having +an armed, a powerful, and a long-victorious ally in that country, +declined all effectual co-operation, and suffered him to perish for +want of support. On the plan of a war in France, every advantage that +our allies might obtain would be doubled in its effect. Disasters on +the one side might have a fair chance of being compensated by +victories on the other. Had we brought the main of our force to bear +upon that quarter, all the operations of the British and Imperial +crowns would have been combined. The war would have had system, +correspondence, and a certain direction. But as the war has been +pursued, the operations of the two crowns have not the smallest degree +of mutual bearing or relation. + +Had acquisitions in the West Indies been our object, on success in +France, everything reasonable in those remote parts might be demanded +with decorum, and justice, and a sure effect. Well might we call for a +recompence in America, for those services to which Europe owed its +safety. Having abandoned this obvious policy connected with principle, +we have seen the regicide power taking the reverse course, and making +real conquests in the West Indies, to which all our dear-bought +advantages (if we could hold them) are mean and contemptible. The +noblest island within the tropics, worth all that we possess put +together, is, by the vassal Spaniard, delivered into her hands. The +island of Hispaniola (of which we have but one poor corner, by a +slippery hold) is perhaps equal to England in extent, and in fertility +is far superior. The part possessed by Spain, of that great island, +made for the seat and centre of a tropical empire, was not improved, +to be sure, as the French division had been, before it was +systematically destroyed by the cannibal republic; but it is not only +the far larger, but the far more salubrious and more fertile part. + +It was delivered into the hands of the barbarians without, as I can +find, any public reclamation on our part, not only in contravention to +one of the fundamental treaties that compose the public law of Europe, +but in defiance of the fundamental colonial policy of Spain herself. +This part of the treaty of Utrecht was made for great general ends +unquestionably; but whilst it provided for those general ends, it was +in affirmance of that particular policy. It was not to injure, but to +save Spain by making a settlement of her estate, which prohibited her +to alienate to France. It is her policy not to see the balance of West +Indian power overturned by France or by Great Britain. Whilst the +monarchies subsisted, this unprincipled cession was what the influence +of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon never dared to attempt on +the younger: but cannibal terror has been more powerful than family +influence. The Bourbon monarchy of Spain is united to the republic of +France, by what may be truly called the ties of blood. + +By this measure the balance of power in the West Indies is totally +destroyed. It has followed the balance of power in Europe. It is not +alone what shall be left nominally to the assassins that is theirs. +Theirs is the whole empire of Spain in America. That stroke finishes +all. I should be glad to see our suppliant negotiator in the act of +putting his feather to the ear of the directory, to make it unclinch +the fist; and, by his tickling, to charm that rich prize out of the +iron gripe of robbery and ambition! It does not require much sagacity +to discern that no power wholly baffled and defeated in Europe can +flatter itself with conquests in the West Indies. In that state of +things it can neither keep nor hold. No! It cannot even long make war +if the grand bank and deposit of its force is at all in the West +Indies. But here a scene opens to my view too important to pass by, +perhaps too critical to touch. Is it possible that it should not +present itself in all its relations to a mind habituated to consider +either war or peace on a large scale, or as one whole? + +Unfortunately other ideas have prevailed. A remote, an expensive, a +murderous, and, in the end, an unproductive adventure, carried on upon +ideas of mercantile knight-errantry, without any of the generous +wildness of Quixotism, is considered as sound, solid sense; and a war +in a wholesome climate, a war at our door, a war directly on the +enemy, a war in the heart of his country, a war in concert with an +internal ally, and in combination with the external, is regarded as +folly and romance. + +My dear friend, I hold it impossible that these considerations should +have escaped the statesmen on both sides of the water, and on both +sides of the House of Commons. 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 connexion 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 +from the digest and jurisprudence of the Christian world. In these +treasures are to be found the _usual_ relations of peace and amity in +civilised 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. + +The Revolution in France had the relation of France to other nations +as one of its principal objects. The changes made by that Revolution +were not the better to accommodate her to the old and usual relations, +but to produce new ones. The Revolution was made, not to make France +free, but to make her formidable; not to make her a neighbour, but a +mistress; not to make her more observant of laws, but to put her in a +condition to impose them. To make France truly formidable it was +necessary that France should be new modelled. They, who have not +followed the train of the late proceedings, have been led by deceitful +representations (which deceit made a part in the plan) to conceive +that this totally new model of a state, in which nothing escaped a +change, was made with a view to its internal relations only. + +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 proselytising 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 counterwork 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 Vergniaux, +Françias of Nantz, 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 phrensy 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 straight forward 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. Without question, to bring about the unexampled event of the +French Revolution, the concurrence of a very great number of views and +passions was necessary. In that stupendous work, no one principle, by +which the human mind may have its faculties at once invigorated and +depraved, was left unemployed; but I can speak it to a certainty, and +support it by undoubted proofs, that the ruling principle of those who +acted in the Revolution as _statesmen_, had the exterior +aggrandisement of France as their ultimate end in the most minute part +of the internal changes that were made. We, who of late years have +been drawn from an attention to foreign affairs by the importance of +our domestic discussions, cannot easily form a conception of the +general eagerness of the active and energetic part of the French +nation, itself the most active and energetic of all nations, previous +to its Revolution, upon that subject. I am convinced that the foreign +speculators in France, under the old government, were twenty to one of +the same description then or now in England; and few of that +description there were, who did not emulously set forward the +Revolution. The whole official system, particularly in the diplomatic +part, the regulars, the irregulars, down to the clerks in office, (a +corps, without comparison, more numerous than the same amongst us,) +co-operated in it. All the intriguers in foreign politics, all the +spies, all the intelligencers, actually or late in function, all the +candidates for that sort of employment, acted solely upon that +principle. + +On that system of aggrandisement there was but one mind: but two +violent factions arose about the means. The first wished France, +diverted from the politics of the continent, to attend solely to her +marine, to feed it by an increase of commerce, and thereby to +overpower England on her own element. They contended, that if England +were disabled, the powers on the continent would fall into their +proper subordination; that it was England which deranged the whole +continental system of Europe. The others, who were by far the more +numerous, though not the most outwardly prevalent at court, considered +this plan for France as contrary to her genius, her situation, and her +natural means. They agree as to the ultimate object, the reduction of +the British power, and, if possible, its naval power; but they +considered an ascendency on the continent as a necessary preliminary +to that undertaking. They argued, that the proceedings of England +herself had proved the soundness of this policy. That her greatest and +ablest statesmen had not considered the support of a continental +balance against France as a deviation from the principle of her naval +power, but as one of the most effectual modes of carrying it into +effect. That such had been her policy ever since the Revolution, +during which period the naval strength of Great Britain had gone on +increasing in the direct ratio of her interference in the politics of +the continent. With much stronger reason ought the politics of France +to take the same direction; as well for pursuing objects which her +situation would dictate to her, though England had no existence, as +for counteracting the politics of that nation; to France continental +politics are primary; they looked on them only of secondary +consideration to England, and, however necessary, but as means +necessary to an end. + +What is truly astonishing, the partisans of those two opposite systems +were at once prevalent, and at once employed, and in the very same +transactions--the one ostensibly, the other secretly, during the +latter part of the reign of Louis XV. Nor was there one court in which +an ambassador resided on the part of the ministers, in which another, +as a spy on him, did not also reside on the part of the king. They who +pursued the scheme for keeping peace on the continent, and +particularly with Austria, acting officially and publicly, the other +faction counteracting and opposing them. These private agents were +continually going from their function to the Bastile, and from the +Bastile to employment, and favour again. An inextricable cabal was +formed, some of persons of rank, others of subordinates. But by this +means the corps of politicians was augmented in number, and the whole +formed a body of active, adventuring, ambitious, discontented people, +despising the regular ministry, despising the courts at which they +were employed, despising the court which employed them. + +The unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth was not the first cause of the +evil by which he suffered. He came to it, as to a sort of inheritance, +by the false politics of his immediate predecessor. This system of +dark and perplexed intrigue had come to its perfection before he came +to the throne: and even then the Revolution strongly operated in all +its causes. + +There was no point on which the discontented diplomatic politicians so +bitterly arraigned their cabinet, as for the decay of French influence +in all others. From quarrelling with the court, they began to complain +of monarchy itself, as a system of government too variable for any +regular plan of national aggrandisement. They observed, that in that +sort of regimen too much depended on the personal character of the +prince; that the vicissitudes produced by the succession of princes of +a different character, and even the vicissitudes produced in the same +man, by the different views and inclinations belonging to youth, +manhood, and age, disturbed and distracted the policy of a country +made by nature for extensive empire, or, what was still more to their +taste, for that sort of general over-ruling influence which prepared +empire or supplied the place of it. They had continually in their +hands the observations of _Machiavel_ on _Livy_. They had +_Montesquieu's Grandeur et Décadence des Romains_ as a manual; and +they compared, with mortification, the systematic proceedings of a +Roman senate with the fluctuations of a monarchy. They observed the +very small additions of territory which all the power of France, +actuated by all the ambition of France, had acquired in two centuries. +The Romans had frequently acquired more in a single year. They +severely and in every part of it criticised the reign of Louis XIV., +whose irregular and desultory ambition had more provoked than +endangered Europe. Indeed, they who will be at the pains of seriously +considering the history of that period will see that those French +politicians had some reason. They who will not take the trouble of +reviewing it through all its wars and all its negotiations, will +consult the short but judicious criticism of the Marquis de +Montalembert on that subject. It may be read separately from his +ingenious system of fortification and military defence, on the +practical merit of which I am unable to form a judgment. + +The diplomatic politicians of whom I speak, and who formed by far the +majority in that class, made disadvantageous comparisons even between +their more legal and formalising monarchy, and the monarchies of other +states, as a system of power and influence. They observed that France +not only lost ground herself, but, through the languor and +unsteadiness of her pursuits, and from her aiming through commerce at +naval force which she never could attain without losing more on one +side than she could gain on the other, that three great powers, each +of them (as military states) capable of balancing her, had grown up on +the continent. Russia and Prussia had been created almost within +memory; and Austria, though not a new power, and even curtailed in +territory, was, by the very collision in which she lost that +territory, greatly improved in her military discipline and force. +During the reign of Maria Theresa the interior economy of the country +was made more to correspond with the support of great armies than +formerly it had been. As to Prussia, a merely military power, they +observed that one war had enriched her with as considerable a conquest +as France had acquired in centuries. Russia had broken the Turkish +power by which Austria might be, as formerly she had been, balanced in +favour of France. They felt it with pain, that the two northern powers +of Sweden and Denmark were in general under the sway of Russia; or +that, at best, France kept up a very doubtful conflict, with many +fluctuations of fortune, and at an enormous expense, in Sweden. In +Holland, the French party seemed, if not extinguished, at least +utterly obscured, and kept under by a stadtholder, leaning for support +sometimes on Great Britain, sometimes on Prussia, sometimes on both, +never on France. Even the spreading of the Bourbon family had become +merely a family accommodation; and had little effect on the national +politics. This alliance, they said, extinguished Spain by destroying +all its energy, without adding anything to the real power of France in +the accession of the forces of its great rival. In Italy, the same +family accommodation, the same national insignificance, were equally +visible. What cure for the radical weakness of the French monarchy, to +which all the means which wit could devise, or nature and fortune +could bestow, towards universal empire, was not of force to give life, +or vigour, or consistency,--but in a Republic? Out the word came; and +it never went back. + +Whether they reasoned, right or wrong, or that there was some mixture +of right and wrong in their reasoning, I am sure, that in this manner +they felt and reasoned. The different effects of a great military and +ambitious republic, and of a monarchy of the same description, were +constantly in their mouths. The principle was ready to operate when +opportunities should offer, which few of them indeed foresaw in the +extent in which they were afterwards presented; but these +opportunities, in some degree or other, they all ardently wished for. + +When I was in Paris in 1773, the treaty of 1756 between Austria and +France was deplored as a national calamity; because it united France +in friendship with a power at whose expense alone they could hope any +continental aggrandisement. When the first partition of Poland was +made, in which France had no share, and which had further aggrandised +every one of the three powers of which they were most jealous, I found +them in a perfect phrensy of rage and indignation: not that they were +hurt at the shocking and uncoloured violence and injustice of that +partition, but at the debility, improvidence, and want of activity, in +their government, in not preventing it as a means of aggrandisement to +their rivals, or in not contriving, by exchanges of some kind or +other, to obtain their share of advantage from that robbery. + +In that or nearly in that state of things and of opinions, came the +Austrian match; which promised to draw the knot, as afterwards in +effect it did, still more closely between the old rival houses. This +added exceedingly to their hatred and contempt of their monarchy. It +was for this reason that the late glorious queen, who on all accounts +was formed to produce general love and admiration, and whose life was +as mild and beneficent as her death was beyond example great and +heroic, became so very soon and so very much the object of an +implacable rancour, never to be extinguished but in her blood. When I +wrote my letter in answer to M. de Menonville, in the beginning of +January, 1791, I had good reason for thinking that this description of +revolutionists did not so early nor so steadily point their murderous +designs at the martyr king as at the royal heroine. It was accident, +and the momentary depression of that part of the faction, that gave to +the husband the happy priority in death. + +From this their restless desire of an over-ruling influence, they bent +a very great part of their designs and efforts to revive the old +French party, which was a democratic party in Holland, and to make a +revolution there. They were happy at the troubles which the singular +imprudence of Joseph the Second had stirred up in the Austrian +Netherlands. They rejoiced when they saw him irritate his subjects, +profess philosophy, send away the Dutch garrisons, and dismantle his +fortifications. As to Holland, they never forgave either the king or +the ministry, for suffering that object, which they justly looked on +as principal in their design of reducing the power of England, to +escape out of their hands. This was the true secret of the commercial +treaty, made, on their part, against all the old rules and principles +of commerce, with a view of diverting the English nation, by a pursuit +of immediate profit, from an attention to the progress of France in +its designs upon that republic. The system of the economists, which +led to the general opening of commerce, facilitated that treaty, but +did not produce it. They were in despair when they found that by the +vigour of Mr. Pitt, supported in this point by Mr. Fox and the +opposition, the object to which they had sacrificed their manufactures +was lost to their ambition. + +This eager desire of raising France from the condition into which she +had fallen, as they conceived, from her monarchical imbecility, had +been the main-spring of their precedent interference in that unhappy +American quarrel, the bad effects of which to this nation have not, as +yet, fully disclosed themselves. These sentiments had been long +lurking in their breasts, though their views were only discovered now +and then, in heat and as by escapes; but on this occasion they +exploded suddenly. They were professed with ostentation and propagated +with zeal. These sentiments were not produced, as some think, by +their American alliance. The American alliance was produced by their +republican principles and republican policy. This new relation +undoubtedly did much. The discourses and cabals that it produced, the +intercourse that it established, and, above all, the example, which +made it seem practicable to establish a republic in a great extent of +country, finished the work, and gave to that part of the revolutionary +faction a degree of strength which required other energies than the +late king possessed, to resist, or even to restrain. It spread +everywhere; but it was nowhere more prevalent than in the heart of the +court. The palace of Versailles, by its language, seemed a forum of +democracy. To have pointed out to most of those politicians, from +their dispositions and movements, what has since happened, the fall of +their own monarchy, of their own laws, of their own religion, would +have been to furnish a motive the more for pushing forward a system on +which they considered all these things as encumbrances. Such in truth +they were. And we have seen them succeed not only in the destruction +of their monarchy, but in all the objects of ambition that they +proposed from that destruction. 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 concentred, 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 complexity 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. In that country entirely to cut off a +branch of commerce, to extinguish a manufacture, to destroy the +circulation of money, to violate credit, to suspend the course of +agriculture, even to burn a city, or to lay waste a province of their +own, does not cost them a moment's anxiety. To them the will, the +wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals, is as +nothing. Individuality is left out of their scheme of government. The +state is all in all. Everything is referred to the production of +force; afterwards, everything is trusted to the use of it. It is +military in its principle, in its maxims, in its spirit, and in all +its movements. The state has dominion and conquest for its sole +objects; dominion over minds by proselytism, over bodies by arms. + +Thus constituted, with an immense body of natural means which are +lessened in their amount only to be increased in their effect, France +has, since the accomplishment of the Revolution, a complete unity in +its direction. It has destroyed every resource of the state which +depends upon opinion and the good-will of individuals. The riches of +convention disappear. The advantages of nature in some measure remain: +even these, I admit, are astonishingly lessened; the command over what +remains is complete and absolute. We go about asking when assignats +will expire, and we laugh at the last price of them. But what +signifies the fate of those tickets of despotism? The despotism will +find despotic means of supply. They have found the short cut to the +productions of nature, while others, in pursuit of them, are obliged +to wind through the labyrinth of a very intricate state of society. +They seize upon the fruit of the labour; they seize upon the labourer +himself. Were France but half of what it is in population, in +compactness, in applicability of its force, situated as it is, and +being what it is, it would be too strong for most of the states of +Europe, constituted as they are, and proceeding as they proceed. Would +it be wise to estimate what the world of Europe, as well as the world +of Asia, had to dread from Genghiz Khân, upon a contemplation of the +resources of the cold and barren spot in the remotest Tartary, from +whence first issued that scourge of the human race? Ought we to judge +from the excise and stamp duties of the rocks, or from the paper +circulation of the sands of Arabia, the power by which Mahomet and his +tribes laid hold at once on the two most powerful empires of the +world; beat one of them totally to the ground, broke to pieces the +other, and, in not much longer space of time than I have lived, +overturned governments, laws, manners, religion, and extended an +empire from the Indus to the Pyrenees? + +Material resources never have supplied, nor ever can supply, the want +of unity in design, and constancy in pursuit. But unity in design, and +perseverance and boldness in pursuit, have never wanted resources, and +never will. We have not considered as we ought the dreadful energy of +a state in which the property has nothing to do with the government. +Reflect, my dear Sir, reflect again and again, on a government, in +which the property is in complete subjection, and where nothing rules +but the mind of desperate men. The condition of a commonwealth not +governed by its property was a combination of things which the learned +and ingenious speculator Harrington, who has tossed about society into +all forms, never could imagine to be possible. We have seen it; the +world has felt it; and if the world will shut their eyes to this state +of things, they will feel it more. The rulers there have found their +resources in crimes. The discovery is dreadful; the mine exhaustless. +They have everything to gain, and they have nothing to lose. They have +a boundless inheritance in hope; and there is no medium for them, +betwixt the highest elevation, and death with infamy. Never can they, +who; from the miserable servitude of the desk, have been raised to +empire, again submit to the bondage of a starving bureau, or the +profit of copying music, or writing plaidoyers by the sheet. It has +made me often smile in bitterness, when I have heard talk of an +indemnity to such men, provided they return to their allegiance. + +From all this, what is my inference? It is, that this new system of +robbery in France cannot be rendered safe by any art; that it _must_ +be destroyed, or that it will destroy all Europe; that to destroy that +enemy, by some means or other, the force opposed to it should be made +to bear some analogy and resemblance to the force and spirit which +that system exerts; that war ought to be made against it, in its +vulnerable parts. These are my inferences. In one word, with this +republic nothing independent can co-exist The errors of Louis XVI. +were more pardonable to prudence, than any of those of the same kind +into which the allied courts may fall. They have the benefit of his +dreadful example. + +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 impostors. 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 all 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 +negotiations, 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 XIII. had force enough to +destroy the republican system of the Protestants at home. + +Louis XVI. 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 connexions, 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 violently 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 XVI., 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 +XVI. 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 out-work +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. + +With this example before their eyes, do any ministers in England, do +any ministers in Austria, really flatter themselves that they can +erect, not on the remote shores of the Atlantic, but in their view, in +their vicinity, in absolute contact with one of them, not a commercial +but a martial republic--a republic not of simple husbandmen or +fishermen, but of intriguers, and of warriors--a republic of a +character the most restless, the most enterprising, the most impious, +the most fierce and bloody, the most hypocritical and perfidious, the +most bold and daring, that ever has been seen, or indeed that can be +conceived to exist, without bringing on their own certain ruin? + +Such is the republic to which we are going to give a place in +civilised fellowship: the republic, which, with joint consent, we are +going to establish in the centre of Europe, in a post that overlooks +and commands every other state, and which eminently confronts and +menaces this kingdom. + +You cannot fail to observe that I speak as if the allied powers were +actually consenting, and not compelled by events to the establishment +of this faction in France. The words have not escaped me. You will +hereafter naturally expect that I should make them good. But whether +in adopting this measure we are madly active, or weakly passive, or +pusillanimously panic struck, the effects will be the same. You may +call this faction, which has eradicated the monarchy,--expelled the +proprietary, persecuted religion, and trampled upon law,--you may call +this France if you please: but of the ancient France nothing remains +but its central geography; its iron frontier; its spirit of ambition; +its audacity of enterprise; its perplexing intrigue. These, and these +alone, remain: and they remain heightened in their principle and +augmented in their means. All the former correctives, whether of +virtue or of weakness, which existed in the old monarchy, are gone. No +single new corrective is to be found in the whole body of the new +institutions. How should such a thing be found there, when everything +has been chosen with care and selection to forward all those ambitious +designs and dispositions, not to control them? The whole is a body of +ways and means for the supply of dominion, without one heterogeneous +particle in it. + +Here I suffer you to breathe, and leave to your meditation what has +occurred to me on the _genius and character_ of the French Revolution. +From having this before us, we may be better able to determine on the +first question I proposed, that is, how far nations, called foreign, +are likely to be affected with the system established within that +territory. I intended to proceed next on the question of her +facilities, from _the internal state of other nations, and +particularly of this_, for obtaining her ends: but I ought to be +aware that my notions are controverted.--I mean, therefore, in my next +letter, to take notice of what, in that way, has been recommended to +me as the most deserving of notice. In the examination of those +pieces, I shall have occasion to discuss some others of the topics to +which I have called your attention. You know that the letters which I +now send to the press, as well as a part of what is to follow, have +been in their substance long since written. A circumstance which your +partiality alone could make of importance to you, but which to the +public is of no importance at all, retarded their appearance. The late +events which press upon us obliged me to make some additions; but no +substantial change in the matter. + +This discussion, my friend, will be long. But the matter is serious; +and if ever the fate of the world could be truly said to depend on a +particular measure, it is upon this peace. For the present, farewell. + + + + +V.--'PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS' + +BY SYDNEY SMITH + +(LETTERS II., VI., VII., IX.) + + +(_The pamphleteering spirit is strong in almost all Sydney Smith's +'Contributions to the _Edinburgh Review_,' but the form and subjects +of those contributions exclude them here. Of his two great pamphlet +issues proper, _Peter Plymley's Letters_ and those _To Archdeacon +Singleton_, the former are, though perhaps of less polished and +perfect wit than the latter, more distinctly political, and have more +of that _diable au corps_ which Voltaire considered necessary to +success in the arts. They have also the advantage that, while the +_Letters to Archdeacon Singleton_, though not an avowed recantation, +are in the nature of a palinode--always an awkward thing--_Plymley_ is +frankly and confidently, not to say wantonly, aggressive. These +_Letters_, ten in number, were written just after the fall of the +mainly Whig Ministry of 'All the Talents,' to which Sydney had been +indebted for his preferment of Foston, and which lost its position +not least owing to its intended support of the 'Catholic' claims. +Those claims were not admitted for twenty years later; and Sydney's +advocacy of them was regarded as a little too exuberant by some even +of his own party. But there is no doubt that the _Letters_ had a great +influence in laughing if not in arguing sections of the public round +to the Emancipation side._) + + +LETTER II. + +Dear Abraham--The Catholic not respect an oath! why not? What upon +earth has kept him out of Parliament, or excluded him from all the +offices whence he is excluded, but his respect for oaths? There is no +law which prohibits a Catholic to sit in Parliament. There could be no +such law; because it is impossible to find out what passes in the +interior of any man's mind. Suppose it were in contemplation to +exclude all men from certain offices who contended for the legality of +taking tithes: the only mode of discovering that fervid love of +decimation which I know you to possess would be to tender you an oath +"against that damnable doctrine, that it is lawful for a spiritual man +to take, abstract, appropriate, subduct, or lead away the tenth calf, +sheep, lamb, ox, pigeon, duck," etc., etc., etc., and every other +animal that ever existed, which of course the lawyers would take care +to enumerate. Now this oath I am sure you would rather die than take; +and so the Catholic is excluded from Parliament because he will not +swear that he disbelieves the leading doctrines of his religion! The +Catholic asks you to abolish some oaths which oppress him; your answer +is that he does not respect oaths. Then why subject him to the test of +oaths? The oaths keep him out of Parliament; why, then, he respects +them. Turn which way you will, either your laws are nugatory, or the +Catholic is bound by religious obligations as you are; but no eel in +the well-sanded fist of a cook-maid, upon the eve of being skinned, +ever twisted and writhed as an orthodox parson does when he is +compelled by the gripe of reason to admit anything in favour of a +dissenter. + +I will not dispute with you whether the Pope be or be not the Scarlet +Lady of Babylon. I hope it is not so; because I am afraid it will +induce His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer to introduce several +severe bills against popery, if that is the case; and though he will +have the decency to appoint a previous committee of inquiry as to the +fact, the committee will be garbled, and the report inflammatory. +Leaving this to be settled as he pleases to settle it, I wish to +inform you, that, previously to the bill last passed in favour of the +Catholics, at the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, and for his satisfaction, +the opinions of six of the most celebrated of the foreign Catholic +universities were taken as to the right of the Pope to interfere in +the temporal concerns of any country. The answer cannot possibly leave +the shadow of a doubt, even in the mind of Baron Maseres; and Dr. +Rennel would be compelled to admit it, if three Bishops lay dead at +the very moment the question were put to him. To this answer might be +added also the solemn declaration and signature of all the Catholics +in Great Britain. + +I should perfectly agree with you, if the Catholics admitted such a +dangerous dispensing power in the hands of the Pope; but they all deny +it, and laugh at it, and are ready to abjure it in the most decided +manner you can devise. They obey the Pope as the spiritual head of +their Church; but are you really so foolish as to be imposed upon by +mere names? What matters it the seven-thousandth part of a farthing +who is the spiritual head of any Church? Is not Mr. Wilberforce at the +head of the Church of Clapham? Is not Dr. Letsom at the head of the +Quaker Church? Is not the General Assembly at the head of the Church +of Scotland? How is the government disturbed by these many-headed +Churches? or in what way is the power of the Crown augmented by this +almost nominal dignity? + +The King appoints a fast-day once a year, and he makes the bishops: +and if the government would take half the pains to keep the Catholics +out of the arms of France that it does to widen Temple Bar, or +improve Snow Hill, the King would get into his hands the appointments +of the titular Bishops of Ireland. Both Mr. C----'s sisters enjoy +pensions more than sufficient to place the two greatest dignitaries of +the Irish Catholic Church entirely at the disposal of the Crown. +Everybody who knows Ireland knows perfectly well, that nothing would +be easier, with the expenditure of a little money, than to preserve +enough of the ostensible appointment in the hands of the Pope to +satisfy the scruples of the Catholics, while the real nomination +remained with the Crown. But, as I have before said, the moment the +very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to +common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the +barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots. + +Whatever your opinion may be of the follies of the Roman Catholic +religion, remember they are the follies of four millions of human +beings, increasing rapidly in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, who, +if firmly united with this country, would set at defiance the power of +France, and if once wrested from their alliance with England, would in +three years render its existence as an independent nation absolutely +impossible. You speak of danger to the Establishment: I request to +know when the Establishment was ever so much in danger as when Hoche +was in Bantry Bay, and whether all the books of Bossuet, or the arts +of the Jesuits, were half so terrible? Mr. Perceval and his parsons +forget all this, in their horror lest twelve or fourteen old women may +be converted to holy water and Catholic nonsense. They never see that, +while they are saving these venerable ladies from perdition, Ireland +may be lost, England broken down, and the Protestant Church, with all +its deans, prebendaries, Percevals, and Rennels, be swept into the +vortex of oblivion. + +Do not, I beseech you, ever mention to me again the name of Dr. +Duigenan. I have been in every corner of Ireland, and have studied its +present strength and condition with no common labour. Be assured +Ireland does not contain at this moment less than five millions of +people. There were returned in the year 1791 to the hearth tax 701,000 +houses, and there is no kind of question that there were about 50,000 +houses omitted in that return. Taking, however, only the number +returned for the tax, and allowing the average of six to a house (a +very small average for a potato-fed people), this brings the +population to 4,200,000 people in the year 1791: and it can be shown +from the clearest evidence (and Mr. Newenham in his book shows it), +that Ireland for the last fifty years has increased in its population +at the rate of 50 or 60,000 per annum; which leaves the present +population of Ireland at about five millions, after every possible +deduction for _existing circumstances, just and necessary wars, +monstrous and unnatural rebellions_, and all other sources of human +destruction. Of this population, two out of ten are Protestants; and +the half of the Protestant population are Dissenters, and as inimical +to the Church as the Catholics themselves. In this state of things +thumbscrews and whipping--admirable engines of policy as they must be +considered to be--will not ultimately avail. The Catholics will hang +over you; they will watch for the moment, and compel you hereafter to +give them ten times as much, against your will, as they would now be +contented with, if it were voluntarily surrendered. Remember what +happened in the American war, when Ireland compelled you to give her +everything she asked, and to renounce, in the most explicit manner, +your claim of Sovereignty over her. God Almighty grant the folly of +these present men may not bring on such another crisis of public +affairs! + +What are your dangers which threaten the Establishment?--Reduce this +declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean. The most +ample allowance does not calculate that there would be more than +twenty members who were Roman Catholics in one house, and ten in the +other, if the Catholic emancipation were carried into effect. Do you +mean that these thirty members would bring in a bill to take away the +tithes from the Protestant, and to pay them to the Catholic clergy? Do +you mean that a Catholic general would march his army into the House +of Commons, and purge it of Mr. Perceval and Dr. Duigenan? or, that +the theological writers would become all of a sudden more acute or +more learned, if the present civil incapacities were removed? Do you +fear for your tithes, or your doctrines, or your person, or the +English Constitution? Every fear, taken separately, is so glaringly +absurd, that no man has the folly or the boldness to state it. Every +one conceals his ignorance, or his baseness, in a stupid general +panic, which, when called on, he is utterly incapable of explaining. +Whatever you think of the Catholics, there they are--you cannot get +rid of them; your alternative is to give them a lawful place for +stating their grievances, or an unlawful one: if you do not admit them +to the House of Commons, they will hold their parliament in Potatoe +Place, Dublin, and be ten times as violent and inflammatory as they +would be in Westminster. Nothing would give me such an idea of +security as to see twenty or thirty Catholic gentlemen in Parliament, +looked upon by all the Catholics as the fair and proper organ of their +party. I should have thought it the height of good fortune that such a +wish existed on their part, and the very essence of madness and +ignorance to reject it. Can you murder the Catholics? Can you neglect +them? They are too numerous for both these expedients. What remains to +be done is obvious to every human being--but to that man who, instead +of being a Methodist preacher, is, for the curse of us and our +children, and for the ruin of Troy and the misery of good old Priam +and his sons, become a legislator and a politician. + +A distinction, I perceive, is taken by one of the most feeble noblemen +in Great Britain, between persecution and the deprivation of political +power; whereas, there is no more distinction between these two things +than there is between him who makes the distinction and a booby. If I +strip off the relic-covered jacket of a Catholic, and give him twenty +stripes ... I persecute; if I say, Everybody in the town where you +live shall be a candidate for lucrative and honourable offices, but +you, who are a Catholic ... I do not persecute! What barbarous +nonsense is this! as if degradation was not as great an evil as bodily +pain or as severe poverty: as if I could not be as great a tyrant by +saying, You shall not enjoy--as by saying, You shall suffer. The +English, I believe, are as truly religious as any nation in Europe: I +know no greater blessing; but it carries with it this evil in its +train, that any villain who will bawl out, '_The Church is in +danger!_' may get a place and a good pension; and that any +administration who will do the same thing may bring a set of men into +power who, at a moment of stationary and passive piety, would be +hooted by the very boys in the streets. But it is not all religion; it +is, in great part, the narrow and exclusive spirit which delights to +keep the common blessings of sun and air and freedom from other human +beings. 'Your religion has always been degraded; you are in the dust, +and I will take care you never rise again. I should enjoy less the +possession of an earthly good by every additional person to whom it +was extended.' You may not be aware of it yourself, most reverend +Abraham, but you deny their freedom to the Catholics upon the same +principle that Sarah your wife refuses to give the receipt for a ham +or a gooseberry dumpling: she values her receipts, not because they +secure to her a certain flavour, but because they remind her that her +neighbours want it:--a feeling laughable in a priestess, shameful in a +priest; venial when it withholds the blessings of a ham, tyrannical +and execrable when it narrows the boon of religious freedom. + +You spend a great deal of ink about the character of the present prime +minister. Grant you all that you write--I say, I fear he will ruin +Ireland, and pursue a line of policy destructive to the true interest +of his country: and then you tell me, he is faithful to Mrs. Perceval, +and kind to the Master Percevals! These are, undoubtedly, the first +qualifications to be looked to in a time of the most serious public +danger; but somehow or another (if public and private virtues must +always be incompatible), I should prefer that he destroyed the +domestic happiness of Wood or Cockell, owed for the veal of the +preceding year, whipped his boys, and saved his country. + +The late administration did not do right; they did not build their +measures upon the solid basis of facts. They should have caused +several Catholics to have been dissected after death by surgeons of +either religion; and the report to have been published with +accompanying plates. If the viscera, and other organs of life, had +been found to be the same as in Protestant bodies; if the provisions +of nerves, arteries, cerebrum, and cerebellum, had been the same as we +are provided with, or as the Dissenters are now known to possess; +then, indeed, they might have met Mr. Perceval upon a proud eminence, +and convinced the country at large of the strong probability that the +Catholics are really human creatures, endowed with the feelings of +men, and entitled to all their rights. But instead of this wise and +prudent measure, Lord Howick, with his usual precipitation, brings +forward a bill in their favour, without offering the slightest proof +to the country that they were anything more than horses and oxen. The +person who shows the lama at the corner of Piccadilly has the +precaution to write up--_Allowed by Sir Joseph Banks to be a real +quadruped_, so his Lordship might have said--_Allowed by the bench of +Bishops to be real human creatures_.... I could write you twenty +letters upon this subject; but I am tired, and so I suppose are you. +Our friendship is now of forty years' standing; you know me to be a +truly religious man; but I shudder to see religion treated like a +cockade, or a pint of beer, and made the instrument of a party. I love +the king, but I love the people as well as the king; and if I am sorry +to see his old age molested, I am much more sorry to see four millions +of Catholics baffled in their just expectations. If I love Lord +Grenville, and Lord Howick, it is because they love their country; if +I abhor ... it is because I know there is but one man among them who +is not laughing at the enormous folly and credulity of the country, +and that he is an ignorant and mischievous bigot. As for the light and +frivolous jester, of whom it is your misfortune to think so highly, +learn, my dear Abraham, that this political Killigrew, just before the +breaking-up of the last administration, was in actual treaty with them +for a place; and if they had survived twenty-four hours longer, he +would have been now declaiming against the cry of No Popery! instead +of inflaming it. With this practical comment on the baseness of human +nature, I bid you adieu! + + +LETTER VI. + +Dear Abraham--What amuses me the most is to hear of the _indulgences_ +which the Catholics have received, and their exorbitance in not being +satisfied with those indulgences: now if you complain to me that a +man is obtrusive and shameless in his requests, and that it is +impossible to bring him to reason, I must first of all hear the whole +of your conduct towards him; for you may have taken from him so much +in the first instance that, in spite of a long series of restitution, +a vast latitude for petition may still remain behind. + +There is a village, no matter where, in which the inhabitants, on one +day in the year, sit down to a dinner prepared at the common expense: +by an extraordinary piece of tyranny, which Lord Hawkesbury would call +the wisdom of the village ancestors, the inhabitants of three of the +streets, about a hundred years ago, seized upon the inhabitants of the +fourth street, bound them hand and foot, laid them upon their backs, +and compelled them to look on while the rest were stuffing themselves +with beef and beer; the next year the inhabitants of the persecuted +street, though they contributed an equal quota of the expense, were +treated precisely in the same manner. The tyranny grew into a custom; +and, as the manner of our nature is, it was considered as the most +sacred of all duties to keep these poor fellows without their annual +dinner. The village was so tenacious of this practice, that nothing +could induce them to resign it; every enemy to it was looked upon as a +disbeliever in Divine Providence, and any nefarious churchwarden who +wished to succeed in his election had nothing to do but to represent +his antagonist as an abolitionist, in order to frustrate his ambition, +endanger his life, and throw the village into a state of the most +dreadful commotion. By degrees, however, the obnoxious street grew to +be so well peopled, and its inhabitants so firmly united, that their +oppressors, more afraid of injustice, were more disposed to be just. +At the next dinner they are unbound, the year after allowed to sit +upright, then a bit of bread and a glass of water; till at last, after +a long series of concessions, they are emboldened to ask, in pretty +plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at the bottom of the +table, and to fill their bellies as well as the rest. Forthwith a +general cry of shame and scandal: 'Ten years ago, were you not laid +upon your backs? Don't you remember what a great thing you thought it +to get a piece of bread? How thankful you were for cheese parings? +Have you forgotten that memorable era, when the lord of the manor +interfered to obtain for you a slice of the public pudding? And now, +with an audacity only equalled by your ingratitude, you have the +impudence to ask for knives and forks, and to request, in terms too +plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down to table with the rest, +and be indulged even with beef and beer: there are not more than half +a dozen dishes which we have reserved for ourselves; the rest has been +thrown open to you in the utmost profusion; you have potatoes, and +carrots, suet dumplings, sops in the pan, and delicious toast and +water in incredible quantities. Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal are +ours; and if you were not the most restless and dissatisfied of human +beings, you would never think of aspiring to enjoy them.' + +Is not this, my dainty Abraham, the very nonsense and the very insult +which is talked to and practised upon the Catholics? You are surprised +that men who have tasted of partial justice should ask for perfect +justice; that he who has been robbed of coat and cloak will not be +contented with the restitution of one of his garments. He would be a +very lazy blockhead if he were content, and I (who, though an +inhabitant of the village, have preserved, thank God, some sense of +justice) most earnestly counsel these half-fed claimants to persevere +in their just demands, till they are admitted to a more complete share +of a dinner for which they pay as much as the others; and if they see +a little attenuated lawyer squabbling at the head of their opponents, +let them desire him to empty his pockets, and to pull out all the +pieces of duck, fowl, and pudding which he has filched from the public +feast, to carry home to his wife and children. + +You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this country +to the Irish before the Union. I deny that any voluntary concession +was ever made by England to Ireland. What did Ireland ever ask that +was granted? What did she ever demand that was not refused? How did +she get her Mutiny Bill--a limited Parliament--a repeal of Poyning's +Law--a constitution? Not by the concessions of England, but by her +fears. When Ireland asked for all these things upon her knees, her +petitions were rejected with Percevalism and contempt; when she +demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, they were granted +with every mark of consternation and dismay. Ask of Lord Auckland the +fatal consequences of trifling with such a people as the Irish. He +himself was the organ of these refusals. As secretary to the Lord +Lieutenant, the insolence and the tyranny of this country passed +through his hands. Ask him if he remembers the consequences. Ask him +if he has forgotten that memorable evening when he came down booted +and mantled to the House of Commons, when he told the House he was +about to set off for Ireland that night, and declared before God, if +he did not carry with him a compliance with all their demands, Ireland +was for ever lost to this country. The present generation have +forgotten this; but I have not forgotten it; and I know, hasty and +undignified as the submission of England then was, that Lord Auckland +was right, that the delay of a single day might very probably have +separated the two peoples for ever. The terms submission and fear are +galling terms when applied from the lesser nation to the greater; but +it is the plain historical truth, it is the natural consequence of +injustice, it is the predicament in which every country places itself +which leaves such a mass of hatred and discontent by its side. No +empire is powerful enough to endure it; it would exhaust the strength +of China, and sink it with all its mandarins and tea-kettles to the +bottom of the deep. By refusing them justice now when you are strong +enough to refuse them anything more than justice, you will act over +again, with the Catholics, the same scene of mean and precipitate +submission which disgraced you before America, and before the +volunteers of Ireland. We shall live to hear the Hampstead Protestant +pronouncing such extravagant panegyrics upon holy water, and paying +such fulsome compliments to the thumbs and offals of departed saints, +that parties will change sentiments, and Lord Henry Petty and Sam +Whitbread take a spell at No Popery. The wisdom of Mr. Fox was alike +employed in teaching his country justice when Ireland was weak, and +dignity when Ireland was strong. We are fast pacing round the same +miserable circle of ruin and imbecility. Alas! where is our guide? + +You say that Ireland is a millstone about our necks; that it would be +better for us if Ireland were sunk at the bottom of the sea; that the +Irish are a nation of irreclaimable savages and barbarians. How often +have I heard these sentiments fall from the plump and thoughtless +squire, and from the thriving English shopkeeper, who has never felt +the rod of an Orange master upon his back. Ireland a millstone about +your neck! Why is it not a stone of Ajax in your hand? I agree with +you most cordially that, governed as Ireland now is, it would be a +vast accession of strength if the waves of the sea were to rise and +engulf her to-morrow. At this moment, opposed as we are to all the +world, the annihilation of one of the most fertile islands on the face +of the globe, containing five millions of human creatures, would be +one of the most solid advantages which could happen to this country. I +doubt very much, in spite of all the just abuse which has been +lavished upon Bonaparte, whether there is any one of his conquered +countries the blotting out of which would be as beneficial to him as +the destruction of Ireland would be to us: of countries I speak +differing in language from the French, little habituated to their +intercourse, and inflamed with all the resentments of a recently +conquered people. Why will you attribute the turbulence of our people +to any cause but the right--to any cause but your own scandalous +oppression? If you tie your horse up to a gate, and beat him cruelly, +is he vicious because he kicks you? If you have plagued and worried a +mastiff dog for years, is he mad because he flies at you whenever he +sees you? Hatred is an active, troublesome passion. Depend upon it, +whole nations have always some reason for their hatred. Before you +refer the turbulence of the Irish to incurable defects in their +character, tell me if you have treated them as friends and equals? +Have you protected their commerce? Have you respected their religion? +Have you been as anxious for their freedom as your own? Nothing of all +this. What then? Why you have confiscated the territorial surface of +the country twice over: you have massacred and exported her +inhabitants: you have deprived four-fifths of them of every civil +privilege: you have at every period made her commerce and manufactures +slavishly subordinate to your own: and yet the hatred which the Irish +bear to you is the result of an original turbulence of character, and +of a primitive, obdurate wildness, utterly incapable of civilisation. +The embroidered inanities and the sixth-form effusions of Mr. Canning +are really not powerful enough to make me believe this; nor is there +any authority on earth (always excepting the Dean of Christ Church) +which could make it credible to me. I am sick of Mr. Canning. There is +not a 'ha'porth of bread to all this sugar and sack.' I love not the +cretaceous and incredible countenance of his colleague. The only +opinion in which I agree with these two gentlemen is that which they +entertain of each other. I am sure that the insolence of Mr. Pitt, and +the unbalanced accounts of Melville, were far better than the perils +of this new ignorance:-- + + Nonne fuit satiùs, tristes Amaryllidis iras + Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan? + Quamvis ille _niger_? + +In the midst of the most profound peace, the secret articles of the +Treaty of Tilsit, in which the destruction of Ireland is resolved +upon, induce you to rob the Danes of their fleet. After the expedition +sailed comes the Treaty of Tilsit, containing no article, public or +private, alluding to Ireland. The state of the world, you tell me, +justified us in doing this. Just God! do we think only of the state of +the world when there is an opportunity for robbery, for murder, and +for plunder; and do we forget the state of the world when we are +called upon to be wise, and good, and just? Does the state of the +world never remind us that we have four millions of subjects whose +injuries we ought to atone for, and whose affections we ought to +conciliate? Does the state of the world never warn us to lay aside our +infernal bigotry, and to arm every man who acknowledges a God, and can +grasp a sword? Did it never occur to this administration that they +might virtuously get hold of a force ten times greater than the force +of the Danish fleet? Was there no other way of protecting Ireland but +by bringing eternal shame upon Great Britain, and by making the earth +a den of robbers? See what the men whom you have supplanted would have +done. They would have rendered the invasion of Ireland impossible, by +restoring to the Catholics their long-lost rights: they would have +acted in such a manner that the French would neither have wished for +invasion nor dared to attempt it: they would have increased the +permanent strength of the country while they preserved its reputation +unsullied. Nothing of this kind your friends have done, because they +are solemnly pledged to do nothing of this kind; because, to tolerate +all religions, and to equalise civil rights to all sects, is to oppose +some of the worst passions of our nature--to plunder and to oppress is +to gratify them all. They wanted the huzzas of mobs, and they have for +ever blasted the fame of England to obtain them. Were the fleets of +Holland, France, and Spain destroyed by larceny? You resisted the +power of 150 sail of the line by sheer courage, and violated every +principle of morals from the dread of fifteen hulks, while the +expedition itself cost you three times more than the value of the +larcenous matter brought away. The French trample on the laws of God +and man, not for old cordage, but for kingdoms, and always take care +to be well paid for their crimes. We contrive, under the present +administration, to unite moral with intellectual deficiency, and to +grow weaker and worse by the same action. If they had any evidence of +the intended hostility of the Danes, why was it not produced? Why have +the nations of Europe been allowed to feel an indignation against this +country beyond the reach of all subsequent information? Are these +times, do you imagine, when we can trifle with a year of universal +hatred, dally with the curses of Europe, and then regain a lost +character at pleasure, by the parliamentary perspirations of the +Foreign Secretary, or the solemn asseverations of the pecuniary Rose? +Believe me, Abraham, it is not under such ministers as these that the +dexterity of honest Englishmen will ever equal the dexterity of French +knaves; it is not in their presence that the serpent of Moses will +ever swallow up the serpents of the magician. + +Lord Hawkesbury says that nothing is to be granted to the Catholics +from fear. What! not even justice? Why not? There are four millions of +disaffected people within twenty miles of your own coast. I fairly +confess that the dread which I have of their physical power is with me +a very strong motive for listening to their claims. To talk of not +acting from fear is mere parliamentary cant. From what motive but +fear, I should be glad to know, have all the improvements in our +constitution proceeded? I question if any justice has ever been done +to large masses of mankind from any other motive. By what other +motives can the plunderers of the Baltic suppose nations to be +governed in their intercourse _with each other_? If I say, Give this +people what they ask because it is just, do you think I should get ten +people to listen to me? Would not the lesser of the two Jenkinsons be +the first to treat me with contempt? The only true way to make the +mass of mankind see the beauty of justice is by showing to them, in +pretty plain terms, the consequences of injustice. If any body of +French troops land in Ireland, the whole population of that country +will rise against you to a man, and you could not possibly survive +such an event three years. Such, from the bottom of my soul, do I +believe to be the present state of that country; and so far does it +appear to me to be impolitic and unstatesman-like to conceed anything +to such a danger, that if the Catholics, in addition to their present +just demands, were to petition for the perpetual removal of the said +Lord Hawkesbury from his Majesty's councils, I think, whatever might +be the effect upon the destinies of Europe, and however it might +retard our own individual destruction, that the prayer of the petition +should be instantly complied with. Canning's crocodile tears should +not move me; the hoops of the maids of honour should not hide him. I +would tear him from the banisters of the back stairs, and plunge him +in the fishy fumes of the dirtiest of all his Cinque Ports. + + +LETTER VII. + +Dear Abraham--In the correspondence which is passing between us, you +are perpetually alluding to the Foreign Secretary; and in answer to +the dangers of Ireland, which I am pressing upon your notice, you have +nothing to urge but the confidence which you repose in the discretion +and sound sense of this gentleman. I can only say, that I have +listened to him long and often with the greatest attention; I have +used every exertion in my power to take a fair measure of him, and it +appears to me impossible to hear him upon any arduous topic without +perceiving that he is eminently deficient in those solid and serious +qualities upon which, and upon which alone, the confidence of a great +country can properly repose. He sweats and labours, and works for +sense, and Mr. Ellis seems always to think it is coming, but it does +not come; the machine can't draw up what is not to be found in the +spring; Providence has made him a light, jesting, paragraph-writing +man, and that he will remain to his dying day. When he is jocular he +is strong, when he is serious he is like Samson in a wig; any ordinary +person is a match for him: a song, an ironical letter, a burlesque +ode, an attack in the newspaper upon Nicoll's eye, a smart speech of +twenty minutes, full of gross misrepresentations and clever turns, +excellent language, a spirited manner, lucky quotation, success in +provoking dull men, some half information picked up in Pall Mall in +the morning; these are your friend's natural weapons; all these things +he can do: here I allow him to be truly great; nay, I will be just, +and go still further, if he would confine himself to these things, and +consider the _facete_ and the playful to be the basis of his +character, he would, for that species of man, be universally regarded +as a person of a very good understanding; call him a legislator, a +reasoner, and the conductor of the affairs of a great nation, and it +seems to me as absurd as if a butterfly were to teach bees to make +honey. That he is an extraordinary writer of small poetry, and a diner +out of the highest lustre, I do most readily admit. After George +Selwyn, and perhaps Tickell, there has been no such man for this +half-century. The Foreign Secretary is a gentleman, a respectable as +well as a highly agreeable man in private life; but you may as well +feed me with decayed potatoes as console me for the miseries of +Ireland by the resources of his _sense_ and his _discretion_. It is +only the public situation which this gentleman holds which entitles me +or induces me to say so much about him. He is a fly in amber, nobody +cares about the fly; the only question is, How the devil did it get +there? Nor do I attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of +utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke for fear it +should flood a province. + +The friends of the Catholic question are, I observe, extremely +embarrassed in arguing when they come to the loyalty of the Irish +Catholics. As for me, I shall go straight forward to my object, and +state what I have no manner of doubt, from an intimate knowledge of +Ireland, to be the plain truth. Of the great Roman Catholic +proprietors, and of the Catholic prelates, there may be a few, and but +a few, who would follow the fortunes of England at all events: there +is another set of men who, thoroughly detesting this country, have too +much property and too much character to lose, not to wait for some +very favourable event before they show themselves; but the great mass +of Catholic population, upon the slightest appearance of a French +force in that country, would rise upon you to a man. It is the most +mistaken policy to conceal the plain truth. There is no loyalty among +the Catholics: they detest you as their worst oppressors, and they +will continue to detest you till you remove the cause of their hatred. +It is in your power in six months' time to produce a total revolution +of opinions among this people; and in some future letter I will show +you that this is clearly the case. At present, see what a dreadful +state Ireland is in. The common toast among the low Irish is, the +feast of the _passover_. Some allusion to _Bonaparte_, in a play +lately acted at Dublin, produced thunders of applause from the pit and +the galleries; and a politician should not be inattentive to the +public feelings expressed in theatres. Mr. Perceval thinks he has +disarmed the Irish: he has no more disarmed the Irish than he has +resigned a shilling of his own public emoluments. An Irish peasant +fills the barrel of his gun full of tow dipped in oil, butters up the +lock, buries it in a bog, and allows the Orange bloodhound to ransack +his cottage at pleasure. Be just and kind to the Irish, and you will +indeed disarm them; rescue them from the degraded servitude in which +they are held by a handful of their own countrymen, and you will add +four millions of brave and affectionate men to your strength. Nightly +visits, Protestant inspectors, licenses to possess a pistol, or a +knife and fork, the odious vigour of the _evangelical_ Perceval--acts +of Parliament, drawn up by some English attorney, to save you from the +hatred of four millions of people--the guarding yourselves from +universal disaffection by a police; a confidence in the little cunning +of Bow Street, when you might rest your security upon the eternal +basis of the best feelings: this is the meanness and madness to which +nations are reduced when they lose sight of the first elements of +justice, without which a country can be no more secure than it can be +healthy without air. I sicken at such policy and such men. The fact +is, the Ministers know nothing about the present state of Ireland; Mr. +Perceval sees a few clergymen, Lord Castlereagh a few general +officers, who take care, of course, to report what is pleasant rather +than what is true. As for the joyous and lepid consul, he jokes upon +neutral flags and frauds, jokes upon Irish rebels, jokes upon +northern and western and southern foes, and gives himself no trouble +upon any subject; nor is the mediocrity of the idolatrous deputy of +the slightest use. Dissolved in grins, he reads no memorials upon the +state of Ireland, listens to no reports, asks no questions, and is the + + "_Bourn_ from whom no traveller returns." + +The danger of an immediate insurrection is now, I _believe_, blown +over. You have so strong an army in Ireland, and the Irish are become +so much more cunning from the last insurrection, that you may perhaps +be tolerably secure just at present from that evil: but are you secure +from the efforts which the French may make to throw a body of troops +into Ireland? and do you consider that event to be difficult and +improbable? From Brest Harbour to Cape St. Vincent, you have above +three thousand miles of hostile sea coast, and twelve or fourteen +harbours quite capable of containing a sufficient force for the +powerful invasion of Ireland. The nearest of these harbours is not two +days' sail from the southern coast of Ireland, with a fair leading +wind; and the furthest not ten. Five ships of the line, for so very +short a passage, might carry five or six thousand troops with cannon +and ammunition; and Ireland presents to their attack a southern coast +of more than 500 miles, abounding in deep bays, admirable harbours, +and disaffected inhabitants. Your blockading ships may be forced to +come home for provisions and repairs, or they may be blown off in a +gale of wind and compelled to bear away for their own coast; and you +will observe that the very same wind which locks you up in the British +Channel, when you are got there, is evidently favourable for the +invasion of Ireland. And yet this is called Government, and the people +huzza Mr. Perceval for continuing to expose his country day after day +to such tremendous perils as these; cursing the men who would have +given up a question in theology to have saved us from such a risk. The +British empire at this moment is in the state of a peach-blossom--if +the wind blows gently from one quarter, it survives; if furiously from +the other, it perishes. A stiff breeze may set in from the north, the +Rochefort squadron will be taken, and the Minister will be the most +holy of men: if it comes from some other point, Ireland is gone; we +curse ourselves as a set of monastic madmen, and call out for the +unavailing satisfaction of Mr. Perceval's head. Such a state of +political existence is scarcely credible: it is the action of a mad +young fool standing upon one foot, and peeping down the crater of +Mount Ætna, not the conduct of a wise and sober people deciding upon +their best and dearest interests: and in the name, the much-injured +name, of heaven, what is it all for that we expose ourselves to these +dangers? Is it that we may sell more muslin? Is it that we may acquire +more territory? Is it that we may strengthen what we have already +acquired? No; nothing of all this; but that one set of Irishmen may +torture another set of Irishmen--that Sir Phelim O'Callaghan may +continue to whip Sir Toby M'Tackle, his next door neighbour, and +continue to ravish his Catholic daughters; and these are the measures +which the honest and consistent Secretary supports; and this is the +Secretary whose genius in the estimation of Brother Abraham is to +extinguish the genius of Bonaparte. Pompey was killed by a slave, +Goliath smitten by a stripling. Pyrrhus died by the hand of a woman; +tremble, thou great Gaul, from whose head an armed Minerva leaps forth +in the hour of danger; tremble, thou scourge of God, a pleasant man is +come out against thee, and thou shall be laid low by a joker of jokes, +and he shall talk his pleasant talk against thee, and thou shall be no +more! + +You tell me, in spite of all this parade of sea-coast, Bonaparte has +neither ships nor sailors: but this is a mistake. He has not ships and +sailors to contest the empire of the seas with Great Britain, but +there remains quite sufficient of the navies of France, Spain, +Holland, and Denmark, for these short excursions and invasions. Do you +think, too, that Bonaparte does not add to his navy every year? Do +you suppose, with all Europe at his feet, that he can find any +difficulty in obtaining timber, and that money will not procure for +him any quantity of naval stores he may want? The mere machine, the +empty ship, he can build as well, and as quickly, as you can; and +though he may not find enough of practised sailors to man large +fighting-fleets--it is not possible to conceive that he can want +sailors for such sort of purposes as I have stated. He is at present +the despotic monarch of above twenty thousand miles of sea-coast, and +yet you suppose he cannot procure sailors for the invasion of Ireland. +Believe, if you please, that such a fleet met at sea by any number of +our ships at all comparable to them in point of force, would be +immediately taken, let it be so; I count nothing upon their power of +resistance, only upon their power of escaping unobserved. If +experience has taught us anything, it is the impossibility of +perpetual blockades. The instances are innumerable, during the course +of this war, where whole fleets have sailed in and out of harbour, in +spite of every vigilance used to prevent it. I shall only mention +those cases where Ireland is concerned. In December, 1796, seven ships +of the line, and ten transports, reached Bantry Bay from Brest, +without having seen an English ship in their passage. It blew a storm +when they were off shore, and therefore England still continues to be +an independent kingdom. You will observe that at the very time the +French fleet sailed out of Brest Harbour, Admiral Colpoys was cruising +off there with a powerful squadron, and still, from the particular +circumstances of the weather, found it impossible to prevent the +French from coming out. During the time that Admiral Colpoys was +cruising off Brest, Admiral Richery, with six ships of the line, +passed him, and got safe into the harbour. At the very moment when the +French squadron was lying in Bantry Bay, Lord Bridport with his fleet +was locked up by a foul wind in the Channel, and for several days +could not stir to the assistance of Ireland. Admiral Colpoys, totally +unable to find the French fleet, came home. Lord Bridport, at the +change of the wind, cruised for them in vain, and they got safe back +to Brest, without having seen a single one of those floating bulwarks, +the possession of which we believe will enable us with impunity to set +justice and common sense at defiance. Such is the miserable and +precarious state of an anemocracy, of a people who put their trust in +hurricanes, and are governed by wind. In August, 1798, three forty-gun +frigates landed 1100 men under Humbert, making the passage from +Rochelle to Killala without seeing any English ship. In October of the +same year, four French frigates anchored in Killala Bay with 2000 +troops; and though they did not land their troops they returned to +France in safety. In the same month, a line-of-battle ship, eight +stout frigates, and a brig, all full of troops and stores, reached the +coast of Ireland, and were fortunately, in sight of land, destroyed, +after an obstinate engagement, by Sir John Warren. + +If you despise the little troop which, in these numerous experiments, +did make good its landing, take with you, if you please, this _précis_ +of its exploits: eleven hundred men, commanded by a soldier raised +from the ranks, put to rout a select army of 6000 men, commanded by +General Lake, seized their ordnance, ammunition, and stores, advanced +150 miles into a country containing an armed force of 150,000 men, and +at last surrendered to the Viceroy, an experienced general, gravely +and cautiously advancing at the head of all his chivalry and of an +immense army to oppose him. You must excuse these details about +Ireland, but it appears to me to be of all other subjects the most +important. If we conciliate Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do +not, we can do nothing well. If Ireland was friendly, we might equally +set at defiance the talents of Bonaparte and the blunders of his +rival, Mr. Canning; we could then support the ruinous and silly bustle +of our useless expeditions, and the almost incredible ignorance of our +commercial orders in council. Let the present administration give up +but this one point, and there is nothing which I would not consent to +grant them. Mr. Perceval shall have full liberty to insult the tomb +of Mr. Fox, and to torment every eminent Dissenter in Great Britain; +Lord Camden shall have large boxes of plums; Mr. Rose receive +permission to prefix to his name the appellative of virtuous; and to +the Viscount Castlereagh a round sum of ready money shall be well and +truly paid into his hand. Lastly, what remains to Mr. George Canning, +but that he ride up and down Pall Mall glorious upon a white horse, +and that they cry out before him, Thus shall it be done to the +statesman who hath written 'The Needy Knife-Grinder,' and the German +play? Adieu only for the present; you shall soon hear from me again; +it is a subject upon which I cannot long be silent. + + +LETTER IX. + +Dear Abraham--No Catholic can be chief Governor or Governor of this +kingdom, Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord High Treasurer, +Chief of any of the Courts of Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, +Puisne Judge, Judge in the Admiralty, Master of the Rolls, Secretary +of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer or his Deputy, +Teller or Cashier of Exchequer, Auditor or General, Governor or Gustos +Rotulorum of Counties, Chief Governor's Secretary, Privy Councillor, +King's Counsel, Serjeant, Attorney, Solicitor-General, Master in +Chancery, Provost or Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, +Postmaster-General, Master and Lieutenant-General of Ordnance, +Commander-in-Chief, General on the Staff, Sheriff, Sub-Sheriff, Mayor, +Bailiff, Recorder, Burgess, or any other officer in a City, or a +Corporation. No Catholic can be guardian to a Protestant, and no +priest guardian at all; no Catholic can be a gamekeeper, or have for +sale, or otherwise, any arms or warlike stores; no Catholic can +present to a living, unless he choose to turn Jew in order to obtain +that privilege; the pecuniary qualification of Catholic jurors is made +higher than that of Protestants, and no relaxation of the ancient +rigorous code is permitted, unless to those who shall take an oath +prescribed by 13 and 14 George III. Now if this is not picking the +plums out of the pudding and leaving the mere batter to the Catholics, +I know not what is. If it were merely the Privy Council, it would be +(I allow) nothing but a point of honour for which the mass of +Catholics were contending, the honour of being chief-mourners or +pall-bearers to the country; but surely no man will contend that every +barrister may not speculate upon the possibility of being a Puisne +Judge; and that every shopkeeper must not feel himself injured by his +exclusion from borough offices. + +One of the greatest practical evils which the Catholics suffer in +Ireland is their exclusion from the offices of Sheriff and Deputy +Sheriff. Nobody who is unacquainted with Ireland can conceive the +obstacles which this opposes to the fair administration of justice. +The formation of juries is now entirely in the hands of the +Protestants; the lives, liberties, and properties of the Catholics in +the hands of the juries; and this is the arrangement for the +administration of justice in a country where religious prejudices are +inflamed to the greatest degree of animosity! In this country, if a +man be a foreigner, if he sell slippers, and sealing wax, and +artificial flowers, we are so tender of human life that we take care +half the number of persons who are to decide upon his fate should be +men of similar prejudices and feelings with himself: but a poor +Catholic in Ireland may be tried by twelve Percevals, and destroyed +according to the manner of that gentleman in the name of the Lord, and +with all the insulting forms of justice. I do not go the length of +saying that deliberate and wilful injustice is done. I have no doubt +that the Orange Deputy Sheriff thinks it would be a most unpardonable +breach of his duty if he did not summon a Protestant panel. I can +easily believe that the Protestant panel may conduct themselves very +conscientiously in hanging the gentlemen of the crucifix; but I blame +the law which does not guard the Catholic against the probable tenor +of those feelings which must unconsciously influence the judgments of +mankind. I detest that state of society which extends unequal degrees +of protection to different creeds and persuasions; and I cannot +describe to you the contempt I feel for a man who, calling himself a +statesman, defends a system which fills the heart of every Irishman +with treason, and makes his allegiance prudence, not choice. + +I request to know if the vestry taxes in Ireland are a mere matter of +romantic feeling which can affect only the Earl of Fingal? In a parish +where there are four thousand Catholics and fifty Protestants, the +Protestants may meet together in a vestry meeting at which no Catholic +has the right to vote, and tax all the lands in the parish 1s. 6d. per +acre, or in the pound, I forget which, for the repairs of the +church--and how has the necessity of these repairs been ascertained? A +Protestant plumber has discovered that it wants new leading; a +Protestant carpenter is convinced the timbers are not sound; and the +glazier who hates holy water (as an accoucheur hates celibacy, because +he gets nothing by it) is employed to put in new sashes. + +The grand juries in Ireland are the great scene of jobbing. They have +a power of making a county rate to a considerable extent for roads, +bridges, and other objects of general accommodation. 'You suffer the +road to be brought through my park, and I will have the bridge +constructed in a situation where it will make a beautiful object to +your house. You do my job, and I will do yours.' These are the sweet +and interesting subjects which occasionally occupy Milesian gentlemen +while they are attendant upon this grand inquest of justice. But there +is a religion, it seems, even in jobs; and it will be highly +gratifying to Mr. Perceval to learn that no man in Ireland who +believes in seven sacraments can carry a public road, or bridge, one +yard out of the direction most beneficial to the public, and that +nobody can cheat the public who does not expound the Scriptures in the +purest and most orthodox manner. This will give pleasure to Mr. +Perceval: but, from his unfairness upon these topics I appeal to the +justice and the proper feelings of Mr. Huskisson. I ask him if the +human mind can experience a more dreadful sensation than to see its +own jobs refused, and the jobs of another religion perpetually +succeeding? I ask him his opinion of a jobless faith, of a creed which +dooms a man through life to a lean and plunderless integrity. He knows +that human nature cannot and will not bear it; and if we were to paint +a political Tartarus, it would be an endless series of snug +expectations and cruel disappointments. These are a few of many +dreadful inconveniences which the Catholics of all ranks suffer from +the laws by which they are at present oppressed. Besides, look at +human nature: what is the history of all professions? Joel is to be +brought up to the bar: has Mrs. Plymley the slightest doubt of his +being Chancellor? Do not his two shrivelled aunts live in the +certainty of seeing him in that situation, and of cutting out with +their own hands his equity habiliments? And I could name a certain +minister of the Gospel who does not, in the bottom of his heart, much +differ from these opinions. Do you think that the fathers and mothers +of the holy Catholic Church are not as absurd as Protestant papas and +mammas? The probability I admit to be, in each particular case, that +the sweet little blockhead will in fact never get a brief;--but I will +venture to say there is not a parent from the Giant's Causeway to +Bantry Bay who does not conceive that his child is the unfortunate +victim of the exclusion, and that nothing short of positive law could +prevent his own dear, pre-eminent Paddy from rising to the highest +honours of the State. So with the army and parliament; in fact, few +are excluded; but, in imagination, all: you keep twenty or thirty +Catholics out, and you lose the affections of four millions; and, let +me tell you, that recent circumstances have by no means tended to +diminish in the minds of men that hope of elevation beyond their own +rank which is so congenial to our nature: from pleading for John Roe +to taxing John Bull, from jesting for Mr. Pitt and writing in the +_Anti-Jacobin_, to managing the affairs of Europe--these are leaps +which seem to justify the fondest dreams of mothers and of aunts. + +I do not say that the disabilities to which the Catholics are exposed +amount to such intolerable grievances, that the strength and industry +of a nation are overwhelmed by them: the increasing prosperity of +Ireland fully demonstrates to the contrary. But I repeat again, what I +have often stated in the course of our correspondence, that your laws +against the Catholics are exactly in that state in which you have +neither the benefits of rigour nor of liberality: every law which +prevented the Catholic from gaining strength and wealth is repealed; +every law which can irritate remains; if you were determined to insult +the Catholics you should have kept them weak; if you resolved to give +them strength, you should have ceased to insult them--at present your +conduct is pure, unadulterated folly. + +Lord Hawkesbury says, 'We heard nothing about the Catholics till we +began to mitigate the laws against them; when we relieved them in part +from this oppression they began to be disaffected.' This is very true; +but it proves just what I have said, that you have either done too +much or too little; and as there lives not, I hope, upon earth, so +depraved a courtier that he would load the Catholics with their +ancient chains, what absurdity it is, then, not to render their +dispositions friendly, when you leave their arms and legs free! + +You know, and many Englishmen know, what passes in China; but nobody +knows or cares what passes in Ireland. At the beginning of the +present reign no Catholic could realise property, or carry on any +business; they were absolutely annihilated, and had no more agency in +the country than so many trees. They were like Lord Mulgrave's +eloquence and Lord Camden's wit; the legislative bodies did not know +of their existence. For these twenty-five years last past the +Catholics have been engaged in commerce; within that period the +commerce of Ireland has doubled--there are four Catholics at work for +one Protestant, and eight Catholics at work for one Episcopalian. Of +course, the proportion which Catholic wealth bears to Protestant +wealth is every year altering rapidly in favour of the Catholics. I +have already told you what their purchases of land were the last year: +since that period I have been at some pains to find out the actual +state of the Catholic wealth: it is impossible upon such a subject to +arrive at complete accuracy; but I have good reason to believe that +there are at present 2000 Catholics in Ireland possessing an income of +£500 and upwards, many of these with incomes of one, two, three, and +four thousand, and some amounting to fifteen and twenty thousand per +annum:--and this is the kingdom, and these the people, for whose +conciliation we are to wait Heaven knows when, and Lord Hawkesbury +why! As for me, I never think of the situation of Ireland without +feeling the same necessity for immediate interference as I should do +if I saw blood flowing from a great artery. I rush towards it with +the instinctive rapidity of a man desirous of preventing death, and +have no other feeling but that in a few seconds the patient may be no +more. + +I could not help smiling, in the times of No Popery, to witness the +loyal indignation of many persons at the attempt made by the last +ministry to do something for the relief of Ireland. The general cry in +the country was, that they would not see their beloved Monarch used +ill in his old age, and that they would stand by him to the last drop +of their blood. I respect good feelings, however erroneous be the +occasions on which they display themselves; and therefore I saw in all +this as much to admire as to blame. It was a species of affection, +however, which reminded me very forcibly of the attachment displayed +by the servants of the Russian ambassador at the beginning of the last +century. His Excellency happened to fall down in a kind of apoplectic +fit, when he was paying a morning visit in the house of an +acquaintance. The confusion was of course very great, and messengers +were despatched in every direction to find a surgeon: who, upon his +arrival, declared that his Excellency must be immediately blooded, and +prepared himself forthwith to perform the operation: the barbarous +servants of the embassy, who were there in great numbers, no sooner +saw the surgeon prepared to wound the arm of their master with a +sharp, shining instrument, than they drew their swords, put themselves +in an attitude of defence, and swore in pure Sclavonic, 'that they +would murder any man who attempted to do him the slightest injury: he +had been a very good master to them, and they would not desert him in +his misfortunes, or suffer his blood to be shed while he was off his +guard, and incapable of defending himself.' By good fortune, the +secretary arrived about this period of the dispute, and his +Excellency, relieved from superfluous blood and perilous affection, +was, after much difficulty, restored to life. + +There is an argument brought forward with some appearance of +plausibility in the House of Commons, which certainly merits an +answer: You know that the Catholics now vote for members of parliament +in Ireland, and that they outnumber the Protestants in a very great +proportion; if you allow Catholics to sit in parliament, religion will +be found to influence votes more than property, and the greater part +of the 100 Irish members who are returned to parliament will be +Catholics. Add to these the Catholic members who are returned in +England, and you will have a phalanx of heretical strength which every +minister will be compelled to respect, and occasionally to conciliate +by concessions incompatible with the interests of the Protestant +Church. The fact is, however, that you are at this moment subjected to +every danger of this kind which you can possibly apprehend hereafter. +If the spiritual interests of the voters are more powerful than their +temporal interests, they can bind down their representatives to +support any measures favourable to the Catholic religion, and they can +change the objects of their choice till they have found Protestant +members (as they easily may do) perfectly obedient to their wishes. If +the superior possessions of the Protestants prevent the Catholics from +uniting for a common political object, then danger you fear cannot +exist: if zeal, on the contrary, gets the better of acres, then the +danger at present exists, from the right of voting already given to +the Catholics, and it will not be increased by allowing them to sit in +parliament. There are, as nearly as I can recollect, thirty seats in +Ireland for cities and counties, where the Protestants are the most +numerous, and where the members returned must of course be +Protestants. In the other seventy representations the wealth of the +Protestants is opposed to the number of the Catholics; and if all the +seventy members returned were of the Catholic persuasion, they must +still plot the destruction of our religion in the midst of 588 +Protestants. Such terrors would disgrace a cook-maid, or a toothless +aunt--when they fall from the lips of bearded and senatorial men, they +are nauseous, antiperistaltic, and emetical. + +How can you for a moment doubt of the rapid effects which would be +produced by the emancipation? In the first place, to my certain +knowledge the Catholics have long since expressed to his Majesty's +Ministers their perfect readiness _to vest in his Majesty, either with +the consent of the Pope, or without it if it cannot be obtained, the +nomination of the Catholic prelacy_. The Catholic prelacy in Ireland +consists of twenty-six bishops and the warden of Galway, a dignitary +enjoying Catholic jurisdiction. The number of Roman Catholic priests +in Ireland exceeds one thousand. The expenses of his peculiar worship +are, to a substantial farmer or mechanic, five shillings per annum; to +a labourer (where he is not entirely excused) one shilling per annum; +this includes the contribution of the whole family, and for this the +priest is bound to attend them when sick, and to confess them when +they apply to him; he is also to keep his chapel in order, to +celebrate divine service, and to preach on Sundays and holydays. In +the northern district a priest gains from £30 to £50; in the other +parts of Ireland from £60 to £90 per annum. The best paid Catholic +bishops receive about £400 per annum; the others from £300 to £350. My +plan is very simple: I would have 300 Catholic parishes at £100 per +annum, 300 at £200 per annum, and 400 at £300 per annum; this, for the +whole thousand parishes, would amount to £190,000. To the prelacy I +would allot £20,000 in unequal proportions, from £1000 to £500; and I +would appropriate £40,000 more for the support of Catholic Schools, +and the repairs of Catholic churches; the whole amount of which sum is +£250,000, about the expense of three days of one of our genuine, good +English _just and necessary wars_. The clergy should all receive their +salaries at the Bank of Ireland, and I would place the whole patronage +in the hands of the Crown. Now, I appeal to any human being, except +Spencer Perceval, Esq., of the parish of Hampstead, what the +disaffection of a clergy would amount to, gaping after this graduated +bounty of the Crown, and whether Ignatius Loyola himself, if he were a +living blockhead instead of a dead saint, could withstand the +temptation of bouncing from £100 a year at Sligo, to £300 in +Tipperary? This is the miserable sum of money for which the merchants +and landowners and nobility of England are exposing themselves to the +tremendous peril of losing Ireland. The sinecure places of the Roses +and the Percevals, and the 'dear and near relations,' put up to +auction at thirty years' purchase, would almost amount to the money. + +I admit that nothing can be more reasonable than to expect that a +Catholic priest should starve to death, genteelly and pleasantly, for +the good of the Protestant religion; but is it equally reasonable to +expect that he should do so for the Protestant pews, and Protestant +brick and mortar? On an Irish Sabbath the bell of a neat parish +church often summons to church only the parson and an occasionally +conforming clerk; while, two hundred yards off, a thousand Catholics +are huddled together in a miserable hovel, and pelted by all the +storms of heaven. Can anything be more distressing than to see a +venerable man pouring forth sublime truths in tattered breeches, and +depending for his food upon the little offal he gets from his +parishioners? I venerate a human being who starves for his principles, +let them be what they may; but starving for anything is not at all to +the taste of the honourable flagellants: strict principles, and good +pay, is the motto of Mr. Perceval: the one he keeps in great measure +for the faults of his enemies, the other for himself. + +There are parishes in Connaught in which a Protestant was never +settled nor even seen. In that province, in Munster, and in parts of +Leinster, the entire peasantry for sixty miles are Catholics; in these +tracts the churches are frequently shut for want of a congregation, or +opened to an assemblage of from six to twenty persons. Of what +Protestants there are in Ireland, the greatest part are gathered +together in Ulster, or they live in towns. In the country of the other +three provinces the Catholics see no other religion but their own, and +are at the least as fifteen to one Protestant. In the diocese of Tuam +they are sixty to one; in the parish of St. Mulins, diocese of +Leghlin, there are four thousand Catholics and one Protestant; in the +town of Grasgenamana, in the county of Kilkenny, there are between +four and five hundred Catholic houses, and three Protestant houses. In +the parish of Allen, county Kildare, there is no Protestant, though it +is very populous. In the parish of Arlesin, Queen's County, the +proportion is one hundred to one. In the whole county of Kilkenny, by +actual enumeration, it is seventeen to one; in the diocese of +Kilmacduagh, province of Connaught, fifty-two to one, by ditto. These +I give you as a few specimens of the present state of Ireland; and yet +there are men impudent and ignorant enough to contend that such evils +require no remedy, and that mild family man who dwelleth in Hampstead +can find none but the cautery and the knife. + + ----'Omne per ignem + Excoquitur vitium.' + +I cannot describe the horror and disgust which I felt at hearing Mr. +Perceval call upon the then Ministry for measures of vigour in +Ireland. If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I +walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my own +begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly combed; +if the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort--how awfully +would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the +cabins of the poor, brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of +Ireland! How easy it is to shed human blood; how easy it is to +persuade ourselves that it is our duty to do so, and that the decision +has cost us a severe struggle; how much in all ages have wounds and +shrieks and tears been the cheap and vulgar resources of the rulers of +mankind; how difficult and how noble it is to govern in kindness and +to found an empire upon the everlasting basis of justice and +affection! But what do men call vigour? To let loose hussars and to +bring up artillery, to govern with lighted matches, and to cut, and +push, and prime; I call this not vigour, but the _sloth of cruelty and +ignorance_. The vigour I love consists in finding out wherein subjects +are aggrieved, in relieving them, in studying the temper and genius of +a people, in consulting their prejudices, in selecting proper persons +to lead and manage them, in the laborious, watchful, and difficult +task of increasing public happiness by allaying each particular +discontent. In this way Hoche pacified La Vendée--and in this way only +will Ireland ever be subdued. But this, in the eyes of Mr. Perceval, +is imbecility and meanness. Houses are not broken open, women are not +insulted, the people seem all to be happy; they are not rode over by +horses, and cut by whips. Do you call this vigour? Is this government? + + + + +VI.--'LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW.' + +BY WILLIAM COBBETT + + +(_Although Cobbett produced not a few political pamphlets in the +strictest sense of the term, the infinitely greater part of his work +is comprised during his earlier days in the volumes of _Peter +Porcupine's Gazette_, during his later in those of the _Weekly +Register_. This latter, however, he himself for a time actually +entitled _The Weekly Political Pamphlet_, while he alluded to it under +that name even at other times; and his whole work was imbued even more +deeply than that of Defoe with the pamphlet character. I have selected +two examples from the critical time when he was still exasperated by +his imprisonment, and stung into fresh efforts by debt and the +prospect of fresh difficulties. They exhibit in the most striking form +all Cobbett's pet hatreds--of the unreformed Parliament, of paper +money, of political economy, of potatoes, and of many other things. +The first is the _Register_ of 2d November 1816, the first number of +the cheapened form, which was sold at twopence, and so acquired the +name of 'Twopenny Trash,' from a phrase of, as some say, Canning's, +others Castlereagh's. The second is an early number of the papers +written from America. They will, with the notes, explain themselves._) + + +LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND, ON THE CAUSE OF THEIR PRESENT MISERIES; ON THE MEASURES +WHICH HAVE PRODUCED THAT CAUSE; ON THE REMEDIES WHICH SOME FOOLISH AND +SOME CRUEL AND INSOLENT MEN HAVE PROPOSED; AND ON THE LINE OF CONDUCT +WHICH JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OUGHT TO PURSUE, IN ORDER TO OBTAIN +EFFECTUAL RELIEF, AND TO ASSIST IN PROMOTING THE TRANQUILLITY AND +RESTORING THE HAPPINESS OF THEIR COUNTRY. + +Friends And Fellow-countrymen--Whatever the pride of rank, of riches, +or of scholarship may have induced some men to believe, or to affect +to believe, the real strength and all the resources of a country ever +have sprung and ever must spring from the _labour_ of its people; and +hence it is that this nation, which is so small in numbers and so poor +in climate and soil compared with many others, has, for many ages, +been the most powerful nation in the world: it is the most +industrious, the most laborious, and, therefore, the most powerful. +Elegant dresses, superb furniture, stately buildings, fine roads and +canals, fleet horses and carriages, numerous and stout ships, +warehouses teeming with goods; all these, and many other objects that +fall under our view, are so many marks of national wealth and +resources. But all these spring from _labour_. Without the journeyman +and the labourer none of them could exist; without the assistance of +their hands the country would be a wilderness, hardly worth the notice +of an invader. + +As it is the labour of those who toil which makes a country abound in +resources, so it is the same class of men, who must, by their arms, +secure its safety and uphold its fame. Titles and immense sums of +money have been bestowed upon numerous Naval and Military Commanders. +Without calling the justice of these in question, we may assert that +the victories were obtained by _you_ and your fathers and brothers and +sons, in co-operation with those Commanders, who, with _your_ aid, +have done great and wonderful things; but who, without that aid, would +have been as impotent as children at the breast. + +With this correct idea of your own worth in your minds, with what +indignation must you hear yourselves called the Populace, the Rabble, +the Mob, the Swinish Multitude; and with what greater indignation, if +possible, must you hear the projects of those cool and cruel and +insolent men, who, now that you have been, without any fault of yours, +brought into a state of misery, propose to narrow the limit of parish +relief, to prevent you from marrying in the days of your youth, or to +thrust you out to seek your bread in foreign lands, never more to +behold your parents or friends? But suppress your indignation, until +we return to this topic, after we have considered the _cause_ of your +present misery, and the measures which have produced that cause. + +The times in which we live are full of peril. The nation, as described +by the very creatures of Government, is fast advancing to that period +when an important change must take place. It is the lot of mankind +that some shall labour with their limbs and others with their minds; +and, on all occasions, more especially on an occasion like the +present, it is the duty of the latter to come to the assistance of the +former. We are all equally interested in the peace and happiness of +our common country. It is of the utmost importance that, in the +seeking to obtain these objects, our endeavours should be uniform, and +tend all to the same point. Such an uniformity cannot exist without +an uniformity of sentiment as to public matters, and to produce this +latter uniformity amongst you is the object of this address. + +As to the cause of our present miseries, it is the enormous amount of +the taxes which the Government compels us to pay for the support of +its army, its placemen, its pensioners, etc., and for the payment of +the interest of its debt. That this is the _real_ cause has been a +thousand times proved; and it is now so acknowledged by the creatures +of the Government themselves. Two hundred and five of the +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture ascribe the ruin of the +country to taxation. Numerous writers, formerly the friends of the +Pitt system, now declare that taxation has been the cause of our +distress. Indeed, when we compare our present state to the state of +the country previous to the wars against France, we must see that our +present misery is owing to no other cause. The taxes then annually +raised amounted to about fifteen millions: they amounted last year to +seventy millions. The nation was then happy; it is now miserable. + +The writers and speakers who labour in the cause of corruption, have +taken great pains to make the labouring classes believe that _they_ +are _not taxed_; that the taxes which are paid by the landlords, +farmers, and tradesmen, do not affect you, the journeymen and +labourers; and that the tax-makers have been very lenient towards +you. But, I hope that you see to the bottom of these things now. You +must be sensible that if all your employers were totally ruined in one +day, you would be wholly without employment and without bread; and, of +course, in whatever degree your employers are deprived of their means, +they must withhold means from you. In America the most awkward common +labourer receives five shillings a day, while provisions are cheaper +in that country than in this. Here, a carter, boarded in the house, +receives about seven pounds a year; in America, he receives about +thirty pounds a year. What is it that makes this difference? Why, in +America the whole of the taxes do not amount to more than about ten +shillings a head upon the whole of the population; while in England +they amount to nearly six pounds a head! _There_, a journeyman or +labourer may support his family well, and save from thirty to sixty +pounds a year: _here_, he amongst you is a lucky man, who can provide +his family with food and with decent clothes to cover them, without +any hope of possessing a penny in the days of sickness or of old age. +_There_, the Chief Magistrate receives six thousand pounds a year; +_here_, the civil list surpasses a million of pounds in amount, and as +much is allowed to each of the Princesses in one year, as the chief +magistrate of America receives in two years, though that country is +nearly equal to this in population. + +A Mr. Preston, a lawyer of great eminence, and a great praiser of +Pitt, has just published a pamphlet, in which is this remark: 'It +should always be remembered, that the eighteen pounds a year paid to +any placeman or pensioner, withdraws from the public the means of +giving active employment to one individual as the head of a family; +thus depriving five persons of the means of sustenance from the fruits +of honest industry and active labour, and rendering them paupers.' +Thus this supporter of Pitt acknowledges the great truth that the +taxes are the cause of a people's poverty and misery and degradation. +We did not stand in need of this acknowledgment; the fact has been +clearly proved before; but it is good for us to see the friends and +admirers of Pitt brought to make this confession. + +It has been attempted to puzzle you with this sort of question: 'If +taxes be the cause of the people's misery, how comes it that they were +not so miserable before the taxes were reduced as they are now?' Here +is a fallacy which you will be careful to detect. I know that the +taxes have been reduced; that is to say, _nominally_ reduced, but not +so in fact; on the contrary, they have, in reality, been greatly +augmented. This has been done by the sleight-of-hand of paper money. +Suppose, for instance, that four years ago, I had a hundred pounds to +pay in taxes, then a hundred and thirty bushels of wheat would have +paid my share. If I have now seventy-five pounds to pay in taxes, it +will require a hundred and ninety bushels of wheat to pay my share of +taxes. Consequently, though my taxes are nominally reduced, they are, +in reality, greatly augmented. This has been done by the legerdemain +of paper money. In 1812, the pound-note was worth only thirteen +shillings in silver. It is now worth twenty shillings. Therefore, when +we now pay a pound-note to the tax-gatherer, we really pay him twenty +shillings where we before paid him thirteen shillings; and the +Landholders who lent pound-notes worth thirteen shillings each, are +now paid their interest in pounds worth twenty shillings each. And the +thing is come to what Sir Francis Burdett told the Parliament it would +come to. He told them in 1811, that if they ever attempted to pay the +interest of their debt in gold and silver, or in paper money equal in +value to gold and silver, the farmers and tradesmen must be ruined, +and the journeymen and labourers reduced to the last stage of misery. + +Thus, then, it is clear that it is the weight of the taxes, under +which you are sinking, which has already pressed so many of you down +into the state of paupers, and which now threatens to deprive many of +you of your existence. We next come to consider what have been the +causes of this weight of taxes. Here we must go back a little in our +history, and you will soon see that this intolerable weight has all +proceeded from the want of a Parliamentary Reform. + +In the year 1764, soon after the present king came to the throne, the +annual interest of the Debt amounted to about five millions, and the +whole of the taxes to about nine millions. But, soon after this, a war +was entered on to compel the Americans to submit to be taxed by the +Parliament, without being represented in that Parliament. The +Americans triumphed, and, after the war was over, the annual interest +of the Debt amounted to about nine millions, and the whole of the +taxes to about fifteen millions. This was our situation when the +French people began their Revolution. The French people had so long +been the slaves of a despotic government, that the friends of freedom +in England rejoiced at their emancipation. The cause of Reform, which +had never ceased to have supporters in England for a great many years, +now acquired new life, and the Reformers urged the Parliament to grant +reform, instead of going to war against the people of France. The +Reformers said: 'Give the nation reform, and you need fear no +revolution.' The Parliament, instead of listening to the Reformers, +crushed them, and went to war against the people of France; and the +consequence of these wars is, that the annual interest of the Debt now +amounts to forty-five millions, and the whole of the taxes, during +each of the last several years, to seventy millions. So that these +wars have ADDED thirty-six millions a year to the interest of the +Debt, and fifty-five millions a year to the amount of the whole of +the taxes! This is the price that we have paid for having checked (for +it is only checked) the progress of liberty in France; for having +forced upon that people the family of Bourbon, and for having enabled +another branch of that same family to restore the bloody Inquisition, +which Napoleon had put down. + +Since the restoration of the Bourbons and of the old Government of +France has been, as far as possible, the grand result of the contest; +since this has been the end of all our fightings and all our past +sacrifices and present misery and degradation; let us see (for the +inquiry is now very full of interest) what sort of Government that was +which the French people had just destroyed, when our Government began +its wars against that people. + +If, only twenty-eight years ago, any man in England had said that the +Government of France was one that ought to be suffered to exist, he +would have been hooted out of any company. It is notorious that that +Government was a cruel despotism; and that we and our forefathers +always called it such. This description of that Government is to be +found in all our histories, in all our Parliamentary debates, in all +our books on Government and politics. It is notorious, that the family +of Bourbon has produced the most perfidious and bloody monsters that +ever disgraced the human form. It is notorious that millions of +Frenchmen have been butchered, and burnt, and driven into exile by +their commands. It is recorded, even in the history of France, that +one of them said that the putrid carcass of a Protestant smelt sweet +to him. Even in these latter times, so late as the reign of Louis +XIV., it is notorious that hundreds of thousands of innocent people +were put to the most cruel death. In some instances, they were burnt +in their houses; in others they were shut into lower rooms, while the +incessant noise of kettle-drums over their heads, day and night, drove +them to raving madness. To enumerate all the infernal means employed +by this tyrant to torture and kill the people, would fill a volume. +Exile was the lot of those who escaped the swords, the wheels, the +axes, the gibbets, the torches of his hell-hounds. England was the +place of refuge for many of these persecuted people. The grandfather +of the present Earl of Radnor, and the father of the venerable Baron +Maseres were amongst them; and it is well known that England owes no +inconsiderable part of her manufacturing skill and industry to that +atrocious persecution. Enemies of freedom, wherever it existed, this +family of Bourbon, in the reign of Louis XIV. and XV., fitted out +expeditions for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the throne of +England, and thereby caused great expense and blood-shed to this +nation; and, even the Louis who was beheaded by his subjects, did, in +the most perfidious manner, make war upon England, during her war +with America. No matter what was the nature of the cause, his conduct +was perfidious; he professed peace while he was preparing for war. His +object could not be to assist freedom, because his own subjects were +slaves. + +Such was the family that were ruling in France when the French +Revolution began. After it was resolved to go to war against the +people of France, all the hirelings of corruption were set to work to +gloss over the character and conduct of the old Government, and to +paint in the most horrid colours the acts of vengeance which the +people were inflicting on the numerous tyrants, civil, military, and +ecclesiastical, whom the change of things had placed at their mercy. +The people's turn was now come, and, in the days of their power, they +justly bore in mind the oppressions which they and their forefathers +had endured. The taxes imposed by the Government became at last +intolerable. It had contracted a great debt to carry on its wars. In +order to be able to pay the interest of this debt, and to support an +enormous standing army in time of peace, it laid upon the people +burdens which they could no longer endure. It fined and flogged +fathers and mothers if their children were detected in smuggling. Its +courts of justice were filled with cruel and base judges. The nobility +treated the common people like dogs; these latter were compelled to +serve as soldiers, but were excluded from all share, or chance of +honour and command, which were engrossed by the nobility. + +Now, when the time came for the people to have the power in their +hands, was it surprising that the first use they made of it was to +take vengeance on their oppressors? I will not answer this question +myself. It shall be answered by Mr. Arthur Young, the present +Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. He was in France at the time, +and living upon the very spot, and having examined into the causes of +the Revolution, he wrote and published the following remarks, in his +_Travels_, vol. i. page 603:-- + + 'It is impossible to justify the excesses of the people on + their taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of + cruelties; it is idle to deny the facts, for they have been + proved too clearly to admit of doubt. But is it really the + people to whom we are to impute the whole? Or to their + oppressors, who had kept them so long in a state of bondage? + He who chooses to be served by slaves and by ill-treated + slaves, must know that he holds both his property and his + life by a tenure far different from those who prefer the + service of well-treated freemen; and he who dines to the + music of groaning sufferers, must not, in the moment of + insurrection, complain that his sons' throats are cut. When + such evils happen, they surely are more imputable to the + tyranny of the master than to the cruelty of the servant. The + analogy holds with the French peasants. The murder of a + seigneur, or a country seat in flames, is recorded in every + newspaper; the rank of the person who suffers attracts + notice; but where do we find the registers of that seigneur's + oppressions of his peasantry, and his exactions of feudal + services from those whose children were dying around them for + want of bread? Where do we find the minutes that assigned + these starving wretches to some vile pettifogger, to be + fleeced by impositions, and mockery of justice, in the + seigneural courts? Who gives us the awards of the Intendant + and his _sub-delegues_, which took off the taxes of a man of + fashion, and laid them with accumulated weight on the poor, + who were so unfortunate as to be his neighbours? Who has + dwelt sufficiently upon explaining all the ramifications of + despotism, regal, aristocratical, and ecclesiastical, + pervading the whole mass of the people; reaching, like a + circulating fluid, the most distant capillary tubes of + poverty and wretchedness? In these cases the sufferers are + too ignoble to be known; and the mass too indiscriminate to + be pitied. But should a philosopher feel and reason thus? + Should he mistake the cause for the effect? and, giving all + his pity to the few, feel no compassion for the many, because + they suffer in his eyes not individually but by millions? The + excesses of the people cannot, I fear, be justified; it would + undoubtedly have done them credit, both as men and as + Christians, if they had possessed their new acquired power + with moderation. But let it be remembered that the populace + in no country ever use power with moderation; excess is + inherent in their aggregate constitution: and as every + Government in the world knows that violence infallibly + attends power in such hands, it is doubly bound in common + sense, and for common safety, so to conduct itself, that the + people may not find an interest in public confusions. They + will always suffer much and long, before they are effectually + roused; nothing, therefore, can kindle the flame but such + oppressions of some classes or order in society as give able + men the opportunity of seconding the general mass; discontent + will diffuse itself around; and if the Government take not + warning in time, it is alone answerable for all the burnings + and all the plunderings and all the devastation and all the + blood that follow.' + +Who can deny the justice of these observations? It was the Government +alone that was justly chargeable with the excesses committed in this +early stage, and, in fact, in every other stage, of the Revolution of +France. If the Government had given way in time, none of these +excesses would have been committed. If it had listened to the +complaints, the prayers, the supplications, the cries of the +cruelly-treated and starving people; if it had changed its conduct, +reduced its expenses, it might have been safe under the protection of +the peace-officers, and might have disbanded its standing army. But it +persevered; it relied upon the bayonet, and upon its judges and +hangmen. The latter were destroyed, and the former went over to the +side of the people. Was it any wonder that the people burnt the houses +of their oppressors, and killed the owners and their families? The +country contained thousands upon thousands of men that had been ruined +by taxation, and by judgments of infamous courts of justice, 'a +mockery of justice'; and, when these ruined men saw their oppressors +at their feet, was it any wonder that they took vengeance upon them? +Was it any wonder that the son, who had seen his father and mother +flogged, because he, when a child, had smuggled a handful of salt, +should burn for an occasion to shoot through the head the ruffians who +had thus lacerated the bodies of his parents? Moses slew the insolent +Egyptian who had smitten one of his countrymen in bondage. Yet Moses +has never been called either a murderer or a cruel wretch for this +act; and the bondage of the Israelites was light as a feather compared +to the tyranny under which the people of France had groaned for ages. +Moses resisted oppression in the only way that resistance was in his +power. He knew that his countrymen had no chance of justice in any +court; he knew that petitions against his oppressors were all in vain; +and 'looking upon the burdens' of his countrymen, he resolved to begin +the only sort of resistance that was left him. Yet it was little more +than a mere insult that drew forth his anger and resistance; and, if +Moses was justified, as he clearly was, what needs there any apology +for the people of France? + +It seems at first sight very strange that the Government of France +should not have 'taken warning in time.' But it had so long been in +the habit of despising the people that its mind was incapable of +entertaining any notion of danger from the oppressions heaped upon +them. It was surrounded with panders and parasites who told it nothing +but flattering falsehoods; and it saw itself supported by two hundred +and fifty thousand bayonets, which it thought irresistible; though it +found in the end that those who wielded those bayonets were not long +so base as to be induced, either by threats or promises, to butcher +their brothers and sisters and parents. And, if you ask me how it +came to pass that they did not 'take warning in time,' I answer that +they did take warning, but that, seeing that the change which was +coming would deprive them of a great part of their power and +emoluments, they resolved to resist the change, and to destroy the +country, if possible, rather than not have all its wealth and power to +themselves. The ruffian whom we read of, a little time ago, who +stabbed a young woman because she was breaking from him to take the +arm of another man whom she preferred, acted upon the principle of the +ministers, the noblesse, and the clergy of France. They could no +longer unjustly possess, therefore they would destroy. They saw that +if a just government were established; that if the people were fairly +represented in a national council; they saw that if this were to take +place, they would no longer be able to wallow in wealth at the expense +of the people; and, seeing this, they resolved to throw all into +confusion, and, if possible, to make a heap of ruins of that country +which they could no longer oppress, and the substance of which they +could no longer devour. + +Talk of violence indeed! Was there anything too violent, anything too +severe to be inflicted on these men? It was they who produced +confusion; it was they who caused the massacres and guillotinings; it +was they who destroyed the kingly government; it was they who brought +the king to the block. They were answerable for all and for every +single part of the mischief, as much as Pharaoh was for the plagues in +Egypt, which history of Pharaoh seems, by the bye, to be intended as a +lesson to all future tyrants. He 'set taskmasters over the Israelites +to afflict them with burdens; and he made them build treasure cities +for him; he made them serve with rigour; he made their lives bitter +with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of +service of the field; he denied them straw, and insisted upon their +making the same quantity of bricks, and because they were unable to +obey, the taskmasters called them idle and beat them.' Was it too much +to scourge and to destroy all the first-born of men who could +tolerate, assist, and uphold a tyrant like this? Yet was Pharaoh less +an oppressor than the old government of France. + +Thus, then, we have a view of the former state of that country, by +wars against the people of which we have been brought into our present +state of misery. There are many of the hirelings of corruption, who +actually insist on it that we ought now to go to war again for the +restoring of all the cruel despotism which formerly existed in France. +This is what cannot be done, however. Our wars have sent back the +Bourbons; but the tithes, the seigneurs, and many other curses have +not been restored. The French people still enjoy much of the benefit +of the Revolution; and great numbers of their ancient petty tyrants +have been destroyed. So that even were things to remain as they are, +the French people have gained greatly by their Revolution. But things +cannot remain as they are. Better days are at hand. + +In proceeding now to examine the remedies for your distresses, I shall +first notice some of those which foolish, or cruel and insolent men +have proposed. Seeing that the cause of your misery is the weight of +taxation, one would expect to hear of nothing but a reduction of +taxation in the way of remedy; but from the friends of corruption +never do we hear of any such remedy. To hear them, one would think +that _you_ had been the guilty cause of the misery you suffer; and +that you, and you alone, ought to be made answerable for what has +taken place. The emissaries of corruption are now continually crying +out against the weight of the Poor-rates, and they seem to regard all +that is taken in that way as a dead loss to the Government! Their +project is to deny relief to all who are able to work. But what is the +use of your being able to work, if no one will, or can, give you work? +To tell you that you must work for your bread, and, at the same time, +not to find any work for you, is full as bad as it would be to order +you to make bricks without straw. Indeed, it is rather more cruel and +insolent; for Pharaoh's taskmasters did point out to the Israelites +that they might go into the fields and get _stubble_. The _Courier_ +newspaper of the 9th of October, says, 'We must thus be cruel only to +be kind.' I am persuaded that you will not understand this kindness, +while you will easily understand the cruelty. The notion of these +people seems to be that everybody that receives money out of the taxes +has a right to receive it, except you. They tremble at the fearful +amount of the Poor-rates: they say, and very truly, that those rates +have risen from two and a half to eight or ten millions since the +beginning of the wars against the people of France; they think, and +not without reason, that these rates will soon swallow up nearly all +the rent of the land. These assertions and apprehensions are perfectly +well founded; but how can _you_ help it? You have not had the +management of the affairs of the nation. It is not you who have ruined +the farmers and tradesmen. You only want food and raiment: you are +ready to work for it; but you cannot go naked and without food. + +But the complaints of these persons against you are the more +unreasonable, because they say not a word against the sums paid to +sinecure placemen and pensioners. Of the five hundred and more +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture, there are scarcely ten who +do not complain of the weight of the Poor-rates, of the immense sums +taken away from them by the poor, and many of them complain of the +idleness of the poor. But not one single man complains of the immense +sums taken away to support sinecure placemen, who do nothing for their +money, and to support pensioners, many of whom are women and children, +the wives and daughters of the nobility and other persons in high +life, and who can do nothing, and never can have done anything for +what they receive. There are of these places and pensions all sizes, +from twenty pounds to thirty thousand and nearly forty thousand pounds +a year! And surely these ought to be done away before any proposition +be made to take the parish allowance from any of you who are unable to +work, or to find work to do. There are several individual placemen, +the profits of each of which would maintain a thousand families. The +names of the ladies upon the pension list would, if printed, one under +another, fill a sheet of paper like this. And is it not, then, base +and cruel at the same time in these Agricultural correspondents to cry +out so loudly against the charge of supporting the unfortunate poor, +while they utter not a word of complaint against the sinecure places +and pensions? + +The unfortunate journeymen and labourers and their families have a +right, they have a just claim, to relief from the purses of the rich. +For there can exist no riches and no resources which they by their +labour have not assisted to create. But I should be glad to know how +the sinecure placemen and lady pensioners have assisted to create +food and raiment, or the means of producing them. The labourer who is +out of work or ill, to-day, may be able to work, and set to work +to-morrow. While those placemen and pensioners never can work; or, at +least, it is clear that they never intend to do it. + +You have been represented by the _Times_ newspaper, by the _Courier_, +by the _Morning Post_, by the _Morning Herald_, and others, as the +_scum_ of society. They say that you have no business at public +meetings; that you are rabble, and that you pay no taxes. These +insolent hirelings, who wallow in wealth, would not be able to put +their abuse of you in print were it not for your labour. You create +all that is an object of taxation; for even the land itself would be +good for nothing without your labour. But are you not taxed? Do you +pay no taxes? One of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture +has said that care has been taken to lay as little tax as possible on +the articles used by you. One would wonder how a man could be found +impudent enough to put an assertion like this upon paper. But the +people of this country have so long been insulted by such men, that +the insolence of the latter knows no bounds. + +The tax gatherers do not, indeed, come to you and demand money of you: +but there are few articles which you use, in the purchase of which you +do not pay a tax. + +On your shoes, salt, beer, malt, hops, tea, sugar, candles, soap, +paper, coffee, spirits, glass of your windows, bricks and tiles, +tobacco: on all these, and many other articles you pay a tax, and even +on your loaf you pay a tax, because everything is taxed from which the +loaf proceeds. In several cases the tax amounts to more than one half +of what you pay for the article itself; these taxes go in part to +support sinecure placemen and pensioners; and the ruffians of the +hired press call you the scum of society, and deny that you have any +right to show your faces at any public meeting to petition for a +reform, or for the removal of any abuse whatever! + +Mr. Preston, whom I quoted before, and who is a member of Parliament +and has a large estate, says upon this subject, 'Every family, even of +the poorest labourer, consisting of five persons, may be considered as +paying, in indirect taxes, at least ten pounds a year, or more than +half his wages at seven shillings a week!' And yet the insolent +hirelings call you the mob, the rabble, the scum, the swinish +multitude, and say that your voice is nothing; that you have no +business at public meetings; and that you are, and ought to be +considered as nothing in the body politic! Shall we never see the day +when these men will change their tone! Will they never cease to look +upon us [as on] brutes! I trust they will change their tone, and that +the day of the change is at no great distance! + +The weight of the Poor-rate, which must increase while the present +system continues, alarms the corrupt, who plainly see that what is +paid to relieve you, they cannot have. Some of them, therefore, hint +at your early marriages as a great evil, and a clergyman named Malthus +has seriously proposed measures for checking you in this respect; +while one of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture complains +of the increase of bastards, and proposes severe punishment on the +parents! How hard these men are to please! What would they have you +do? As some have called you the swinish multitude, would it be much +wonder if they were to propose to serve you as families of young pigs +are served? Or if they were to bring forward the measure of Pharaoh, +who ordered the midwives to kill all the male children of the +Israelites? + +But, if you can restrain your indignation at these insolent notions +and schemes, with what feelings must you look upon the condition of +your country, where the increase of the people is now looked upon as a +curse! Thus, however, has it always been, in all countries where taxes +have produced excessive misery. Our countryman, Mr. Gibbon, in his +History of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, has the +following passage: 'The horrid practice of murdering their new-born +infants was become every day more frequent in the provinces. It was +the effect of _distress_, and the distress was principally occasioned +by the _intolerable burden of taxes_, and by the vexatious as well as +cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their +insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of +mankind, instead of rejoicing at an increase of family, deemed it an +act of paternal tenderness to release the children from the impending +miseries of a life which they themselves were unable to support.' + +But that which took place under the base Emperor Constantine will not +take place in England. You will not murder your new-born infants, nor +will you, to please the corrupt and insolent, debar yourselves from +enjoyments to which you are invited by the very first of Nature's +laws. It is, however, a disgrace to the country that men should be +found in it capable of putting ideas so insolent upon paper. So, then, +a young man arm-in-arm with a rosy-cheeked girl must be a spectacle of +evil omen! What! and do they imagine that you are thus to be +extinguished, because some of you are now (without any fault of yours) +unable to find work? As far as you were wanted to labour, to fight, or +to pay taxes, you were welcome, and they boasted of your numbers; but +now that your country has been brought into a state of misery, these +corrupt and insolent men are busied with schemes for getting rid of +you. Just as if you had not as good a right to live and to love and to +marry as they have! They do not propose, far from it, to check the +breeding of sinecure placemen and pensioners, who are supported in +part by the taxes which you help to pay. They say not a word about the +whole families who are upon the pension list. In many cases there are +sums granted in trust for _the children_ of such a lord or such a +lady. And while labourers and journeymen who have large families too, +are actually paying taxes for the support of these lords' and ladies' +children, these cruel and insolent men propose that they shall have no +relief, and that their having children ought to be checked! To such a +subject no words can do justice. You will feel as you ought to feel; +and to the effect of your feelings I leave these cruel and insolent +men. + +There is one more scheme to notice, which, though rather less against +nature is not less hateful and insolent; namely, to encourage you to +emigrate to foreign countries. This scheme is distinctly proposed to +the Government by one of the correspondents of the Board of +Agriculture. What he means by encouragement must be to send away by +force, or by paying for the passage; for a man who has money stands in +no need of relief. But, I trust, that not a man of you will move, let +the _encouragement_ be what it may. It is impossible for many to go, +though the prospect be ever so fair. We must stand by our country, and +it is base not to stand by her, as long as there is a chance of seeing +her what she ought to be. But the proposition is, nevertheless, base +and insolent This man did not propose to encourage the sinecure +placemen and pensioners to emigrate; yet, surely, you who help to +maintain them by the taxes which you pay, have as good a right to +remain in the country as they have! You have fathers and mothers and +sisters and brothers and children and friends as well as they; but +this base projector recommends that you may be encouraged to leave +your relations and friends for ever; while he would have the sinecure +placemen and pensioners remain quietly where they are! + +No: you will not leave your country. If you have suffered much and +long, you have the greater right to remain in the hope of seeing +better days. And I beseech you not to look upon yourselves as the +_scum_; but, on the contrary, to be well persuaded that a great deal +will depend upon your exertions; and therefore, I now proceed to point +out to you what appears to me to be the line of conduct which +journeymen and labourers ought to pursue in order to obtain effectual +relief, and to assist in promoting tranquillity and restoring the +happiness of the country. + +We have seen that the cause of our miseries is the burden of taxes +occasioned by wars, by standing armies, by sinecures, by pensions, +etc. It would be endless and useless to enumerate all the different +heads or sums of expenditure. The remedy is what we have now to look +to, and that remedy consists wholly and solely of such a reform in the +Commons' or People's House of Parliament, as shall give to every payer +of direct taxes a vote at elections, and as shall cause the Members to +be elected annually. + +In a late _Register_ I have pointed out how easily, how peaceably, how +fairly, such a Parliament might be chosen. I am aware that it may, and +not without justice, be thought wrong to deprive those of the right of +voting who pay indirect taxes. Direct taxes are those which are +directly paid by any person into the hands of the tax-gatherers, as +the assessed rates and taxes. Indirect taxes are those which are paid +indirectly through the maker or seller of goods, as the tax on soap or +candles or salt or malt. And, as no man ought to be taxed without his +consent, there has always been a difficulty upon this head. There has +been no question about the _right_ of every man who is free to +exercise his will, who has a settled place in society, and who pays a +tax of any sort, to vote for Members of Parliament. The difficulty is +in taking the votes by any other means than by the Rate-book; for if +there be no list of tax-payers in the hands of any person, mere menial +servants, vagrants, pickpockets, and scamps of all sorts might not +only come to the poll, but they might poll in several parishes or +places, on one and the same day. A corrupt rich man might employ +scores of persons of this description, and in this way would the +purpose of reform be completely defeated. In America, where one branch +of the Congress is elected for four years and the other for two years, +they have still adhered to the principle of direct taxation, and in +some of the States they have made it necessary for a voter to be worth +one hundred pounds. Yet they have, in that country, duties on goods, +custom duties, and excise duties also; and, of course, there are many +persons who really pay taxes, and who, nevertheless, are not permitted +to vote. The people do not complain of this. They know that the number +of votes is so great that no corruption can take place, and they have +no desire to see livery servants, vagrants, and pickpockets take part +in their elections. Nevertheless it would be very easy for a reformed +Parliament, when once it had taken root, to make a just arrangement of +this matter. The most likely method would be to take off the indirect +taxes, and to put a small direct tax upon every master of a house, +however low his situation in life. + +But this and all other good things, must be done by a reformed +Parliament. We must have that first, or we shall have nothing good; +and any man who would beforehand take up your time with the detail of +what a reformed Parliament ought to do in this respect, or with +respect to any changes in the form of government, can have no other +object than that of defeating the cause of reform; and, indeed, the +very act must show, that to raise obstacles is his wish. + +Such men, now that they find you justly irritated, would persuade you +that, because things have been perverted from their true ends, there +is nothing good in our constitution and laws. For what, then, did +Hampden die in the field, and Sydney on the scaffold? And has it been +discovered at last that England has always been an enslaved country +from top to toe? The Americans, who are a very wise people, and who +love liberty with all their hearts, and who take care to enjoy it too, +took special care not to part with any of the great principles and +laws which they derived from their forefathers. They took special care +to speak with reverence of, and to preserve Magna Charta, the Bill of +Rights, the Habeas Corpus, and not only all the body of the Common Law +of England, but most of the rules of our courts, and all our form of +jurisprudence. Indeed it is the greatest glory of England that she has +thus supplied with sound principles of freedom those immense regions +which will be peopled perhaps by hundreds of millions. + +I know of no enemy of reform and of the happiness of the country so +great as that man who would persuade you that we possess nothing good, +and that all must be torn to pieces. There is no principle, no +precedent, no regulations (except as to mere matter of detail), +favourable to freedom, which is not to be found in the Laws of +England or in the example of our ancestors. Therefore I say we may ask +for, and we want nothing new. We have great constitutional laws and +principles to which we are immovably attached. We want great +alteration, but we want nothing new. Alteration, modification, to suit +the times and circumstances; but the great principles ought to be and +must, be the same, or else confusion will follow. + +It was the misfortune of the French people that they had no great and +settled principles to refer to in their laws or history. They sallied +forth and inflicted vengeance on their oppressors; but, for want of +settled principles to which to refer they fell into confusion; they +massacred each other; they next flew to a military chief to protect +them even against themselves; and the result has been what we too well +know. Let us therefore congratulate ourselves that we have great +constitutional principles and laws, to which we can refer, and to +which we are attached. + +That reform will come I know, if the people do their duty; and all +that we have to guard against is confusion, which cannot come if +reform take place in time. I have before observed to you that when the +friends of corruption in France saw that they could not prevent a +change, they bent their endeavours to produce confusion, in which they +fully succeeded. They employed numbers of unprincipled men to go about +the country proposing all sorts of mad schemes. They produced first a +confusion in men's minds, and next a civil war between provinces, +towns, villages and families. The tyrant Robespierre, who was exceeded +in cruelty only by some of the Bourbons, was proved to have been in +league with the open enemies of France. He butchered all the real +friends of freedom whom he could lay his hands on, except Paine, whom +he shut up in a dungeon till he was reduced to a skeleton. This +monster was at last put to death himself; and his horrid end ought to +be a warning to any man who may wish to walk in the same path. But I +am, for my part, in little fear of the influence of such men. They +cannot cajole you as Robespierre cajoled the people of Paris. It is, +nevertheless, necessary for you to be on your guard against them, and +when you hear a man talking big and hectoring about projects which go +further than a real and radical reform of the Parliament, be you well +assured that that man would be a second Robespierre if he could, and +that he would make use of you and sacrifice the life of the very last +man of you; that he would ride upon the shoulders of some through +rivers of the blood of others, for the purpose of gratifying his own +selfish and base and insolent ambition. + +In order effectually to avoid the rock of confusion, we should keep +steadily in our eye not only what we wish to be done but what can be +done now. We know that such a reform as would send up a Parliament, +chosen by all payers of direct taxes, is not only just and +reasonable, but easy of execution. I am therefore for accomplishing +that object first; and I am not at all afraid that a set of men who +would really hold the purse of the people, and who had been just +chosen freely by the people, would very soon do everything that the +warmest friend of freedom could wish to see done. + +While, however, you are upon your guard against false friends, you +should neglect no opportunity of doing all that is within your power +to give support to the cause of reform. Petition is the channel for +your sentiments, and there is no village so small that its petition +would not have some weight. You ought to attend at every public +meeting within your reach. You ought to read to and to assist, each +other in coming at a competent knowledge of all public matters. Above +all things, you ought to be unanimous in your object, and not suffer +yourselves to be divided. + +The subject of religion has nothing to do with this great question of +reform. A reformed Parliament would soon do away with all religious +distinctions and disabilities. In their eyes, a Catholic and a +Protestant would both appear in the same light. + +The _Courier_, the _Times_, and other emissaries of corruption, are +constantly endeavouring to direct your wrath against bakers, brewers, +butchers, and other persons who deal in the necessaries of life. But, +I trust that you are not to be stimulated to such a species of +violence. These tradesmen are as much in distress as you. They cannot +help their malt and hops and beer and bread and meat being too dear +for you to purchase. They all sell as cheap as they can, without being +absolutely ruined. The beer you drink is more than half _tax_, and +when the tax has been paid by the seller he must have payment back +again from you who drink, or he must be ruined. The baker has numerous +taxes to pay, and so has the butcher, and so has the miller and the +farmer. Besides, all men are eager to sell, and, if they could sell +cheaper they certainly would, because that would be the sure way of +getting more custom. It is the weight of the taxes which presses us +all to the earth, except those who receive their incomes out of those +taxes. Therefore I exhort you most earnestly not to be induced to lay +violent hands on those who really suffer as much as yourselves. + +On the subject of lowering wages too, you ought to consider that your +employers cannot give to you that which they have not. At present, +corn is high in price, but that high price is no benefit to the +farmer, because it has risen from the badness of the crop, which Mr. +Hunt foretold at the Common Hall, and for the foretelling of which he +was so much abused by the hirelings of the press, who, almost up to +this very moment, have been boasting and thanking God for the goodness +of the crop! The farmer whose corn is half destroyed, gains nothing by +selling the remaining half for double the price at which he would +have sold the whole. If I grow 10 quarters of wheat, and if I save it +all and sell it for two pounds a quarter, I receive as much money as +if I had sold the one-half of it for four pounds a quarter. And I am +better off in the former case, because I want wheat for seed, and +because I want some to consume myself. These matters I recommend to +your serious consideration; because it being unjust to fall upon your +employers to force them to give that which they have not to give, your +conduct in such cases must tend to weaken the great cause in which we +ought all now to be engaged, namely the removal of our burdens through +the means of a reformed Parliament. It is the interest of vile men of +all descriptions to set one part of the people against the other part; +and therefore it becomes you to be constantly on your guard against +their allurements. + +When journeymen find their wages reduced, they should take time to +reflect on the real cause, before they fly on their employers, who are +in many cases in as great or greater distress than themselves. How +many of those employers have of late gone to jail for debt and left +helpless families behind them! The employer's trade falls off. His +goods are reduced in price. His stock loses the half of its value. He +owes money. He is ruined; and how can he continue to pay high wages? +The cause of his ruin is the weight of the taxes, which presses so +heavily on us all, that we lose the power of purchasing goods. But it +is certain that a great many, a very large portion of the farmers, +tradesmen, and manufacturers, have, by their supineness and want of +public spirit, contributed towards the bringing of this ruin upon +themselves and upon you. They have _skulked_ from their public duty. +They have kept aloof from, or opposed all measures for a redress of +grievances; and indeed, they still skulk, though ruin and destruction +stare them in the face. Why do they not now come forward and explain +to you the real cause of the reduction of your wages? Why do they not +put themselves at your head in petitioning for redress? This would +secure their property much better than the calling in of troops, which +can never afford them more than a short and precarious security. In +the days of their prosperity they were amply warned of what has now +come to pass; and the far greater part of them abused and calumniated +those who gave them the warning. Even if they would now act the part +of men worthy of being relieved, the relief to us all would speedily +follow. If they will not; if they will still skulk, they will merit +all the miseries which they are destined to suffer. + +Instead of coming forward to apply for a reduction of those taxes +which are pressing them as well as you to the earth, what are they +doing? Why, they are applying to the Government to add to their +receipts by passing Corn Bills, by preventing foreign wool from being +imported; and many other silly schemes. Instead of asking for a +reduction of taxes they are asking for the means of paying taxes! +Instead of asking for the abolition of sinecure places and pensions, +they pray to be enabled to continue to pay the amount of those places +and pensions! They know very well that the salaries of the judges and +of many other persons were greatly raised, some years ago, on the +ground of the rise in the price of labour and provisions, why then do +they not ask to have those salaries reduced, now that labour is +reduced? Why do they not apply to the case of the judges and others +the arguments which they apply to you? They can talk boldly enough to +you; but they are too great cowards to talk to the Government, even in +the way of petition! Far more honourable is it to be a ragged pauper +than to be numbered among such men. + +These people call themselves the _respectable_ part of the nation. +They are, as they pretend, the virtuous part of the people, because +they are quiet; as if virtue consisted in immobility! There is a +canting Scotchman in London, who publishes a paper called the +'_Champion_' who is everlastingly harping upon the virtues of the +'fireside,' and who inculcates the duty of quiet submission. Might we +ask this Champion of the teapot and milk-jug whether Magna Charta and +the Bill of Rights were won by the fireside? Whether the tyrants of +the House of Stuart and of Bourbon were hurled down by fireside +virtues? Whether the Americans gained their independence, and have +preserved their freedom, by sitting by the fireside? O, no! these were +all achieved by action, and amidst bustle and noise. Quiet indeed! Why +in this quality a log, or a stone, far surpasses even the pupils of +this Champion of quietness; and the chairs round his fireside exceed +those who sit in them. But in order to put these quiet, fireside, +respectable people to the test, let us ask them if they approve of +drunkenness, breaches of the peace, black eyes, bloody noses, fraud, +bribery, corruption, perjury, and subornation of perjury; and if they +say no, let us ask them whether these are not going on all over the +country at every general election. If they answer yes, as they must +unless they be guilty of wilful falsehood, will they then be so good +as to tell us how they reconcile their inactivity with sentiments of +virtue? Some men, in all former ages, have been held in esteem for +their wisdom, their genius, their skill, their valour, their devotion +to country, etc., but never until this age, was _quietness_ deemed a +quality to be extolled. It would be no difficult matter to show that +the quiet, fireside gentry are the most callous and cruel, and, +therefore, the most wicked part of the nation. Amongst them it is that +you find all the peculators, all the blood-suckers of various degrees, +all the borough-voters and their offspring, all the selfish and +unfeeling wretches, who, rather than risk the disturbing of their +ease for one single month, rather than go a mile to hold up their hand +at a public meeting, would see half the people perish with hunger and +cold. The humanity, which is continually on their lips, is all +fiction. They weep over the tale of woe in a novel; but round their +'decent fireside,' never was compassion felt for a real sufferer, or +indignation at the acts of a powerful tyrant. + +The object of the efforts of such writers is clearly enough seen. Keep +all _quiet_! Do not rouse! Keep still! Keep down! Let those who +perish, perish in silence! It will, however, be out of the power of +these quacks, with all their laudanum, to allay the blood which is now +boiling in the veins of the people of this kingdom; who, if they are +doomed to perish, are at any rate resolved not to perish in silence. +The writer whom I have mentioned above, says that he, of course, does +not count 'the lower classes, who, under the pressure of need or under +the influence of ignorant prejudice, may blindly and weakly rush upon +certain and prompt punishment; but that the security of every decent +fireside, every respectable father's best hopes for his children, +still connect themselves with the Government.' And by Government he +clearly means all the mass as it now stands. There is nobody so +callous and so insolent as your sentimental quacks and their patients. +How these 'decent fireside' people would stare, if some morning they +were to come down and find them occupied by uninvited visitors! I +hope they never will. I hope that things will never come to this pass: +but if one thing more than any other tends to produce so sad an +effect, it is the cool insolence with which such men as this writer +treats the most numerous and most suffering classes of the people. + +Long as this Address already is, I cannot conclude without some +observations on the 'Charity Subscriptions' at the London Tavern. The +object of this subscription professes to be to afford relief to the +distressed labourers, etc. About forty thousand pounds have been +subscribed, and there is no probability of its going much further. +There is an absurdity on the face of the scheme; for, as all parishes +are compelled by law to afford relief to every person in distress, it +is very clear that, as far as money is given by these people to +relieve the poor, there will be so much saved in the parish rates. But +the folly of the thing is not what I wish you most to attend to. +Several of the subscribers to this fund receive each of them more than +ten thousand pounds and some more than thirty thousand pounds each, +out of those taxes which you help to pay, and which emoluments not a +man of them proposes to give up. The clergy appear very forward in +this subscription. An Archbishop and a Bishop assisted at the forming +of the scheme. Now then, observe that there has been given out of the +taxes, for several years past, one hundred thousand pounds a year, +for what, think you? Why for the relief of the poor clergy! I have no +account at hand later than that delivered last year, and there I find +this sum!--for the poor clergy! The rich clergy do not pay this sum; +but it comes out of those taxes, part, and a large part of which you +pay on your beer, malt, salt, shoes, etc. I daresay that the 'decent +firesides' of these poor clergy still connect themselves with the +Government. Amongst all our misery we have had to support the +intolerable disgrace of being an object of the charity of a Bourbon +Prince, while we are paying for supporting that family upon the throne +of France. Well! But is this all? We are taxed, at the very same +moment, for the support of the French Emigrants! And you shall see to +what amount. Nay, not only French, but Dutch and others, as appears +from the forementioned account laid before Parliament last year. The +sum, paid out of the taxes, in one year, for the relief of suffering +French Clergy and Laity, St. Domingo Sufferers, Dutch Emigrants, +Corsican Emigrants, was one hundred and eighty-seven thousand seven +hundred and fifty pounds; yes, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand +seven hundred and fifty pounds paid to this set in one year out of +those taxes of which you pay so large a share, while you are insulted +with a subscription to relieve you, and while there are projectors who +have the audacity to recommend schemes for preventing you from +marrying while young, and to induce you to emigrate from your +country! I'll venture my life that the 'decent firesides' of all this +swarm of French clergy and laity, and Dutch, and Corsicans, and St. +Domingo sufferers 'still connect themselves closely with the +Government'; and I will also venture my life that you do not stand in +need of one more word to warm every drop of blood remaining in your +bodies! As to the money subscribed by regiments of soldiers, whose pay +arises from taxes in part paid by you, though it is a most shocking +spectacle to behold, I do not think so much of it. The soldiers are +your fathers, brothers, and sons. But if they were all to give their +whole pay, and if they amount to one hundred and fifty thousand men, +it would not amount to one-half of what is now paid in Poor-rates, and +of course would not add half a pound of bread to every pound which the +unhappy paupers now receive. All the expenses of the Army and Ordnance +amount to an enormous sum--to sixteen or eighteen millions; but the +pay of one hundred and fifty thousand men, at a shilling a day each, +amounts to no more than two million seven hundred and twelve thousand +five hundred pounds. So that, supposing them all to receive a shilling +a day each, the soldiers receive only about a third part of the sum +now paid annually in Poor-rates. + +I have no room, nor have I any desire, to appeal to your passions upon +this occasion. I have laid before you, with all the clearness I am +master of, the causes of our misery, the measures which have led to +those causes, and I have pointed out what appears to me to be the only +remedy--namely a reform of the Commons', or People's House of +Parliament. I exhort you to proceed in a peaceable and lawful manner, +but at the same time to proceed with zeal and resolution in the +attainment of this object. If the skulkers will not join you, if the +'decent fireside' gentry still keep aloof, proceed by yourselves. Any +man can draw up a petition, and any man can carry it up to London, +with instructions to deliver it into trusty hands, to be presented +whenever the House shall meet. Some further information will be given +as to this matter in a future Number. In the meanwhile, I remain your +Friend, WM. COBBETT. + + +TO JACK HARROW, AN ENGLISH LABOURER + +_On the new Cheat which is now on foot, and which goes under the name +of Savings Banks_ + +NORTH HAMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND, +_November 7th, 1818._ + +Friend Jack--You sometimes hear the Parson talk about deceivers, who +go about in sheep's clothing; but who inwardly are ravening wolves. +You frequently hear of the tricks of the London cheats, and I daresay +you have often enough witnessed those of mountebanks and gypsies. But, +Jack, all the tricks of these deceivers and cheaters, if the trickery +of them all were put together, would fall far short of the trick now +playing off under the name of Savings Banks. And seeing that it is +possible that you may be exposed to the danger of having a few pounds +picked out of your pocket by this trick, I think it right to put you +on your guard against the cheat. + +You have before been informed of who and what the Boroughmongers are. +Therefore, at present, I shall enter into no explanation of their +recent conduct. But, in order to give you a clear view of their +motives in this new trick, and which, I think, is about the last in +their budget, I must go back and tell you something of the history of +their Debt, and of what are called the Funds. Some years ago the +Boroughmongers put me into a loathsome prison for two years, made me +pay a thousand pounds fine, and made me enter into recognisances for +seven years, only because I expressed my indignation at the flogging +of Englishmen, in the heart of England, under the superintendence of +hired German troops brought into the country to keep the people in +awe. It pleased God, Jack, to preserve my life and health, while I was +in that prison. And I employed a part of my time in writing a little +book entitled _Paper against Gold_. In this little book I fully +explained all the frauds of what is called the _National Debt_, and +of what are called the _Funds_. But as it is possible that you may not +have seen that little book, I will here tell you enough about these +things to make you see the reasons for the Boroughmongers using this +trick of Savings Banks. + +The Boroughmongers are, you know, those persons (some Lords, some +Baronets, and some Esquires, as they call themselves) who fill, or +nominate others to fill, the seats in the House of Commons. _Commons_ +means the mass of the _people_. So that this is the House of the +People, according to the law of the land. The people--you, I, and all +of us, ought to vote for the men who sit in this House. But the said +Lords, Baronets, and Esquires have taken our rights away, and they +nominate the Members themselves. A _monger_ is a _dealer_, as +ironmonger, cheesemonger, and the like: and as the Lords, Baronets, +and Esquires sometimes sell and sometimes buy seats, and as the seats +are said to be filled by the people in certain Boroughs, these Lords, +Baronets, and Esquires are very properly called _Boroughmongers_; that +is to say, dealers in boroughs or in the seats of boroughs. As all +laws and all other matters of government are set up and enforced at +the will of the two Houses, against whose will the king cannot stir +hand or foot; and as the Boroughmongers fill the seats of the two +Houses, they have all the power, and, of course, the king and the +people have none. Being possessed of all the power; being able to tax +us at their pleasure; being able to hang us for whatever they please +to call a crime; they will, of course, do with our property and +persons just what they please. And accordingly, they take from us more +than the half of our earnings; and they keep soldiers (whom they +deceive) to shoot at us and kill us, if we attempt to resist. They put +us in dungeons when they like. And, in Ireland, they compel people to +remain shut up in their houses from sunset to sunrise, and if any man, +contrary to their commands, goes out of his house in the night, in +order to go to the privy, they punish him very severely; and in that +unhappy country they transport men and women to Botany Bay without any +trial by jury, and merely by the orders of two justices of the peace +appointed by themselves. + +This, Jack, is horrid work to be going on amongst a people who call +themselves _free_; amongst a people who boast of their liberties. But +the facts are so; and now I shall explain to you how the +Boroughmongers, who are so few in number compared to the whole people, +are able to commit these cruel acts and to carry on this abominable +tyranny; and you will see that the trick of Savings Banks makes a part +of the means, which they now intend to use for the perpetuating of +this tyranny. + +Formerly, more than a hundred years ago, when the kings of England +had some real power, and before the Boroughmongers took all the powers +of king and people into their hands, the people, when the kings +behaved amiss, used to rise against them and compel them to act +justly. They beheaded Charles the First about one hundred and seventy +years ago; and they drove James the Second out of the kingdom; they +went so far as to set his family aside for ever, and they put up the +present royal family in its stead. + +This was all very well; but when King James had been driven out, the +Lords and Baronets and Squires conceived the notion of ruling for ever +over king and people. They made Parliaments, which used to be annual, +three years of duration; and when the members had been elected for +three years, the members themselves made a law to make the people obey +them for seven years. Thus was the usurpation completed; and from that +time to this the Boroughmongers have filled the seats just as it has +pleased them to do it; and they have, as I said before, done with our +property and our persons just what they have pleased to do. + +Now it will naturally be matter of wonder to you, friend Jack, that +this small band of persons, and of debauched wretched persons too, any +half dozen of whom you would be able to beat with one hand tied down; +it will be matter of wonder to you that this contemptible band should +have been able thus to subjugate, and hold in bondage so degrading, +the whole of the English people. But, Jack, recollect that once a +parcel of fat, lazy, drinking, and guttling monks and friars were able +to make this same people to work and support them in their laziness +and debaucheries, aye, and almost to adore them, too; to go to them, +and kneel down and confess their sins to them, and to believe that it +was in their power to absolve them of their sins. Now how was it that +these fat, these bastard-propagating rascals succeeded in making the +people do this? Why by fraud; by deception; by cheatery; by making +them believe lies; by frightening them half out of their wits; by +making them believe that they would go to hell if they did not work +for them. A ten-thousandth part of the people were able to knock the +greasy vagabonds on the head; and they would have done it too; but +they were afraid of going to hell if they had no priest to pardon +them. + +Thus did these miscreants govern by fraud. The Boroughmongers, as I +shall by and by show, have of late been compelled to resort to open +force; but for a long while they governed by fraud alone. First they, +by the artful and able agents which they have constantly kept in pay, +frightened the people with the pretended dangers of a return of the +old king's family. The people were amused with this scarecrow, while +the chains were silently forging to bind them with. But the great +fraud, the cheat of all cheats, was what they call the national debt. +And now, Jack, pray attend to me; for I am going to explain the chief +cause of all the disgraces and sufferings of the labourers in England; +and am also going to explain the reasons or motives which the +Boroughmongers have for setting on foot this new fraud of Savings +Banks. I beg you, Jack, if you have no other leisure time, to stay at +home instead of going to church, for one single Sunday. Shave +yourself, put on a clean shirt, and sit down and read this letter ten +times over, until you understand every word of it. And if you do that, +you will laugh at the parson and tax-gatherer's coaxings about Savings +Banks. You will keep your odd pennies to yourself; or lay them out in +bread or bacon. + +You have heard, I daresay, a great deal about the national debt; and +now I will tell you what this thing is, and how it came, and then you +will see what an imposture it is, and how shamefully the people of +England have been duped and robbed. + +The Boroughmongers having usurped all the powers of government, and +having begun to pocket the public money at a great rate, the people +grew discontented. They began to think that they had done wrong in +driving King James away. In a pretty little fable-book, there is a +fable which says that the frogs, who had a log of wood for king, +prayed to Jupiter to send them something more active. He sent them a +stork, or heron, which gobbled them up alive by scores! The people of +England found in the Boroughmongers what the poor frogs found in the +stork; and they began to cry out against them and to wish for the old +king back again. + +The Boroughmongers saw their danger, and they adopted measures to +prevent it. They saw that if they could make it the interest of a +great many rich people to uphold them and their system they should be +able to get along. They therefore passed a law to enable themselves to +borrow money of rich people; and by the same law they imposed it on +the people at large to pay, for ever, the interest of the money so by +them borrowed. + +The money which they thus borrowed they spent in wars, or divided +amongst themselves, in one shape or another. Indeed the money spent in +wars was pocketed, for the greater part, by themselves. Thus they +owed, in time, immense sums of money; and as they continued to pass +laws to compel the nation at large to pay the interest of what they +borrowed, spent and pocketed, they called and still call this debt, +the debt of the nation; or, in the usual words, the national debt. + +It is curious to observe that there has seldom been known in the world +any very wicked and mischievous scheme of which a priest of some +description or other was not at the bottom. This scheme, certainly as +wicked in itself as any that was ever known, and far more mischievous +in its consequences than any other, was the offspring of a Bishop of +Salisbury, whose name was Burnet; a name that we ought to teach our +very children to execrate. This crafty priest was made a Bishop for +his invention of this scheme; a fit reward for such a service. + +The Boroughmongers began this debt one hundred and twenty-four years +ago. They have gone on borrowing ever since; and have never paid off +one farthing, and never can. They have continued to pass Acts to make +the people pay the interest of what has been borrowed; till, at last, +the debt itself amounts to more than all the lands, all the houses, +all the trees, all the canals and all the mines would sell for at +their full sterling value; and the money to pay the interest is taken +out of men's rents and out of their earnings; and you, Jack, as I +shall by and by prove to you, pay to the Boroughmongers more than the +half of what you receive in weekly wages from your master. + +Is not this a pretty state of things? Pray observe, Jack, the debt far +exceeds the real full value of the whole kingdom, if there could be a +purchaser found for it. So that, you see, as to private property no +man has any, as long as this debt hangs upon the country. Your master, +Farmer Gripe, for instance, calls his farm _his_. It is none of his, +according to the Boroughmongers' law; for that law has pawned it for +the payment of the interest of the Boroughmongers' debt; and the pawn +must remain as long as the Boroughmongers' law remains. Gripe is +compelled to pay out of the yearly value of his farm a certain portion +to the debt. He may, indeed, sell the farm; but he can get only a part +of the value; because the purchaser will have to pay a yearly sum on +account of the pawn. In short, the Boroughmongers have, in fact, +passed laws to take every man's private property away from him, in +whatever portions their debt may demand such taking away; and a man +who thinks himself an owner of land, is at best only a steward who +manages it for the Boroughmongers. + +This, however, is only a small part of the evil; for the whole of the +rents of the houses and lands and mines and canals would not pay the +interest of this debt; no, and not much more than the half of it. The +labour is therefore pawned too. Every man's labour is pawned for the +payment of the interest of this debt. Aye, Jack, you may think that +you are working for yourself, and that, when on a Saturday night you +take nine shillings from Farmer Gripe, the shillings are for your own +use. You are grievously deceived, for more than half the sum is paid +to the Boroughmongers on account of the pawn. You do not see this, but +the fact is so. Come, what are the things in which you expend the nine +shillings? Tea, sugar, tobacco, candles, salt, soap, shoes, beer, +bread; for no meat do you ever taste. On the articles taken together, +except bread, you pay far more than half tax; and you will observe +that your master's taxes are, in part, pinched out of you. There is an +army employed in Ireland to go with the excisemen and other taxers to +make the people pay. If the taxers were to wait at the ale houses and +grocers' shops, and receive their portion from your own hands, you +would then clearly see that the Boroughmongers take away more than the +half of what you earn. You would then clearly see what it is that +makes you poor and ragged, and that makes your children cry for the +want of a bellyful. You would clearly see that what the hypocrites +tell you about this being your lot, and about Providence placing you +in such a state in order to try your patience and faith, is all a base +falsehood. Why does not Providence place the Boroughmongers and the +parsons in a state to try their patience and faith? Is Providence less +anxious to save them than to save you? If you could see clearly what +you pay on account of the Boroughmongers' pawn, you would see that +your misery arises from the designs of a benevolent Providence being +counteracted by the measures of the Borough-tyrants. + +Your lot, indeed! Your lot assigned by Providence! This is real +blasphemy! Just as if Providence, which sends the salt on shore all +round our coast, had ordained that you should not have any of it +unless you would pay the Boroughmongers fifteen shillings a bushel tax +upon it! But what a Providence must that be which would ordain that an +Englishman should pay fifteen shillings tax on a bushel of English +salt, while a Long Islander pays only two shillings and sixpence for a +bushel of the same salt, after it is brought to America from England? +What an idea must we have of such a Providence as this? Oh no, Jack; +this is not the work of Providence. It is the work of the +Boroughmongers; the pretext about Providence has been invented to +deceive and cheat you, and to perpetuate your slavery. + +Well: all is pawned then. The land, the houses, the canals, the mines, +and the labour are pawned for the payment of the interest of the +Boroughmongers debt. Your labour, mind, Jack, is pawned for the +one-half of its worth. But you will naturally ask, how is it that the +nation, that everybody submits to this? There's your mistake, Jack. It +is not _everybody_ that submits. In the first place there are the +Boroughmongers themselves and all their long tribe of relations, +legitimate and spurious, who profit from the taxes, and who have the +church livings, which they enjoy without giving the poor any part of +their legal share of those livings. Then there are all the officers of +army and navy, and all the endless hosts of place-men and place-women, +pensioned men and pensioned women, and all the hosts of tax-gatherers, +who alone, these last I mean, swallow more than would be necessary to +carry on the Government under a reformed Parliament. But have you +forgotten the lenders of the money which makes the debt? These people +live wholly upon the interest of the debt; and of course they approve +of your labour, and the labour of every man being pawned. The +Boroughmongers have pawned your labour to them. Therefore they like +that your labour should be taxed. They cannot be said to submit to the +tyranny; they applaud it, and to their utmost they support it. + +But you will say, still the mass of the people would, if they had a +mind to bestir themselves, be too strong for all these. Very true. But +you forget the army, Jack. This is a great military force, armed with +bayonets, bullets and cannon-balls, ready at all times and in all +places to march or gallop to attack the people, if they attempt to eat +sugar or salt without paying the tax. There are forts, under the name +of barracks, all over the kingdom, where armed men are kept in +readiness for this purpose. In Ireland they actually go in person to +help to collect the taxes; and in England they are always ready to do +the same. Now, suppose, Jack, that a man who has a bit of land by the +seaside, were to take up a little of the salt that Providence sends on +shore. He would be prosecuted. He would resist the process. Soldiers +would come and take him away to be tried and _hanged_. Suppose you, +Jack, were to dip your rushes into grease, till they came to farthing +candles. The Excise would prosecute you. The sheriff would send men to +drag you to jail. You would fight in defence of your house and home. +You would beat off the sheriff's men. Soldiers would come and kill +you, or would take you away to be hanged. + +This is the thing by which the Boroughmongers govern. There are enough +who would gladly not submit to their tyranny; but there is nobody but +themselves who has an army at command. + +Nevertheless they are not altogether easy under these circumstances. +An army is a two-edged weapon. It may cut the employer as well as the +thing that it is employed upon. It is made up of flesh and blood, and +of English flesh and blood too. It may not always be willing to move, +or to strike when moved. The Boroughmongers see that their titles and +estates hang upon the army. They would fain coax the people back again +to feelings of reverence and love. They would fain wheedle them into +something that shall blunt their hostility. They have been trying +Bible-schemes, school-schemes, and soup-schemes. And at last they are +trying the Savings Banks scheme, upon which I shall now more +particularly address you. + +This thing is of the same nature, and its design is the same, as those +of the grand scheme of Bishop Burnet. The people are discontented. +They feel their oppressions; they seek a change; and some of them have +decidedly protested against paying any longer any part of the +interest of the debt, which they say ought to be paid, if at all, by +those who have borrowed and spent, or pocketed, the money. Now then, +in order to enlist great numbers of labourers and artisans on their +side, the Boroughmongers have fallen upon the scheme of coaxing them +to put small sums into what they call _banks_. These sums they pay +large interest upon, and suffer the parties to take them out whenever +they please. By this scheme they think to bind great numbers to them +and their tyranny. They think that great numbers of labourers and +artisans, seeing their little sums increase, as they will imagine, +will begin to conceive the hopes of becoming rich by such means; and +as these persons are to be told that their money is in the _funds_, +they will soon imbibe the spirit of fundholders, and will not care who +suffers, or whether freedom or slavery prevail, so that the funds be +but safe. + +Such is the scheme and such the motives. It will fail of its object, +though not unworthy the inventive powers of the servile knaves of +Edinburgh. It will fail, first because the men from whom alone the +Borough-tyrants have anything to dread, will see through the scheme +and despise it; and will, besides, well know that the funds are a mere +bubble that may burst, or be bursted at any moment. The parsons appear +to be the main tools in this coaxing scheme. They are always at the +head of everything which they think likely to support tyranny. The +depositors will be domestic servants, particularly women, who will be +tickled with the idea of having a fortune in the funds. The +Boroughmongers will hint to their tenants that they must get their +labourers into the Savings Banks. A preference will be given to such +as deposit. The Ladies, the 'Parsons' Ladies,' will scold poor people +into the funds. The parish officers will act their part in this +compulsory process: and thus will the Boroughmongers get into their +hands some millions of the people's money by a sort of 'forced loan': +or in other words, a robbery. In order to swell the thing out, the +parsons and other tools of the Boroughmongers will lend money in this +way themselves, under feigned names; and we shall, if the system last +a year or two, hear boastings of how rich the poor are become. + +Now then, Jack, supposing it possible that Farmer Gripe may, under +pain of being turned out of your cottage, have made you put your +twopence a week into one of these banks, let us see what is the +natural consequence of your so doing. Twopence a week is eight +shillings and eightpence a year; and the interest will make the amount +about nine shillings perhaps. What use is this to you? Will you let it +remain; and will you go on thus for years? You must go on a great many +years, indeed, before your deposit amounts to as much as the +Boroughmongers take from you in one year! Twopence will buy you a +quarter of a pound of meat. This is a dinner for your wife or +yourself. You never taste meat. And why are you to give up half a +pound of your bread to the Boroughmongers. You are ill; your wife is +ill; your children are ill. 'Go to the bank and take out your money,' +says the overseer; 'for I'll give you no aid till that be spent.' Thus +then, you will have been robbing your own starved belly weekly, to no +other end than that of favouring the parish purse, upon which you have +a just and legal claim, until the clergy restore to the poor what they +have taken from them. As the thing now stands, the poor are starved by +others, this scheme is intended to make them assist in the work +themselves, at the same time that it binds them to the tyranny. + +But, Jack, what a monstrous thing is this, that the Boroughmongers +should kindly pass an Act to induce you to save your money, while they +take from you five shillings out of every nine that you earn? Why not +take less from you! That would be the more natural way to go to work, +surely. Why not leave you all your earnings to yourself? Oh, no! They +cannot do that. It is from the labour of men like you that the far +greater part of the money comes to enrich the Boroughmongers, their +relations and dependants. + +However, suppose you have gotten together five pounds in a Savings +Bank. That is to say in the funds. This is a great deal for you, +though it is not half so much as you are compelled to give to the +Boroughmongers in one year. This is a great sum. It is much more than +you ever will have; but suppose you have it. It is _in the funds_, +mind. And now let me tell you what the funds are; which is necessary +if you have not read my little book called _Paper against Gold._ The +funds is _no place_ at all, Jack. It is nothing, Jack. It is +moonshine. It is a lie, a bubble, a fraud, a cheat, a humbug. And it +is all these in the most perfect degree. People think that the funds +is a place where money is kept. They think that it is a place which +contains that which they have deposited. But the fact is, that the +funds is a word which means nothing that the most of the people think +it means. It means the _descriptions of the several sorts of the +debt_. Suppose I owed money to a tailor, to a smith, to a shoemaker, +to a carpenter, and that I had their several bills in my house. I +should in the language of the Boroughmongers, call these bills my +_funds_. The Boroughmongers owe some people annuities at three pounds +for a hundred; some at four pounds for a hundred; some at five pounds +for a hundred; and these annuities, or debts they call their funds. +And, Jack, if the Savings Bank people lend them a good parcel of +money, they will have that money in these debts or funds. They will be +owners of some of those debts which never will and never can be paid. + +But what is this money too in which you are to be paid back again? It +is no money. It is paper; and though that paper will pass just at this +time; it will not long pass, I can assure you, Jack. When you have +worked a fortnight, and get a pound note for it, you set a high value +upon the note, because it brings you food. But suppose nobody would +take the note from you. Suppose no one would give you anything in +exchange for it. You would go back to Farmer Gripe and fling the note +in his face. You would insist upon real money, and you would get it, +or you would tear down his house. This is what will happen, Jack, in a +very short time. + +I will explain to you, Jack, how this matter stands. Formerly +bank-notes were as good as real money, because anybody that had one +might go at any moment, and get real money for it at the Bank. But now +the thing is quite changed. The Bank broke some years ago; that is to +say, it could not pay its notes in real money; and it never has been +able to do it from that time to this; and what is more, it never can +do it again. To be sure the paper passes at present. You take it for +your work, and others take it of you for bread and tea. But the time +may be, and I believe is, very near at hand, when this paper will not +pass at all; and then as the Boroughmongers and the Savings Bank +people have, and can have, no real money, how are you to get your five +pounds back again? + +The bank-notes may be all put down at any moment, if any man of +talent and resolution choose to put them down; and why may not such a +man exist, and have the Disposition to put them down? They are now of +value, as I said before, because they will pass; because people will +take them and will give victuals and drink for them; but, if nobody +would give bread and tea and beer for them, would they then be good +for anything? They are taken because people are pretty sure that they +can pass them again; but who will take them when he does not think +that he can pass them again? And I assure you, Jack, that even I +myself could, before next May-day, do that which would prevent any man +in England from ever taking a bank-note any more. If you should put +five pounds into a Savings Bank, therefore, you could, in such case, +never see a farthing in exchange for it. + +This being a matter of so much importance to you, I will clearly +explain to you how I might easily do the thing. Mind, I do not say +that I will do the thing. Indeed, I will not; and I do not know any +one that intends to do it. But I will show you how I _might_ do it; +because it is right that you should know what a ticklish state your +poor five pounds will be in if you deposit them in the Savings Bank. + +You know, Jack, that _forged_ notes pass till people find them out. +They keep passing very quietly till they come to the Bank, and there +being known for forged notes, the man who carries them to the Bank, or +owns them at the time, loses the amount of them. Suppose now, that Tom +were to forge a note, and pay it to Dick for a pig. Dick would pay it +to Bob for some tea. Bob would send it up to London to pay his +tea-man. The tea-man would send it to the Bank. The Bank would keep +it, and give him nothing for it. If the tea-man forgot whom he got it +from, he must lose. If he could prove that he got it from Bob, Bob +must lose it; and so on; but either Dick or Bob or the tea-man must +lose it. There must be a loss somewhere. + +Now, it is clear that if there were a great quantity of forged notes +in circulation, people would be afraid to take notes at all; and that +if this great quantity came out all of a sudden, it would for a while +put an end to all payments and all trade. And if such great quantity +can with safety be put out, I leave you to guess, Jack, at the +situation of your five pounds. I will now show you, then, that I could +do this myself, and with perfect safety and ease. + +I could have made, at a very trifling expense, a million of pounds in +bank-notes of various amounts. There are fourteen different ways in +which I could send them to England, and lodge them safely there, +without the smallest chance of their arrival being known to any soul +except the man to whom they should be confided. The Banks might +search and ransack every vessel that arrived from America. They might +do what they would. They would never detect the cargo! + +There they are then, safe in London; a famous stock of bank-notes, so +well executed that no human being except the Bank people would be able +to discover the counterfeit. The agent takes a parcel at a time, and +drops them in the street in the dark. This work he carries on for a +week or two in such streets as are best calculated for the purpose, +till he has well stocked the town. He may do the same at Portsmouth +and other great towns if he please, and he may send off large supplies +by post. + +Now, Jack, suppose you were up at London with your master's waggon. +You might find a parcel of notes. You would go to the first shop to +buy your wife a gown and your children some clothes, yourself a hat, a +greatcoat, and some shoes. The rest you would lay out at shops on the +road home; for the sooner you got rid of this _foundal_, the less +chance of having it taken from you. The shopkeepers would thank you +for your custom, and your wife's heart would bound with joy. + +The notes would travel about most merrily. At last they would come to +the Bank. The holders would lose them; but you would gain by them. So +that, upon the whole, there would be no loss, and the maker of the +notes would have no gain. Others would find, and nearly all would do +like you. In a few days the notes would find their way to the Bank in +great numbers, where they would all be stopped. The news would spread +abroad. The thieftakers would be busy. Every man who had had his note +stopped at the Bank would alarm his neighbourhood. The country would +ring with the news. Nobody would take a bank-note. All business would +be at a stand. The farmers would sell no corn for bank-notes. The +millers would have nothing else to pay with. No markets, because no +money. The baker would be able to get no flour. He could sell no +bread, for nobody would have money to pay him. + +Jack, this thing will assuredly take place. Mind, I tell you so. I +have been right in my predictions on former occasions; and I am not +wrong now. I beg you to believe me; or, at any rate, to blame yourself +if you lose by such an event. In the midst of this hubbub what will +you do? Farmer Gripe will, I daresay, give you something to eat for +your labour. But what will become of your five pounds? That sum you +have in the Savings Bank, and as you are to have it out at any time +when you please, your wife sets off to draw it. The banker gives her a +five-pound note. She brings it; but nobody will take it of you for a +pig, for bread, for clothing, or for anything else! And this, Jack, +will be the fate of all those who shall be weak enough to put their +money into those banks! + +I beg you, Jack, not to rely on the power of the Boroughmongers in +this case. Anything that is to be done with halters, gags, dungeons, +bayonets, powder, or ball, they can do a great deal at; but they are +not conjurers; they are not wizards. They cannot prevent a man from +dropping bank-notes in the dark; and they cannot make people believe +in the goodness of that which they must know to be bad. If they could +hold a sword to every man's breast, they might indeed do something; +but short of this, nothing that they can do would be of any avail. +However, the truth is that they, in such case, will have no sword at +all. An army is a powerful weapon; but an army must be paid. Soldiers +have been called machines; but they are eating and drinking machines. +With good food and drink they will go far and do much; but without +them, they will not stir an inch. And in such a case whence is to come +the money to pay them? In short, Jack, the Boroughmongers would drop +down dead, like men in an apoplexy, and you would, as soon as things +got to rights, have your bread and beer and meat and everything in +abundance. + +The Boroughmongers possess no means of preventing the complete success +of the dropping plan. If they do, they ought to thank me for giving +them a warning of their danger; and for telling them that if they do +prevent the success of such a plan, they are the cleverest fellows in +this world. + +I now, Jack, take my leave of you, hoping that you will not be coaxed +out of your money, and assuring you that I am your friend, + +WM. COBBETT. + + + + +VII.--'THE LETTERS OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER' + +BY SIR WALTER SCOTT + + +(_To what has been said in the Introduction respecting the _Letters of +Malachi Malagrowther_ it is only necessary to add that their immediate +cause was a Bill due to the very commercial crisis which indirectly +ruined Scott himself, and introduced in the spring of 1826 for +stopping the note circulation of private banks altogether, while +limiting that of the Bank of England to notes of £5 and upwards. The +scheme, which was to extend to the whole of Great Britain, was from +the first unpopular in Scotland, and Scott plunged into the fray. The +letters excited or coincided with such violent opposition throughout +the country that the Bill was limited to England only. As Scott was a +strong Tory, his friends in the Government, especially Lord Melville +and Croker (who was officially employed to answer 'Malachi'), were +rather sore at his action. He defended himself in some spirited +private letters, which will be found in Lockhart._) + + +A LETTER ON THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY + +_To the Editor of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal_ + +My dear Mr. Journalist--I am by pedigree a discontented person, so +that you may throw this letter into the fire, if you have any +apprehensions of incurring the displeasure of your superiors. I am, in +fact, the lineal descendant of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who makes a +figure in the _Fortunes of Nigel_, and have retained a reasonable +proportion of his ill-luck, and, in consequence, of his ill-temper. +If, therefore, I should chance to appear too warm and poignant in my +observations, you must impute it to the hasty and peevish humour which +I derive from my ancestor. But, at the same time, it often happens +that this disposition leads me to speak useful, though unpleasant +truths, when more prudent men hold their tongues and eat their +pudding. A lizard is an ugly and disgusting thing enough; but, +methinks, if a lizard were to run over my face and awaken me, which is +said to be their custom when they observe a snake approach a sleeping +person, I should neither scorn his intimation, nor feel justifiable +in crushing him to death, merely because he is a filthy little +abridgment of a crocodile. Therefore, 'for my love, I pray you, wrong +me not.' + +I am old, sir, poor, and peevish, and therefore I may be wrong; but +when I look back on the last fifteen or twenty years, and more +especially on the last ten, I think I see my native country of +Scotland, if it is yet to be called by a title so discriminative, +falling, so far as its national, or rather, perhaps, I ought now to +say its _provincial_, interests are concerned, daily into more +absolute contempt. Our ancestors were a people of some consideration +in the councils of the empire. So late as my own younger days, an +English minister would have paused, even in a favourite measure, if a +reclamation of national rights had been made by a member for Scotland, +supported as it uniformly then was, by the voice of her +representatives and her people. Such ameliorations in our peculiar +system as were thought necessary, in order that North Britain might +keep pace with her sister in the advance of improvement, were +suggested by our own countrymen, persons well acquainted with our +peculiar system of laws (as different from those of England as from +those of France), and who knew exactly how to adapt the desired +alteration to the principle of our legislative enactments, so that the +whole machine might, as mechanics say, work well and easily. For a +long time this wholesome check upon innovation, which requires the +assimilation of a proposed improvement with the general constitution +of the country to which it has been recommended, and which ensures +that important point, by stipulating that the measure shall originate +with those to whom the spirit of the constitution is familiar, has +been, so far as Scotland is concerned, considerably disused. Those who +have stepped forward to repair the gradual failure of our +constitutional system of law, have been persons that, howsoever +qualified in other respects, have had little further knowledge of its +construction than could be acquired by a hasty and partial survey, +taken just before they commenced their labours. Scotland and her laws +have been too often subjected to the alterations of any person who +chose to found himself a reputation, by bringing in a bill to cure +some defect which had never been felt in practice, but which was +represented as a frightful bugbear to English statesmen, who, wisely +and judiciously tenacious of the legal practice and principles +received at home, are proportionally startled at the idea of anything +abroad which cannot be brought to assimilate with them. + +The English seem to have made a compromise with the active tendency to +innovation, which is one great characteristic of the day. Wise and +sagacious themselves, they are nervously jealous of innovations in +their own laws--_Nolumus leges Angliae mutari_, is written on the +skirts of their judicial robes, as the most sacred texts of Scripture +were inscribed on the phylacteries of the Rabbis. The belief that the +Common Law of England constitutes the perfection of human reason, is a +maxim bound upon their foreheads. Law Monks they have been called in +other respects, and like monks they are devoted to their own Rule, and +admit no question of its infallibility. There can be no doubt that +their love of a system, which, if not perfect, has so much in it that +is excellent, originates in the most praiseworthy feelings. Call it if +you will the prejudice of education, it is still a prejudice +honourable in itself, and useful to the public. I only find fault with +it, because, like the Friars in the Duenna monopolising the bottle, +these English monks will not tolerate in their lay brethren of the +north the slightest pretence to a similar feeling. + +In England, therefore, no innovation can be proposed affecting the +administration of justice, without being subjected to the strict +enquiry of the Guardians of the Law, and afterwards resisted +pertinaciously, until time and the most mature and reiterated +discussion shall have proved its utility, nay, its necessity. The old +saying is still true in all its points--Touch but a cobweb in +Westminster Hall, and the old spider will come out in defence of it. +This caution may sometimes postpone the adoption of useful +amendments, but it operates to prevent all hasty and experimental +innovations; and it is surely better that existing evils should be +endured for some time longer, than that violent remedies should be +hastily adopted, the unforeseen and unprovided for consequences of +which are often so much more extensive than those which had been +foreseen and reckoned upon. An ordinary mason can calculate upon the +exact gap which will be made by the removal of a corner stone in an +old building; but what architect, not intimately acquainted with the +whole edifice, can presume even to guess how much of the structure is, +or is not, to follow? + +The English policy in this respect is a wise one, and we have only to +wish they would not insist in keeping it all to themselves. But those +who are most devoted to their own religion have least sympathy for the +feelings of dissenters; and a spirit of proselytism has of late shown +itself in England for extending the benefits of their system, in all +its strength and weakness, to a country which has been hitherto +flourishing and contented under its own. They adopted the conclusion +that all English enactments are right; but the system of municipal law +in Scotland is not English, therefore it is wrong. Under sanction of +this syllogism, our rulers have indulged and encouraged a spirit of +experiment and innovation at our expense, which they resist +obstinately when it is to be carried through at their own risk. + +For more than half of last century, this was a practice not to be +thought of. Scotland was during that period disaffected, in bad +humour, armed too, and smarting under various irritating +recollections. This is not the sort of patient for whom an +experimental legislator chooses to prescribe. There was little chance +of making Saunders take the patent pill by persuasion--main force was +a dangerous argument, and some thought claymores had edges. + +This period passed away, a happier one arrived, and Scotland, no +longer the object of terror, or at least great uneasiness, to the +British Government, was left from the year 1750 under the guardianship +of her own institutions, to win her silent way to national wealth and +consequence. Contempt probably procured for her the freedom from +interference, which had formerly been granted out of fear; for the +medical faculty are as slack in attending the garrets of paupers as +the caverns of robbers. But neglected as she was, and perhaps +_because_ she was neglected, Scotland, reckoning her progress during +the space from the close of the American War to the present day, has +increased her prosperity in a ratio more than five times greater than +that of her more fortunate and richer sister. She is now worth the +attention of the learned faculty, and God knows she has had plenty of +it. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall, and _talked_ into +courses of physic, for which she had little occasion. She has been of +late a sort of experimental farm, upon which every political student +has been permitted to try his theory--a kind of common property, where +every juvenile statesman has been encouraged to make his inroads, as +in Moray land, where, anciently, according to the idea of the old +Highlanders, all men had a right to take their prey--a subject in a +common dissecting room, left to the scalpel of the junior students, +with the degrading inscription,--_fiat experimentum in corpore vili_. + +I do not mean to dispute, Sir, that much alteration was necessary in +our laws, and that much benefit has followed many of the great changes +which have taken place. I do not mean to deprecate a gradual approach +to the English system, especially in commercial law. The Jury Court, +for example, was a fair experiment, in my opinion, cautiously +introduced as such, and placed under such regulations as might best +assimilate its forms with those of the existing Supreme Court. I beg, +therefore, to be considered as not speaking of the alterations +themselves, but of the apparent hostility towards our municipal +institutions, as repeatedly manifested in the course of late +proceedings, tending to force and wrench them into a similarity with +those of England. + +The opinions of our own lawyers, nay, of our Judges, than whom wiser +and more honourable men never held that character, have been, if +report speaks true, something too much neglected and controlled in the +course of these important changes, in which, methinks, they ought to +have had a leading and primary voice. They have been almost avowedly +regarded not as persons the best qualified to judge of proposed +innovations, but as prejudiced men, determined to oppose them, right +or wrong. The last public Commission was framed on the very principle, +that if Scotch lawyers were needs to be employed, a sufficient number +of these should consist of gentlemen, who, whatever their talents and +respectability might be in other respects, had been too long estranged +from the study of Scottish law to retain any accurate recollection of +an abstruse science, or any decided partiality for its technical +forms. This was done avowedly for the purpose of evading the natural +partiality of the Scottish Judges and practitioners to their own +system; that partiality which the English themselves hold so sacred a +feeling in their own Judges and Counsel learned in the law. I am not, +I repeat, complaining of the result of the Commissions, but of the +spirit in which the alterations were undertaken. Unquestionably much +was done in brushing up and improving the old machinery of Scottish +Law Courts, and in making it move more rapidly, though scarce, I +think, more correctly than before. Dispatch has been much attended +to. But it may be ultimately found that the timepiece which runs +fastest does not intimate the hour most accurately. At all events, the +changes have been made and established--there let them rest. And had +I, Malachi Malagrowther, the sole power to-morrow of doing so, I would +not restore the old forms of judicial proceedings; because I hold the +constitution of Courts of Justice too serious matters to be put back +or forward at pleasure, like a boy's first watch, merely for +experiment's sake. + +What I _do_ complain of is the general spirit of slight and dislike +manifested to our national establishments by those of the sister +country who are so very zealous in defending their own; and not less +do I complain of their jealousy of the opinions of those who cannot +but be much better acquainted than they, both with the merits and +deficiencies of the system, which hasty and imperfectly informed +judges have shown themselves so anxious to revolutionise. + +There is no explanation to be given of this but one--namely, the +entire conviction and belief of our English brethren that the true +Themis is worshipped in Westminster Hall, and that her adorers cannot +be too zealous in her service; while she, whose image an ingenious +artist has depicted balancing herself upon a _tee-totum_ on the +southern window of the Parliament House of Edinburgh, is a mere +idol,--a Diana of Ephesus,--whom her votaries worship, either because +her shrine brings great gain to the craftsmen, or out of an ignorant +and dotard superstition, which induces them to prefer the old Scottish +_Mumpsimus_ to the modern English _Sumpsimus_. Now, this is not fair +construction in our friends, whose intentions in our behalf, we allow, +are excellent, but who certainly are scarcely entitled to beg the +question at issue without inquiry or discussion, or to treat us as the +Spaniards treated the Indians, whom they massacred for worshipping the +image of the Sun, while they themselves bowed down to that of the +Virgin Mary. Even Queen Elizabeth was contented with the evasive +answer of Melville, when hard pressed with the trying question, +whether Queen Mary or she were the fairest. We are willing, in the +spirit of that answer, to say that the Themis of Westminster Hall is +the best fitted to preside over the administration of the larger, and +more fertile country of beef and pudding; while she of the tee-totum +(placed in that precarious position, we presume, to express her +instability, since these new lights were struck out) claims a more +limited but equally respectful homage, within her ancient +jurisdiction--_sua paupera regna_--the Land of Cakes. If this +compromise does not appease the ardour of our brethren for converting +us to English forms and fashions, we must use the scriptural question, +"Who hath required these things at your hands?" + +The inquiries and result of another Commission are too much to the +purpose to be suppressed. The object was to investigate the conduct of +the Revenue Boards in Ireland and Scotland. In the former, it is well +known, great mismanagement was discovered; for Pat, poor fellow, had +been playing the loon to a considerable extent. In Scotland, _not a +shadow of abuse prevailed_. You would have thought, Mr. Journalist, +that the Irish Boards would have been reformed in some shape, and the +Scotch Establishments honourably acquitted, and suffered to continue +on the footing of independence which they had so long enjoyed, and of +which they had proved themselves so worthy. Not so, sir. The Revenue +Boards, in both countries, underwent exactly the same regulation, were +deprived of their independent consequence, and placed under the +superintendence of English control; the innocent and the guilty being +treated in every respect alike. Now, on the side of Scotland, this was +like Trinculo losing his bottle in the pool--there was not only +dishonour in the thing, but an infinite loss. + +I have heard two reasons suggested for this indiscriminating +application of punishment to the innocent and to the culpable. + +In the first place, it was honestly confessed that Ireland would never +have quietly submitted to the indignity offered to her, unless poor +inoffensive Scotland had been included in the regulation. The Green +Isle, it seems, was of the mind of a celebrated lady of quality, who, +being about to have a decayed tooth drawn, refused to submit to the +operation till she had seen the dentist extract a sound and +serviceable grinder from the jaws of her waiting-woman--and her humour +was to be gratified. The lady was a termagant dame--the wench a +tame-spirited simpleton--the dentist an obliging operator--and the +teeth of both were drawn accordingly. + +This gratification of his humours is gained by Pat's being up with the +pike and shillelagh on any or no occasion. God forbid Scotland should +retrograde towards such a state--much better that the Deil, as in +Burns's song, danced away with the whole excisemen in the country. We +do not want to hear her prate of her number of millions of men, and +her old military exploits. We had better remain in union with England, +even at the risk of becoming a subordinate species of Northumberland, +as far as national consequence is concerned, than remedy ourselves by +even hinting the possibility of a rupture. But there is no harm in +wishing Scotland to have just so much ill-nature, according to her own +proverb, as may keep her good-nature from being abused; so much +national spirit as may determine her to stand by her own rights, +conducting her assertion of them with every feeling of respect and +amity toward England. + +The other reason alleged for this equal distribution of _punishment_, +as if it had been the influence of the common sun, or the general +rain, to the just and the unjust, was one which is extremely +predominant at present with our Ministers--the _necessity_ of +_Uniformity_ in all such cases; and the consideration what an awkward +thing it would be to have a Board of Excise or Customs remaining +independent in the one country, solely because they had, without +impeachment, discharged their duty; while the same establishment was +cashiered in another, for no better reason than that it had been +misused. + +This reminds us of an incident, said to have befallen at the Castle of +Glammis, when these venerable towers were inhabited by a certain old +Earl of Strathmore, who was as great an admirer of uniformity as the +Chancellor of the Exchequer could have desired. He and his gardener +directed all in the garden and pleasure grounds upon the ancient +principle of exact correspondence between the different parts, so that +each alley had its brother; a principle which, renounced by gardeners, +is now adopted by statesmen. It chanced once upon a time that a fellow +was caught committing some petty theft, and, being taken in the +manner, was sentenced by the Bailie Macwheeble of the jurisdiction to +stand for a certain time in the baronial pillory, called the _jougs_, +being a collar and chain, one of which contrivances was attached to +each side of the portal of the great avenue which led to the castle. +The thief was turned over accordingly to the gardener, as +ground-officer, to see the punishment duly inflicted. When the Thane +of Glammis returned from his morning ride, he was surprised to find +both sides of the gateway accommodated each with a prisoner, like a +pair of heraldic supporters, _chained_ and _collared proper_. He asked +the gardener, whom he found watching the place of punishment, as his +duty required, whether another delinquent had been detected? "No, my +Lord," said the gardener, in the tone of a man excellently well +satisfied with himself,--"but I thought the single fellow looked very +awkward standing on one side of the gateway, so I gave half a crown to +one of the labourers to stand on the other side for _uniformity's +sake_." This is exactly a case in point, and probably the only one +which can be found--with this sole difference, that I do not hear that +the members of the Scottish Revenue Board got any boon for standing in +the pillory with those of Ireland--for uniformity's sake. + +Lastly, sir, I come to this business of extending the provisions of +the Bill prohibiting the issue of notes under five pounds to Scotland, +in six months after the period that the regulation shall be adopted in +England. + +I am not about to enter upon the question which so much agitates +speculative writers upon the wealth of nations, or attempt to discuss +what proportion of the precious metals ought to be detained within a +country; what are the best means of keeping it there; or to what +extent the want of specie can be supplied by paper credit: I will not +ask if a poor man can be made a rich one, by compelling him to buy a +service of plate, instead of the delf ware which served his turn. +These are questions I am not adequate to solve. But I beg leave to +consider the question in a practical point of view, and to refer +myself entirely to experience. + +I assume, without much hazard of contradiction, that Banks have +existed in Scotland for near one hundred and twenty years--that they +have flourished, and the country has flourished with them--and that +during the last fifty years particularly, provincial Banks, or +branches of the principal established and chartered Banks, have +gradually extended themselves in almost every Lowland district in +Scotland; that the notes, and especially the small notes, which they +distribute, entirely supply the demand for a medium of currency; and +that the system has so completely expelled gold from the country of +Scotland, that you never by any chance espy a guinea there, unless in +the purse of an accidental stranger, or in the coffers of these Banks +themselves. This is granting the facts of the case as broadly as can +be asked. + +It is not less unquestionable that the consequence of this Banking +system, as conducted in Scotland, has been attended with the greatest +advantage to the country. The facility which it has afforded to the +industrious and enterprising agriculturalist or manufacturer, as well +as to the trustees of the public in executing national works, has +converted Scotland from a poor, miserable, and barren country, into +one, where, if nature has done less, art and industry have done more, +than in perhaps any country in Europe, England herself not excepted. +Through means of the credit which this system has afforded, roads have +been made, bridges built, and canals dug, opening up to reciprocal +communication the most sequestered districts of the country--manufactures +have been established, unequalled in extent or success--wastes have +been converted into productive farms--the productions of the earth for +human use have been multiplied twentyfold, while the wealth of the rich +and the comforts of the poor have been extended in the same proportion. +And all this in a country where the rigour of the climate, and +sterility of the soil, seem united to set improvement at defiance. Let +those who remember Scotland forty years since, bear witness if I speak +truth or falsehood. + +There is no doubt that this change has been produced by the facilities +of procuring credit, which the Scottish Banks held forth, both by +discounting bills, and by granting cash-accounts. Every undertaking of +consequence, whether by the public or by individuals, has been carried +on by such means; at least exceptions are extremely rare. + +There is as little doubt that the Banks could not have furnished these +necessary funds of cash, without enjoying the reciprocal advantage of +their own notes being circulated in consequence, and by means of the +accommodation thus afforded. It is not to be expected that every +undertaking which the system enabled speculators or adventurers to +commence, should be well-judged, attentively carried on, or successful +in issue. Imprudence in some cases, misfortune in others, have had +their usual quantity of victims. But in Scotland, as elsewhere, it has +happened in many instances that improvements, which turned out ruinous +to those who undertook them, have, notwithstanding, themselves +ultimately produced the most beneficial advantages to the country, +which derived in such instances an addition to its general prosperity, +even from the undertakings which had proved destructive to the private +fortune of the projectors. + +Not only did the Banks dispersed throughout Scotland afford the means +of bringing the country to an unexpected and almost marvellous degree +of prosperity, but in no considerable instance, save one, have their +own over-speculating undertakings been the means of interrupting that +prosperity. The solitary exception was the undertaking called the Ayr +Bank, rashly entered into by a large body of country gentlemen and +others, unacquainted with commercial affairs, and who had moreover the +misfortune not only to set out on false principles, but to get false +rogues for their principal agents and managers. The fall of this Bank +brought much calamity on the country; but two things are remarkable in +its history: First, that under its too prodigal, yet beneficial +influence, a fine county (that of Ayr) was converted from a desert +into a fertile land. Secondly, that, though at a distant interval, the +Ayr Bank paid all its engagements, and the loss only fell on the +original stockholders. The warning was, however, a terrible one, and +has been so well attended to in Scotland, that very few attempts seem +to have been afterwards made to establish Banks prematurely--that is, +where the particular district was not in such an advanced state as to +require the support of additional credit; for in every such case, it +was judiciously foreseen, the forcing a capital on the district could +only lead to wild speculation, instead of supporting solid and +promising undertakings. + +The character and condition of the persons pursuing the profession +ought to be noticed, however slightly. The Bankers of Scotland have +been, generally speaking, _good_ men, in the mercantile phrase, +showing, by the wealth of which they have died possessed, that their +credit was sound; and _good_ men also, many of them eminently so, in +the more extensive and better sense of the word, manifesting, by the +excellence of their character, the fairness of the means by which +their riches were acquired. There may have been, among so numerous a +body, men of a different character, fishers in troubled waters, +capitalists who sought gain not by the encouragement of fair trade +and honest industry, but by affording temporary fuel to rashness or +avarice. But the number of upright traders in the profession has +narrowed the means of mischief which such Christian Shylocks would +otherwise have possessed. There was loss, there was discredit, in +having recourse to such characters, when honest wants could be fairly +supplied by upright men, and on liberal terms. Such reptiles have been +confined in Scotland to batten upon their proper prey of folly, and +feast, like worms, on the corruption in which they are bred. + +Since the period of the Ayr Bank, now near half a century, I recollect +very few instances of Banking Companies issuing notes which have +become insolvent. One, about thirty years since, was the Merchant Bank +of Stirling, which never was in high credit, having been known almost +at the time of its commencement by the odious nickname of _Black in +the West_. Another was within these ten years, the East Lothian +Banking Company, whose affairs had been very ill conducted by a +villainous manager. In both cases, the notes were paid up in full. In +the latter case, they were taken up by one of the most respectable +houses in Edinburgh; so that all current engagements were paid without +the least check to the circulation of their notes, or inconvenience to +poor or rich, who happened to have them in possession. The Union Bank +of Falkirk also became insolvent within these fifteen years, but paid +up its engagements without much loss to the creditors. Other cases +there may have occurred, not coming within my recollection; but I +think none which made any great sensation, or could at all affect the +general confidence of the country in the stability of the system. None +of these bankruptcies excited much attention, or, as we have seen, +caused any considerable loss. + +In the present unhappy commercial distress, I have always heard and +understood that the Scottish Banks have done all in their power to +alleviate the evils which came thickening on the country; and far from +acting illiberally, that they have come forward to support the +tottering credit of the commercial world with a frankness which +augured the most perfect confidence in their own resources. We have +heard of only one provincial Bank being even for a moment in the +predicament of suspicion; and of that copartnery the funds and credit +were so well understood, that their correspondents in Edinburgh, as in +the case of the East Lothian Bank formerly mentioned, at once +guaranteed the payment of their notes, and saved the public even from +momentary agitation, and individuals from the possibility of distress. +I ask what must be the stability of a system of credit of which such +an universal earthquake could not displace or shake even the slightest +individual portion? + +Thus stands the case in Scotland; and it is clear any restrictive +enactment affecting the Banking system, or their mode of issuing +notes, must be adopted in consequence of evils, operating elsewhere +perhaps, but certainly unknown in this country. + +In England, unfortunately, things have been very different, and the +insolvency of many provincial Banking Companies, of the most +established reputation for stability, has greatly distressed the +country, and alarmed London itself, from the necessary reaction of +their misfortunes upon their correspondents in the capital. + +I do not think, sir, that the advocate of Scotland is called upon to +go further, in order to plead an exemption from any experiment which +England may think proper to try to cure her own malady, than to say +such malady does not exist in her jurisdiction. It is surely enough to +plead, 'We are well, our pulse and complexion prove it--let those who +are sick take physic.' But the opinion of the English Ministers is +widely different; for, granting our premisses, they deny our +conclusion. + +The peculiar humour of a friend, whom I lost some years ago, is the +only one I recollect, which jumps precisely with the reasoning of the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. My friend was an old Scottish laird, a +bachelor and a humorist--wealthy, convivial, and hospitable, and of +course having always plenty of company about him. He had a regular +custom of swallowing every night in the world one of Dr. Anderson's +pills, for which reasons may be readily imagined. But it is not so +easy to account for his insisting on every one of his guests taking +the same medicine, and whether it was by way of patronising the +medicine, which is in some sense a national receipt, or whether the +mischievous old wag amused himself with anticipating the scenes of +delicate embarrassment, which the dispensation sometimes produced in +the course of the night, I really cannot even guess. What is equally +strange, he pressed the request with a sort of eloquence which +succeeded with every guest. No man escaped, though there were few who +did not make resistance. His powers of persuasion would have been +invaluable to a minister of state. 'What! not one _Leetle Anderson_, +to oblige your friend, your host, your entertainer! He had taken one +himself--he would take another, if you pleased--surely what was good +for his complaint must of course be beneficial to yours?' It was in +vain you pleaded your being perfectly well,--your detesting the +medicine,--your being certain it would not agree with you--none of the +apologies were received as valid. You might be warm, pathetic or +sulky, fretful or patient, grave or serious in testifying your +repugnance, but you were equally a doomed man; escape was impossible. +Your host was in his turn eloquent,--authoritative,--facetious, +--argumentative,--precatory,--pathetic, above all, pertinacious. No +guest was known to escape the _Leetle Anderson_. The last time I +experienced the laird's hospitality there were present at the evening +meal the following catalogue of guests:--a Bond-street dandy, of the most +brilliant water, drawn thither by the temptation of grouse-shooting--a +writer from the neighbouring borough (the lairds _doer_, I +believe),--two country lairds, men of reserved and stiff habits--three +sheep-farmers, as stiff-necked and stubborn as their own haltered +rams--and I, Malachi Malagrowther, not facile or obvious to persuasion. +There was also the Esculapius of the vicinity--one who gave, but +elsewhere was never known to _take_ medicine. All succumbed--each took, +after various degrees of resistance according to his peculiar fashion, +his own _Leetle Anderson_. The doer took a brace. On the event I +am silent. None had reason to congratulate himself on his complaisance. +The laird has slept with his ancestors for some years, remembered +sometimes with a smile on account of his humorous eccentricities, always +with a sigh when his surviving friends and neighbours reflect on his +kindliness and genuine beneficence. I have only to add that I hope he +has not bequeathed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, otherwise so +highly gifted, his invincible powers of persuading folks to take +medicine, which their constitutions do not require. + +Have I argued my case too high in supposing that the present intended +legislative enactment is as inapplicable to Scotland as a pair of +elaborate knee-buckles would be to the dress of a kilted Highlander? I +think not. + +I understand Lord Liverpool and the Chancellor of the Exchequer +distinctly to have admitted the fact, that no distress whatever had +originated in Scotland from the present issuing of small notes of the +bankers established there, whether provincial in the strict sense, or +sent abroad by branches of the larger establishments settled in the +metropolis. No proof can be desired better than the admission of the +adversary. + +Nevertheless, we have been positively informed by the newspapers that +Ministers see no reason why any law adopted on this subject should not +be imperative over all his Majesty's dominions, including Scotland, +_for uniformity's sake_. In my opinion they might as well make a law +that the Scotsman, for uniformity's sake, should not eat oatmeal, +because it is found to give Englishmen the heartburn. If an ordinance +prohibiting the oatcake, can be accompanied with a regulation capable +of being enforced, that in future, for uniformity's sake, our moors +and uplands shall henceforth bear the purest wheat, I for one have no +objection to the regulation. But till Ben Nevis be level with +Norfolkshire, though the natural wants of the two nations may be the +same, the extent of these wants, natural or commercial, and the mode +of supplying them, must be widely different, let the rule of +uniformity be as absolute as it will. The nation which cannot raise +wheat, must be allowed to eat oat-bread; the nation which is too poor +to retain a circulating medium of the precious metals, must be +permitted to supply its place with paper credit; otherwise, they must +go without food, and without currency. + +If I were called on, Mr. Journalist, I think I could give some reasons +why the system of banking which has been found well adapted for +Scotland is not proper for England, and why there is no reason for +inflicting upon us the intended remedy; in other words, why this +political balsam of Fierabras which is to relieve Don Quixote, may +have a great chance to poison Sancho. With this view, I will mention +briefly some strong points of distinction affecting the comparative +credit of the banks in England and in Scotland; and they seem to +furnish, to one inexperienced in political economies (upon the +transcendental doctrines of which so much stress is now laid), very +satisfactory reasons for the difference which is not denied to exist +betwixt the effects of the same general system in different countries. + +In Scotland, almost all Banking Companies consist of a considerable +number of persons, many of them men of landed property, whose landed +estates, with the burthens legally affecting them, may be learned from +the records, for the expense of a few shillings; so that all the +world knows, or may know, the general basis on which their credit +rests, and the extent of real property, which, independent of their +personal means, is responsible for their commercial engagements. In +most banking establishments this fund of credit is considerable, in +others immense; especially in those where the shares are numerous, and +are held in small proportions, many of them by persons of landed +estates, whose fortunes, however large, and however small their share +of stock, must all be liable to the engagements of the Bank. In +England, as I believe, the number of the partners engaged in a banking +concern cannot exceed five; and though of late years their landed +property has been declared subject to be attacked by their commercial +creditors, yet no one can learn, without incalculable trouble, the +real value of that land, or with what mortgages it is burthened. Thus, +_cæteris paribus_, the English banker cannot make his solvency +manifest to the public, therefore cannot expect, or receive, the same +unlimited trust, which is willingly and securely reposed in those of +the same profession in Scotland. + +Secondly, the circulation of the Scottish bank-notes is free and +unlimited; an advantage arising from their superior degree of credit. +They pass without a shadow of objection through the whole limits of +Scotland, and, though they cannot be legally tendered, are current +nearly as far as York in England. Those of English Banking Companies +seldom extend beyond a very limited horizon: in two or three stages +from the place where they are issued, many of them are objected to, +and give perpetual trouble to any traveller who has happened to take +them in change on the road. Even the most creditable provincial notes +never approach London in a free tide--never circulate like blood to +the heart, and from thence to the extremities, but are current within +a limited circle; often, indeed, so very limited, that the notes +issued in the morning, to use an old simile, fly out like pigeons from +the dovecot, and are sure to return in the evening to the spot which +they have left at break of day. + +Owing to these causes, and others which I forbear mentioning, the +profession of provincial Bankers in England is limited in its regular +profits, and uncertain in its returns, to a degree unknown in +Scotland; and is, therefore, more apt to be adopted in the South by +men of sanguine hopes and bold adventure (both frequently +disproportioned to the extent of their capital), who sink in mines or +other hazardous speculations the funds which their banking credit +enables them to command, and deluge the country with notes, which, on +some unhappy morning, are found not worth a penny--as those to whom +the foul fiend has given apparent treasures are said in due time to +discover they are only pieces of slate. + +I am aware it may be urged that the restrictions imposed on those +English provincial Banks are necessary to secure the supremacy of the +Bank of England; on the same principle on which dogs, kept near the +purlieus of a royal forest, were anciently lamed by the cutting off of +one of the claws, to prevent their interfering with the royal sport. +This is a very good regulation for England, for what I know; but why +should the Scottish institutions, which do not, and cannot interfere +with the influence of the Bank of England, be put on a level with +those of which such jealousy is, justly or unjustly, entertained? We +receive no benefit from that immense establishment, which, like a +great oak, overshadows England from Tweed to Cornwall. Why should our +national plantations be cut down or cramped for the sake of what +affords us neither shade nor shelter, and which, besides, can take no +advantage by the injury done to us? Why should we be subjected to a +monopoly from which we derive no national benefit? + +I have only to add that Scotland has not felt the slightest +inconvenience from the want of specie, nay, that it has never been in +request among them. A tradesman will take a guinea more unwillingly +than a note of the same value--to the peasant the coin is unknown. No +one ever wishes for specie save when upon a journey to England. In +occasional runs upon particular houses, the notes of other Banking +Companies have always been the value asked for--no holder of these +notes ever demanded specie. The credit of one establishment might be +doubted for the time--that of the general system was never brought +into question. Even avarice, the most suspicious of passions, has in +no instance I ever heard of, desired to compose her hoards by an +accumulation of the precious metals. The confidence in the credit of +our ordinary medium has not been doubted even in the dreams of the +most irritable and jealous of human passions. + +All these considerations are so obvious that a statesman so acute as +Mr. Robinson must have taken them in at the first glance, and must at +the same time have deemed them of no weight, compared with the +necessary conformity between the laws of the two kingdoms. I must, +therefore, speak to the justice of this point of uniformity. + +Sir, my respected ancestor, Sir Mungo, when he had the distinguished +honour to be _whipping_, or rather _whipped boy_, to his Majesty King +James the Sixth of gracious memory, was always, in virtue of his +office, scourged when the king deserved flogging; and the same +equitable rule seems to distinguish the conduct of Government towards +Scotland, as one of the three United Kingdoms. If Pat is guilty of +peculation, Sister Peg loses her Boards of Revenue--if John Bull's +cashiers mismanage his money-matters, those who have conducted Sister +Margaret's to their own great honour, and her no less advantage, must +be deprived of the power of serving her in future; at least that power +must be greatly restricted and limited. + + 'Quidquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi.' + +That is to say, if our superiors of England and Ireland eat sour +grapes, the Scottish teeth must be set on edge as well as their own. +An uniformity in benefits may be well--an uniformity in penal +measures, towards the innocent and the guilty, in prohibitory +regulations, whether necessary or not, seems harsh law, and worse +justice. + +This levelling system, not equitable in itself, is infinitely unjust, +if a story, often told by my poor old grandfather, was true, which I +own I am inclined to doubt. The old man, sir, had learned in his +youth, or dreamed in his dotage, that Scotland had become an integral +part of England,--not in right of conquest, or rendition, or through +any right of inheritance--but in virtue of a solemn Treaty of Union. +Nay, so distinct an idea had he of this supposed Treaty, that he used +to recite one of its articles to this effect:--'That the laws in use +within the kingdom of Scotland, do, after the Union, remain in the +same force as before, but alterable by the Parliament of Great +Britain, with this difference between the laws concerning public +right, policy, and civil government, and those which concern private +right, that the former may be made the same through the whole United +Kingdom; but that no alteration be made on laws which concern private +right, _excepting for the evident utility of the subjects within +Scotland_.' When the old gentleman came to the passage, which you will +mark in italics, he always clenched his fist, and exclaimed, 'Nemo me +impune lacessit!' which, I presume, are words belonging to the black +art, since there is no one in the Modern Athens conjuror enough to +understand their meaning, or at least to comprehend the spirit of the +sentiment which my grandfather thought they conveyed. + +I cannot help thinking, sir, that if there had been any truth in my +grandfather's story, some Scottish member would, on the late occasion, +have informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that, in virtue of this +Treaty, it was no sufficient reason for innovating upon the private +rights of Scotsmen in a most tender and delicate point, merely that +the Right Honourable Gentleman saw no reason why the same law should +not be current through the whole of his Majesty's dominions; and that, +on the contrary, it was incumbent upon him to go a step further, and +to show that the alteration proposed _was_ for the EVIDENT UTILITY _of +the subjects within Scotland_,--a proposition disavowed by the Right +Honourable Gentleman's candid admission, as well as by that of the +Prime Minister, and contradicted in every circumstance by the actual +state of the case. + +Methinks, sir, our 'Chosen Five and Forty,' supposing they had bound +themselves to Ministers by such oaths of silence and obedience as are +taken by Carthusian friars, must have had free-will and speech to +express their sentiments, had they been possessed of so irrefragable +an argument in such a case of extremity. The sight of a father's life +in danger is said to have restored the power of language to the dumb; +and truly, the necessary defence of the rights of our native country +is not, or at least ought not to be, a less animating motive. Lord +Lauderdale almost alone interfered, and procured, to his infinite +honour, a delay of six months in the extension of this act,--a sort of +reprieve from the southern _jougs_,--by which we may have some chance +of profiting, if, during the interval, we can show ourselves true +Scotsmen, by some better proof than merely by being 'wise behind the +hand.' + +In the first place, sir, I would have this old Treaty searched for, +and should it be found to be still existing, I think it decides the +question. For, how can it be possible that it should be for the +'evident utility' of Scotland to alter her laws of private right, to +the total subversion of a system under which she is admitted to have +flourished for a century, and which has never within North Britain +been attended with the inconveniences charged against it in the sister +country, where, by the way, it never existed? Even if the old +parchment should be voted obsolete, there would be some satisfaction +in having it looked out and preserved--not in the Register-Office, or +Advocates' Library, where it might awaken painful recollections--but +in the Museum of the Antiquaries, where, with the Solemn League and +Covenant, the Letter of the Scottish Nobles to the Pope on the +independence of their country, and other antiquated documents, once +held in reverence, it might silently contract dust, yet remain to bear +witness that such things had been. + +I earnestly hope, however, that an international league of such +importance may still be found obligatory on both the _high_ and the +_low_ contracting parties; on that which has the power, and apparently +the will, to break it, as well as on the weaker nation, who cannot, +without incurring still worse, and more miserable consequences, oppose +aggression, otherwise than by invoking the faith of treaties, and the +national honour of Old England. + +In the second place, all ranks and bodies of men in North Britain (for +all are concerned, the poor as well as the rich) should express by +petition their sense of the injustice which is offered to the country, +and the distress which will probably be the necessary consequence. +Without the power of issuing their own notes the Banks cannot supply +the manufacturer with that credit which enables him to pay his +workmen, and wait his return; or accommodate the farmer with that +fund which makes it easy for him to discharge his rent, and give wages +to his labourers, while in the act of performing expensive operations +which are to treble or quadruple the produce of his farm. The trustees +on the high-roads and other public works, so ready to stake their +personal credit for carrying on public improvements, will no longer +possess the power of raising funds by doing so. The whole existing +state of credit is to be altered from top to bottom, and Ministers are +silent on any remedy which such a state of things would imperiously +require. + +These are subjects worth struggling for, and rather of more importance +than generally come before County Meetings. The English legislature +seems inclined to stultify our Law Authorities in their department; +but let us at least try if they will listen to the united voice of a +Nation in matters which so intimately concern its welfare, that almost +every man must have formed a judgment on the subject, from something +like personal experience. For my part, I cannot doubt the result. + +Times are undoubtedly different from those of Queen Anne, when, Dean +Swift having in a political pamphlet passed some sarcasms on the +Scottish nation, as a poor and fierce people, the Scythians of +Britain,--the Scottish peers, headed by the Duke of Argyll, went in +a body to the ministers, and compelled them to disown the sentiments +which had been expressed by their partisan, and offer a reward of +three hundred pounds for the author of the libel, well known to be the +best advocate and most intimate friend of the existing administration. +They demanded also that the printer and publisher should be prosecuted +before the House of Peers; and Harley, however unwillingly, was +obliged to yield to their demand. + +In the celebrated case of Porteous, the English legislature saw +themselves compelled to desist from vindictive measures, on account of +a gross offence committed in the metropolis of Scotland. In that of +the Roman Catholic bill they yielded to the voice of the Scottish +people, or rather of the Scottish mob, and declared the proposed +alteration of the law should not extend to North Britain. The cases +were different, in point of merit, though the Scots were successful in +both. In the one, a boon of clemency was extorted; in the other, +concession was an act of decided weakness. But ought the present +administration of Great Britain to show less deference to our +temperate and general remonstrance on a matter concerning ourselves +only, than their predecessors did to the passions, and even the +ill-founded and unjust prejudices, of our ancestors? + +Times, indeed, have changed since those days, and circumstances also. +We are no longer a poor, that is, so _very poor_ a country and +people; and as we have increased in wealth, we have become somewhat +poorer in spirit, and more loath to incur displeasure by contests upon +mere etiquette, or national prejudice. But we have some grounds to +plead for favour with England. We have borne our pecuniary impositions +during a long war, with a patience the more exemplary, as they lay +heavier on us from our comparative want of means--our blood has flowed +as freely as that of England or of Ireland--our lives and fortunes +have become unhesitatingly devoted to the defence of the empire--our +loyalty as warmly and willingly displayed towards the person of our +Sovereign. We have consented with submission, if not with +cheerfulness, to reductions and abolitions of public offices, required +for the good of the state at large, but which must affect materially +the condition, and even the respectability, of our overburthened +aristocracy. We have in every respect conducted ourselves as good and +faithful subjects of the general empire. + +We do not boast of these things as actual merits; but they are at +least duties discharged, and in an appeal to men of honour and of +judgment, must entitle us to be heard with patience, and even +deference, on the management of our own affairs, if we speak +unanimously, lay aside party feeling, and use the voice of one leaf of +the holy Trefoil,--one distinct and component part of the United +Kingdoms. + +Let no consideration deter us from pleading our own cause temperately +but firmly, and we shall certainly receive a favourable audience. Even +our acquisition of a little wealth, which might abate our courage on +other occasions, should invigorate us to unanimous perseverance at the +present crisis, when the very source of our national prosperity is +directly, though unwittingly, struck at. Our plaids are, I trust, not +yet sunk into Jewish gaberdines, to be wantonly spit upon; nor are we +yet bound to 'receive the insult with a patient shrug.' But exertion +is now demanded on other accounts than those of mere honourable +punctilio. Misers themselves will struggle in defence of their +property, though tolerant of all aggressions by which that is not +threatened. Avarice herself, however mean-spirited, will rouse to +defend the wealth she possesses, and preserve the means of gaining +more. Scotland is now called upon to rally in defence of the sources +of her national improvement, and the means of increasing it; upon +which, as none are so much concerned in the subject, none can be such +competent judges as Scotsmen themselves. + +I cannot believe so generous a people as the English, so wise an +administration as the present, will disregard our humble +remonstrances, merely because they are made in the form of peaceful +entreaty, and not _secundum perfervidum ingenium Scotorum_, with +'durk and pistol at our belt.' It would be a dangerous lesson to teach +the empire at large, that threats can extort what is not yielded to +reasonable and respectful remonstrance. + +But this is not all. The principle of 'uniformity of laws,' if not +manfully withstood, may have other blessings in store for us. Suppose, +that when finished with blistering Scotland when in perfect health, +England should find time and courage to withdraw the veil from the +deep cancer which is gnawing her own bowels, and make an attempt to +stop the fatal progress of her _poor-rates_. Some system or other must +be proposed in its place--a grinding one it must be, for it is not an +evil to be cured by palliatives. Suppose the English, for uniformity's +sake, insist that Scotland, which is at present free from this foul +and shameful disorder, should nevertheless be included in the severe +_treatment_ which the disease demands, how would the landholders of +Scotland like to undergo the scalpel and cautery, merely because +England requires to be scarified? + +Or again;--Supposing England should take a fancy to impart to us her +sanguinary criminal code, which, too cruel to be carried into effect, +gives every wretch that is condemned a chance of one to twelve that he +shall not be executed, and so turns the law into a lottery--would this +be an agreeable boon to North Britain? + +Once more;--What if the English ministers should feel disposed to +extend to us their equitable system of process respecting civil debt, +which divides the advantages so admirably betwixt debtor and +creditor--_That_ equal dispensation of justice, which provides that an +imprisoned debtor, if a rogue, may remain in undisturbed possession of +a great landed estate, and enjoy in a jail all the luxuries of +Sardanapalus, while the wretch to whom he owes money is starving; and +that, to balance the matter, a creditor, if cruel, may detain a debtor +in prison for a lifetime, and make, as the established phrase goes, +_dice of his bones_--would this admirable reciprocity of privilege, +indulged alternately to knave and tyrant, please Saunders better than +his own humane action of Cessio, and his equitable process of +Adjudication? + +I will not insist further on such topics, for I daresay that these +apparent enormities in principle are, in England where they have +operation, modified and corrected in practice by circumstances unknown +to me; so that, in passing judgment on them, I may myself fall into +the error I deprecate, of judging of foreign laws without being aware +of all the premisses. Neither do I mean that we should struggle with +illiberality against any improvements which can be borrowed from +English principle. I would only desire that such ameliorations were +adopted, not merely because they are English, but because they are +suited to be assimilated with the laws of Scotland, and lead, in +short, _to her evident utility_; and this on the principle, that in +transplanting a tree, little attention need be paid to the character +of the climate and soil from which it is brought, although the +greatest care must be taken that those of the situation to which it is +transplanted are fitted to receive it. It would be no reason for +planting mulberry-trees in Scotland, that they luxuriate in the south +of England. There is sense in the old proverb, 'Ilk land has its ain +lauch.' + +In the present case, it is impossible to believe the extension of +these restrictions to Scotland can be for the _evident utility_ of the +country, which has prospered so long and so uniformly under directly +the contrary system. + +It is very probable I may be deemed illiberal in all this reasoning; +but if to look for information to practical results, rather than to +theoretical principles, and to argue from the effect of the experience +of a century, rather than the deductions of a modern hypothesis, be +illiberal, I must sit down content with a censure, which will include +wiser men than I. The philosophical tailors of Laputa, who wrought by +mathematical calculation, had, no doubt, a supreme contempt for those +humble fashioners who went to work by measuring the person of their +customer; but Gulliver tells us, that the worst clothes he ever wore, +were constructed upon abstract principles; and truly, I think, we have +seen some laws, and may see more, not much better adapted to existing +circumstances, than the Captain's philosophical uniform to his actual +person. + +It is true, that every wise statesman keeps sound and general +political principles in his eye, as the pilot looks upon his compass +to discover his true course. But this true course cannot always be +followed out straight and diametrically; it must be altered from time +to time, nay sometimes apparently abandoned, on account of shoals, +breakers, and headlands, not to mention contrary winds. The same +obstacles occur to the course of the statesman. The point at which he +aims may be important, the principle on which he steers may be just; +yet the obstacles arising from rooted prejudices, from intemperate +passions, from ancient practices, from a different character of +people, from varieties in climate and soil, may cause a direct +movement upon his ultimate object to be attended with distress to +individuals, and loss to the community, which no good man would wish +to occasion, and with dangers which no wise man would voluntarily +choose to encounter. + +Although I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been rather +precipitate in the decided opinion which he is represented to have +expressed on this occasion, I am far from entertaining the slightest +disrespect for the right honourable gentleman. 'I hear as good +exclamation upon him as on any man in Messina, and though I am but a +poor man, I am glad to hear it.' But a decided attachment to abstract +principle, and to a spirit of generalising, is--like a rash rider on a +headstrong horse--very apt to run foul of local obstacles, which might +have been avoided by a more deliberate career, where the nature of the +ground had been previously considered. + +I make allowance for the temptation natural to an ingenious and active +mind. There is a natural pride in following out an universal and +levelling principle. It seems to augur genius, force of conception, +and steadiness of purpose; qualities which every legislator is +desirous of being thought to possess. On the other hand, the study of +local advantages and impediments demands labour and inquiry, and is +rewarded after all only with the cold and parsimonious praise due to +humble industry. It is no less true, however, that measures which go +straight and direct to a great general object, without noticing +intervening impediments, must often resemble the fierce progress of +the thunderbolt or the cannon-ball, those dreadful agents, which, in +rushing right to their point, care not what ruin they make by the way. +The sounder and more moderate policy, accommodating its measures to +exterior circumstances, rather resembles the judicious course of a +well-conducted highway, which, turning aside frequently from its +direct course, + + 'Winds round the corn-field and the hill of vines,' + +and becomes devious, that it may respect property and avoid obstacles; +thus escaping even temporary evils, and serving the public no less in +its more circuitous, than it would have done in its direct course. + +Can you tell me, sir, if this _uniformity_ of civil institutions, +which calls for such sacrifices, be at all descended from, or related +to, a doctrine nearly of the same nature, called Conformity in +religious doctrine, very fashionable about one hundred and fifty years +since, which undertook to unite the jarring creeds of the United +Kingdom to one common standard, and excited a universal strife by the +vain attempt, and a thousand fierce disputes, in which she + + '----umpire sate, + And by decision more embroiled the fray'? + +Should Uniformity have the same pedigree, Malachi Malagrowther +proclaims her 'a hawk of a very bad nest.' + +The universal opinion of a whole kingdom, founded upon a century's +experience, ought not to be lightly considered as founded in ignorance +and prejudice. I am something of an agriculturist; and in travelling +through the country I have often had occasion to wonder that the +inhabitants of particular districts had not adopted certain obvious +improvements in cultivation. But, upon inquiry, I have usually found +out that appearances had deceived me, and that I had not reckoned on +particular local circumstances, which either prevented the execution +of the system I should have theoretically recommended, or rendered +some other more advantageous in the particular circumstances. + +I do not therefore resist theoretical innovation in general; I only +humbly desire it may not outrun the suggestions arising from the +experience of ages. I would have the necessity felt and acknowledged +before old institutions are demolished--the _evident utility_ of every +alteration demonstrated before it is adopted upon mere speculation. I +submit our ancient system to the primary knife of the legislature, but +would not willingly see our reformers employ a weapon, which, like the +sword of Jack the Giant-Killer, _cuts before the point_. + +It is always to be considered, that in human affairs, the very best +imaginable result is seldom to be obtained, and that it is wise to +content ourselves with the best which can be got. This principle +speaks with a voice of thunder against violent innovation, for the +sake of possible improvement, where things are already well. We ought +not to desire better bread than is made of wheat. Our Scotch proverb +warns us to _Let weel bide_; and all the world has heard of the +untranslatable Italian epitaph upon the man, who died of taking physic +to make him better, when he was already in health.--I am, Mr. +Journalist, yours, + +MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT + + +Since writing these hasty thoughts, I hear it reported that we are to +have an extension of our precarious reprieve, and that our six months +are to be extended to six years. I would not have Scotland trust to +this hollow truce. The measure ought, like all others, to be canvassed +on its merits, and frankly admitted or rejected; it has been stirred +and ought to be decided. I request my countrymen not to be soothed +into inactivity by that temporising, and, I will say, unmanly +vacillation. Government is pledged to nothing by taking an open +course; for if the bill, so far as applicable to Scotland, is at +present absolutely laid aside, there can be no objection to their +resuming it at any period, when from change of circumstances, it may +be advantageous to Scotland, and when, for what I know, it may be +welcomed as a boon. + +But if held over our heads as a minatory measure, to take place within +a certain period, what can the event be but to cripple and ultimately +destroy the present system, on which a direct attack is found at +present inexpedient? Can the bankers continue to conduct their +profession on the same secure footing, with an abrogation of it in +prospect? Must it not cease to be what it has hitherto been--a +business carried on both for their own profit, and for the +accommodation of the country? Instead of employing their capital in +the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming +others? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from +that species of commerce? And may not the place of these be supplied +by men of daring adventure, without corresponding capital, who will +take a chance of wealth or ruin in the chances of the game? + +If it is the absolute and irrevocable determination that the bill is +to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the +better; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of +life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and +protracted suspense. + + + + +NOTES + +[Transcriber's note: I have added the pamphlet headings, since the +original page numbers are not helpful.] + + +I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. + +_The exclusion_--of James from the succession. + +_The rebellion_--Monmouth's. + +_The Quakers_.--A hit, of course, at Penn. + +_Piqueer_, 'do outpost duty,' 'raid.' + +_Lords of the Articles_.--A well-known body in the older Scottish +Constitution, through whom only legislation could be originated, and who +thus almost nullified the powers of Parliament. + +_Squeaziness_ = 'squeamishness,' 'queasiness.' + +_It is impossible_.--Another form of 'No bishop no king.' + +_The new converts_.--After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. + +_T.W._ is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for +'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William +Temple. + + +II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS. + +_Neither_, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the +famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in _Hamlet_. + + +III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. + +I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics +with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the +vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described as '_a mean ordinary man, +a hard-ware dealer_.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly +independent of them. + +_Written_--by Swift himself. + +_Bere_, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated +in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, +and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher +climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought +to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted. + +_Conolly_.--Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. + +_Pistole_--about ten shillings. + +_Brought to the bullion_ seems here to have the meaning of the +French _billonner_ or _envoyer au billon_, 'to melt for recoining.' + +_Our Cæsar's statue_.--The statue of George I. on Essex Bridge, +Dublin. + + +IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. + +_Contignation_.--This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite +obsolete word (from _tignum_, 'beam') means 'having a common or +continuous roof.' + +The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendéan and Chouan +movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully +explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of +the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and +though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little +positive evidence to support them. + +_But when the possibility ... that the_.--It will probably seem +to a modern reader that either 'that' or 'the' has crept in improperly. +It might be so; but Burke still maintained the authoritative but rather +inelegant tradition by which 'that,' like the French _que_, could +replace any such antecedent word as 'when,' 'because,' etc. + +_Louis the Sixteenth_.--To this is appended a note in the editions +beginning, 'It may be right to do justice to Louis XVI. He did what he +could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.' The subject has of +late years received considerable illustration in the Duke of Broglie's +_Le Secret du Roi_, and other works by the same author. + +_Montalembert_.--Marc René, Marquis de (1714-1800), a voluminous +military writer. + +_Harrington_--of the _Oceana_. + + +V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. + +_Dear Abraham_.--'Peter Plymley' addresses his _Letters_ to +'my brother Abraham, who lives in the country,' and is a +parson. + +_Baron Maseres_.--Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a descendant +of Huguenots, very well thought of by his contemporaries. Dr. Rennel I +know not, unless he was the Herodotus man. + +_C----_, Canning. + +_Dr. Duigenan_.--A delightful person who, in his hot youth, as a +junior Fellow of T.C., D., threatened to 'bulge the Provost's' [Provost +Hely Hutchinson's] 'eye,' and was afterwards a pillar of Protestantism. + +This _light and frivolous jester_ was _not_ the Rev. Sydney +Smith, but George Canning, Esq. + +_The pecuniary Rose_.--'Old George' Rose, Pitt's right hand. He +was rather heavily rewarded with places and pensions; but even Liberals +now admit that the country has hardly had an abler official. + +_Lord Hawkesbury_, Jenkinson, better known as Lord Liverpool. + +_Tickell_--the _Rolliad_ Tickell. + +_Joel_--Peter's nephew and Abraham's son. + + +VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW. + +_Paint in the most horrid colours_.--See, for instance, _The +Bloody Buoy_ and _The Cannibal's Progress_, by William Cobbett. + +_Flogging_.--Some of the militia mutinied at Ely, and were +punished, the guard on the occasion being furnished by the cavalry of +the German Legion. Cobbett noticed this in the most inflammatory +manner, and it being war time, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and +sentenced as he describes. + +_Monks and friars_.--A time came when Cobbett thought and wrote +very differently of these persons. But that was his way. + +_Foundal_.--I do not know whether Cobbett invented this equivalent +for _trouvaille_, 'windfall,' or not. His notable scheme for breaking +the Bank is a good example of him in his insaner moods. + + +VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. + +_The Duenna_--Sheridan's. + +_The Jury Court_.--Trial by jury in _civil_ cases was only introduced +into Scotland in 1815. + +_Evasive answer_--to the effect that each queen was the fairest +woman in her own country. + +_Doer_ = 'factor' or agent. + +_Them_--as if 'Scotsmen' had been written for 'Scotland.' + +_Chosen Five and Forty_--the original number of members +assigned to Scotland. + +_Political pamphlet_--'The Public Spirit of the Whigs.' + +_Durk, sic_ in original. + +_Cessio, sc. bonorum_, whereby a debtor on giving up his property +could be relieved of liabilities. + +_Adjudication_, whereby a creditor could attach landed as +well as personal property. + +_Lauch_ = 'laugh.' + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Political Pamphlets, by George Saintsbury + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL PAMPHLETS *** + +***** This file should be named 13943-8.txt or 13943-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/4/13943/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Political Pamphlets + +Author: George Saintsbury + +Release Date: November 3, 2004 [EBook #13943] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL PAMPHLETS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p>THE POCKET LIBRARY<br /> +OF<br /> +ENGLISH LITERATURE<br /> +<br /> +Edited by GEORGE SAINTSBURY</p> + +<p>A collection, in separate volumes, partly of extracts from +long books, partly of short pieces, by the same writer, on the +same subject, or of the same class.</p> + +<p>Vol I.—Tales of Mystery.<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.3em;'>II.—Political Verse.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>III.—Defoe's Minor Novels.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>IV.—Political Pamphlets.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.25em;'>V.—Seventeenth Century Lyrics.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>VI.—Elizabethan and Jacobean Pamphlets.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<h1>POLITICAL PAMPHLETS</h1> +<p> </p> + +<h4>Edited By</h4> +<h2>GEORGE SAINTSBURY</h2> +<p> </p> +<h5>LONDON<br /> +PERCIVAL AND CO.<br /> +1892</h5> + +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> + + +<div class='table'> +<table cellpadding='5' summary='Table of Contents'> + <tr> + <td><b>CONTENTS</b></td> + <td>Page</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. (By George Savile,<br /> +Marquess of Halifax)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> +</tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS.<br /> +(By Daniel Defoe)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. (By Jonathan Swift)<br /> +To the Tradesmen, Shop-Keepers, Farmers, and<br /> + Common-People in general, of the Kingdom<br /> + of Ireland; concerning the Brass half-pence<br /> + coined by Mr. Wood</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_47'>47</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer, upon<br /> + occasion of a Paragraph in his News-Paper of<br /> + August 1, 1724, relating to Mr. Wood's Half-pence</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. <br /> + (By the Right Honourable Edmund Burke)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. (By Sydney Smith</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td> +</tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS<br /> +OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND.<br /> +LETTER TO JACK HARROW.<br /> +(By William Cobbett)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_182'>182</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align='left'>VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER.<br /> +(By Sir Walter Scott)</td> + <td valign='top'><a href='#Page_249'>249</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> + +<p>It is sometimes thought, and very often said, that political writing, +after its special day is done, becomes more dead than any other kind +of literature, or even journalism. I do not know whether my own +judgment is perverted by the fact of a special devotion to the +business, but it certainly seems to me that both the thought and the +saying are mistakes. Indeed, a rough-and-ready refutation of them is +supplied by the fact that, in no few cases, political pieces have +entered into the generally admitted stock of the best literary things. +If they are little read, can we honestly say that other things in the +same rank are read much more? And is there not the further plea, by no +means contradictory, nor even merely alternative, that the best +examples of them are, as a rule, merged in huge collected 'Works,' or, +in the case of authors who have not attained to that dignity, simply +inaccessible to the general? At any rate my publishers have consented +to let me try the experiment of gathering certain famous things of the +sort in this volume, and the public must decide.</p> + +<p>I do not begin very early, partly because examples of the Elizabethan +political pamphlet, or what supplied its place, will be given in +another volume of the series exclusively devoted to the pamphlet +literature of the reigns of Eliza and our James, partly for a still +better reason presently to be explained. On the other hand, though +another special volume is devoted to Defoe, the immortal <i>Shortest Way +with the Dissenters</i> is separated from the rest of his work, and given +here. Most of the contents, however, represent authors not otherwise +represented in the series, and though very well known indeed by name, +less read than quoted. The suitableness of the political pamphlet, +both by size and self-containedness, for such a volume as this, needs +no justification except that which it, like everything else, must +receive, by being put to the proof of reading.</p> + +<p>There is no difficulty in showing, with at least sufficient critical +exactness, why it is not possible or not desirable to select examples +from very early periods even of strictly modern history. The causes +are in part the same as those which delayed the production of really +capital political verse (which has been treated in another volume), +but they are not wholly the same. The Martin Marprelate pamphlets are +strictly political; so are many things earlier, later, and +contemporary with them, by hands known and unknown, great and small, +skilled and unskilled; so are some even in the work of so great a man +as Bacon. But very many things were wanting to secure the conditions +necessary to the perfect pamphlet. There was not the political +freedom; there was not the public; there was not the immediate object; +there was not, last and most of all, the style. Political utterances +under a more or less despotic, or, as the modern euphemism goes, +'personal' government, were almost necessarily those of a retained +advocate, who expected his immediate reward, on the one hand; or of a +rebel, who stood to make his account with office if he succeeded, or +with savage punishment if he failed, on the other. A distant prospect +of impeachment, of the loss of ears, hands, or life if the tide turns, +is a stimulant to violence rather than to vigour. I do not think, +however, that this is the most important factor in the problem. +Parliamentary government, with a limited franchise of tolerably +intelligent voters, a party system, and newspapers comparatively +undeveloped, may not suit an ideally perfect <i>politeia</i>, but it is +the very hotbed in which to nourish the pamphlet. There is also a +style, as there is a time, for all things; and no style could be so +well suited for the pamphlet as the balanced, measured, pointed, and +polished style which Dryden and Tillotson and Temple brought in during +the third quarter of the seventeenth century, and which did not go out +of fashion till the second quarter of the nineteenth. We have indeed +seen pamphlets proper exercising considerable influence in quite +recent times; but in no instance that I can remember has this been due +to any literary merits, and I doubt whether even the bare fact will be +soon or often renewed in our days. The written word—the written word +of condensed, strengthened, spirited literature—has lost much, if not +all, of its force with an enormously increased electorate, and a +bewildering multiplicity of print and speech of all kinds.</p> + +<p>Whatever justice these reasonings may have or may lack, the facts +speak for themselves, as facts intelligently regarded have a habit of +doing. The first pamphlets proper of great literary merit and great +political influence are those of Halifax in the first movement of real +party struggle during the reign of Charles the Second; the last which +unite the same requisites are those of Scott on the eve of the first +Reform Bill. The leaflet and circular war of the anti-Corn Law League +must be ruled out as much as Mr. Gladstone's <i>Bulgarian Horrors</i>.</p> + +<p>This leaves us a period of almost exactly a hundred and fifty years, +during which the kind, whether in good or bad examples, was of +constant influence; while its best instances enriched literature with +permanent masterpieces in little. I do not think that any moderately +instructed person will find much difficulty in comprehending the +specimens here given. I am sure that no moderately intelligent one +will fail, with a very little trouble, to take delight in them. I do +not know whether an artful generaliser could get anything out of the +circumstances in which the best of them grew; I should say myself that +nothing more than the system of government, the conditions of the +electorate and the legislature, and the existence from time to time of +a superheated state in political feeling, can or need be collected. In +some respects, to my own taste, the first of these examples is also +the best. To Halifax full justice has never been done, for we have had +no capable historian of the late seventeenth century but Macaulay, and +Halifax's defect of fervour as a Jacobite was more than made up to +Macaulay by his defect of fervour as a Williamite. As for the moderns, +I have myself more than once failed to induce editors of 'series' to +give Halifax a place. Yet Macaulay himself has been fairer to the +great Trimmer than to most persons with whom he was not in full +sympathy. The weakness of Halifax's position is indeed obvious. When +you run first to one side of the boat and then to the other, you have +ten chances of sinking to one of trimming her. To hold fast to one +party only, and to keep that from extremes, is the only secret, and it +is no great disgrace to Halifax, that in the very infancy of the party +and parliamentary system, he did not perceive it. But this hardly +interferes at all with the excellence of his pamphlets. The polished +style, the admirable sense, the subdued and yet ever present wit, the +avoidance of excessive cleverness (the one thing that the average +Briton will not stand), the constant eye on the object, are +unmistakable. They are nearly as forcible as Dryden's political and +controversial prefaces, which are pamphlets themselves in their way, +and they excel them in knowledge of affairs, in urbanity, in +adaptation to the special purpose. In all these points they resemble +more than anything else the pamphlets of Paul Louis Courier, and +there can be no higher praise than this.</p> + +<p>No age in English history was more fertile in pamphlets than the +reigns of William and of Anne. Some men of real distinction +occasionally contributed to them, and others (such as Ferguson and +Maynwaring) obtained such literary notoriety as they possess by their +means. The total volume of the kind produced during the quarter of a +century between the Revolution and the accession of George the First +would probably fill a considerable library. But the examples which +really deserve exhumation are very few, and I doubt whether any can +pretend to vie with the masterpieces of Defoe and Swift. Both these +great writers were accomplished practitioners in the art, and the +characteristics of both lent themselves with peculiar yet strangely +different readiness to the work. They addressed, indeed, different +sections of what was even then the electorate. Defoe's unpolished +realism and his exact adaptation of tone, thought, taste, and fancy to +the measure of the common Englishman were what chiefly gave him a +hearing. Swift aimed and flew higher, but also did not miss the lower +mark. No one has ever doubted that Johnson's depreciation of <i>The +Conduct of the Allies</i> was half special perversity (for he was always +unjust to Swift), half mere humorous paradox. For there was much more +of this in the doctor's utterances than his admirers, either in his +own day or since, have always recognised, or have sometimes been +qualified by Providence to recognise. As for the <i>Drapier's Letters</i> I +can never myself admire them enough, and they seem to me to have been +on the whole under-rather than over-valued by posterity.</p> + +<p>The 'Great Walpolian Battle' and the attacks on Bute and other +favourite ministers were very fertile in the pamphlet, but already +there were certain signs of alteration in its character. Pulteney and +Walpole's other adversaries had already glimmerings of the newspaper +proper, that is to say, of the continual dropping fire rather than the +single heavy broadside; to adopt a better metaphor still, of a +regimental and professional soldiery rather than of single volunteer +champions. The <i>Letters of Junius</i>, which for some time past have been +gradually dropping from their former somewhat undue pride of place +(gained and kept as much by the factitious mystery of their origin as +by anything else) to a station more justly warranted, are no doubt +themselves pamphlets of a kind; but they are separated from pamphlets +proper not less by their contents than by their form and continuity. +The real difference is this, that the pamphlet, though often if not +always personal enough, should always and generally does affect at +least to discuss a general question of principle or policy, whereas +Junius is always personal first, and very generally last also. On the +other hand, Burke, whether his productions be called Speeches or +Letters, Thoughts or Reflections, is always a pamphleteer in heart and +soul, in form and matter. If the resemblance of his pamphlets to +speeches gives the force and fire, it is certain that the resemblance +of his speeches to pamphlets accounts for that 'dinner-bell' effect of +his which has puzzled some people and shocked others. Burke always +argued the point, if he only argued one side of it, and it is the +special as it is the saving grace of the pamphlet that it must, or at +least should, be an argument, and not merely an invective or an +innuendo, a sermon or a lampoon.</p> + +<p>Sydney Smith belonged both to the old school and the new. He was both +pamphleteer and journalist; but he kept the form and even to some +extent the style of his pamphlets and his articles well apart. I may +seem likely to have some difficulty in admitting the claim of Cobbett +after disallowing that of Junius under the definition just given, but +I have no very great fear of being unable to making it good. Much as +Cobbett disliked persons, and crotchety as he was in his dislikes, +they were always dislikes of principle in the bottom. The singular +Tory-Radicalism which Cobbett exhibited, and which has made some rank +him unduly low, was no doubt partly due to accidents of birth and +education, and to narrowness of intellectual form. But +boroughmongering after all was a Whig rather than a Tory institution, +and Cobbett's hatred of it, as well as that desire for the maintenance +of a kind of manufacturing yeomanry (not wholly different from the +later ideal of Mr. William Morris,) which was his other guiding +principle throughout, was by no means alien from pure Toryism. His +work in relation to Reform, moreover, is unmistakable—as unmistakable +as is that of Sydney Smith, who precedes him here, with regard to +Catholic Emancipation. I should have voted and written against both +these things had I lived then; but this does not make me enjoy Cobbett +or Sydney any the less.</p> + +<p>As for the latest example I have selected, it is a crucial one. The +<i>Letters of Malachi Malagrowther</i> come from a man who is not often +rated high as a political thinker, even by those who sympathise with +his political views. But here as elsewhere the politician, no less +than the poet, the critic, the historian, bears the penalty of the +pre-eminent greatness of the novelist. Nothing is more uncritical than +to regard Scott as a mere sentimentalist in politics, and I cannot +think that any competent judge can do so after reading <i>Malagrowther</i>, +even after reading Scott's own Diary and letters on the subject. As he +there explains, he was not greatly carried, as a rule, to interest +himself in the details of politics. As both Lockhart and he admit, he +might not have been so interested even at this juncture had it not +been for the chagrin at his own misfortunes, which, nobly and +stoically repressed as it was, required some issue. But his general +principle on this occasion was clear; it can be thoroughly apprehended +and appreciated even by an Englishman of Englishmen. It was thoroughly +justified by the event, and, I may perhaps be permitted to observe, +ran exactly contrary to a sentiment rather widely adopted of late. No +man, whether in public writings or private conduct, could be more set +than Scott was against a spurious Scotch particularism. He even earned +from silly Scots maledictions for the chivalrous justice he dealt to +England in <i>The Lord of the Isles</i>, and the common-sense justice he +dealt to her in the mouth of Bailie Jarvie. But he was not more +staunch for the political Union than he was for the preservation of +minor institutions, manners, and character; and the proposed +interference with Scotch banking seemed to him to be one of the things +tending to make good Scotchmen, as he bluntly told Croker, 'damned +mischievous Englishmen.' Therefore he arose and spoke, and though he +averted the immediate attempt, yet the prophecies which he uttered +were amply fulfilled in other ways after the Reform Bill.</p> + +<p>These, then, are the principles on which I have selected the pieces +that follow (some minor reasons for the particular choices being given +in the special introductions):—That they should be pamphlets proper +(<i>Malachi</i> appeared first in a newspaper, but that was a sign of the +time chiefly, and the numbers of Cobbett's <i>Register</i> were practically +independent pieces); that they should deal with special subjects of +burning political, and not merely personal, interest; and that they +should either directly or in the long-run have exercised an actual +determining influence on the course of politics and history. This last +point is undoubted in the case of the examples from Halifax, Swift, +Burke (who more than any one man pointed and steeled the resistance +of England to Jacobin tyranny), and Scott; it was less immediate, but +scarcely more dubious in those of Defoe, Cobbett, and Sydney Smith. +And so in all humility I make my bow as introducer once more to the +English public of these Seven Masters of English political writing.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_1'></a>I.—'LETTER TO A DISSENTER'</h3> +<h4>BY GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUESS OF HALIFAX</h4> + +<p>(<i>There is no doubt that Halifax's work deserves to rank first in a +collection of political pamphlets. He signed none; it was indeed +almost impossible for a prominent person in the State then safely or +decently to do so, and different attributions were made at the time of +some of them, as of the</i> Character of a Trimmer <i>to Coventry, and of +this</i> Letter <i>(this 'masterly little tract,' as Macaulay justly calls +it) to Temple. But shortly after his death all were published as his +unchallenged, and there never has been any doubt of their authorship +in the minds of good judges. Four of them are so good that extrinsic +reasons have to be brought in for preferring one to the other. The</i> +Character of a Trimmer <i>is rather too long for my scheme; the</i> Anatomy +of an Equivalent <i>is too technical, and requires too much illustration +and exegesis; the</i> Cautions for Choice of Members of Parliament, +<i>though practically valuable to<a name='Page_2'></a> the present day, is a little too +general. The</i> Letter to a Dissenter <i>escapes all these objections. It +is brief, it is thoroughly to the point, it is comprehensible almost +without note or comment to any one who remembers the broad fact that +by his Declaration of Indulgence James the Second attempted to detach, +and almost succeeded in detaching, the Dissenters from their common +cause with the Church in opposing his enfranchisement of the Roman +Catholics, and his preferment of them to great offices. As for its +author, his most eminent acts are written in the pages of the +universally read historian above quoted. But he was in reality more of +a Tory than it suited Macaulay to represent him, though he gloried in +the name of Trimmer, and certainly showed what is called in modern +political slang a 'crossbench mind' not only during the madness of the +Popish plot, during the greater madness of James's assaults on the +Church, the Constitution, and private rights, but also (after the +Revolution) towards William of Orange. Born about 1630 he died in +April 1695, leaving the fame, unjustified by any samples in those +unreported days, of the greatest orator of his time, a reputation as a +wit which was partly inherited by his grandson, Chesterfield, and the +small volume of</i> Miscellanies, <i>on which we here draw. The pamphlet +itself appeared in April 1687</i>.)</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_3'></a>A LETTER TO A DISSENTER, UPON OCCASION OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE GRACIOUS +DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE</h3> + +<p>Sir—Since addresses are in fashion, give me leave to make one to you. +This is neither the effect of fear, interest, or resentment; therefore +you may be sure it is sincere: and for that reason it may expect to be +kindly received. Whether it will have power enough to convince, +dependeth upon the reasons of which you are to judge; and upon your +preparation of mind, to be persuaded by truth, whenever it appeareth +to you. It ought not to be the less welcome for coming from a friendly +hand, one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of +opinion, and who will not let his thoughts for the public be so tied +or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants as to stifle +the charity, which besides all other arguments, is at this time become +necessary to preserve us.</p> + +<p>I am neither surprised nor provoked, to see that in the condition you +were put into by the laws, and the ill circumstances you lay under, by +having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your charge, you were +desirous to make yourselves less uneasy and obnoxious to authority. +Men who are sore, run to the nearest remedy with too much haste to +consider all the consequences: grains of allowance are to be<a name='Page_4'></a> given, +where nature giveth such strong influences. When to men under +sufferings it offereth ease, the present pain will hardly allow time +to examine the remedies; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a +fair audience from our mind, whilst so possessed, till the smart is a +little allayed.</p> + +<p>I do not know whether the warmth that naturally belongeth to new +friendships, may not make it a harder task for me to persuade you. It +is like telling lovers, in the beginning of their joys, that they will +in a little time have an end. Such an unwelcome style doth not easily +find credit. But I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new +passion, but that you will hear still; and therefore I am also under +the less discouragement, when I offer to your consideration two +things. The <i>first</i> is, the cause you have to suspect your new +friends. The <i>second</i>, the duty incumbent upon you, in Christianity +and prudence, not to hazard the public safety, neither by desire of +ease nor of revenge.</p> + +<p>To the <i>first</i>. Consider that notwithstanding the smooth language +which is now put on to engage you, these new friends did not make you +their choice, but their refuge. They have ever made their first +courtships to the Church of England, and when they were rejected +there, they made their application to you in the second place. The +instances of this might be given in all times. I do not repeat them, +because<a name='Page_5'></a> whatsoever is unnecessary must be tedious; the truth of this +assertion being so plain as not to admit a dispute. You cannot +therefore reasonably flatter yourselves that there is any inclination +to you. They never pretended to allow you any quarter, but to usher in +liberty for themselves under that shelter. I refer you to Mr. +Coleman's Letters, and to the Journals of Parliament, where you may be +convinced, if you can be so mistaken as to doubt; nay, at this very +hour they can hardly forbear, in the height of their courtship, to let +fall hard words of you. So little is nature to be restrained; it will +start out sometimes, disdaining to submit to the usurpation of art and +interest.</p> + +<p>This alliance, between liberty and infallibility, is bringing together +the two most contrary things that are in the world. The Church of Rome +doth not only dislike the allowing liberty, but by its principles it +cannot do it. Wine is not more expressly forbid to the Mahometans, +than giving heretics liberty to the Papists. They are no more able to +make good their vows to you, than men married before, and their wife +alive, can confirm their contract with another. The continuance of +their kindness would be a habit of sin, of which they are to repent; +and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms than their +promise to destroy you. You are therefore to be hugged now, only that +you may be the better<a name='Page_6'></a> squeezed at another time. There must be +something extraordinary when the Church of Rome setteth up bills, and +offereth plaisters, for tender consciences. By all that hath hitherto +appeared, her skill in chirurgery lieth chiefly in a quick hand to cut +off limbs; but she is the worst at healing of any that ever pretended +to it.</p> + +<p>To come so quick from another extreme is such an unnatural motion that +you ought to be upon your guard. The other day you were Sons of +Belial; now you are Angels of Light. This is a violent change, and it +will be fit for you to pause upon it before you believe it. If your +features are not altered, neither is their opinion of you, whatever +may be pretended. Do you believe less than you did that there is +idolatry in the Church of Rome? Sure you do not. See, then, how they +treat, both in words and writing, those who entertain that opinion. +Conclude from hence, how inconsistent their favour is with this single +article, except they give you a dispensation for this too, and not by +a <i>non obstante</i>, secure you that they will not think the worse of +you.</p> + +<p>Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of +paradoxes. Popery now is the only friend to liberty, and the known +enemy to persecution. The men of Taunton and Tiverton are above all +other eminent for Loyalty. The Quakers, from being declared by the +Papists not to be Christians,<a name='Page_7'></a> are now made favourites, and taken into +their particular protection; they are on a sudden grown the most +accomplished men of the kingdom in good breeding, and give thanks with +the best grace in double-refined language. So that I should not +wonder, though a man of that persuasion, in spite of his hat, should +be Master of the Ceremonies. Not to say harsher words, these are such +very new things, that it is impossible not to suspend our belief, till +by a little more experience, we may be informed whether they are +realities or apparitions. We have been under shameful mistakes, if +these opinions are true; but for the present we are apt to be +incredulous, except that we could be convinced that the priest's words +in this case too are able to make such a sudden and effectual change; +and that their power is not limited to the Sacrament, but that it +extendeth to alter the nature of all other things, as often as they +are so disposed.</p> + +<p>Let me now speak of the instruments of your friendship, and then leave +you to judge whether they do not afford matter of suspicion. No +sharpness is to be mingled, where healing only is intended; so nothing +will be said to expose particular men, how strong soever the +temptation may be, or how clear the proofs to make it out. A word or +two in general, for your better caution, shall suffice. Suppose then, +for argument's sake, that the mediators of this new<a name='Page_8'></a> alliance should +be such as have been formerly employed in treaties of the same kind, +and there detected to have acted by order, and to have been empowered +to give encouragements and rewards. Would not this be an argument to +suspect them?</p> + +<p>If they should plainly be under engagements to one side, their +arguments to the other ought to be received accordingly. Their fair +pretences are to be looked upon as a part of their commission, which +may not improbably give them a dispensation in the case of truth, when +it may bring a prejudice upon the service of those by whom they are +employed.</p> + +<p>If there should be men, who having formerly had means and authority to +persuade by secular arguments, have, in pursuance of that power, +sprinkled money among the Dissenting ministers; and if those very men +should now have the same authority, practise the same methods, and +disburse where they cannot otherwise persuade; it seemeth to me to be +rather an evidence than a presumption of the deceit.</p> + +<p>If there should be ministers amongst you, who by having fallen under +temptations of this kind, are in some sort engaged to continue their +frailty, by the awe they are in lest it should be exposed; the +persuasions of these unfortunate men must sure have the less force, +and their arguments, though never so specious, are to be suspected, +when they come from men who have mortgaged themselves to severe<a name='Page_9'></a> +creditors, that expect a rigorous observance of the contract, let it +be never so unwarrantable. If these, or any others, should at this +time preach up anger and vengeance against the Church of England; may +it not without injustice be suspected that a thing so plainly out of +season springeth rather from corruption than mistake; and that those +who act this choleric part, do not believe themselves, but only pursue +higher directions, and endeavour to make good that part of their +contract, which obligeth them, upon a forfeiture, to make use of their +enflaming eloquence? They might apprehend their wages would be +retrenched if they should be moderate: and therefore, whilst violence +is their interest, those who have not the same arguments have no +reason to follow such a partial example.</p> + +<p>If there should be men, who by the load of their crimes against the +Government, have been bowed down to comply with it against their +conscience; who by incurring the want of a pardon, have drawn upon +themselves a necessity of an entire resignation, such men are to be +lamented, but not to be believed. Nay, they themselves, when they have +discharged their unwelcome talk, will be inwardly glad that their +forced endeavours do not succeed, and are pleased when men resist +their insinuations; which are far from being voluntary or sincere, but +are squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so obnoxious.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_10'></a>If, in the height of this great dearness, by comparing things, it +should happen that at this instant there is much a surer friendship +with those who are so far from allowing liberty that they allow no +living to a Protestant under them—let the scene lie in what part of +the world it will, the argument will come home, and sure it will +afford sufficient ground to suspect. Apparent contradictions must +strike us; neither nature nor reason can digest them. Self-flattery, +and the desire to deceive ourselves, to gratify present appetite, with +all their power, which is great, cannot get the better of such broad +conviction, as some things carry along with them. Will you call these +vain and empty suspicions? Have you been at all times so void of fears +and jealousies, as to justify your being so unreasonably valiant in +having none upon this occasion? Such an extraordinary courage at this +unseasonable time, to say no more, is too dangerous a virtue to be +commended.</p> + +<p>If then, for these and a thousand other reasons, there is cause to +suspect, sure your new friends are not to dictate to you, or advise +you. For instance: the Addresses that fly abroad every week, and +murder us with <i>another to the same</i>; the first draughts are made by +those who are not very proper to be secretaries to the Protestant +Religion: and it is your part only to write them out fairer again.</p> + +<p>Strange! that you, who have been formerly so<a name='Page_11'></a> much against <i>set +forms</i>, should now be content the priests should indite for you. The +nature of thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being pleased or +obliged; they grow in the heart, and from thence show themselves +either in looks, speech, writing, or action. No man was ever thankful +because he was bid to be so, but because he had, or thought he had +some reason for it. If then there is cause in this case to pay such +extravagant acknowledgments, they will flow naturally, without taking +such pains to procure them; and it is unkindly done to tire all the +Post-horses with carrying circular letters, to solicit that which +would be done without any trouble or constraint. If it is really in +itself such a favour, what needeth so much pressing men to be +thankful, and with such eager circumstances, that where persuasions +cannot delude, threatenings are employed to fright them into a +compliance? Thanks must be voluntary, not only unconstrained but +unsolicited, else they are either trifles or snares, that either +signify nothing or a great deal more than is intended by those that +give them. If an inference should be made, that whosoever thanketh the +King for his Declaration, is by that engaged to justify it in point of +law; it is a greater stride than I presume all those care to make who +are persuaded to address. It shall be supposed that all the thankers +will be repealers of the Test, whenever a Parliament shall meet; such +an expectation is better<a name='Page_12'></a> prevented before than disappointed +afterwards; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal +is not to do anything that may give a colour to the mistake. These +bespoken thanks are little less improper than love-letters that were +solicited by the lady to whom they are to be directed: so that, +besides the little ground there is to give them, the manner of getting +them doth extremely lessen their value. It might be wished that you +would have suppressed your impatience, and have been content, for the +sake of religion, to enjoy it within yourselves, without the liberty +of a public exercise, till a Parliament had allowed it; but since that +could not be, and that the articles of some amongst you have made use +of the well-meant zeal of the generality to draw them into this +mistake, I am so far from blaming you with that sharpness, which +perhaps the matter in strictness would bear, that I am ready to err on +the side of the more gentle construction.</p> + +<p>There is a great difference between enjoying quietly the advantages of +an act irregularly done by others, and the going about to support it +against the laws in being. The law is so sacred that no trespass +against it is to be defended; yet frailties may in some measure be +excused when they cannot be justified. The desire of enjoying liberty, +from which men have been so long restrained, may be a temptation that +their reason is not at all times able to resist. If in such a<a name='Page_13'></a> case +some objections are leapt over, indifferent men will be more inclined +to lament the occasion than to fall too hard upon the fault, whilst it +is covered with the apology of a good intention. But where, to rescue +yourselves from the severity of one law, you give a blow to all the +laws, by which your religion and liberty are to be protected; and +instead of silently receiving the benefit of this indulgence, you set +up for advocates to support it, you become voluntary aggressors, and +look like counsel retained by the prerogative against your old friend +Magna Charta, who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under +your displeasure.</p> + +<p>If the case then should be, that the price expected from you for this +liberty is giving up your right in the laws, sure you will think twice +before you go any further in such a losing bargain. After giving +thanks for the breach of one law, you lose the right of complaining of +the breach of all the rest; you will not very well know how to defend +yourselves when you are pressed; and having given up the question when +it was for your advantage, you cannot recall it when it shall be to +your prejudice. If you will set up at one time a power to help you, +which at another time, by parity of reason, shall be made use of to +destroy you, you will neither be pitied nor relieved against a +mischief which you draw upon yourselves by being so unreasonably +thankful. It is like calling in<a name='Page_14'></a> auxiliaries to help, who are strong +enough to subdue you. In such a case your complaints will come too +late to be heard, and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of +compassion.</p> + +<p>If you think, for your excuse, to expound your thanks, so as to +restrain them to this particular case; others, for their ends, will +extend them further: and in these differing interpretations, that +which is backed by authority will be the most likely to prevail; +especially when, by the advantage you have given them, they have in +truth the better of the argument, and that the inferences from your +own concessions are very strong and express against you. This is so +far from being a groundless supposition, that there was a late +instance of it in the last session of Parliament, in the House of +Lords, where the first thanks, though things of course, were +interpreted to be the approbation of the King's whole speech, and a +restraint from the further examination of any part of it, though never +so much disliked; and it was with difficulty obtained, not to be +excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty prerogative of +dispensing, merely by this innocent and usual piece of good manners, +by which no such thing could possibly be intended.</p> + +<p>This showeth that some bounds are to be put to your good breeding, and +that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be +ventured upon a compliment. Now that you have for some time<a name='Page_15'></a> enjoyed +the benefit of the end, it is time for you to look into the danger of +the means. The same reason that made you desirous to get liberty must +make you solicitous to preserve it, so that the next thought will +naturally be, not to engage yourself beyond retreat; and to agree so +far with the principles of all religion, as not to rely upon a +death-bed repentance.</p> + +<p>There are certain periods of time, which being once past, make all +cautions ineffectual, and all remedies desperate. Our understandings +are apt to be hurried on by the first heats, which, if not restrained +in time, do not give us leave to look back till it is too late. +Consider this in the case of your anger against the Church of England, +and take warning by their mistake in the same kind, when after the +late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of +your rough usage to them in other times, that it made them forget +their interest and sacrifice it to their revenge.</p> + +<p>Either you will blame this proceeding in them, and for that reason not +follow it; or, if you allow it, you have no reason to be offended with +them; so that you must either dismiss your anger or lose your excuse; +except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of +your morality and understanding.</p> + +<p>If you had now to do with those rigid prelates who made it a matter of +conscience to give you the<a name='Page_16'></a> least indulgence, but kept you at an +uncharitable distance, and even to your most reasonable scruples +continued stiff and inexorable, the argument might be fairer on your +side; but since the common danger has so laid open that mistake, that +all the former haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished, and +that it hath turned the spirit of persecution into a spirit of peace, +charity, and condescension; shall this happy change only affect the +Church of England? And are you so in love with separation as not to be +moved by this example? It ought to be followed, were there no other +reason than that it is virtue; but when, besides that, it is become +necessary to your preservation, it is impossible to fail the having +its effect upon you.</p> + +<p>If it should be said that the Church of England is never humble but +when she is out of power, and therefore loseth the right of being +believed when she pretendeth to it: the answer is, <i>first</i>, It would +be an uncharitable objection, and very much mistimed; an unseasonable +triumph, not only ungenerous but unsafe: so that in these respects it +cannot be urged without scandal, even though it could be said with +truth. <i>Secondly</i>, This is not so in fact, and the argument must fall, +being built upon a false foundation; for whatever may be told you at +this very hour, and in the heat and glare of your perfect sunshine, +the Church of England can in a moment bring clouds<a name='Page_17'></a> again, and turn +the royal thunder upon your heads, blow you off the stage with a +breath, if she would give but a smile or a kind word; the least +glimpse of her compliance would throw you back into the state of +suffering, and draw upon you all the arrears of severity which have +accrued during the time of this kindness to you; and yet the Church of +England, with all her faults, will not allow herself to be rescued by +such unjustifiable means, but chooseth to bear the weight of power +rather than lie under the burden of being criminal.</p> + +<p>It cannot be said that she is unprovoked: books and letters come out +every day to call for answers, yet she will not be stirred. From the +supposed authors and the style, one would swear they were undertakers, +and had made a contract to fall out with the Church of England. There +are lashes in every address, challenges to draw the pen in every +pamphlet. In short, the fairest occasions in the world given to +quarrel; but she wisely distinguisheth between the body of Dissenters, +whom she will suppose to act, as they do, with no ill intent, and +these small skirmishers, picked and sent out to piqueer, and to begin +a fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the +advantage of the Church of Rome.</p> + +<p>This conduct is so good, that it will be scandalous not to applaud it. +It is not equal dealing to blame<a name='Page_18'></a> our adversaries for doing ill, and +not commend them when they do well.</p> + +<p>To hate them because they are persecuted, and not to be reconciled to +them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the +advantages that can be gained by a criminal compliance, is a principle +no sort of Christians can own, since it would give an objection to +them never to be answered.</p> + +<p>Think a little who they were that promoted your former persecutions, +and then consider how it will look to be angry with the instruments, +and at the same time to make a league with the authors of your +sufferings.</p> + +<p>Have you enough considered what will be expected from you? Are you +ready to stand in every borough by virtue of a <i>congé d'élire</i>, and +instead of election be satisfied if you are returned?</p> + +<p>Will you, in parliament, justify the dispensing power, with all its +consequences, and repeal the test, by which you will make way for the +repeal of all the laws that were made to preserve your religion, and +to enact others that shall destroy it?</p> + +<p>Are you disposed to change the liberty of debate into the merit of +obedience; and to be made instruments to repeal or enact laws, when +the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles?</p> + +<p>Are you so linked to your new friends as to reject any indulgence a +parliament shall offer you, if it shall<a name='Page_19'></a> not be so comprehensive as to +include the Papists in it?</p> + +<p>Consider that the implied conditions of your new treaty are no less +than that you are to do everything you are desired, without examining; +and that for this pretended liberty of conscience, your real freedom +is to be sacrificed; your former faults hang like chains still about +you, you are let loose only upon bail; the first act of non-compliance +sendeth you to gaol again.</p> + +<p>You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the legality +of this power which you are to justify, since the being so very +earnest to get it established by a law, and the doing such very hard +things in order, as they think, to obtain it, is a clear evidence that +they do not think that the single power of the Crown is in this case a +good foundation; especially when this is done under a prince so very +tender of the rights of sovereignty that he would think it a +diminution to his prerogative, where he conceiveth it strong enough to +go alone, to call in the legislative help to strengthen and support +it.</p> + +<p>You have formerly blamed the Church of England, and not without +reason, for going so far as they did in their compliance; and yet so +soon as they stopped, you see they are not only deserted, but +prosecuted. Conclude, then, from this example, that you must either +break off your friendship or resolve to have no<a name='Page_20'></a> bounds in it. If they +do succeed in their design, they will leave you first: if they do, you +must either leave them, when it will be too late for your safety, or +else, after the squeaziness of starting at a surplice, you must be +forced to swallow Transubstantiation.</p> + +<p>Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were +Trimmers for enduring you; and now, by a sudden turn, you are become +the favourites. Do not deceive yourselves; it is not the nature of +lasting plants thus to shoot up in a night; you may look gay and green +for a little time, but you want a root to give you a continuance. It +is not so long since, as to be forgotten, that the maxim was, It is +impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBEL. Consider at this time in +France, even the new converts are so far from being employed that they +are disarmed; their sudden change maketh them still to be distrusted, +notwithstanding that they are reconciled; what are you to expect then +from your dear friends, to whom, whenever they shall think fit to +throw you off again, you have in other times given such arguments for +their excuse?</p> + +<p>Besides all this you act very unskilfully against your visible +interest, if you throw away the advantages of which you can hardly +fail in the next probable Revolution. Things tend naturally to what +you would have, if you would let them alone, and not by an +unseasonable activity lose the influences of your<a name='Page_21'></a> good star, which +promiseth you everything that is prosperous.</p> + +<p>The Church of England, convinced of its error in being severe to you; +the Parliament, whenever it meeteth sure to be gentle to you; the next +heir, bred in the country which you have so often quoted for a pattern +of indulgence; a general agreement of all thinking men, that we must +no more cut ourselves off from the Protestants abroad, but rather +enlarge the foundations upon which we are to build our defences +against the common enemy; so that in truth, all things seem to +conspire to give you ease and satisfaction, if by too much haste to +anticipate your good fortune you do not destroy it.</p> + +<p>The Protestants have but one article of human strength to oppose the +power which is now against them, and that is not to lose the advantage +of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided.</p> + +<p>We all agree in our duty to our prince; our objections to his belief +do not hinder us from seeing his virtues; and our not complying with +his religion hath no effect upon our allegiance. We are not to be +laughed out of our passive obedience, and the doctrine of +non-resistance, though even those who perhaps owe the best part of +their security to that principle are apt to make a jest of it.</p> + +<p>So that if we give no advantage by the fatal<a name='Page_22'></a> mistake of misapplying +our anger, by the natural course of things this danger will pass away +like a shower of hail; fair weather will succeed, as lowering as the +sky now looketh, and all this by a plain and easy receipt. Let us be +still, quiet, and undivided, firm at the same time to our religion, +our loyalty, and our laws; and so long as we continue this method it +is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose +the bet; except the Church of Rome, which hath been so long barren of +miracles, should now, in her declining age, be brought to bed of one +that would outdo the best she can brag of in her legend.</p> + +<p>To conclude, the short question will be, Whether you will join with +those who must in the end run the same fate with you? If Protestants +of all sorts, in their behaviour to one another, have been to blame, +they are upon more equal terms, and, for that very reason, it is +fitter for them now to be reconciled. Our disunion is not only a +reproach, but a danger to us. Those who believe in modern miracles +have more right, or at least more excuse, to neglect all secular +caution; but for us, it is as justifiable to have no religion as +wilfully to throw away the human means of preserving it.—I am, Dear +Sir, your most affectionate humble Servant, T.W.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_23'></a>II.—'THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS'</h3> + +<h4>BY DANIEL DEFOE</h4> + +<p>(<i>Defoe wrote an enormous number of pamphlets; for great part of his +life he might almost have been described as a pamphleteer pure and +simple. In the vast lists of publications which his biographers and +bibliographers have compiled, partly by industry and partly by +imagination, by far the larger number of entries is of the pamphlet +kind. Indeed, as most people know, Defoe did not take to the +composition of the fiction which has made his name famous till very +late in life. Born in the year 1661, he began pamphleteering when he +was scarcely of age, and continued in that way (with occasional +excursions into work larger in scale, but not very different in style +or matter) for nearly forty years before the publication of </i>Robinson +Crusoe<i>. His two most famous and most effective pamphlets were the +so-called </i>Legion Letter<i> and </i>The Shortest Way with the Dissenters<i> +(given here), to which may perhaps be added the </i>Reasons against War +with France<i>. All these, with many others, appeared within the +compass<a name='Page_24'></a> of the years 1700-1702. The three together touched upon the +three most burning questions of the late seventeenth and early +eighteenth centuries—parliamentary factiousness, an aggressive policy +abroad, and toleration at home. Little or no annotation is required +for their comprehension, but the reader may amuse himself if he likes +by meditating whether the </i>Shortest Way<i> is irony or not. My own +opinion is that it is not; being a simple statement of the actual +views of the other side. The anecdotic history of the piece—how it +was taken for serious by both sides, was prosecuted by Government, the +author proclaimed, and a reward offered for his detection; how, the +printer and publisher being arrested, Defoe surrendered, was tried, +pleaded guilty, was fined, pilloried, and imprisoned—may be read in +the biographies. His imprisonment lasted till August 1704, when Harley +let him out, and he entered upon a course of rather mysterious service +as a Government free-lance, which was continued under various +ministries, and has not on the whole brought him credit with +posterity. For many years, his remarkable </i>Review<i>, a political +journal which he conducted single-handed, served as his chief organ; +but he never gave up writing pamphlets till his death in 1731, though +he never approached either the merit or the effect of that here +given.</i>)</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Sir Roger L'Estrange tells us a story in his collection of fables, of +the cock and the horses. The cock<a name='Page_25'></a> was gotten to roost in the stable +among the horses, and there being no racks or other conveniences for +him, it seems he was forced to roost upon the ground. The horses +jostling about for room, and putting the cock in danger of his life, +he gives them this grave advice, 'Pray, gentlefolks, let us stand +still, for fear we should tread upon one another.'</p> + +<p>There are some people in the world, who now they are unperched, and +reduced to an equality with other people, and under strong and very +just apprehensions of being further treated as they deserve, begin, +with Æsop's cock, to preach up peace and union, and the Christian +duties of moderation, forgetting that, when they had the power in +their hands, these graces were strangers in their gates.</p> + +<p>It is now near fourteen years that the glory and peace of the purest +and most flourishing Church in the world has been eclipsed, buffeted, +and disturbed by a sort of men whom God in His providence has suffered +to insult over her and bring her down. These have been the days of her +humiliation and tribulation. She has borne with invincible patience +the reproach of the wicked, and God has at last heard her prayers, and +delivered her from the oppression of the stranger.</p> + +<p>And now they find their day is over, their power gone, and the throne +of this nation possessed by a royal, English, true, and ever-constant +member of, and<a name='Page_26'></a> friend to, the Church of England. Now they find that +they are in danger of the Church of England's just resentments; now +they cry out peace, union, forbearance, and charity, as if the Church +had not too long harboured her enemies under her wing, and nourished +the viperous brood till they hiss and fly in the face of the mother +that cherished them.</p> + +<p>No, gentlemen, the time of mercy is past, your day of grace is over; +you should have practised peace, and moderation, and charity, if you +expected any yourselves.</p> + +<p>We have heard none of this lesson for fourteen years past. We have +been huffed and bullied with your Act of Toleration; you have told us +that you are the Church established by law, as well as others; have +set up your canting synagogues at our church doors, and the Church and +members have been loaded with reproaches, with oaths, associations, +abjurations, and what not. Where has been the mercy, the forbearance, +the charity, you have shown to tender consciences of the Church of +England, that could not take oaths as fast as you made them; that +having sworn allegiance to their lawful and rightful King, could not +dispense with that oath, their King being still alive, and swear to +your new hodge-podge of a Dutch Government? These have been turned out +of their livings, and they and their families left to starve; their +estates double taxed to carry on a war<a name='Page_27'></a> they had no hand in, and you +got nothing by. What account can you give of the multitudes you have +forced to comply, against their consciences, with your new sophistical +politics, who, like new converts in France, sin because they cannot +starve? And now the tables are turned upon you; you must not be +persecuted; it is not a Christian spirit.</p> + +<p>You have butchered one king, deposed another king, and made a mock +king of a third, and yet you could have the face to expect to be +employed and trusted by the fourth. Anybody that did not know the +temper of your party would stand amazed at the impudence, as well as +folly, to think of it.</p> + +<p>Your management of your Dutch monarch, whom you reduced to a mere King +of Clouts, is enough to give any future princes such an idea of your +principles as to warn them sufficiently from coming into your +clutches; and God be thanked the Queen is out of your hands, knows +you, and will have a care of you.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt but the supreme authority of a nation has in itself +a power, and a right to that power, to execute the laws upon any part +of that nation it governs. The execution of the known laws of the +land, and that with a weak and gentle hand neither, was all this +fanatical party of this land have ever called persecution; this they +have magnified to a height, that the sufferings of the Huguenots in +France<a name='Page_28'></a> were not to be compared with. Now, to execute the known laws +of a nation upon those who transgress them, after voluntarily +consenting to the making those laws, can never be called persecution, +but justice. But justice is always violence to the party offending, +for every man is innocent in his own eyes. The first execution of the +laws against Dissenters in England was in the days of King James the +First; and what did it amount to truly? The worst they suffered was at +their own request: to let them go to New England and erect a new +colony, and give them great privileges, grants, and suitable powers, +keep them under protection, and defend them against all invaders, and +receive no taxes or revenue from them. This was the cruelty of the +Church of England. Fatal leniency! It was the ruin of that excellent +prince, King Charles the First. Had King James sent all the Puritans +in England away to the West Indies, we had been a national, unmixed +Church; the Church of England had been kept undivided and entire.</p> + +<p>To requite the lenity of the father they take up arms against the son; +conquer, pursue, take, imprison, and at last put to death the anointed +of God, and destroy the very being and nature of government, setting +up a sordid impostor, who had neither title to govern nor +understanding to manage, but supplied that want with power, bloody and +desperate counsels, and craft without conscience.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_29'></a>Had not King James the First withheld the full execution of the laws, +had he given them strict justice, he had cleared the nation of them, +and the consequences had been plain: his son had never been murdered +by them nor the monarchy overwhelmed. It was too much mercy shown them +was the ruin of his posterity and the ruin of the nation's peace. One +would think the Dissenters should not have the face to believe that we +are to be wheedled and canted into peace and toleration when they know +that they have once requited us with a civil war, and once with an +intolerable and unrighteous persecution for our former civility.</p> + +<p>Nay, to encourage us to be easy with them, it is apparent that they +never had the upper hand of the Church, but they treated her with all +the severity, with all the reproach and contempt that was possible. +What peace and what mercy did they show the loyal gentry of the Church +of England in the time of their triumphant Commonwealth? How did they +put all the gentry of England to ransom, whether they were actually in +arms for the King or not, making people compound for their estates and +starve their families? How did they treat the clergy of the Church of +England, sequestered the ministers, devoured the patrimony of the +Church, and divided the spoil by sharing the Church lands among their +soldiers, and turning her clergy out to starve? Just such measure as +they have meted should be measured them again.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_30'></a>Charity and love is the known doctrine of the Church of England, and +it is plain she has put it in practice towards the Dissenters, even +beyond what they ought, till she has been wanting to herself, and in +effect unkind to her sons, particularly in the too much lenity of King +James the First, mentioned before. Had he so rooted the Puritans from +the face of the land, which he had an opportunity early to have done, +they had not had the power to vex the Church as since they have done.</p> + +<p>In the days of King Charles the Second how did the Church reward their +bloody doings with lenity and mercy, except the barbarous regicides of +the pretended court of justice? Not a soul suffered for all the blood +in an unnatural war. King Charles came in all mercy and love, +cherished them, preferred them, employed them, withheld the rigour of +the law, and oftentimes, even against the advice of his Parliament, +gave them liberty of conscience; and how did they requite him with the +villanous contrivance to depose and murder him and his successor at +the Rye Plot?</p> + +<p>King James, as if mercy was the inherent quality of the family, began +his reign with unusual favour to them. Nor could their joining with +the Duke of Monmouth against him move him to do himself justice upon +them; but that mistaken prince thought to win them by gentleness and +love, proclaimed an universal liberty to them, and rather<a name='Page_31'></a> +discountenanced the Church of England than them. How they requited him +all the world knows.</p> + +<p>The late reign is too fresh in the memory of all the world to need a +comment; how, under pretence of joining with the Church in redressing +some grievances, they pushed things to that extremity, in conjunction +with some mistaken gentlemen, as to depose the late King, as if the +grievance of the nation could not have been redressed but by the +absolute ruin of the prince. Here is an instance of their temper, +their peace, and charity. To what height they carried themselves +during the reign of a king of their own; how they crept into all +places of trust and profit; how they insinuated into the favour of the +King, and were at first preferred to the highest places in the nation; +how they engrossed the ministry, and above all, how pitifully they +managed, is too plain to need any remarks.</p> + +<p>But particularly their mercy and charity, the spirit of union, they +tell us so much of, has been remarkable in Scotland. If any man would +see the spirit of a Dissenter, let him look into Scotland. There they +made entire conquest of the Church, trampled down the sacred orders, +and suppressed the Episcopal government with an absolute, and, as they +suppose, irretrievable victory, though it is possible they may find +themselves mistaken. Now it would be a very proper question to ask +their impudent advocate, the<a name='Page_32'></a> Observator, pray how much mercy and +favour did the members of the Episcopal Church find in Scotland from +the Scotch Presbyterian Government? and I shall undertake for the +Church of England that the Dissenters shall still receive as much +here, though they deserve but little.</p> + +<p>In a small treatise of the sufferings of the Episcopal clergy in +Scotland, it will appear what usage they met with; how they not only +lost their livings, but in several places were plundered and abused in +their persons; the ministers that could not conform turned out with +numerous families and no maintenance, and hardly charity enough left +to relieve them with a bit of bread. And the cruelties of the parties +are innumerable, and not to be attempted in this short piece.</p> + +<p>And now to prevent the distant cloud which they perceived to hang over +their heads from England, with a true Presbyterian policy they put in +for a union of nations, that England might unite their Church with the +Kirk of Scotland, and their Presbyterian members sit in our House of +Commons, and their Assembly of Scotch canting long-cloaks in our +Convocation. What might have been if our fanatic Whiggish statesmen +continued, God only knows; but we hope we are out of fear of that now.</p> + +<p>It is alleged by some of the faction—and they began to bully us with +it—that if we won't unite with<a name='Page_33'></a> them they will not settle the crown +with us again, but when Her Majesty dies, will choose a king for +themselves.</p> + +<p>If they won't, we must make them, and it is not the first time we have +let them know that we are able. The crowns of these kingdoms have not +so far disowned the right of succession but they may retrieve it +again; and if Scotland thinks to come off from a successive to an +elective state of government, England has not promised not to assist +the right heir and put them into possession without any regard to +their ridiculous settlements.</p> + +<p>These are the gentlemen, these their ways of treating the Church, both +at home and abroad. Now let us examine the reasons they pretend to +give why we should be favourable to them, why we should continue and +tolerate them among us.</p> + +<p>First, they are very numerous, they say; they are a great part of the +nation, and we cannot suppress them.</p> + +<p>To this may be answered:—</p> + +<p>1. They are not so numerous as the Protestants in France, and yet the +French King effectually cleared the nation of them at once, and we +don't find he misses them at home. But I am not of the opinion they +are so numerous as is pretended; their party is more numerous than +their persons, and those mistaken people of the Church who are misled +and deluded by<a name='Page_34'></a> their wheedling artifices to join with them, make +their party the greater; but these will open their eyes when the +Government shall set heartily about the work, and come off from them, +as some animals, which they say always desert a house when it is +likely to fall.</p> + +<p>2. The more numerous the more dangerous, and therefore the more need +to suppress them; and God has suffered us to bear them as goads in our +sides for not utterly extinguishing them long ago.</p> + +<p>3. If we are to allow them only because we cannot suppress them, then +it ought to be tried whether we can or not; and I am of opinion it is +easy to be done, and could prescribe ways and means, if it were +proper; but I doubt not the Government will find effectual methods for +the rooting the contagion from the face of this land.</p> + +<p>Another argument they use, which is this, that it is a time of war, +and we have need to unite against the common enemy.</p> + +<p>We answer, this common enemy had been no enemy if they had not made +him so. He was quiet, in peace, and no way disturbed or encroached +upon us, and we know no reason we had to quarrel with him.</p> + +<p>But further, we make no question but we are able to deal with this +common enemy without their help; but why must we unite with them +because of the enemy? Will they go over to the enemy if we do<a name='Page_35'></a> not +prevent it by a union with them? We are very well contented they +should, and make no question we shall be ready to deal with them and +the common enemy too, and better without them than with them.</p> + +<p>Besides, if we have a common enemy, there is the more need to be +secure against our private enemies. If there is one common enemy, we +have the less need to have an enemy in our bowels.</p> + +<p>It was a great argument some people used against suppressing the old +money, that it was a time of war, and it was too great a risk for the +nation to run; if we should not master it, we should be undone. And +yet the sequel proved the hazard was not so great but it might be +mastered, and the success was answerable. The suppressing the +Dissenters is not a harder work nor a work of less necessity to the +public. We can never enjoy a settled, uninterrupted union and +tranquillity in this nation till the spirit of Whiggism, faction, and +schism is melted down like the old money.</p> + +<p>To talk of the difficulty is to frighten ourselves with chimeras and +notions of a powerful party, which are indeed a party without power. +Difficulties often appear greater at a distance than when they are +searched into with judgment and distinguished from the vapours and +shadows that attend them.</p> + +<p>We are not to be frightened with it; this age is wiser than that by +all our own experience and theirs<a name='Page_36'></a> too. King Charles the First had +early suppressed this party if he had taken more deliberate measures. +In short, it is not worth arguing to talk of their arms. Their +Monmouths, and Shaftesburys, and Argyles are gone; their Dutch +sanctuary is at an end; Heaven has made way for their destruction, and +if we do not close with the Divine occasion we are to blame ourselves, +and may remember that we had once an opportunity to serve the Church +of England by extirpating her implacable enemies, and having let slip +the minute that Heaven presented, may experimentally complain, <i>Post +est occasio calva</i>.</p> + +<p>Here are some popular objections in the way:—</p> + +<p>As first, the Queen has promised them to continue them in their +tolerated liberty, and has told us she will be a religious observer of +her word.</p> + +<p>What Her Majesty will do we cannot help; but what, as head of the +Church, she ought to do, is another case. Her Majesty has promised to +protect and defend the Church of England, and if she cannot +effectually do that without the destruction of the Dissenters, she +must of course dispense with one promise to comply with another. But +to answer this cavil more effectually: Her Majesty did never promise +to maintain the toleration to the destruction of the Church; but it is +upon supposition that it may be compatible with the well-being and +safety of the Church, which she had declared she would take<a name='Page_37'></a> especial +care of. Now if these two interests clash, it is plain Her Majesty's +intentions are to uphold, protect, defend, and establish the Church, +and this we conceive is impossible.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it may be said that the Church is in no immediate danger from +the Dissenters, and therefore it is time enough. But this is a weak +answer.</p> + +<p>For first, if a danger be real, the distance of it is no argument +against, but rather a spur to quicken us to prevention, lest it be too +late hereafter.</p> + +<p>And secondly, here is the opportunity, and the only one perhaps that +ever the Church had, to secure herself and destroy her enemies.</p> + +<p>The representatives of the nation have now an opportunity; the time is +come which all good men have wished for, that the gentlemen of England +may serve the Church of England. Now they are protected and encouraged +by a Church of England Queen.</p> + +<p>What will you do for your sister in the day that she shall be spoken +for?</p> + +<p>If ever you will establish the best Christian Church in the world; if +ever you will suppress the spirit of enthusiasm; if ever you will free +the nation from the viperous brood that have so long sucked the blood +of their mother; if ever you will leave your posterity free from +faction and rebellion, this is the time. This is the time to pull up +this heretical weed of<a name='Page_38'></a> sedition that has so long disturbed the peace +of our Church and poisoned the good corn.</p> + +<p>But, says another hot and cold objector, this is renewing fire and +faggot, reviving the act <i>De Heretico Comburendo</i>; this will be +cruelty in its nature, and barbarous to all the world.</p> + +<p>I answer, it is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but +the poison of their nature makes it a charity to our neighbours to +destroy those creatures, not for any personal injury received, but for +prevention; not for the evil they have done, but the evil they may do.</p> + +<p>Serpents, toads, vipers, etc., are noxious to the body, and poison the +sensitive life; these poison the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare +our children, destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future +felicity, and contaminate the whole mass.</p> + +<p>Shall any law be given to such wild creatures? Some beasts are for +sport, and the huntsmen give them advantages of ground; but some are +knocked on the head by all possible ways of violence and surprise.</p> + +<p>I do not prescribe fire and faggot, but, as Scipio said of Carthage, +<i>Delenda est Carthago</i>. They are to be rooted out of this nation, if +ever we will live in peace, serve God, or enjoy our own. As for the +manner, I leave it to those hands who have a right to execute God's +justice on the nation's and the Church's enemies.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_39'></a>But if we must be frighted from this justice under the specious +pretences and odious sense of cruelty, nothing will be effected: it +will be more barbarous to our own children and dear posterity when +they shall reproach their fathers, as we do ours, and tell us, 'You +had an opportunity to root out this cursed race from the world under +the favour and protection of a true English queen; and out of your +foolish pity you spared them, because, forsooth, you would not be +cruel; and now our Church is suppressed and persecuted, our religion +trampled under foot, our estates plundered, our persons imprisoned and +dragged to jails, gibbets, and scaffolds: your sparing this Amalekite +race is our destruction, your mercy to them proves cruelty to your +poor posterity.'</p> + +<p>How just will such reflections be when our posterity shall fall under +the merciless clutches of this uncharitable generation, when our +Church shall be swallowed up in schism, faction, enthusiasm, and +confusion; when our Government shall be devolved upon foreigners, and +our monarchy dwindled into a republic.</p> + +<p>It would be more rational for us, if we must spare this generation, to +summon our own to a general massacre, and as we have brought them into +the world free, send them out so, and not betray them to destruction +by our supine negligence, and then cry, 'It is mercy.'</p> + +<p><a name='Page_40'></a>Moses was a merciful, meek man, and yet with what fury did he run +through the camp, and cut the throats of three and thirty thousand of +his dear Israelites that were fallen into idolatry. What was the +reason? It was mercy to the rest to make these examples, to prevent +the destruction of the whole army.</p> + +<p>How many millions of future souls we save from infection and delusion +if the present race of poisoned spirits were purged from the face of +the land!</p> + +<p>It is vain to trifle in this matter, the light, foolish handling of +them by mulcts, fines, etc.,—it is their glory and their advantage. +If the gallows instead of the Counter, and the galleys instead of the +fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, to preach or hear, +there would not be so many sufferers. The spirit of martyrdom is over; +they that will go to church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors would go +to forty churches rather than be hanged.</p> + +<p>If one severe law were made and punctually executed, that whoever was +found at a conventicle should be banished the nation and the preacher +be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale. They would all come +to church, and one age would make us all one again.</p> + +<p>To talk of five shillings a month for not coming to the sacrament, and +one shilling per week for not coming to church, this is such a way of +converting<a name='Page_41'></a> people as never was known; this is selling them a liberty +to transgress for so much money. If it be not a crime, why don't we +give them full license? And if it be, no price ought to compound for +the committing it, for that is selling a liberty to people to sin +against God and the Government.</p> + +<p>If it be a crime of the highest consequence both against the peace and +welfare of the nation, the glory of God, the good of the Church, and +the happiness of the soul, let us rank it among capital offences, and +let it receive a punishment in proportion to it.</p> + +<p>We hang men for trifles, and banish them for things not worth naming; +but an offence against God and the Church, against the welfare of the +world and the dignity of religion, shall be bought off for five +shillings! This is such a shame to a Christian Government that it is +with regret I transmit it to posterity.</p> + +<p>If men sin against God, affront His ordinances, rebel against His +Church, and disobey the precepts of their superiors, let them suffer +as such capital crimes deserve. So will religion flourish, and this +divided nation be once again united.</p> + +<p>And yet the title of barbarous and cruel will soon be taken off from +this law too. I am not supposing that all the Dissenters in England +should be hanged or banished, but, as in cases of rebellions and +insurrections, if a few of the ringleaders suffer,<a name='Page_42'></a> the multitude are +dismissed; so, a few obstinate people being made examples, there is no +doubt but the severity of the law would find a stop in the compliance +of the multitude.</p> + +<p>To make the reasonableness of this matter out of question, and more +unanswerably plain, let us examine for what it is that this nation is +divided into parties and factions, and let us see how they can justify +a separation, or we of the Church of England can justify our bearing +the insults and inconveniences of the party.</p> + +<p>One of their leading pastors, and a man of as much learning as most +among them, in his answer to a pamphlet, entitled 'An Inquiry into the +Occasional Conformity,' has these words, p. 27, 'Do the religion of +the Church and the meeting-houses make two religions? Wherein do they +differ? The substance of the same religion is common to them both; and +the modes and accidents are the things in which only they differ.' P. +28: 'Thirty-nine articles are given us for the summary of our +religion; thirty-six contain the substance of it, wherein we agree; +three the additional appendices, about which we have some +differences.'</p> + +<p>Now, if, as by their own acknowledgment, the Church of England is a +true Church, and the difference between them is only in a few modes +and accidents, why should we expect that they will suffer<a name='Page_43'></a> galleys, +corporeal punishment, and banishment for these trifles? There is no +question but they will be wiser; even their own principles will not +bear them out in it; they will certainly comply with the laws and with +reason; and though at the first severity they may seem hard, the next +age will feel nothing of it; the contagion will be rooted out; the +disease being cured, there will be no need of the operation; but if +they should venture to transgress and fall into the pit, all the world +must condemn their obstinacy, as being without ground from their own +principles.</p> + +<p>Thus the pretence of cruelty will be taken off, and the party actually +suppressed, and the disquiets they have so often brought upon the +nation prevented.</p> + +<p>Their numbers and their wealth make them haughty, and that is so far +from being an argument to persuade us to forbear them, that it is a +warning to us, without any delay, to reconcile them to the unity of +the Church or remove them from us.</p> + +<p>At present, Heaven be praised, they are not so formidable as they have +been, and it is our own fault if ever we suffer them to be so. +Providence and the Church of England seem to join in this particular, +that now the destroyers of the nation's peace may be overturned, and +to this end the present opportunity seems to be put into our hands.</p> + +<p>To this end her present Majesty seems reserved to enjoy the crown, +that the ecclesiastic as well as civil<a name='Page_44'></a> rights of the nation may be +restored by her hand. To this end the face of affairs have received +such a turn in the process of a few months as never has been before; +the leading men of the nation, the universal cry of the people, the +unanimous request of the clergy, agree in this, that the deliverance +of our Church is at hand. For this end has Providence given us such a +Parliament, such a Convocation, such a gentry, and such a Queen as we +never had before. And what may be the consequences of a neglect of +such opportunities? The succession of the crown has but a dark +prospect; another Dutch turn may make the hopes of it ridiculous and +the practice impossible. Be the house of our future princes never so +well inclined, they will be foreigners, and many years will be spent +in suiting the genius of strangers to this crown and the interests of +the nation; and how many ages it may be before the English throne be +filled with so much zeal and candour, so much tenderness and hearty +affection to the Church as we see it now covered with, who can +imagine?</p> + +<p>It is high time, then, for the friends of the Church of England to +think of building up and establishing her in such a manner that she +may be no more invaded by foreigners nor divided by factions, schisms, +and error.</p> + +<p>If this could be done by gentle and easy methods, I should be glad; +but the wound is corroded, the<a name='Page_45'></a> vitals begin to mortify, and nothing +but amputation of members can complete the cure; all the ways of +tenderness and compassion, all persuasive arguments, have been made +use of in vain.</p> + +<p>The humour of the Dissenters has so increased among the people that +they hold the Church in defiance, and the house of God is an +abomination among them; nay, they have brought up their posterity in +such prepossessed aversions to our holy religion that the ignorant mob +think we are all idolaters and worshippers of Baal, and account it a +sin to come within the walls of our churches.</p> + +<p>The primitive Christians were not more shy of a heathen temple or of +meat offered to idols, nor the Jews of swine's flesh, than some of our +Dissenters are of the Church, and the divine service selemnised +therein.</p> + +<p>This obstinacy must be rooted out with the profession of it; while the +generation are less at liberty daily to affront God Almighty and +dishonour His holy worship, we are wanting in our duty to God and our +mother, the Church of England.</p> + +<p>How can we answer it to God, to the Church, and to our posterity, to +leave them entangled with fanaticism, error, and obstinacy in the +bowels of the nation; to leave them an enemy in their streets, that in +time may involve them in the same crimes, and endanger the utter +extirpation of religion in the nation?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_46'></a>What is the difference betwixt this and being subjected to the power +of the Church of Rome, from whence we have reformed? If one be an +extreme on one hand, and one on another, it is equally destructive to +the truth to have errors settled among us, let them be of what nature +they will.</p> + +<p>Both are enemies of our Church and of our peace; and why should it not +be as criminal to admit an enthusiast as a Jesuit? Why should the +Papist with his seven sacraments be worse than the Quaker with no +sacraments at all? Why should religious houses be more intolerable +than meeting-houses? Alas, the Church of England! What with Popery on +one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified +between two thieves!</p> + +<p>Now let us crucify the thieves. Let her foundations be established +upon the destruction of her enemies. The doors of mercy being always +open to the returning part of the deluded people, let the obstinate be +ruled with the rod of iron.</p> + +<p>Let all true sons of so holy and oppressed a mother, exasperated by +her afflictions, harden their hearts against those who have oppressed +her.</p> + +<p>And may God Almighty put it into the hearts of all the friends of +truth to lift up a standard against pride and Antichrist, that the +posterity of the sons of error may be rooted out from the face of this +land for ever.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_47'></a>III.—THE 'DRAPIER'S LETTERS'</h3> +<h5>(NOS. I AND 2)</h5> + +<h4>BY JONATHAN SWIFT</h4> + +<p>(<i>The two pamphlets entitled </i>The Conduct of the Allies<i> and </i>The +Public Spirit of the Whigs<i>—which are sometimes considered the +capital examples of the political efforts of Swift's magnificent +genius—were the very Jachin and Boaz of the Tory administration in +the last years of Anne, and the effect of them has been admitted by +such a violent Whig and such a good critic as Jeffrey. They seemed, +however, not wholly suitable for insertion here; first, because of +their length (for one would have occupied nearly a third, the other +nearly a fourth of this volume), and secondly, because the greater +part of each does really, to some extent, underlie the charge brought +against political pamphlets generally, and, being occupied with a +great number of personal and particular matters, requires either much +intimacy with the period or elaborate and probably tedious comparison +and elucidation, to make it intelligible. No such drawback attaches<a name='Page_48'></a> +to the almost more famous </i>Drapier's Letters<i>, of which I give the +first and second. They were written at the very zenith of their +author's marvellous powers, and at the time when his </i>sæva indignatio<i> +was heated seven times hotter than usual by the conviction that his +last hope of English promotion was gone. Their circumstances are +simple and well known. Wood had received a patent to coin copper money +for Ireland to the amount of £108,000. Most commentators seem to think +that he would have done this honestly enough; to me the simple fact +that on the revocation of his patent a pension of £3000 a year was +given to him in compensation is proof enough of the contrary. It is +impossible to imagine any honest profit on a transaction of such a +nature to such an amount which could rise to the capital value of such +a pension. That Swift was instigated to take up his pen against the +transaction by private griefs against the Ministry is extremely +probable; that the thing was not a job less so. As before, I must +refer to biographers for the details of the matter; the text is what +interests us here. I shall only remind the reader that Swift was +fifty-seven when the 'Drapier' wrote, that </i>Gulliver<i> appeared about +three years later, and that Swift himself expired—lunatic and +miserable beyond utterance—on the 19th October 1745, twenty-one years +after all Dublin and half England had rung with the boldness and the +triumph of the 'Drapier.'</i>)</p> + +<h3><a name='Page_49'></a>I</h3> + +<h3>TO THE TRADESMEN, SHOP-KEEPERS, FARMERS, AND COMMON-PEOPLE IN GENERAL, +OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND; CONCERNING THE BRASS HALF-PENCE COINED BY +MR. WOOD.</h3> + +<p>Brethren, Friends, Countrymen, and Fellow Subjects—What I intend now +to say to you, is, next to your duty to God, and the care of your +salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves, and your children; +your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life entirely +depend upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men, as +Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country, to read this +paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; +which that you may do at the less expence, I have ordered the printer +to sell it at the lowest rate.</p> + +<p>It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no other +intention than to do you good you will not be at the pains to read his +advices: one copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you, which will +be less than a farthing a-piece. It is your folly that you have no +common or general interest in your view, not even the wisest among +you, neither do you know or enquire, or care who are your friends or +who are your enemies.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_50'></a>About four years ago, a little book was written, to advise all people +to wear the manufactures of this our own dear country: it had no other +design, said nothing against the king or Parliament, or any man, yet +the poor printer was prosecuted two years, with the utmost violence, +and even some weavers themselves, for whose sake it was written, being +upon the jury, found him guilty. This would be enough to discourage +any man from endeavouring to do you good, when you will either neglect +him or fly in his face for his pains, and when he must expect only +danger to himself and loss of money, perhaps to his ruin.</p> + +<p>However, I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest destruction +before your eyes, if you do not behave yourselves as you ought.</p> + +<p>I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact; and then +I will lay before you how you ought to act in common prudence, and +according to the laws of your country.</p> + +<p>The fact is thus, It having been many years since copper half-pence or +farthings were last coined in this kingdom, they have been for some +time very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about under the name of +raps. Several applications were made to England, that we might have +liberty to coin new ones, as in former times we did; but they did not +succeed. At last one Mr. Wood a mean ordinary man, a hard<a name='Page_51'></a>ware dealer, +procured a patent under his Majesty's Broad Seal to coin fourscore and +ten thousand pounds in copper for this kingdom, which patent however +did not oblige any one here to take them, unless they pleased. Now you +must know, that the half-pence and farthings in England pass for very +little more than they are worth. And if you should beat them to +pieces, and sell them to the brazier, you would not lose above a penny +in a shilling. But Mr. Wood made his half-pence of such base metal, +and so much smaller than the English ones, that the brazier would not +give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of his; so that +this sum of fourscore and ten thousand pounds in good gold and silver, +must be given for trash that will not be worth above eight or nine +thousand pounds real value. But this is not the worst, for Mr. Wood, +when he pleases, may by stealth send over another and another +fourscore and ten thousand pounds, and buy all our goods for eleven +parts in twelve, under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a +dozen of hats for five shillings a-piece, which amounts to three +pounds, and receives the payment in Mr. Wood's coin, he really +receives only the value of five shillings.</p> + +<p>Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood +could have so much interest as to get his Majesty's Broad Seal for so +great a sum of bad money to be sent to this poor country, and<a name='Page_52'></a> that +all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and +let us make our own half-pence, as we used to do. Now I will make that +matter very plain. We are at a great distance from the king's court, +and have nobody there to solicit for us, although a great number of +lords and squires, whose estates are here, and are our countrymen, +spend all their lives and fortunes there. But this same Mr. Wood was +able to attend constantly for his own interest; he is an Englishman +and had great friends, and it seems knew very well where to give money +to those that would speak to others that could speak to the king and +could tell a fair story. And his majesty, and perhaps the great lord +or lords who advised him, might think it was for our country's good; +and so, as the lawyers express it, the king was deceived in his grant, +which often happens in all reigns. And I am sure if his majesty knew +that such a patent, if it should take effect according to the desire +of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin this kingdom, which hath given such +great proofs of its loyalty, he would immediately recall it, and +perhaps show his displeasure to somebody or other: but a word to the +wise is enough. Most of you must have heard, with what anger our +honourable House of Commons receiv'd an account of this Wood's patent. +There were several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proofs that +it was all a wicked cheat from the bottom<a name='Page_53'></a> to the top, and several +smart votes were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to +answer likewise in print, and in so confident a way, as if he were a +better man than our whole Parliament put together.</p> + +<p>This Wood, as soon as his patent was passed, or soon after, sends over +a great many barrels of those half-pence, to Cork and other seaport +towns, and to get them off, offered an hundred pounds in his coin for +seventy or eighty in silver: but the collectors of the king's customs +very honestly refused to take them, and so did almost everybody else. +And since the Parliament hath condemned them, and desired the king +that they might be stopped, all the kingdom do abominate them.</p> + +<p>But Wood is still working under hand to force his half-pence upon us, +and if he can by help of his friends in England prevail so far as to +get an order that the commissioners and collectors of the king's money +shall receive them, and that the army is to be paid with them, then he +thinks his work shall be done. And this is the difficulty you will be +under in such a case: for the common soldier when he goes to the +market or ale-house will offer this money, and if it be refused, +perhaps he will swagger and hector, and threaten to beat the butcher +or ale-wife, or take the goods by force, and throw them the bad +half-pence. In this and the like cases the shop-keeper, or victualler, +or any other tradesman, has no more to do<a name='Page_54'></a> than to demand ten times +the price of his goods if it is to be paid in Wood's money; for +example, twenty pence of that money for a quart of ale, and so in all +things else, and not part with his goods till he gets the money.</p> + +<p>For suppose you go to an ale-house with that base money, and the +landlord gives you a quart for four of these half-pence, what must the +victualler do? His brewer will not be paid in that coin, or if the +brewer should be such a fool, the farmers will not take it from them +for their bere, because they are bound by their leases to pay their +rents in good and lawful money of England, which this is not, nor of +Ireland neither, and the Squire their landlord will never be so +bewitched to take such trash for his land; so that it must certainly +stop somewhere or other, and where-ever it stops it is the same thing, +and we are all undone.</p> + +<p>The common weight of these half-pence is between four and five to an +ounce; suppose five, then three shillings and fourpence will weigh a +pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pounds butter +weight. Now there are many hundred farmers who pay two hundred pound a +year rent. Therefore when one of these farmers comes with his half +year's rent, which is one hundred pound, it will be at least six +hundred pound weight, which is three horses load.</p> + +<p>If a squire has a mind to come to town to buy<a name='Page_55'></a> clothes and wine and +spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter here, he +must bring with him five or six horses loaden with sacks as the +farmers bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach to our +shops, it must be followed by a car loaded with Mr. Wood's money. And +I hope we shall have the grace to take it for no more than it is +worth.</p> + +<p>They say Squire Conolly has sixteen thousand pounds a year; now if he +sends for his rent to town, as it is likely he does, he must have two +hundred and fifty horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or +three great cellars in his house for stowage. But what the bankers +will do I cannot tell. For I am assured that some great bankers keep +by them forty thousand pounds in ready cash, to answer all payments, +which sum, in Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to +carry it.</p> + +<p>For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a pretty +good shop of Irish stuffs and silks, and instead of taking Mr. Wood's +bad copper, I intend to truck with my neighbours the butchers, and +bakers, and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods, and the little +gold and silver I have I will keep by me like my heart's blood till +better times, or till I am just ready to starve, and then I will buy +Mr. Wood's money, as my father did the brass money in K. James's time, +who could buy ten pound of it with<a name='Page_56'></a> a guinea, and I hope to get as +much for a pistole, and so purchase bread from those who will be such +fools as to sell it me.</p> + +<p>These half-pence, if they once pass, will soon be counterfeit, because +it may be cheaply done, the stuff is so base. The Dutch likewise will +probably do the same thing, and send them over to us to pay for our +goods; and Mr. Wood will never be at rest but coin on: so that in some +years we shall have at least five times fourscore and ten thousand +pounds of this lumber. Now the current money of this kingdom is not +reckoned to be above four hundred thousand pounds in all; and while +there is a silver sixpence left, these blood-suckers will never be +quiet.</p> + +<p>When once the kingdom is reduced to such a condition I will tell you +what must be the end: the gentlemen of estates will all turn off their +tenants for want of payment, because, as I told you before, the +tenants are obliged by their leases to pay sterling, which is lawful +current money of England; then they will turn their own farmers, as +too many of them do already, run all into sheep where they can, +keeping only such other cattle as are necessary; then they will be +their own merchants, and send their wool and butter and hides and +linen beyond sea for ready money and wine and spices and silks. They +will keep only a few miserable cottiers. The farmers must rob or beg, +or leave their country. The shop-<a name='Page_57'></a>keepers in this and every other town +must break and starve: for it is the landed man that maintains the +merchant, and shop-keeper, and handicraftsman.</p> + +<p>But when the squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the good +money he gets from abroad he will hoard up to send for England, and +keep some poor tailor or weaver and the like in his own house, who +will be glad to get bread at any rate.</p> + +<p>I should never have done, if I were to tell you all the miseries that +we shall undergo if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this cursed +coin. It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into one +scale, and this sorry fellow Wood into the other, that Mr. Wood should +weigh down this whole kingdom, by which England gets above a million +of good money every year clear into their pockets, and that is more +than the English do by all the world besides.</p> + +<p>But your great comfort is, that, as his majesty's patent does not +oblige you to take this money, so the laws have not given the Crown a +power of forcing the subjects to take what money the king pleases: for +then, by the same reason, we might be bound to take pebble-stones or +cockle-shells, or stamped leather for current coin, if ever we should +happen to live under an ill prince, who might likewise by the same +power make a guinea pass for ten pounds, a shilling for twenty +shillings, and so on, by which he would in a short time get all the +silver and gold of<a name='Page_58'></a> the kingdom into his own hands, and leave us +nothing but brass or leather or what he pleased. Neither is anything +reckoned more cruel or oppressive in the French Government than their +common practice of calling in all their money after they have sunk it +very low, and then coining it a-new at a much higher value, which +however is not the thousandth part so wicked as this abominable +project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects silver for +silver, and gold for gold; but this fellow will not so much as give us +good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a twelfth part +of their worth.</p> + +<p>Having said this much, I will now go on to tell you the judgments of +some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose for your +sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be sure +I went upon good grounds.</p> + +<p>A famous law-book call'd the <i>Mirrour of Justice</i>, discoursing of the +articles (or laws) ordained by our ancient kings, declares the law to +be as follows: It was ordained that no king of this realm should +change, impair, or amend the money or make any other money than of +gold or silver without the assent of all the counties, that is, as my +Lord Coke says, without the assent of Parliament.</p> + +<p>This book is very ancient, and of great authority for the time in +which it was wrote, and with that character is often quoted by that +great lawyer my<a name='Page_59'></a> Lord Coke. By the laws of England, several metals are +divided into lawful or true metal and unlawful or false metal; the +former comprehends silver or gold, the latter all baser metals: that +the former is only to pass in payments appears by an Act of Parliament +made the twentieth year of Edward the First, called the statute +concerning the passing of pence, which I give you here as I got it +translated into English; for some of our laws at that time were, as I +am told, writ in Latin: Whoever in buying or selling presumeth to +refuse an half-penny or farthing of lawful money, bearing the stamp +which it ought to have, let him be seized on as a contemner of the +king's majesty, and cast to prison.</p> + +<p>By this statute, no person is to be reckoned a contemner of the king's +majesty, and for that crime to be committed to prison, but he who +refuses to accept the king's coin made of lawful metal, by which, as I +observ'd before, silver and gold only are intended.</p> + +<p>That this is the true construction of the Act, appears not only from +the plain meaning of the words, but from my Lord Coke's observation +upon it. By this Act (says he) it appears that no subject can be +forc'd to take in buying or selling or other payments, any money made +but of lawful metal; that is, of silver or gold.</p> + +<p>The law of England gives the king all mines of<a name='Page_60'></a> gold and silver, but +not the mines of other metals; the reason of which prerogative or +power, as it is given by my Lord Coke, is, because money can be made +of gold and silver, but not of other metals.</p> + +<p>Pursuant to this opinion half-pence and farthings were anciently made +of silver, which is more evident from the Act of Parliament of Henry +the IVth. chap. 4, by which it is enacted as follows: Item, for the +great scarcity that is at present within the realm of England of +half-pence and farthings of silver, it is ordained and established +that the third part of all the money of silver plate which shall be +brought to the bullion, shall be made in half-pence and farthings. +This shows that by the words half-penny and farthing of lawful money +in that statute concerning the passing of pence, is meant a small coin +in half-pence and farthings of silver.</p> + +<p>This is further manifest from the statute of the ninth year of Edward +the IIId. chap. 3, which enacts, That no sterling half-penny or +farthing be molten for to make vessel, or any other thing by the +goldsmiths, nor others, upon forfeiture of the money so molten (or +melted).</p> + +<p>By another Act in this king's reign black money was not to be current +in England, and by an Act made in the eleventh year of his reign, +chap. 5, galley half-pence were not to pass: what kind of coin these +were I do not know, but I presume they<a name='Page_61'></a> were made of base metal, and +that these Acts were no new laws, but further declarations of the old +laws relating to the coin.</p> + +<p>Thus the law stands in relation to coin, nor is there any example to +the contrary, except one in Davis's <i>Reports</i>, who tells us, that in +the time of Tyrone's rebellion Queen Elizabeth ordered money of mixt +metal to be coined in the Tower of London, and sent over hither for +payment of the army, obliging all people to receive it, and commanding +that all silver money should be taken only as bullion, that is, for as +much as it weighed. Davis tells us several particulars in this matter +too long here to trouble you with, and that the Privy Council of this +kingdom obliged a merchant in England to receive this mixt money for +goods transmitted hither.</p> + +<p>But this proceeding is rejected by all the best lawyers as contrary to +law, the Privy Council here having no such power. And, besides, it is +to be considered that the Queen was then under great difficulties by a +rebellion in this kingdom, assisted from Spain, and whatever is done +in great exigences and dangerous times should never be an example to +proceed by in seasons of peace and quietness.</p> + +<p>I will now, my dear friends, to save you the trouble, set before you, +in short, what the law obliges you to do, and what it does not oblige +you to.</p> + +<p>First, You are oblig'd to take all money in<a name='Page_62'></a> payments which is coin'd +by the king and is of the English standard or weight, provided it be +of gold or silver.</p> + +<p>Secondly, You are not oblig'd to take any money which is not of gold +or silver, not only the half-pence or farthings of England, or of any +other country; and it is only for convenience, or ease, that you are +content to take them, because the custom of coining silver half-pence +and farthings hath long been left off, I will suppose on account of +their being subject to be lost.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, Much less are we oblig'd to take those vile half-pence of +that same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven-pence in every +shilling.</p> + +<p>Therefore, my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy +trash: it is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood; his majesty in his +patent obliges nobody to take these half-pence; our gracious prince +hath no so ill advisers about him; or if he had, yet you see the laws +have not left it in the king's power, to force us to take any coin but +what is lawful, of right standard, gold and silver; therefore you have +nothing to fear.</p> + +<p>And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who are +the poor sort of tradesmen: perhaps you may think you will not be so +great losers as the rich if these half-pence should pass, because you +seldom see any silver, and your customers come to your shops or stalls +with nothing but brass,<a name='Page_63'></a> which you likewise find hard to be got; but +you may take my word, whenever this money gains footing among you, you +will be utterly undone; if you carry these half-pence to a shop for +tobacco or brandy, or any other thing you want, the shop-keeper will +advance his goods accordingly, or else he must break and leave the key +under the door. Do you think I will sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff +for twenty of Mr. Wood's half-pence? No, not under two hundred at +least, neither will I be at the trouble of counting, but weigh them in +a lump. I will tell you one thing further, that if Mr. Wood's project +should take it will ruin even our beggars: for when I give a beggar an +half-penny, it will quench his thirst, or go a good way to fill his +belly; but the twelfth part of a half-penny will do him no more +service than if I should give him three pins out of my sleeve.</p> + +<p>In short those half-pence are like the accursed thing, which, as the +Scripture tells us, the children of Israel were forbidden to touch; +they will run about like the plague and destroy every one who lays his +hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told a king +that he had invented a way to torment people by putting them into a +bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the projector +first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment; this very much +resembles the project of Mr. Wood; and the like of this may possibly +be Mr. Wood's fate,<a name='Page_64'></a> that the brass he contrived to torment this +kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his destruction at last.</p> + +<p><i>N.B.</i>—The author of this paper is inform'd by persons who have made +it their business to be exact in their observations on the true value +of these half-pence, that any person may expect to get a quart of +twopenny ale for thirty-six of them.</p> + +<p>I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to refresh +their memories whenever they shall have further notice of Mr. Wood's +half-pence or any other the like imposture.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>II.</h3> + +<h3>A LETTER TO MR. HARDING THE PRINTER, UPON OCCASION OF A PARAGRAPH IN +HIS NEWS-PAPER OF AUGUST 1, 1724, RELATING TO MR. WOOD'S HALF-PENCE.</h3> + +<p>In your news-letter of the first instant there is a paragraph dated +from London, July 25th, relating to Wood's half-pence; whereby it is +plain, what I foretold in my letter to the shop-keepers, etc., that +this vile fellow would never be at rest, and that the danger of our +ruin approaches nearer, and therefore the kingdom requires new and +fresh warning; however I take that paragraph to be, in a great +measure, an<a name='Page_65'></a> imposition upon the public, at least I hope so, because I +am informed that Wood is generally his own news-writer. I cannot but +observe from that paragraph that this public enemy of ours, not +satisfied to ruin us with his trash, takes every occasion to treat +this kingdom with the utmost contempt. He represents several of our +merchants and traders upon examination before a committee of a +council, agreeing that there was the utmost necessity of copper-money +here, before his patent, so that several gentlemen have been forced to +tally with their workmen, and give them bits of cards sealed and +subscribed with their names. What then? If a physician prescribe to a +patient a dram of physic, shall a rascal apothecary cram him with a +pound, and mix it up with poison? And is not a landlord's hand and +seal to his own labourers a better security for five or ten shillings, +than Wood's brass seven times below the real value, can be to the +kingdom, for an hundred and four thousand pounds?</p> + +<p>But who are these merchants and traders of Ireland that make this +report of the utmost necessity we are under of copper money? They are +only a few betrayers of their country, confederates with Wood, from +whom they are to purchase a great quantity of his coin, perhaps at +half value, and vend it among us to the ruin of the public and their +own private advantage. Are not these excellent witnesses, upon<a name='Page_66'></a> whose +integrity the fate of a kingdom must depend, who are evidences in +their own cause, and sharers in this work of iniquity?</p> + +<p>If we could have deserved the liberty of coining for ourselves, as we +formerly did (and why we have not is everybody's wonder as well as +mine), ten thousand pounds might have been coined here in Dublin of +only one fifth below the intrinsic value, and this sum, with the stock +of half-pence we then had, would have been sufficient: but Wood by his +emissaries, enemies to God and this kingdom, hath taken care to buy up +as many of our old half-pence as he could, and from thence the present +want of change arises; to remove which, by Mr. Wood's remedy, would +be, to cure a scratch on the finger by cutting off the arm. But +supposing there were not one farthing of change in the whole nation, I +will maintain that five and twenty thousand pounds would be a sum +fully sufficient to answer all our occasions. I am no inconsiderable +shop-keeper in this town, I have discoursed with several of my own and +other trades, with many gentlemen both of city and country, and also +with great numbers of farmers, cottagers, and labourers, who all agree +that two shillings in change for every family would be more than +necessary in all dealings. Now by the largest computation (even before +that grievous discouragement of agriculture, which hath so much +lessened our numbers)<a name='Page_67'></a> the souls in this kingdom are computed to be +one million and a half, which, allowing but six to a family, makes two +hundred and fifty thousand families, and consequently two shillings to +each family will amount only to five and twenty thousand pounds, +whereas this honest liberal hard-ware-man Wood, would impose upon us +above four times that sum.</p> + +<p>Your paragraph relates further, that Sir Isaac Newton reported an +assay taken at the Tower, of Wood's metal, by which it appears that +Wood had in all respects performed his contract. His contract! With +whom? Was it with the Parliament or people of Ireland? Are not they to +be the purchasers? But they detest, abhor, and reject it, as corrupt, +fraudulent, mingled with dirt and trash. Upon which he grows angry, +goes to law, and will impose his goods upon us by force.</p> + +<p>But your news-letter says that an assay was made of the coin. How +impudent and insupportable is this? Wood takes care to coin a dozen or +two half-pence of good metal, sends them to the Tower and they are +approved, and these must answer all that he hath already coined or +shall coin for the future. It is true, indeed, that a gentleman often +sends to my shop for a pattern of stuff, I cut it fairly off, and if +he likes it he comes or sends and compares the pattern with the whole +piece, and probably we come to a bargain. But if I were to buy an +hundred sheep, and the<a name='Page_68'></a> grazier should bring me one single weather fat +and well fleeced by way of pattern, and expect the same price round +for the whole hundred, without suffering me to see them before he was +paid, or giving me good security to restore my money for those that +were lean or shorn or scabby, I would be none of his customer. I have +heard of a man who had a mind to sell his house, and therefore carried +a piece of brick in his pocket, which he showed as a pattern to +encourage purchasers: and this is directly the case in point with Mr. +Wood's assay.</p> + +<p>The next part of the paragraph contains Mr. Wood's voluntary proposals +for preventing any future objections or apprehensions.</p> + +<p>His first proposal is, that whereas he hath already coined seventeen +thousand pounds, and has copper prepared to make it up forty thousand +pounds, he will be content to coin no more, unless the exigences of +trade require it, though his patent empowers him to coin a far greater +quantity.</p> + +<p>To which if I were to answer it should be thus: Let Mr. Wood and his +crew of founders and tinkers coin on till there is not an old kettle +left in the kingdom; let them coin old leather, tobacco-pipe clay, or +the dirt in the streets, and call their trumpery by what name they +please from a guinea to a farthing, we are not under any concern to +know how he and his tribe or accomplices think fit to employ +themselves.<a name='Page_69'></a> But I hope and trust that we are all to a man fully +determined to have nothing to do with him or his ware.</p> + +<p>The king has given him a patent to coin half-pence, but hath not +obliged us to take them, and I have already shown in my Letter to the +Shop-keepers, etc., that the law hath not left it in the power of the +prerogative to compel the subject to take any money, beside gold and +silver of the right sterling and standard.</p> + +<p>Wood further proposes, (if I understand him right, for his expressions +are dubious) that he will not coin above forty thousand pounds unless +the exigences of trade require it: First, I observe that this sum of +forty thousand pounds is almost double to what I proved to be +sufficient for the whole kingdom, although we had not one of our old +half-pence left. Again I ask, who is to be judge when the exigences of +trade require it? Without doubt he means himself, for as to us of this +poor kingdom, who must be utterly ruined if his project should +succeed, we were never once consulted till the matter was over, and he +will judge of our exigences by his own; neither will these be ever at +an end till he and his accomplices will think they have enough: and it +now appears that he will not be content with all our gold and silver, +but intends to buy up our goods and manufactures with the same coin.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_70'></a>I shall not enter into examination of the prices for which he now +proposes to sell his half-pence or what he calls his copper, by the +pound; I have said enough of it in my former letter, and it hath +likewise been considered by others. It is certain that, by his own +first computation, we were to pay three shillings for what was +intrinsically worth but one, although it had been of the true weight +and standard for which he pretended to have contracted; but there is +so great a difference both in weight and badness in several of his +coins that some of them have been nine in ten below the intrinsic +value, and most of them six or seven.</p> + +<p>His last proposal being of a peculiar strain and nature, deserves to +be very particularly consider'd, both on account of the matter and the +style. It is as follows.</p> + +<p>Lastly, in consideration of the direful apprehensions which prevail in +Ireland, that Mr. Wood will by such coinage drain them of their gold +and silver, he proposes to take their manufactures in exchange, and +that no person be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +at one payment.</p> + +<p>First, observe this little impudent hard-ware-man turning into +ridicule the direful apprehensions of a whole kingdom, priding himself +as the cause of them, and daring to prescribe what no king of England +ever attempted, how far a whole nation shall be obliged to<a name='Page_71'></a> take his +brass coin. And he has reason to insult; for sure there was never an +example in history of a great kingdom kept in awe for above a year in +daily dread of utter destruction, not by a powerful invader at the +head of twenty thousand men, not by a plague or a famine, not by a +tyrannical prince (for we never had one more gracious) or a corrupt +administration, but by one single, diminutive, insignificant, +mechanic.</p> + +<p>But to go on. To remove our direful apprehensions that he will drain +us of our gold and silver by his coinage, this little arbitrary +mock-monarch most graciously offers to take our manufactures in +exchange. Are our Irish understandings indeed so low in his opinion? +Is not this the very misery we complain of? That his cursed project +will put us under the necessity of selling our goods for what is equal +to nothing. How would such a proposal sound from France or Spain, or +any other country we deal with, if they should offer to deal with us +only upon this condition, that we should take their money at ten times +higher than the intrinsic value? Does Mr. Wood think, for instance, +that we will sell him a stone of wool for a parcel of his counters not +worth sixpence, when we can send it to England and receive as many +shillings in gold and silver? Surely there was never heard such a +compound of impudence, villainy and folly.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_72'></a>His proposals conclude with perfect high-treason. He promises, that +no person shall be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +of his coin in one payment: by which it is plain that he pretends to +oblige every subject in this kingdom to take so much in every payment, +if it be offered; whereas his patent obliges no man, nor can the +prerogative by law claim such a power, as I have often observed; so +that here Mr. Wood takes upon him the entire legislature, and an +absolute dominion over the properties of the whole nation.</p> + +<p>Good God! Who are this wretch's advisers? Who are his supporters, +abettors, encouragers, or sharers? Mr. Wood will oblige me to take +five-pence half-penny of his brass in every payment. And I will shoot +Mr. Wood and his deputies through the head, like highway-men or +house-breakers, if they dare to force one farthing of their coin upon +me in the payment of an hundred pounds. It is no loss of honour to +submit to the lion; but who, with the figure of a man can think with +patience of being devoured alive by a rat? He has laid a tax upon the +people of Ireland of seventeen shillings at least in the pound; a tax, +I say, not only upon lands, but interest-money, goods, manufactures, +the hire of handicraftsmen, labourers and servants. Shop-keepers, look +to yourselves. Wood will oblige and force you to take five-pence +half-penny of his trash in every payment, and<a name='Page_73'></a> many of you receive +twenty, thirty, forty, payments in one day, or else you can hardly +find bread: and pray consider how much that will amount to in a year; +twenty times five-pence half-penny is nine shillings and two-pence, +which is above an hundred and sixty pounds a year, whereof you will be +losers of at least one hundred and forty pounds by taking your +payments in his money. If any of you be content to deal with Mr. Wood +on such conditions they may. But for my own particular, let his money +perish with him. If the famous Mr. Hampden rather chose to go to +prison than pay a few shillings to King Charles I. without authority +of Parliament, I will rather choose to be hanged than have all my +substance taxed at seventeen shillings in the pound, at the arbitrary +will and pleasure of the venerable Mr. Wood.</p> + +<p>The paragraph concludes thus. <i>N.B.</i> (that is to say <i>nota bene</i>, or +mark well) No evidence appeared from Ireland or elsewhere, to prove +the mischiefs complained of, or any abuses whatsoever committed in the +execution of the said grant.</p> + +<p>The impudence of this remark exceeds all that went before. First, the +House of Commons in Ireland, which represents the whole people of the +kingdom; and secondly the Privy Council, addressed his majesty against +these half-pence. What could be done more to express the universal +sense and opinion<a name='Page_74'></a> of the nation? If his copper were diamonds, and the +kingdom were entirely against it, would not that be sufficient to +reject it? Must a committee of the House of Commons, and our whole +Privy Council go over to argue pro and con with Mr. Wood? To what end +did the king give his patent for coining of half-pence in Ireland? Was +it not, because it was represented to his sacred majesty, that such a +coinage would be of advantage to the good of this kingdom, and of all +his subjects here? It is to the patentee's peril if his representation +be false, and the execution of his patent be fraudulent and corrupt. +Is he so wicked and foolish to think that his patent was given him to +ruin a million and a half of people, that he might be a gainer of +three or fourscore thousand pounds to himself? Before he was at the +charge of passing a patent, much more of raking up so much filthy +dross, and stamping it with his majesty's image and superscription, +should he not first in common sense, in common equity, and common +manners, have consulted the principal party concerned; that is to say, +the people of the kingdom, the House of Lords or Commons, or the Privy +Council? If any foreigner should ask us, whose image and +superscription there is on Wood's coin, we should be ashamed to tell +him, it was Cæsar's. In that great want of copper half-pence, which +he alleges we were, our city set up our Cæsar's statue in excellent +copper, at an expence<a name='Page_75'></a> that is equal in value to thirty thousand +pounds of his coin; and we will not receive his image in worse metal.</p> + +<p>I observe many of our people putting a melancholy case on this +subject. It is true say they, we are all undone if Wood's half-pence +must pass; but what shall we do, if his majesty puts out a +proclamation commanding us to take them? This has been often dinned in +my ears. But I desire my countrymen to be assured that there is +nothing in it. The king never issues out a proclamation but to enjoin +what the law permits him. He will not issue out a proclamation against +law, or if such a thing should happen by a mistake, we are no more +obliged to obey it than to run our heads into the fire. Besides, his +majesty will never command us by a proclamation, what he does not +offer to command us in the patent itself. There he leaves it to our +discretion, so that our destruction must be entirely owing to +ourselves. Therefore let no man be afraid of a proclamation, which +will never be granted; and if it should, yet upon this occasion, will +be of no force. The king's revenues here are near four hundred +thousand pounds a year, can you think his ministers will advise him to +take them in Wood's brass, which will reduce the value to fifty +thousand pounds? England gets a million sterl. by this nation, which, +if this project goes on, will be almost reduc'd to nothing: and do you +think those who live in England upon Irish estates<a name='Page_76'></a> will be content to +take an eighth or a tenth part, by being paid in Wood's dross?</p> + +<p>If Wood and his confederates were not convinced of our stupidity, they +never would have attempted so audacious an enterprise. He now sees a +spirit hath been raised against him, and he only watches till it +begins to flag, he goes about watching when to devour us. He hopes we +shall be weary of contending with him, and at last out of ignorance, +or fear, or of being perfectly tired with opposition, we shall be +forced to yield. And therefore I confess it is my chief endeavour to +keep up your spirits and resentments. If I tell you there is a +precipice under you, and that if you go forwards you will certainly +break your necks—if I point to it before your eyes, must I be at the +trouble of repeating it every morning? Are our people's hearts waxed +gross? Are their ears dull of hearing, and have they closed their +eyes? I fear there are some few vipers among us, who, for ten or +twenty pounds' gain, would sell their souls and their country, though +at last it would end in their own ruin as well as ours. Be not like +the deaf adder, who refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he +never so wisely.</p> + +<p>Though my letter be directed to you, Mr. Harding, yet I intend it for +all my countrymen. I have no interest in this affair but what is +common to the public; I can live better than many others, I have some +gold and silver by me, and a shop well furnished,<a name='Page_77'></a> and shall be able +to make a shift when many of my betters are starving. But I am grieved +to see the coldness and indifference of many people with whom I +discourse. Some are afraid of a proclamation, others shrug up their +shoulders, and cry, what would you have us to do? Some give out, there +is no danger at all. Others are comforted that it will be a common +calamity and they shall fare no worse than their neighbours. Will a +man, who hears midnight-robbers at his door, get out of bed, and raise +his family for a common defence, and shall a whole kingdom lie in a +lethargy, while Mr. Wood comes at the head of his confederates to rob +them of all they have, to ruin us and our posterity for ever? If an +high-way-man meets you on the road, you give him your money to save +your life; but, God be thanked, Mr. Wood cannot touch a hair of your +heads. You have all the laws of God and man on your side. When he or +his accomplices offer you his dross, it is but saying No, and you are +safe. If a madman should come to my shop with a handful of dirt raked +out of the kennel, and offer it in payment for ten yards of stuff, I +would pity or laugh at him, or, if his behaviour deserved it, kick him +out of my doors. And if Mr. Wood comes to demand any gold or silver, +or commodities for which I have paid my gold and silver, in exchange +for his trash, can he deserve or expect better treatment?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_78'></a>When the evil day is come (if it must come) let us mark and observe +those who presume to offer these half-pence in payment. Let their +names and trades, and places of abode be made public, that every one +may be aware of them, as betrayers of their country, and confederates +with Mr. Wood. Let them be watched at markets and fairs, and let the +first honest discoverer give the word about, that Wood's half-pence +have been offered, and caution the poor innocent people not to receive +them.</p> + +<p>Perhaps I have been too tedious; but there would never be an end, if I +attempt to say all that this melancholy subject will bear. I will +conclude with humbly offering one proposal, which if it were put in +practice, would blow up this destructive project at once. Let some +skilful judicious pen draw up an advertisement to the following +purpose:</p> + +<p><i>Whereas one William Wood, hard-ware-man, now or lately sojourning in +the city of London, hath, by many misrepresentations, procured a +patent for coining an hundred and forty thousand pounds in copper +half-pence for this kingdom, which is a sum five times greater than +our occasions require: And whereas it is notorious that the said Wood +hath coined his half-pence of such base metal and false weight, that +they are, at least, six parts in seven below the real value: And +whereas we have reason to apprehend that the said Wood may, at any +time hereafter, clandestinely<a name='Page_79'></a> coin as many more half-pence as he +pleases: And whereas the said patent neither doth nor can oblige his +majesty's subjects to receive the said half-pence in any payment, but +leaves it to their voluntary choice, because, by law the subject +cannot be obliged to take any money except gold or silver: And +whereas, contrary to the letter and meaning of the said patent, the +said Wood hath declared that every person shall be obliged to take +five-pence half-penny of his coin in every payment: And whereas the +House of Commons and Privy Council have severally addressed his most +sacred majesty representing the ill consequences which the said +coinage may have upon this kingdom: And lastly, whereas it is +universally agreed, that the whole nation to a man (except Mr. Wood +and his confederates) are in the utmost apprehensions of the ruinous +consequences that must follow from the said coinage. Therefore we, +whose names are underwritten, being persons of considerable estates in +this kingdom, and residers therein, do unanimously resolve and declare +that we will never receive one farthing or half-penny of the said +Wood's coining, and that we will direct all our tenants to refuse the +said coin from any person whatsoever; of which, that they may not be +ignorant, we have sent them a copy of this advertisement, to be read +to them by our stewards, receivers, etc.</i></p> + +<p>I could wish, that a paper of this nature might be<a name='Page_80'></a> drawn up, and +signed by two or three hundred principal gentlemen of this kingdom, +and printed copies thereof sent to their several tenants; I am +deceived, if anything could sooner defeat this execrable design of +Wood and his accomplices. This would immediately give the alarm, and +set the kingdom on their guard. This would give courage to the meanest +tenant and cottager. <i>How long, O Lord, righteous and true</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>I must tell you in particular, Mr. Harding, that you are much to +blame. Several hundred persons have enquired at your house for my +Letter to the Shop-keepers, etc., and you had none to sell them. Pray +keep yourself provided with that letter and with this; you have got +very well by the former, but I did not then write for your sake, any +more than I do now. Pray advertise both in every news-paper, and let +it not be your fault or mine if our countrymen will not take warning. +I desire you likewise to sell them as cheap as you can.—I am your +Servant, M.B.</p> + +<p><i>Aug. 4, 1724.</i></p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_81'></a>IV.—'SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE'</h3> + +<h4>BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE</h4> + +<p>(<i>I have found the selection of a suitable sample of Burke to be my +most difficult task in this volume. All his writings, as I have +pointed out in the general introduction, are, after a sort, pamphlets; +and this of itself was an embarrassment. It was partly complicated and +partly lessened by the fact that the form of his speeches naturally +excluded them. Many of his other works—notably the </i>Thoughts on the +Present Discontents<i>, the immortal </i>Reflections on the French +Revolution<i>, and the </i>Appeal from the New Whigs to the Old<i>—were much +too long for a scheme in which I have made it a rule to give in each +case entire works or divisions of works. I at last reduced the +suitable candidates to three—the </i>Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe<i>, +that </i>To a Noble Lord<i>, and the present number of the </i>Letters on a +Regicide Peace<i>. The first<a name='Page_82'></a> went as being to some extent identical in +subject with the examples of another writer, Sydney Smith, which I had +already resolved on giving; the second as being too much in the nature +of a personal apologia. With the third, which I looked on at first +with least favour, I have become increasingly well satisfied. It has +not the gorgeous rhetoric of </i>The Letter to a Noble Lord<i>, the +</i>Reflections<i>, and others. It has nothing so lively as the contrast +between France and Algiers in its immediate predecessor. It may even +seem, to those who have accustomed themselves to think of Burke wholly +or mainly as a gorgeous rhetorician, rather tame as a whole. But if it +does not soar, it never droops; it is admirably proportioned, +admirably written, and admirably argued throughout, and it shows great +knowledge and mastery of foreign politics—the point in which English +statesmen have always been weakest. I may add that it seems to me a +triumphant refutation of the charge—constantly brought against Burke +not merely by extreme democrats, but by the usual advocate of the +</i>juste milieu<i>,—that in his later years, and especially in these very +Letters, he became a mere raving Gallophobe, with no sense of +proportion or circumstance. For my part, I have read scores, probably +hundreds, of books—English, French, and German—on the French +Revolution; I have never read one that made Burke obsolete. Let it +only be added that the author, who was born in 1730, was very near the +end of his career—he died next year—when<a name='Page_83'></a> he wrote these letters, +and that the peace proposals which he deprecated, and which he did not +a little to avert, were dictated on the one side by the sobering down +of the first Revolutionary fervour under the Directory; on the other +by the persistent ill-success of the Allies, and the conflicts of +interest and principle which had arisen among them.</i>)</p> + +<p>My dear Sir—I closed my first letter with serious matter, and I hope +it has employed your thoughts. The system of peace must have a +reference to the system of the war. On that ground, I must therefore +again recall your mind to our original opinions, which time and events +have not taught me to vary.</p> + +<p>My ideas and my principles led me, in this contest, to encounter +France, not as a state, but as a faction. The vast territorial extent +of that country, its immense population, its riches of production, its +riches of commerce and convention—the whole aggregate mass of what, +in ordinary cases, constitutes the force of a state, to me were but +objects of secondary consideration. They might be balanced; and they +have been often more than balanced. Great as these things are, they +are not what make the faction formidable. It is the faction that makes +them truly dreadful. That faction is the evil spirit that possesses +the body of France; that informs it as a soul; that stamps upon<a name='Page_84'></a> its +ambition, and upon all its pursuits, a characteristic mark, which +strongly distinguishes them from the same general passions, and the +same general views, in other men and in other communities. It is that +spirit which inspires into them a new, a pernicious, a desolating +activity. Constituted as France was ten years ago, it was not in that +France to shake, to shatter, and to overwhelm Europe in the manner +that we behold. A sure destruction impends over those infatuated +princes, who, in the conflict with this new and unheard-of power, +proceed as if they were engaged in a war that bore a resemblance to +their former contests; or that they can make peace in the spirit of +their former arrangements of pacification. Here the beaten path is the +very reverse of the safe road.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_85'></a>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 it is the +bank of deposit, and the bank of circulation, of all the pernicious +principles that are forming in every state. It will be 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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_86'></a> 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 +<i>disinterestedness</i> of their personal views; taking up arms for the +purpose of preserving social and political order amongst all civilised +nations, and to secure to <i>each</i> 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 piece '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. And all our +friends who took office acceded to the ministry (whether wisely or +not), as I always<a name='Page_87'></a> understood the matter, on the faith and on the +principles of that declaration.</p> + +<p>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 <i>civil war</i>; 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 <i>centre of Europe</i>; and that secured, they knew, that +whatever might be the event of battles and sieges, their <i>cause</i> 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.<a name='Page_88'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>They saw it was a <i>civil war</i>. It was their business to persuade their +adversaries that it ought to be a <i>foreign</i> 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.<a name='Page_89'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>defensive</i> 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. The<a name='Page_90'></a> aimed, or pretended to aim, at <i>defending</i> +themselves against a danger from which there can be no security in any +<i>defensive</i> plan. If armies and fortresses were a defence against +Jacobinism, Louis the Sixteenth would this day reign a powerful +monarch over a happy people.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_91'></a> weakening the victor, put him but the +further off from his object.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_92'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>It was not of that sort of war that I was amongst the least +considerable, but amongst the most zealous advisers; and it is not by +the sort of peace now talked of, that I wish it concluded. It would +answer no great purpose to enter into the particular errors of the +war. The whole has been but one error. It was but nominally a war of +alliance. As the combined powers pursued it there was nothing to hold +an alliance together. There could be no tie of <i>honour</i>, in a society +for pillage. There could be no tie of a common <i>interest</i> where the +object did not offer such a division amongst the parties as could well +give them a warm concern in the gains of each other, or could indeed +form such a body of equivalents, as might make one of them willing to +abandon a separate object of his ambition for the gratification of any +other member of the alliance. The partition of Poland offered an +object of spoil in which the parties <i>might</i> agree. They were +circumjacent, and each might take a portion convenient to his own +territory. They might dispute about the value of their several shares, +but the contiguity to each of the demandants always furnished the +means of an adjustment. Though hereafter the world will have cause to +rue this iniquitous<a name='Page_93'></a> measure, and they most who were the most +concerned in it, for the moment there was wherewithal in the object to +preserve peace amongst confederates in wrong. But the spoil of France +did not afford the same facilities for accommodation. What might +satisfy the house of Austria in a Flemish frontier, afforded no +equivalent to tempt the cupidity of the king of Prussia. What might be +desired by Great Britain in the West Indies, must be coldly and +remotely, if at all, felt as an interest at Vienna; and it would be +felt as something worse than a negative interest at Madrid. Austria, +long possessed with unwise and dangerous designs on Italy, could not +be very much in earnest about the conservation of the old patrimony of +the house of Savoy; and Sardinia, who owed to an Italian force all her +means of shutting out France from Italy, of which she has been +supposed to hold the key, would not purchase the means of strength +upon one side by yielding it on the other. She would not readily give +the possession of Novara for the hope of Savoy. No continental power +was willing to lose any of its continental objects for the increase of +the naval power of Great Britain; and Great Britain would not give up +any of the objects she sought for as the means of an increase to her +naval power, to further their aggrandisement.</p> + +<p>The moment this war came to be considered as a war merely of profit, +the actual circumstances are<a name='Page_94'></a> such that it never could become really a +war of alliance. Nor can the peace be a peace of alliance, until +things are put upon their right bottom.</p> + +<p>I do not find it denied that when a treaty is entered into for peace, +a demand will be made on the regicides to surrender a great part of +their conquests on the continent. Will they, in the present state of +the war, make that surrender without an equivalent? This continental +cession must of course be made in favour of that party in the alliance +that has suffered losses. That party has nothing to furnish towards an +equivalent. What equivalent, for instance, has Holland to offer, who +has lost her all? What equivalent can come from the Emperor, every +part of whose territories contiguous to France is already within the +pale of the regicide dominions? What equivalent has Sardinia to offer +for Savoy and for Nice, I may say for her whole being? What has she +taken from the faction of France? she has lost very near her all; and +she has gained nothing. What equivalent has Spain to give? Alas! she +has already paid for her own ransom the fund of equivalent, and a +dreadful equivalent it is, to England and to herself. But I put Spain +out of the question; she is a province of the Jacobin empire, and she +must make peace or war according to the orders she receives from the +directory of assassins. In effect and substance, her crown is a fief +of regicide.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_95'></a>Whence then can the compensation be demanded? Undoubtedly from that +power which alone has made some conquests. That power is England. Will +the allies then give away their ancient patrimony, that England may +keep islands in the West Indies? They never can protract the war in +good earnest for that object; nor can they act in concert with us, in +our refusal to grant anything towards their redemption. In that case +we are thus situated. Either we must give Europe, bound hand and foot, +to France; or we must quit the West Indies without any one object, +great or small, towards indemnity and security. I repeat it, without +any advantage whatever: because, supposing that our conquest could +comprise all that France ever possessed in the tropical America, it +never can amount in any fair estimation to a fair equivalent for +Holland, for the Austrian Netherlands, for the lower Germany, that is, +for the whole ancient kingdom or circle of Burgundy, now under the +yoke of regicide, to say nothing of almost all Italy under the same +barbarous domination. If we treat in the present situation of things, +we have nothing in our hands that can redeem Europe. Nor is the +Emperor, as I have observed, more rich in the fund of equivalents.</p> + +<p>If we look to our stock in the eastern world, our most valuable and +systematic acquisitions are made in that quarter. Is it from France +they are made? France has but one or two contemptible factories,<a name='Page_96'></a> +subsisting by the offal of the private fortunes of English individuals +to support them, in any part of India. I look on the taking of the +Cape of Good Hope as the securing of a post of great moment. It does +honour to those who planned, and to those who executed, that +enterprise: but I speak of it always as comparatively good; as good as +anything can be in a scheme of war that repels us from a centre, and +employs all our forces where nothing can be finally decisive. But +giving, as I freely give, every possible credit to these eastern +conquests, I ask one question,—on whom are they made? It is evident, +that if we can keep our eastern conquests we keep them not at the +expense of France, but at the expense of Holland our <i>ally</i>; of +Holland, the immediate cause of the war, the nation whom we had +undertaken to protect, and not of the republic which it was our +business to destroy. If we return the African and the Asiatic +conquests, we put them into the hands of a nominal state (to that +Holland is reduced) unable to retain them; and which will virtually +leave them under the direction of France. If we withhold them, Holland +declines still more as a state. She loses so much carrying trade, and +that means of keeping up the small degree of naval power she holds; +for which policy alone, and not for any commercial gain, she maintains +the Cape, or any settlement beyond it. In that case, resentment, +faction, and even necessity, will<a name='Page_97'></a> throw her more and more into the +power of the new, mischievous republic. But on the probable state of +Holland I shall say more, when in this correspondence I come to talk +over with you the state in which any sort of Jacobin peace will leave +all Europe.</p> + +<p>So far as to the East Indies.</p> + +<p>As to the West Indies, indeed as to either, if we look for matter of +exchange in order to ransom Europe, it is easy to show that we have +taken a terribly roundabout road. I cannot conceive, even if, for the +sake of holding conquests there, we should refuse to redeem Holland, +and the Austrian Netherlands, and the hither Germany, that Spain, +merely as she is Spain, (and forgetting that the regicide ambassador +governs at Madrid,) will see, with perfect satisfaction, Great Britain +sole mistress of the isles. In truth it appears to me, that, when we +come to balance our account, we shall find in the proposed peace only +the pure, simple, and unendowed charms of Jacobin amity. We shall have +the satisfaction of knowing, that no blood or treasure has been spared +by the allies for support of the regicide system. We shall reflect at +leisure on one great truth, that it was ten times more easy totally to +destroy the system itself, than, when established, it would be to +reduce its power; and that this republic, most formidable abroad, was +of all things the weakest at home; that her frontier was terrible, her +interior feeble; that it<a name='Page_98'></a> was matter of choice to attack her where she +is invincible, and to spare her where she was ready to dissolve by her +own internal disorders. We shall reflect, that our plan was good +neither for offence nor defence.</p> + +<p>It would not be at all difficult to prove, that an army of a hundred +thousand men, horse, foot, and artillery, might have been employed +against the enemy on the very soil which he has usurped, at a far less +expense than has been squandered away upon tropical adventures. In +these adventures it was not an enemy we had to vanquish, but a +cemetery to conquer. In carrying on the war in the West Indies, the +hostile sword is merciful; the country in which we engage is the +dreadful enemy. There the European conqueror finds a cruel defeat in +the very fruits of his success. Every advantage is but a new demand on +England for recruits to the West Indian grave. In a West India war, +the regicides have, for their troops, a race of fierce barbarians, to +whom the poisoned air, in which our youth inhale certain death, is +salubrity and life. To them the climate is the surest and most +faithful of allies.</p> + +<p>Had we carried on the war on the side of France which looks towards +the Channel or the Atlantic, we should have attacked our enemy on his +weak and unarmed side. We should not have to reckon on the loss of a +man who did not fall in battle. We<a name='Page_99'></a> should have an ally in the heart +of the country, who, to our hundred thousand, would at one time have +added eighty thousand men at the least, and all animated by principle, +by enthusiasm, and by vengeance; motives which secured them to the +cause in a very different manner from some of those allies whom we +subsidised with millions. This ally, (or rather this principal in the +war,) by the confession of the regicide himself, was more formidable +to him than all his other foes united. Warring there, we should have +led our arms to the capital of Wrong. Defeated, we could not fail +(proper precautions taken) of a sure retreat. Stationary, and only +supporting the royalists, an impenetrable barrier, an impregnable +rampart, would have been formed between the enemy and his naval power. +We are probably the only nation who have declined to act against an +enemy, when it might have been done in his own country; and who having +an armed, a powerful, and a long-victorious ally in that country, +declined all effectual co-operation, and suffered him to perish for +want of support. On the plan of a war in France, every advantage that +our allies might obtain would be doubled in its effect. Disasters on +the one side might have a fair chance of being compensated by +victories on the other. Had we brought the main of our force to bear +upon that quarter, all the operations of the British and Imperial +crowns would have been combined. The war would<a name='Page_100'></a> have had system, +correspondence, and a certain direction. But as the war has been +pursued, the operations of the two crowns have not the smallest degree +of mutual bearing or relation.</p> + +<p>Had acquisitions in the West Indies been our object, on success in +France, everything reasonable in those remote parts might be demanded +with decorum, and justice, and a sure effect. Well might we call for a +recompence in America, for those services to which Europe owed its +safety. Having abandoned this obvious policy connected with principle, +we have seen the regicide power taking the reverse course, and making +real conquests in the West Indies, to which all our dear-bought +advantages (if we could hold them) are mean and contemptible. The +noblest island within the tropics, worth all that we possess put +together, is, by the vassal Spaniard, delivered into her hands. The +island of Hispaniola (of which we have but one poor corner, by a +slippery hold) is perhaps equal to England in extent, and in fertility +is far superior. The part possessed by Spain, of that great island, +made for the seat and centre of a tropical empire, was not improved, +to be sure, as the French division had been, before it was +systematically destroyed by the cannibal republic; but it is not only +the far larger, but the far more salubrious and more fertile part.</p> + +<p>It was delivered into the hands of the barbarians<a name='Page_101'></a> without, as I can +find, any public reclamation on our part, not only in contravention to +one of the fundamental treaties that compose the public law of Europe, +but in defiance of the fundamental colonial policy of Spain herself. +This part of the treaty of Utrecht was made for great general ends +unquestionably; but whilst it provided for those general ends, it was +in affirmance of that particular policy. It was not to injure, but to +save Spain by making a settlement of her estate, which prohibited her +to alienate to France. It is her policy not to see the balance of West +Indian power overturned by France or by Great Britain. Whilst the +monarchies subsisted, this unprincipled cession was what the influence +of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon never dared to attempt on +the younger: but cannibal terror has been more powerful than family +influence. The Bourbon monarchy of Spain is united to the republic of +France, by what may be truly called the ties of blood.</p> + +<p>By this measure the balance of power in the West Indies is totally +destroyed. It has followed the balance of power in Europe. It is not +alone what shall be left nominally to the assassins that is theirs. +Theirs is the whole empire of Spain in America. That stroke finishes +all. I should be glad to see our suppliant negotiator in the act of +putting his feather to the ear of the directory, to make it unclinch +the fist; and, by his tickling, to charm that rich prize out<a name='Page_102'></a> of the +iron gripe of robbery and ambition! It does not require much sagacity +to discern that no power wholly baffled and defeated in Europe can +flatter itself with conquests in the West Indies. In that state of +things it can neither keep nor hold. No! It cannot even long make war +if the grand bank and deposit of its force is at all in the West +Indies. But here a scene opens to my view too important to pass by, +perhaps too critical to touch. Is it possible that it should not +present itself in all its relations to a mind habituated to consider +either war or peace on a large scale, or as one whole?</p> + +<p>Unfortunately other ideas have prevailed. A remote, an expensive, a +murderous, and, in the end, an unproductive adventure, carried on upon +ideas of mercantile knight-errantry, without any of the generous +wildness of Quixotism, is considered as sound, solid sense; and a war +in a wholesome climate, a war at our door, a war directly on the +enemy, a war in the heart of his country, a war in concert with an +internal ally, and in combination with the external, is regarded as +folly and romance.</p> + +<p>My dear friend, I hold it impossible that these considerations should +have escaped the statesmen on both sides of the water, and on both +sides of the House of Commons. 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<a name='Page_103'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>Such is the time proposed for making a <i>common political peace</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_104'></a>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 connexion under the terms of +'<i>the usual relations of peace and amity</i>.' 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.</p> + +<p>All this body of old conventions, composing the vast and voluminous +collection called the <i>corps diplomatique</i>, forms the code or statute +law, as the methodised reasonings of the great publicists and jurists +from the digest and jurisprudence of the Christian world. In these +treasures are to be found the <i>usual</i> relations of peace and amity in +civilised<a name='Page_105'></a> Europe; and there the relations of ancient France were to +be found amongst the rest.</p> + +<p>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 <i>usual</i> relations +of the states of Europe.</p> + +<p>The Revolution in France had the relation of France to other nations +as one of its principal objects. The changes made by that Revolution +were not the better to accommodate her to the old and usual relations, +but to produce new ones. The Revolution was made, not to make France +free, but to make her formidable; not to make her a neighbour, but a +mistress; not to make her more observant of laws, but to put her in a +condition to impose them. To make France truly formidable it was +necessary that France should be new modelled. They, who have not +followed the train of the late proceedings, have been led by deceitful +representations (which deceit made a part in the plan) to conceive +that this totally new model of a state, in which nothing escaped a<a name='Page_106'></a> +change, was made with a view to its internal relations only.</p> + +<p>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 proselytising spirit, in which they were not +exceeded by Mahomet himself.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_107'></a> 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 counterwork 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<a name='Page_108'></a> of some power +can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true +character of any man. Without reading the speeches of Vergniaux, +Françias of Nantz, 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 phrensy 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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_109'></a> 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 straight forward 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. Without question, to bring about the unexampled event of the +French Revolution, the concurrence of a very great number of views and +passions was necessary. In that stupendous work, no one principle, by +which the human mind may have its faculties at once invigorated and +depraved, was left unemployed; but I can speak it to a certainty, and +support it by undoubted proofs, that the ruling principle of those who +acted in the Revolution as <i>statesmen</i>, had the exterior +aggrandisement of France as their ultimate end in the most minute part +of the internal changes that were made. We, who of late years have +been drawn from an attention to foreign affairs by the importance of +our domestic discussions, cannot easily form a conception of the +general eagerness of the active and energetic part of the French +nation, itself the most active and energetic of all nations, previous +to its<a name='Page_110'></a> Revolution, upon that subject. I am convinced that the foreign +speculators in France, under the old government, were twenty to one of +the same description then or now in England; and few of that +description there were, who did not emulously set forward the +Revolution. The whole official system, particularly in the diplomatic +part, the regulars, the irregulars, down to the clerks in office, (a +corps, without comparison, more numerous than the same amongst us,) +co-operated in it. All the intriguers in foreign politics, all the +spies, all the intelligencers, actually or late in function, all the +candidates for that sort of employment, acted solely upon that +principle.</p> + +<p>On that system of aggrandisement there was but one mind: but two +violent factions arose about the means. The first wished France, +diverted from the politics of the continent, to attend solely to her +marine, to feed it by an increase of commerce, and thereby to +overpower England on her own element. They contended, that if England +were disabled, the powers on the continent would fall into their +proper subordination; that it was England which deranged the whole +continental system of Europe. The others, who were by far the more +numerous, though not the most outwardly prevalent at court, considered +this plan for France as contrary to her genius, her situation, and her +natural means. They agree as to the ultimate object, the reduction of +the British power,<a name='Page_111'></a> and, if possible, its naval power; but they +considered an ascendency on the continent as a necessary preliminary +to that undertaking. They argued, that the proceedings of England +herself had proved the soundness of this policy. That her greatest and +ablest statesmen had not considered the support of a continental +balance against France as a deviation from the principle of her naval +power, but as one of the most effectual modes of carrying it into +effect. That such had been her policy ever since the Revolution, +during which period the naval strength of Great Britain had gone on +increasing in the direct ratio of her interference in the politics of +the continent. With much stronger reason ought the politics of France +to take the same direction; as well for pursuing objects which her +situation would dictate to her, though England had no existence, as +for counteracting the politics of that nation; to France continental +politics are primary; they looked on them only of secondary +consideration to England, and, however necessary, but as means +necessary to an end.</p> + +<p>What is truly astonishing, the partisans of those two opposite systems +were at once prevalent, and at once employed, and in the very same +transactions—the one ostensibly, the other secretly, during the +latter part of the reign of Louis XV. Nor was there one court in which +an ambassador resided on the part<a name='Page_112'></a> of the ministers, in which another, +as a spy on him, did not also reside on the part of the king. They who +pursued the scheme for keeping peace on the continent, and +particularly with Austria, acting officially and publicly, the other +faction counteracting and opposing them. These private agents were +continually going from their function to the Bastile, and from the +Bastile to employment, and favour again. An inextricable cabal was +formed, some of persons of rank, others of subordinates. But by this +means the corps of politicians was augmented in number, and the whole +formed a body of active, adventuring, ambitious, discontented people, +despising the regular ministry, despising the courts at which they +were employed, despising the court which employed them.</p> + +<p>The unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth was not the first cause of the +evil by which he suffered. He came to it, as to a sort of inheritance, +by the false politics of his immediate predecessor. This system of +dark and perplexed intrigue had come to its perfection before he came +to the throne: and even then the Revolution strongly operated in all +its causes.</p> + +<p>There was no point on which the discontented diplomatic politicians so +bitterly arraigned their cabinet, as for the decay of French influence +in all others. From quarrelling with the court, they began to complain +of monarchy itself, as a system of government too variable for any +regular plan of<a name='Page_113'></a> national aggrandisement. They observed, that in that +sort of regimen too much depended on the personal character of the +prince; that the vicissitudes produced by the succession of princes of +a different character, and even the vicissitudes produced in the same +man, by the different views and inclinations belonging to youth, +manhood, and age, disturbed and distracted the policy of a country +made by nature for extensive empire, or, what was still more to their +taste, for that sort of general over-ruling influence which prepared +empire or supplied the place of it. They had continually in their +hands the observations of <i>Machiavel</i> on <i>Livy</i>. They had +<i>Montesquieu's Grandeur et Décadence des Romains</i> as a manual; and +they compared, with mortification, the systematic proceedings of a +Roman senate with the fluctuations of a monarchy. They observed the +very small additions of territory which all the power of France, +actuated by all the ambition of France, had acquired in two centuries. +The Romans had frequently acquired more in a single year. They +severely and in every part of it criticised the reign of Louis XIV., +whose irregular and desultory ambition had more provoked than +endangered Europe. Indeed, they who will be at the pains of seriously +considering the history of that period will see that those French +politicians had some reason. They who will not take the trouble of +reviewing it through all its wars and all its negotiations,<a name='Page_114'></a> will +consult the short but judicious criticism of the Marquis de +Montalembert on that subject. It may be read separately from his +ingenious system of fortification and military defence, on the +practical merit of which I am unable to form a judgment.</p> + +<p>The diplomatic politicians of whom I speak, and who formed by far the +majority in that class, made disadvantageous comparisons even between +their more legal and formalising monarchy, and the monarchies of other +states, as a system of power and influence. They observed that France +not only lost ground herself, but, through the languor and +unsteadiness of her pursuits, and from her aiming through commerce at +naval force which she never could attain without losing more on one +side than she could gain on the other, that three great powers, each +of them (as military states) capable of balancing her, had grown up on +the continent. Russia and Prussia had been created almost within +memory; and Austria, though not a new power, and even curtailed in +territory, was, by the very collision in which she lost that +territory, greatly improved in her military discipline and force. +During the reign of Maria Theresa the interior economy of the country +was made more to correspond with the support of great armies than +formerly it had been. As to Prussia, a merely military power, they +observed that one war had enriched her with as considerable a conquest +as<a name='Page_115'></a> France had acquired in centuries. Russia had broken the Turkish +power by which Austria might be, as formerly she had been, balanced in +favour of France. They felt it with pain, that the two northern powers +of Sweden and Denmark were in general under the sway of Russia; or +that, at best, France kept up a very doubtful conflict, with many +fluctuations of fortune, and at an enormous expense, in Sweden. In +Holland, the French party seemed, if not extinguished, at least +utterly obscured, and kept under by a stadtholder, leaning for support +sometimes on Great Britain, sometimes on Prussia, sometimes on both, +never on France. Even the spreading of the Bourbon family had become +merely a family accommodation; and had little effect on the national +politics. This alliance, they said, extinguished Spain by destroying +all its energy, without adding anything to the real power of France in +the accession of the forces of its great rival. In Italy, the same +family accommodation, the same national insignificance, were equally +visible. What cure for the radical weakness of the French monarchy, to +which all the means which wit could devise, or nature and fortune +could bestow, towards universal empire, was not of force to give life, +or vigour, or consistency,—but in a Republic? Out the word came; and +it never went back.</p> + +<p>Whether they reasoned, right or wrong, or that<a name='Page_116'></a> there was some mixture +of right and wrong in their reasoning, I am sure, that in this manner +they felt and reasoned. The different effects of a great military and +ambitious republic, and of a monarchy of the same description, were +constantly in their mouths. The principle was ready to operate when +opportunities should offer, which few of them indeed foresaw in the +extent in which they were afterwards presented; but these +opportunities, in some degree or other, they all ardently wished for.</p> + +<p>When I was in Paris in 1773, the treaty of 1756 between Austria and +France was deplored as a national calamity; because it united France +in friendship with a power at whose expense alone they could hope any +continental aggrandisement. When the first partition of Poland was +made, in which France had no share, and which had further aggrandised +every one of the three powers of which they were most jealous, I found +them in a perfect phrensy of rage and indignation: not that they were +hurt at the shocking and uncoloured violence and injustice of that +partition, but at the debility, improvidence, and want of activity, in +their government, in not preventing it as a means of aggrandisement to +their rivals, or in not contriving, by exchanges of some kind or +other, to obtain their share of advantage from that robbery.</p> + +<p>In that or nearly in that state of things and of opinions, came the +Austrian match; which promised<a name='Page_117'></a> to draw the knot, as afterwards in +effect it did, still more closely between the old rival houses. This +added exceedingly to their hatred and contempt of their monarchy. It +was for this reason that the late glorious queen, who on all accounts +was formed to produce general love and admiration, and whose life was +as mild and beneficent as her death was beyond example great and +heroic, became so very soon and so very much the object of an +implacable rancour, never to be extinguished but in her blood. When I +wrote my letter in answer to M. de Menonville, in the beginning of +January, 1791, I had good reason for thinking that this description of +revolutionists did not so early nor so steadily point their murderous +designs at the martyr king as at the royal heroine. It was accident, +and the momentary depression of that part of the faction, that gave to +the husband the happy priority in death.</p> + +<p>From this their restless desire of an over-ruling influence, they bent +a very great part of their designs and efforts to revive the old +French party, which was a democratic party in Holland, and to make a +revolution there. They were happy at the troubles which the singular +imprudence of Joseph the Second had stirred up in the Austrian +Netherlands. They rejoiced when they saw him irritate his subjects, +profess philosophy, send away the Dutch garrisons, and dismantle his +fortifications. As to Holland,<a name='Page_118'></a> they never forgave either the king or +the ministry, for suffering that object, which they justly looked on +as principal in their design of reducing the power of England, to +escape out of their hands. This was the true secret of the commercial +treaty, made, on their part, against all the old rules and principles +of commerce, with a view of diverting the English nation, by a pursuit +of immediate profit, from an attention to the progress of France in +its designs upon that republic. The system of the economists, which +led to the general opening of commerce, facilitated that treaty, but +did not produce it. They were in despair when they found that by the +vigour of Mr. Pitt, supported in this point by Mr. Fox and the +opposition, the object to which they had sacrificed their manufactures +was lost to their ambition.</p> + +<p>This eager desire of raising France from the condition into which she +had fallen, as they conceived, from her monarchical imbecility, had +been the main-spring of their precedent interference in that unhappy +American quarrel, the bad effects of which to this nation have not, as +yet, fully disclosed themselves. These sentiments had been long +lurking in their breasts, though their views were only discovered now +and then, in heat and as by escapes; but on this occasion they +exploded suddenly. They were professed with ostentation and propagated +with zeal. These sentiments were not produced, as some think,<a name='Page_119'></a> by +their American alliance. The American alliance was produced by their +republican principles and republican policy. This new relation +undoubtedly did much. The discourses and cabals that it produced, the +intercourse that it established, and, above all, the example, which +made it seem practicable to establish a republic in a great extent of +country, finished the work, and gave to that part of the revolutionary +faction a degree of strength which required other energies than the +late king possessed, to resist, or even to restrain. It spread +everywhere; but it was nowhere more prevalent than in the heart of the +court. The palace of Versailles, by its language, seemed a forum of +democracy. To have pointed out to most of those politicians, from +their dispositions and movements, what has since happened, the fall of +their own monarchy, of their own laws, of their own religion, would +have been to furnish a motive the more for pushing forward a system on +which they considered all these things as encumbrances. Such in truth +they were. And we have seen them succeed not only in the destruction +of their monarchy, but in all the objects of ambition that they +proposed from that destruction. 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<a name='Page_120'></a> 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 +<i>peculiar</i> 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 concentred, or made to bear with the whole force of the nation +upon one point.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_121'></a>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.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_122'></a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 complexity 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. In that country entirely to cut off a +branch of commerce, to extinguish a manufacture, to destroy the +circulation of money, to violate credit, to suspend the course of +agriculture, even to burn a city, or to lay waste a province of their +own, does not cost them a moment's anxiety. To them the will, the +wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals, is as +nothing. Individuality is left out of their scheme of government. The +state is all in all. Everything is referred to the production of +force; afterwards, everything is trusted to the use of it. It is +military in its principle, in its maxims, in its spirit, and in all +its movements. The state has dominion and conquest for its sole +objects; dominion over minds by proselytism, over bodies by arms.</p> + +<p>Thus constituted, with an immense body of natural<a name='Page_123'></a> means which are +lessened in their amount only to be increased in their effect, France +has, since the accomplishment of the Revolution, a complete unity in +its direction. It has destroyed every resource of the state which +depends upon opinion and the good-will of individuals. The riches of +convention disappear. The advantages of nature in some measure remain: +even these, I admit, are astonishingly lessened; the command over what +remains is complete and absolute. We go about asking when assignats +will expire, and we laugh at the last price of them. But what +signifies the fate of those tickets of despotism? The despotism will +find despotic means of supply. They have found the short cut to the +productions of nature, while others, in pursuit of them, are obliged +to wind through the labyrinth of a very intricate state of society. +They seize upon the fruit of the labour; they seize upon the labourer +himself. Were France but half of what it is in population, in +compactness, in applicability of its force, situated as it is, and +being what it is, it would be too strong for most of the states of +Europe, constituted as they are, and proceeding as they proceed. Would +it be wise to estimate what the world of Europe, as well as the world +of Asia, had to dread from Genghiz Khân, upon a contemplation of the +resources of the cold and barren spot in the remotest Tartary, from +whence first issued that scourge of the human race? Ought we<a name='Page_124'></a> to judge +from the excise and stamp duties of the rocks, or from the paper +circulation of the sands of Arabia, the power by which Mahomet and his +tribes laid hold at once on the two most powerful empires of the +world; beat one of them totally to the ground, broke to pieces the +other, and, in not much longer space of time than I have lived, +overturned governments, laws, manners, religion, and extended an +empire from the Indus to the Pyrenees?</p> + +<p>Material resources never have supplied, nor ever can supply, the want +of unity in design, and constancy in pursuit. But unity in design, and +perseverance and boldness in pursuit, have never wanted resources, and +never will. We have not considered as we ought the dreadful energy of +a state in which the property has nothing to do with the government. +Reflect, my dear Sir, reflect again and again, on a government, in +which the property is in complete subjection, and where nothing rules +but the mind of desperate men. The condition of a commonwealth not +governed by its property was a combination of things which the learned +and ingenious speculator Harrington, who has tossed about society into +all forms, never could imagine to be possible. We have seen it; the +world has felt it; and if the world will shut their eyes to this state +of things, they will feel it more. The rulers there have found their +resources in crimes. The discovery is dreadful; the mine exhaustless.<a name='Page_125'></a> +They have everything to gain, and they have nothing to lose. They have +a boundless inheritance in hope; and there is no medium for them, +betwixt the highest elevation, and death with infamy. Never can they, +who; from the miserable servitude of the desk, have been raised to +empire, again submit to the bondage of a starving bureau, or the +profit of copying music, or writing plaidoyers by the sheet. It has +made me often smile in bitterness, when I have heard talk of an +indemnity to such men, provided they return to their allegiance.</p> + +<p>From all this, what is my inference? It is, that this new system of +robbery in France cannot be rendered safe by any art; that it <i>must</i> +be destroyed, or that it will destroy all Europe; that to destroy that +enemy, by some means or other, the force opposed to it should be made +to bear some analogy and resemblance to the force and spirit which +that system exerts; that war ought to be made against it, in its +vulnerable parts. These are my inferences. In one word, with this +republic nothing independent can co-exist The errors of Louis XVI. +were more pardonable to prudence, than any of those of the same kind +into which the allied courts may fall. They have the benefit of his +dreadful example.</p> + +<p>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<a name='Page_126'></a> +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 impostors. 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.</p> + +<p>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 all 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<a name='Page_127'></a> 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 +negotiations, 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 XIII. had force enough to +destroy the republican system of the Protestants at home.</p> + +<p>Louis XVI. 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<a name='Page_128'></a> 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 connexions, 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 violently 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<a name='Page_129'></a> +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 XVI., 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 +XVI. 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 out-work +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.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_130'></a>With this example before their eyes, do any ministers in England, do +any ministers in Austria, really flatter themselves that they can +erect, not on the remote shores of the Atlantic, but in their view, in +their vicinity, in absolute contact with one of them, not a commercial +but a martial republic—a republic not of simple husbandmen or +fishermen, but of intriguers, and of warriors—a republic of a +character the most restless, the most enterprising, the most impious, +the most fierce and bloody, the most hypocritical and perfidious, the +most bold and daring, that ever has been seen, or indeed that can be +conceived to exist, without bringing on their own certain ruin?</p> + +<p>Such is the republic to which we are going to give a place in +civilised fellowship: the republic, which, with joint consent, we are +going to establish in the centre of Europe, in a post that overlooks +and commands every other state, and which eminently confronts and +menaces this kingdom.</p> + +<p>You cannot fail to observe that I speak as if the allied powers were +actually consenting, and not compelled by events to the establishment +of this faction in France. The words have not escaped me. You will +hereafter naturally expect that I should make them good. But whether +in adopting this measure we are madly active, or weakly passive, or +pusillanimously panic struck, the effects will be the same. You may +call this faction, which has eradicated<a name='Page_131'></a> the monarchy,—expelled the +proprietary, persecuted religion, and trampled upon law,—you may call +this France if you please: but of the ancient France nothing remains +but its central geography; its iron frontier; its spirit of ambition; +its audacity of enterprise; its perplexing intrigue. These, and these +alone, remain: and they remain heightened in their principle and +augmented in their means. All the former correctives, whether of +virtue or of weakness, which existed in the old monarchy, are gone. No +single new corrective is to be found in the whole body of the new +institutions. How should such a thing be found there, when everything +has been chosen with care and selection to forward all those ambitious +designs and dispositions, not to control them? The whole is a body of +ways and means for the supply of dominion, without one heterogeneous +particle in it.</p> + +<p>Here I suffer you to breathe, and leave to your meditation what has +occurred to me on the <i>genius and character</i> of the French Revolution. +From having this before us, we may be better able to determine on the +first question I proposed, that is, how far nations, called foreign, +are likely to be affected with the system established within that +territory. I intended to proceed next on the question of her +facilities, from <i>the internal state of other nations, and +particularly of this</i>, for obtaining her ends: but I ought to be<a name='Page_132'></a> +aware that my notions are controverted.—I mean, therefore, in my next +letter, to take notice of what, in that way, has been recommended to +me as the most deserving of notice. In the examination of those +pieces, I shall have occasion to discuss some others of the topics to +which I have called your attention. You know that the letters which I +now send to the press, as well as a part of what is to follow, have +been in their substance long since written. A circumstance which your +partiality alone could make of importance to you, but which to the +public is of no importance at all, retarded their appearance. The late +events which press upon us obliged me to make some additions; but no +substantial change in the matter.</p> + +<p>This discussion, my friend, will be long. But the matter is serious; +and if ever the fate of the world could be truly said to depend on a +particular measure, it is upon this peace. For the present, farewell.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_133'></a>V.—'PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS'</h3> + +<h4>BY SYDNEY SMITH</h4> + +<h5>(LETTERS II., VI., VII., IX.)</h5> + +<p>(<i>The pamphleteering spirit is strong in almost all Sydney Smith's +'Contributions to the </i>Edinburgh Review<i>,' but the form and subjects +of those contributions exclude them here. Of his two great pamphlet +issues proper, </i>Peter Plymley's Letters<i> and those </i>To Archdeacon +Singleton<i>, the former are, though perhaps of less polished and +perfect wit than the latter, more distinctly political, and have more +of that </i>diable au corps<i> which Voltaire considered necessary to +success in the arts. They have also the advantage that, while the +</i>Letters to Archdeacon Singleton<i>, though not an avowed recantation, +are in the nature of a palinode—always an awkward thing—</i>Plymley<i> is +frankly and confidently, not to say wantonly, aggressive. These +</i>Letters<i>, ten in number, were written just after the fall of the +mainly Whig Ministry of 'All the Talents,' to which Sydney had been +indebted for his prefer<a name='Page_134'></a>ment of Foston, and which lost its position +not least owing to its intended support of the 'Catholic' claims. +Those claims were not admitted for twenty years later; and Sydney's +advocacy of them was regarded as a little too exuberant by some even +of his own party. But there is no doubt that the </i>Letters<i> had a great +influence in laughing if not in arguing sections of the public round +to the Emancipation side.</i>)</p> + +<h3>LETTER II.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—The Catholic not respect an oath! why not? What upon +earth has kept him out of Parliament, or excluded him from all the +offices whence he is excluded, but his respect for oaths? There is no +law which prohibits a Catholic to sit in Parliament. There could be no +such law; because it is impossible to find out what passes in the +interior of any man's mind. Suppose it were in contemplation to +exclude all men from certain offices who contended for the legality of +taking tithes: the only mode of discovering that fervid love of +decimation which I know you to possess would be to tender you an oath +"against that damnable doctrine, that it is lawful for a spiritual man +to take, abstract, appropriate, subduct, or lead away the tenth calf, +sheep, lamb, ox, pigeon, duck," etc., etc., etc., and every other +animal that ever existed, which of course the lawyers would take care +to enumerate. Now this<a name='Page_135'></a> oath I am sure you would rather die than take; +and so the Catholic is excluded from Parliament because he will not +swear that he disbelieves the leading doctrines of his religion! The +Catholic asks you to abolish some oaths which oppress him; your answer +is that he does not respect oaths. Then why subject him to the test of +oaths? The oaths keep him out of Parliament; why, then, he respects +them. Turn which way you will, either your laws are nugatory, or the +Catholic is bound by religious obligations as you are; but no eel in +the well-sanded fist of a cook-maid, upon the eve of being skinned, +ever twisted and writhed as an orthodox parson does when he is +compelled by the gripe of reason to admit anything in favour of a +dissenter.</p> + +<p>I will not dispute with you whether the Pope be or be not the Scarlet +Lady of Babylon. I hope it is not so; because I am afraid it will +induce His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer to introduce several +severe bills against popery, if that is the case; and though he will +have the decency to appoint a previous committee of inquiry as to the +fact, the committee will be garbled, and the report inflammatory. +Leaving this to be settled as he pleases to settle it, I wish to +inform you, that, previously to the bill last passed in favour of the +Catholics, at the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, and for his satisfaction, +the opinions of six of the most celebrated of the foreign Catholic +universities<a name='Page_136'></a> were taken as to the right of the Pope to interfere in +the temporal concerns of any country. The answer cannot possibly leave +the shadow of a doubt, even in the mind of Baron Maseres; and Dr. +Rennel would be compelled to admit it, if three Bishops lay dead at +the very moment the question were put to him. To this answer might be +added also the solemn declaration and signature of all the Catholics +in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>I should perfectly agree with you, if the Catholics admitted such a +dangerous dispensing power in the hands of the Pope; but they all deny +it, and laugh at it, and are ready to abjure it in the most decided +manner you can devise. They obey the Pope as the spiritual head of +their Church; but are you really so foolish as to be imposed upon by +mere names? What matters it the seven-thousandth part of a farthing +who is the spiritual head of any Church? Is not Mr. Wilberforce at the +head of the Church of Clapham? Is not Dr. Letsom at the head of the +Quaker Church? Is not the General Assembly at the head of the Church +of Scotland? How is the government disturbed by these many-headed +Churches? or in what way is the power of the Crown augmented by this +almost nominal dignity?</p> + +<p>The King appoints a fast-day once a year, and he makes the bishops: +and if the government would take half the pains to keep the Catholics +out of the arms of France that it does to widen Temple Bar, or +improve<a name='Page_137'></a> Snow Hill, the King would get into his hands the appointments +of the titular Bishops of Ireland. Both Mr. C——'s sisters enjoy +pensions more than sufficient to place the two greatest dignitaries of +the Irish Catholic Church entirely at the disposal of the Crown. +Everybody who knows Ireland knows perfectly well, that nothing would +be easier, with the expenditure of a little money, than to preserve +enough of the ostensible appointment in the hands of the Pope to +satisfy the scruples of the Catholics, while the real nomination +remained with the Crown. But, as I have before said, the moment the +very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to +common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the +barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots.</p> + +<p>Whatever your opinion may be of the follies of the Roman Catholic +religion, remember they are the follies of four millions of human +beings, increasing rapidly in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, who, +if firmly united with this country, would set at defiance the power of +France, and if once wrested from their alliance with England, would in +three years render its existence as an independent nation absolutely +impossible. You speak of danger to the Establishment: I request to +know when the Establishment was ever so much in danger as when Hoche +was in Bantry Bay, and whether all the books of Bossuet, or the arts +of<a name='Page_138'></a> the Jesuits, were half so terrible? Mr. Perceval and his parsons +forget all this, in their horror lest twelve or fourteen old women may +be converted to holy water and Catholic nonsense. They never see that, +while they are saving these venerable ladies from perdition, Ireland +may be lost, England broken down, and the Protestant Church, with all +its deans, prebendaries, Percevals, and Rennels, be swept into the +vortex of oblivion.</p> + +<p>Do not, I beseech you, ever mention to me again the name of Dr. +Duigenan. I have been in every corner of Ireland, and have studied its +present strength and condition with no common labour. Be assured +Ireland does not contain at this moment less than five millions of +people. There were returned in the year 1791 to the hearth tax 701,000 +houses, and there is no kind of question that there were about 50,000 +houses omitted in that return. Taking, however, only the number +returned for the tax, and allowing the average of six to a house (a +very small average for a potato-fed people), this brings the +population to 4,200,000 people in the year 1791: and it can be shown +from the clearest evidence (and Mr. Newenham in his book shows it), +that Ireland for the last fifty years has increased in its population +at the rate of 50 or 60,000 per annum; which leaves the present +population of Ireland at about five millions, after every possible +deduction for <i>existing circumstances, just and necessary <a name='Page_139'></a>wars, +monstrous and unnatural rebellions</i>, and all other sources of human +destruction. Of this population, two out of ten are Protestants; and +the half of the Protestant population are Dissenters, and as inimical +to the Church as the Catholics themselves. In this state of things +thumbscrews and whipping—admirable engines of policy as they must be +considered to be—will not ultimately avail. The Catholics will hang +over you; they will watch for the moment, and compel you hereafter to +give them ten times as much, against your will, as they would now be +contented with, if it were voluntarily surrendered. Remember what +happened in the American war, when Ireland compelled you to give her +everything she asked, and to renounce, in the most explicit manner, +your claim of Sovereignty over her. God Almighty grant the folly of +these present men may not bring on such another crisis of public +affairs!</p> + +<p>What are your dangers which threaten the Establishment?—Reduce this +declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean. The most +ample allowance does not calculate that there would be more than +twenty members who were Roman Catholics in one house, and ten in the +other, if the Catholic emancipation were carried into effect. Do you +mean that these thirty members would bring in a bill to take away the +tithes from the Protestant, and to pay them to the Catholic clergy? Do +you mean that a Catholic<a name='Page_140'></a> general would march his army into the House +of Commons, and purge it of Mr. Perceval and Dr. Duigenan? or, that +the theological writers would become all of a sudden more acute or +more learned, if the present civil incapacities were removed? Do you +fear for your tithes, or your doctrines, or your person, or the +English Constitution? Every fear, taken separately, is so glaringly +absurd, that no man has the folly or the boldness to state it. Every +one conceals his ignorance, or his baseness, in a stupid general +panic, which, when called on, he is utterly incapable of explaining. +Whatever you think of the Catholics, there they are—you cannot get +rid of them; your alternative is to give them a lawful place for +stating their grievances, or an unlawful one: if you do not admit them +to the House of Commons, they will hold their parliament in Potatoe +Place, Dublin, and be ten times as violent and inflammatory as they +would be in Westminster. Nothing would give me such an idea of +security as to see twenty or thirty Catholic gentlemen in Parliament, +looked upon by all the Catholics as the fair and proper organ of their +party. I should have thought it the height of good fortune that such a +wish existed on their part, and the very essence of madness and +ignorance to reject it. Can you murder the Catholics? Can you neglect +them? They are too numerous for both these expedients. What remains to +be done is obvious to every human being—<a name='Page_141'></a>but to that man who, instead +of being a Methodist preacher, is, for the curse of us and our +children, and for the ruin of Troy and the misery of good old Priam +and his sons, become a legislator and a politician.</p> + +<p>A distinction, I perceive, is taken by one of the most feeble noblemen +in Great Britain, between persecution and the deprivation of political +power; whereas, there is no more distinction between these two things +than there is between him who makes the distinction and a booby. If I +strip off the relic-covered jacket of a Catholic, and give him twenty +stripes ... I persecute; if I say, Everybody in the town where you +live shall be a candidate for lucrative and honourable offices, but +you, who are a Catholic ... I do not persecute! What barbarous +nonsense is this! as if degradation was not as great an evil as bodily +pain or as severe poverty: as if I could not be as great a tyrant by +saying, You shall not enjoy—as by saying, You shall suffer. The +English, I believe, are as truly religious as any nation in Europe: I +know no greater blessing; but it carries with it this evil in its +train, that any villain who will bawl out, '<i>The Church is in +danger!</i>' may get a place and a good pension; and that any +administration who will do the same thing may bring a set of men into +power who, at a moment of stationary and passive piety, would be +hooted by the very boys in the streets. But it is not all religion; it +is, in great part, the narrow and ex<a name='Page_142'></a>clusive spirit which delights to +keep the common blessings of sun and air and freedom from other human +beings. 'Your religion has always been degraded; you are in the dust, +and I will take care you never rise again. I should enjoy less the +possession of an earthly good by every additional person to whom it +was extended.' You may not be aware of it yourself, most reverend +Abraham, but you deny their freedom to the Catholics upon the same +principle that Sarah your wife refuses to give the receipt for a ham +or a gooseberry dumpling: she values her receipts, not because they +secure to her a certain flavour, but because they remind her that her +neighbours want it:—a feeling laughable in a priestess, shameful in a +priest; venial when it withholds the blessings of a ham, tyrannical +and execrable when it narrows the boon of religious freedom.</p> + +<p>You spend a great deal of ink about the character of the present prime +minister. Grant you all that you write—I say, I fear he will ruin +Ireland, and pursue a line of policy destructive to the true interest +of his country: and then you tell me, he is faithful to Mrs. Perceval, +and kind to the Master Percevals! These are, undoubtedly, the first +qualifications to be looked to in a time of the most serious public +danger; but somehow or another (if public and private virtues must +always be incompatible), I should prefer that he destroyed the +domestic happiness of Wood or Cockell,<a name='Page_143'></a> owed for the veal of the +preceding year, whipped his boys, and saved his country.</p> + +<p>The late administration did not do right; they did not build their +measures upon the solid basis of facts. They should have caused +several Catholics to have been dissected after death by surgeons of +either religion; and the report to have been published with +accompanying plates. If the viscera, and other organs of life, had +been found to be the same as in Protestant bodies; if the provisions +of nerves, arteries, cerebrum, and cerebellum, had been the same as we +are provided with, or as the Dissenters are now known to possess; +then, indeed, they might have met Mr. Perceval upon a proud eminence, +and convinced the country at large of the strong probability that the +Catholics are really human creatures, endowed with the feelings of +men, and entitled to all their rights. But instead of this wise and +prudent measure, Lord Howick, with his usual precipitation, brings +forward a bill in their favour, without offering the slightest proof +to the country that they were anything more than horses and oxen. The +person who shows the lama at the corner of Piccadilly has the +precaution to write up—<i>Allowed by Sir Joseph Banks to be a real +quadruped</i>, so his Lordship might have said—<i>Allowed by the bench of +Bishops to be real human creatures</i>.... I could write you twenty +letters upon this subject; but I am tired, and so I suppose are you. +Our friendship is now of<a name='Page_144'></a> forty years' standing; you know me to be a +truly religious man; but I shudder to see religion treated like a +cockade, or a pint of beer, and made the instrument of a party. I love +the king, but I love the people as well as the king; and if I am sorry +to see his old age molested, I am much more sorry to see four millions +of Catholics baffled in their just expectations. If I love Lord +Grenville, and Lord Howick, it is because they love their country; if +I abhor ... it is because I know there is but one man among them who +is not laughing at the enormous folly and credulity of the country, +and that he is an ignorant and mischievous bigot. As for the light and +frivolous jester, of whom it is your misfortune to think so highly, +learn, my dear Abraham, that this political Killigrew, just before the +breaking-up of the last administration, was in actual treaty with them +for a place; and if they had survived twenty-four hours longer, he +would have been now declaiming against the cry of No Popery! instead +of inflaming it. With this practical comment on the baseness of human +nature, I bid you adieu!</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>LETTER VI.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—What amuses me the most is to hear of the <i>indulgences</i> +which the Catholics have received, and their exorbitance in not being +satisfied with those indulgences: now if you complain to me<a name='Page_145'></a> that a +man is obtrusive and shameless in his requests, and that it is +impossible to bring him to reason, I must first of all hear the whole +of your conduct towards him; for you may have taken from him so much +in the first instance that, in spite of a long series of restitution, +a vast latitude for petition may still remain behind.</p> + +<p>There is a village, no matter where, in which the inhabitants, on one +day in the year, sit down to a dinner prepared at the common expense: +by an extraordinary piece of tyranny, which Lord Hawkesbury would call +the wisdom of the village ancestors, the inhabitants of three of the +streets, about a hundred years ago, seized upon the inhabitants of the +fourth street, bound them hand and foot, laid them upon their backs, +and compelled them to look on while the rest were stuffing themselves +with beef and beer; the next year the inhabitants of the persecuted +street, though they contributed an equal quota of the expense, were +treated precisely in the same manner. The tyranny grew into a custom; +and, as the manner of our nature is, it was considered as the most +sacred of all duties to keep these poor fellows without their annual +dinner. The village was so tenacious of this practice, that nothing +could induce them to resign it; every enemy to it was looked upon as a +disbeliever in Divine Providence, and any nefarious churchwarden who +wished to succeed in his election had nothing to<a name='Page_146'></a> do but to represent +his antagonist as an abolitionist, in order to frustrate his ambition, +endanger his life, and throw the village into a state of the most +dreadful commotion. By degrees, however, the obnoxious street grew to +be so well peopled, and its inhabitants so firmly united, that their +oppressors, more afraid of injustice, were more disposed to be just. +At the next dinner they are unbound, the year after allowed to sit +upright, then a bit of bread and a glass of water; till at last, after +a long series of concessions, they are emboldened to ask, in pretty +plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at the bottom of the +table, and to fill their bellies as well as the rest. Forthwith a +general cry of shame and scandal: 'Ten years ago, were you not laid +upon your backs? Don't you remember what a great thing you thought it +to get a piece of bread? How thankful you were for cheese parings? +Have you forgotten that memorable era, when the lord of the manor +interfered to obtain for you a slice of the public pudding? And now, +with an audacity only equalled by your ingratitude, you have the +impudence to ask for knives and forks, and to request, in terms too +plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down to table with the rest, +and be indulged even with beef and beer: there are not more than half +a dozen dishes which we have reserved for ourselves; the rest has been +thrown open to you in the utmost profusion; you have potatoes, and<a name='Page_147'></a> +carrots, suet dumplings, sops in the pan, and delicious toast and +water in incredible quantities. Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal are +ours; and if you were not the most restless and dissatisfied of human +beings, you would never think of aspiring to enjoy them.'</p> + +<p>Is not this, my dainty Abraham, the very nonsense and the very insult +which is talked to and practised upon the Catholics? You are surprised +that men who have tasted of partial justice should ask for perfect +justice; that he who has been robbed of coat and cloak will not be +contented with the restitution of one of his garments. He would be a +very lazy blockhead if he were content, and I (who, though an +inhabitant of the village, have preserved, thank God, some sense of +justice) most earnestly counsel these half-fed claimants to persevere +in their just demands, till they are admitted to a more complete share +of a dinner for which they pay as much as the others; and if they see +a little attenuated lawyer squabbling at the head of their opponents, +let them desire him to empty his pockets, and to pull out all the +pieces of duck, fowl, and pudding which he has filched from the public +feast, to carry home to his wife and children.</p> + +<p>You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this country +to the Irish before the Union. I deny that any voluntary concession +was ever made by England to Ireland. What did Ireland ever ask that +was granted? What did she ever demand that<a name='Page_148'></a> was not refused? How did +she get her Mutiny Bill—a limited Parliament—a repeal of Poyning's +Law—a constitution? Not by the concessions of England, but by her +fears. When Ireland asked for all these things upon her knees, her +petitions were rejected with Percevalism and contempt; when she +demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, they were granted +with every mark of consternation and dismay. Ask of Lord Auckland the +fatal consequences of trifling with such a people as the Irish. He +himself was the organ of these refusals. As secretary to the Lord +Lieutenant, the insolence and the tyranny of this country passed +through his hands. Ask him if he remembers the consequences. Ask him +if he has forgotten that memorable evening when he came down booted +and mantled to the House of Commons, when he told the House he was +about to set off for Ireland that night, and declared before God, if +he did not carry with him a compliance with all their demands, Ireland +was for ever lost to this country. The present generation have +forgotten this; but I have not forgotten it; and I know, hasty and +undignified as the submission of England then was, that Lord Auckland +was right, that the delay of a single day might very probably have +separated the two peoples for ever. The terms submission and fear are +galling terms when applied from the lesser nation to the greater; but +it is the plain historical truth, it is the natural<a name='Page_149'></a> consequence of +injustice, it is the predicament in which every country places itself +which leaves such a mass of hatred and discontent by its side. No +empire is powerful enough to endure it; it would exhaust the strength +of China, and sink it with all its mandarins and tea-kettles to the +bottom of the deep. By refusing them justice now when you are strong +enough to refuse them anything more than justice, you will act over +again, with the Catholics, the same scene of mean and precipitate +submission which disgraced you before America, and before the +volunteers of Ireland. We shall live to hear the Hampstead Protestant +pronouncing such extravagant panegyrics upon holy water, and paying +such fulsome compliments to the thumbs and offals of departed saints, +that parties will change sentiments, and Lord Henry Petty and Sam +Whitbread take a spell at No Popery. The wisdom of Mr. Fox was alike +employed in teaching his country justice when Ireland was weak, and +dignity when Ireland was strong. We are fast pacing round the same +miserable circle of ruin and imbecility. Alas! where is our guide?</p> + +<p>You say that Ireland is a millstone about our necks; that it would be +better for us if Ireland were sunk at the bottom of the sea; that the +Irish are a nation of irreclaimable savages and barbarians. How often +have I heard these sentiments fall from the plump and thoughtless +squire, and from the thriving<a name='Page_150'></a> English shopkeeper, who has never felt +the rod of an Orange master upon his back. Ireland a millstone about +your neck! Why is it not a stone of Ajax in your hand? I agree with +you most cordially that, governed as Ireland now is, it would be a +vast accession of strength if the waves of the sea were to rise and +engulf her to-morrow. At this moment, opposed as we are to all the +world, the annihilation of one of the most fertile islands on the face +of the globe, containing five millions of human creatures, would be +one of the most solid advantages which could happen to this country. I +doubt very much, in spite of all the just abuse which has been +lavished upon Bonaparte, whether there is any one of his conquered +countries the blotting out of which would be as beneficial to him as +the destruction of Ireland would be to us: of countries I speak +differing in language from the French, little habituated to their +intercourse, and inflamed with all the resentments of a recently +conquered people. Why will you attribute the turbulence of our people +to any cause but the right—to any cause but your own scandalous +oppression? If you tie your horse up to a gate, and beat him cruelly, +is he vicious because he kicks you? If you have plagued and worried a +mastiff dog for years, is he mad because he flies at you whenever he +sees you? Hatred is an active, troublesome passion. Depend upon it, +whole nations have always some<a name='Page_151'></a> reason for their hatred. Before you +refer the turbulence of the Irish to incurable defects in their +character, tell me if you have treated them as friends and equals? +Have you protected their commerce? Have you respected their religion? +Have you been as anxious for their freedom as your own? Nothing of all +this. What then? Why you have confiscated the territorial surface of +the country twice over: you have massacred and exported her +inhabitants: you have deprived four-fifths of them of every civil +privilege: you have at every period made her commerce and manufactures +slavishly subordinate to your own: and yet the hatred which the Irish +bear to you is the result of an original turbulence of character, and +of a primitive, obdurate wildness, utterly incapable of civilisation. +The embroidered inanities and the sixth-form effusions of Mr. Canning +are really not powerful enough to make me believe this; nor is there +any authority on earth (always excepting the Dean of Christ Church) +which could make it credible to me. I am sick of Mr. Canning. There is +not a 'ha'porth of bread to all this sugar and sack.' I love not the +cretaceous and incredible countenance of his colleague. The only +opinion in which I agree with these two gentlemen is that which they +entertain of each other. I am sure that the insolence of Mr. Pitt, and +the unbalanced accounts of Melville, were far better than the perils +of this new ignorance:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p><a name='Page_152'></a>Nonne fuit satiùs, tristes Amaryllidis iras<br /> +Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan?<br /> +Quamvis ille <i>niger</i>?</p></div> + +<p>In the midst of the most profound peace, the secret articles of the +Treaty of Tilsit, in which the destruction of Ireland is resolved +upon, induce you to rob the Danes of their fleet. After the expedition +sailed comes the Treaty of Tilsit, containing no article, public or +private, alluding to Ireland. The state of the world, you tell me, +justified us in doing this. Just God! do we think only of the state of +the world when there is an opportunity for robbery, for murder, and +for plunder; and do we forget the state of the world when we are +called upon to be wise, and good, and just? Does the state of the +world never remind us that we have four millions of subjects whose +injuries we ought to atone for, and whose affections we ought to +conciliate? Does the state of the world never warn us to lay aside our +infernal bigotry, and to arm every man who acknowledges a God, and can +grasp a sword? Did it never occur to this administration that they +might virtuously get hold of a force ten times greater than the force +of the Danish fleet? Was there no other way of protecting Ireland but +by bringing eternal shame upon Great Britain, and by making the earth +a den of robbers? See what the men whom you have supplanted would have +done. They would have rendered the invasion<a name='Page_153'></a> of Ireland impossible, by +restoring to the Catholics their long-lost rights: they would have +acted in such a manner that the French would neither have wished for +invasion nor dared to attempt it: they would have increased the +permanent strength of the country while they preserved its reputation +unsullied. Nothing of this kind your friends have done, because they +are solemnly pledged to do nothing of this kind; because, to tolerate +all religions, and to equalise civil rights to all sects, is to oppose +some of the worst passions of our nature—to plunder and to oppress is +to gratify them all. They wanted the huzzas of mobs, and they have for +ever blasted the fame of England to obtain them. Were the fleets of +Holland, France, and Spain destroyed by larceny? You resisted the +power of 150 sail of the line by sheer courage, and violated every +principle of morals from the dread of fifteen hulks, while the +expedition itself cost you three times more than the value of the +larcenous matter brought away. The French trample on the laws of God +and man, not for old cordage, but for kingdoms, and always take care +to be well paid for their crimes. We contrive, under the present +administration, to unite moral with intellectual deficiency, and to +grow weaker and worse by the same action. If they had any evidence of +the intended hostility of the Danes, why was it not produced? Why have +the nations of Europe been allowed to feel an indignation against this +country<a name='Page_154'></a> beyond the reach of all subsequent information? Are these +times, do you imagine, when we can trifle with a year of universal +hatred, dally with the curses of Europe, and then regain a lost +character at pleasure, by the parliamentary perspirations of the +Foreign Secretary, or the solemn asseverations of the pecuniary Rose? +Believe me, Abraham, it is not under such ministers as these that the +dexterity of honest Englishmen will ever equal the dexterity of French +knaves; it is not in their presence that the serpent of Moses will +ever swallow up the serpents of the magician.</p> + +<p>Lord Hawkesbury says that nothing is to be granted to the Catholics +from fear. What! not even justice? Why not? There are four millions of +disaffected people within twenty miles of your own coast. I fairly +confess that the dread which I have of their physical power is with me +a very strong motive for listening to their claims. To talk of not +acting from fear is mere parliamentary cant. From what motive but +fear, I should be glad to know, have all the improvements in our +constitution proceeded? I question if any justice has ever been done +to large masses of mankind from any other motive. By what other +motives can the plunderers of the Baltic suppose nations to be +governed in their intercourse <i>with each other</i>? If I say, Give this +people what they ask because it is just, do you think I should get ten +people to listen to me? Would not the lesser<a name='Page_155'></a> of the two Jenkinsons be +the first to treat me with contempt? The only true way to make the +mass of mankind see the beauty of justice is by showing to them, in +pretty plain terms, the consequences of injustice. If any body of +French troops land in Ireland, the whole population of that country +will rise against you to a man, and you could not possibly survive +such an event three years. Such, from the bottom of my soul, do I +believe to be the present state of that country; and so far does it +appear to me to be impolitic and unstatesman-like to conceed anything +to such a danger, that if the Catholics, in addition to their present +just demands, were to petition for the perpetual removal of the said +Lord Hawkesbury from his Majesty's councils, I think, whatever might +be the effect upon the destinies of Europe, and however it might +retard our own individual destruction, that the prayer of the petition +should be instantly complied with. Canning's crocodile tears should +not move me; the hoops of the maids of honour should not hide him. I +would tear him from the banisters of the back stairs, and plunge him +in the fishy fumes of the dirtiest of all his Cinque Ports.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>LETTER VII.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—In the correspondence which is passing between us, you +are perpetually alluding to<a name='Page_156'></a> the Foreign Secretary; and in answer to +the dangers of Ireland, which I am pressing upon your notice, you have +nothing to urge but the confidence which you repose in the discretion +and sound sense of this gentleman. I can only say, that I have +listened to him long and often with the greatest attention; I have +used every exertion in my power to take a fair measure of him, and it +appears to me impossible to hear him upon any arduous topic without +perceiving that he is eminently deficient in those solid and serious +qualities upon which, and upon which alone, the confidence of a great +country can properly repose. He sweats and labours, and works for +sense, and Mr. Ellis seems always to think it is coming, but it does +not come; the machine can't draw up what is not to be found in the +spring; Providence has made him a light, jesting, paragraph-writing +man, and that he will remain to his dying day. When he is jocular he +is strong, when he is serious he is like Samson in a wig; any ordinary +person is a match for him: a song, an ironical letter, a burlesque +ode, an attack in the newspaper upon Nicoll's eye, a smart speech of +twenty minutes, full of gross misrepresentations and clever turns, +excellent language, a spirited manner, lucky quotation, success in +provoking dull men, some half information picked up in Pall Mall in +the morning; these are your friend's natural weapons; all these things +he can do: here I allow him to be truly great;<a name='Page_157'></a> nay, I will be just, +and go still further, if he would confine himself to these things, and +consider the <i>facete</i> and the playful to be the basis of his +character, he would, for that species of man, be universally regarded +as a person of a very good understanding; call him a legislator, a +reasoner, and the conductor of the affairs of a great nation, and it +seems to me as absurd as if a butterfly were to teach bees to make +honey. That he is an extraordinary writer of small poetry, and a diner +out of the highest lustre, I do most readily admit. After George +Selwyn, and perhaps Tickell, there has been no such man for this +half-century. The Foreign Secretary is a gentleman, a respectable as +well as a highly agreeable man in private life; but you may as well +feed me with decayed potatoes as console me for the miseries of +Ireland by the resources of his <i>sense</i> and his <i>discretion</i>. It is +only the public situation which this gentleman holds which entitles me +or induces me to say so much about him. He is a fly in amber, nobody +cares about the fly; the only question is, How the devil did it get +there? Nor do I attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of +utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke for fear it +should flood a province.</p> + +<p>The friends of the Catholic question are, I observe, extremely +embarrassed in arguing when they come to the loyalty of the Irish +Catholics. As for me, I shall<a name='Page_158'></a> go straight forward to my object, and +state what I have no manner of doubt, from an intimate knowledge of +Ireland, to be the plain truth. Of the great Roman Catholic +proprietors, and of the Catholic prelates, there may be a few, and but +a few, who would follow the fortunes of England at all events: there +is another set of men who, thoroughly detesting this country, have too +much property and too much character to lose, not to wait for some +very favourable event before they show themselves; but the great mass +of Catholic population, upon the slightest appearance of a French +force in that country, would rise upon you to a man. It is the most +mistaken policy to conceal the plain truth. There is no loyalty among +the Catholics: they detest you as their worst oppressors, and they +will continue to detest you till you remove the cause of their hatred. +It is in your power in six months' time to produce a total revolution +of opinions among this people; and in some future letter I will show +you that this is clearly the case. At present, see what a dreadful +state Ireland is in. The common toast among the low Irish is, the +feast of the <i>passover</i>. Some allusion to <i>Bonaparte</i>, in a play +lately acted at Dublin, produced thunders of applause from the pit and +the galleries; and a politician should not be inattentive to the +public feelings expressed in theatres. Mr. Perceval thinks he has +disarmed the Irish: he has no more disarmed the Irish than he has +resigned<a name='Page_159'></a> a shilling of his own public emoluments. An Irish peasant +fills the barrel of his gun full of tow dipped in oil, butters up the +lock, buries it in a bog, and allows the Orange bloodhound to ransack +his cottage at pleasure. Be just and kind to the Irish, and you will +indeed disarm them; rescue them from the degraded servitude in which +they are held by a handful of their own countrymen, and you will add +four millions of brave and affectionate men to your strength. Nightly +visits, Protestant inspectors, licenses to possess a pistol, or a +knife and fork, the odious vigour of the <i>evangelical</i> Perceval—acts +of Parliament, drawn up by some English attorney, to save you from the +hatred of four millions of people—the guarding yourselves from +universal disaffection by a police; a confidence in the little cunning +of Bow Street, when you might rest your security upon the eternal +basis of the best feelings: this is the meanness and madness to which +nations are reduced when they lose sight of the first elements of +justice, without which a country can be no more secure than it can be +healthy without air. I sicken at such policy and such men. The fact +is, the Ministers know nothing about the present state of Ireland; Mr. +Perceval sees a few clergymen, Lord Castlereagh a few general +officers, who take care, of course, to report what is pleasant rather +than what is true. As for the joyous and lepid consul, he jokes upon +neutral flags and frauds,<a name='Page_160'></a> jokes upon Irish rebels, jokes upon +northern and western and southern foes, and gives himself no trouble +upon any subject; nor is the mediocrity of the idolatrous deputy of +the slightest use. Dissolved in grins, he reads no memorials upon the +state of Ireland, listens to no reports, asks no questions, and is the</p> + +<div class='blkquot'>"<i>Bourn</i> from whom no traveller returns."<br /></div> + +<p>The danger of an immediate insurrection is now, I <i>believe</i>, blown +over. You have so strong an army in Ireland, and the Irish are become +so much more cunning from the last insurrection, that you may perhaps +be tolerably secure just at present from that evil: but are you secure +from the efforts which the French may make to throw a body of troops +into Ireland? and do you consider that event to be difficult and +improbable? From Brest Harbour to Cape St. Vincent, you have above +three thousand miles of hostile sea coast, and twelve or fourteen +harbours quite capable of containing a sufficient force for the +powerful invasion of Ireland. The nearest of these harbours is not two +days' sail from the southern coast of Ireland, with a fair leading +wind; and the furthest not ten. Five ships of the line, for so very +short a passage, might carry five or six thousand troops with cannon +and ammunition; and Ireland presents to their attack a southern coast +of more than<a name='Page_161'></a> 500 miles, abounding in deep bays, admirable harbours, +and disaffected inhabitants. Your blockading ships may be forced to +come home for provisions and repairs, or they may be blown off in a +gale of wind and compelled to bear away for their own coast; and you +will observe that the very same wind which locks you up in the British +Channel, when you are got there, is evidently favourable for the +invasion of Ireland. And yet this is called Government, and the people +huzza Mr. Perceval for continuing to expose his country day after day +to such tremendous perils as these; cursing the men who would have +given up a question in theology to have saved us from such a risk. The +British empire at this moment is in the state of a peach-blossom—if +the wind blows gently from one quarter, it survives; if furiously from +the other, it perishes. A stiff breeze may set in from the north, the +Rochefort squadron will be taken, and the Minister will be the most +holy of men: if it comes from some other point, Ireland is gone; we +curse ourselves as a set of monastic madmen, and call out for the +unavailing satisfaction of Mr. Perceval's head. Such a state of +political existence is scarcely credible: it is the action of a mad +young fool standing upon one foot, and peeping down the crater of +Mount Ætna, not the conduct of a wise and sober people deciding upon +their best and dearest interests: and in the name, the much-injured +name, of heaven, what is it all for that<a name='Page_162'></a> we expose ourselves to these +dangers? Is it that we may sell more muslin? Is it that we may acquire +more territory? Is it that we may strengthen what we have already +acquired? No; nothing of all this; but that one set of Irishmen may +torture another set of Irishmen—that Sir Phelim O'Callaghan may +continue to whip Sir Toby M'Tackle, his next door neighbour, and +continue to ravish his Catholic daughters; and these are the measures +which the honest and consistent Secretary supports; and this is the +Secretary whose genius in the estimation of Brother Abraham is to +extinguish the genius of Bonaparte. Pompey was killed by a slave, +Goliath smitten by a stripling. Pyrrhus died by the hand of a woman; +tremble, thou great Gaul, from whose head an armed Minerva leaps forth +in the hour of danger; tremble, thou scourge of God, a pleasant man is +come out against thee, and thou shall be laid low by a joker of jokes, +and he shall talk his pleasant talk against thee, and thou shall be no +more!</p> + +<p>You tell me, in spite of all this parade of sea-coast, Bonaparte has +neither ships nor sailors: but this is a mistake. He has not ships and +sailors to contest the empire of the seas with Great Britain, but +there remains quite sufficient of the navies of France, Spain, +Holland, and Denmark, for these short excursions and invasions. Do you +think, too, that Bonaparte does not add to his navy every year? Do +you<a name='Page_163'></a> suppose, with all Europe at his feet, that he can find any +difficulty in obtaining timber, and that money will not procure for +him any quantity of naval stores he may want? The mere machine, the +empty ship, he can build as well, and as quickly, as you can; and +though he may not find enough of practised sailors to man large +fighting-fleets—it is not possible to conceive that he can want +sailors for such sort of purposes as I have stated. He is at present +the despotic monarch of above twenty thousand miles of sea-coast, and +yet you suppose he cannot procure sailors for the invasion of Ireland. +Believe, if you please, that such a fleet met at sea by any number of +our ships at all comparable to them in point of force, would be +immediately taken, let it be so; I count nothing upon their power of +resistance, only upon their power of escaping unobserved. If +experience has taught us anything, it is the impossibility of +perpetual blockades. The instances are innumerable, during the course +of this war, where whole fleets have sailed in and out of harbour, in +spite of every vigilance used to prevent it. I shall only mention +those cases where Ireland is concerned. In December, 1796, seven ships +of the line, and ten transports, reached Bantry Bay from Brest, +without having seen an English ship in their passage. It blew a storm +when they were off shore, and therefore England still continues to be +an independent kingdom. You will observe that at the very time the<a name='Page_164'></a> +French fleet sailed out of Brest Harbour, Admiral Colpoys was cruising +off there with a powerful squadron, and still, from the particular +circumstances of the weather, found it impossible to prevent the +French from coming out. During the time that Admiral Colpoys was +cruising off Brest, Admiral Richery, with six ships of the line, +passed him, and got safe into the harbour. At the very moment when the +French squadron was lying in Bantry Bay, Lord Bridport with his fleet +was locked up by a foul wind in the Channel, and for several days +could not stir to the assistance of Ireland. Admiral Colpoys, totally +unable to find the French fleet, came home. Lord Bridport, at the +change of the wind, cruised for them in vain, and they got safe back +to Brest, without having seen a single one of those floating bulwarks, +the possession of which we believe will enable us with impunity to set +justice and common sense at defiance. Such is the miserable and +precarious state of an anemocracy, of a people who put their trust in +hurricanes, and are governed by wind. In August, 1798, three forty-gun +frigates landed 1100 men under Humbert, making the passage from +Rochelle to Killala without seeing any English ship. In October of the +same year, four French frigates anchored in Killala Bay with 2000 +troops; and though they did not land their troops they returned to +France in safety. In the same month, a line-of-<a name='Page_165'></a>battle ship, eight +stout frigates, and a brig, all full of troops and stores, reached the +coast of Ireland, and were fortunately, in sight of land, destroyed, +after an obstinate engagement, by Sir John Warren.</p> + +<p>If you despise the little troop which, in these numerous experiments, +did make good its landing, take with you, if you please, this <i>précis</i> +of its exploits: eleven hundred men, commanded by a soldier raised +from the ranks, put to rout a select army of 6000 men, commanded by +General Lake, seized their ordnance, ammunition, and stores, advanced +150 miles into a country containing an armed force of 150,000 men, and +at last surrendered to the Viceroy, an experienced general, gravely +and cautiously advancing at the head of all his chivalry and of an +immense army to oppose him. You must excuse these details about +Ireland, but it appears to me to be of all other subjects the most +important. If we conciliate Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do +not, we can do nothing well. If Ireland was friendly, we might equally +set at defiance the talents of Bonaparte and the blunders of his +rival, Mr. Canning; we could then support the ruinous and silly bustle +of our useless expeditions, and the almost incredible ignorance of our +commercial orders in council. Let the present administration give up +but this one point, and there is nothing which I would not consent to +grant them. Mr. Perceval shall have full liberty to insult the tomb<a name='Page_166'></a> +of Mr. Fox, and to torment every eminent Dissenter in Great Britain; +Lord Camden shall have large boxes of plums; Mr. Rose receive +permission to prefix to his name the appellative of virtuous; and to +the Viscount Castlereagh a round sum of ready money shall be well and +truly paid into his hand. Lastly, what remains to Mr. George Canning, +but that he ride up and down Pall Mall glorious upon a white horse, +and that they cry out before him, Thus shall it be done to the +statesman who hath written 'The Needy Knife-Grinder,' and the German +play? Adieu only for the present; you shall soon hear from me again; +it is a subject upon which I cannot long be silent.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<h3>LETTER IX.</h3> + +<p>Dear Abraham—No Catholic can be chief Governor or Governor of this +kingdom, Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord High Treasurer, +Chief of any of the Courts of Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, +Puisne Judge, Judge in the Admiralty, Master of the Rolls, Secretary +of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer or his Deputy, +Teller or Cashier of Exchequer, Auditor or General, Governor or Gustos +Rotulorum of Counties, Chief Governor's Secretary, Privy Councillor, +King's Counsel, Serjeant, Attorney, Solicitor-General, Master in +Chancery, Provost or Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, +Postmaster-General,<a name='Page_167'></a> Master and Lieutenant-General of Ordnance, +Commander-in-Chief, General on the Staff, Sheriff, Sub-Sheriff, Mayor, +Bailiff, Recorder, Burgess, or any other officer in a City, or a +Corporation. No Catholic can be guardian to a Protestant, and no +priest guardian at all; no Catholic can be a gamekeeper, or have for +sale, or otherwise, any arms or warlike stores; no Catholic can +present to a living, unless he choose to turn Jew in order to obtain +that privilege; the pecuniary qualification of Catholic jurors is made +higher than that of Protestants, and no relaxation of the ancient +rigorous code is permitted, unless to those who shall take an oath +prescribed by 13 and 14 George III. Now if this is not picking the +plums out of the pudding and leaving the mere batter to the Catholics, +I know not what is. If it were merely the Privy Council, it would be +(I allow) nothing but a point of honour for which the mass of +Catholics were contending, the honour of being chief-mourners or +pall-bearers to the country; but surely no man will contend that every +barrister may not speculate upon the possibility of being a Puisne +Judge; and that every shopkeeper must not feel himself injured by his +exclusion from borough offices.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest practical evils which the Catholics suffer in +Ireland is their exclusion from the offices of Sheriff and Deputy +Sheriff. Nobody who is unacquainted with Ireland can conceive the +obstacles<a name='Page_168'></a> which this opposes to the fair administration of justice. +The formation of juries is now entirely in the hands of the +Protestants; the lives, liberties, and properties of the Catholics in +the hands of the juries; and this is the arrangement for the +administration of justice in a country where religious prejudices are +inflamed to the greatest degree of animosity! In this country, if a +man be a foreigner, if he sell slippers, and sealing wax, and +artificial flowers, we are so tender of human life that we take care +half the number of persons who are to decide upon his fate should be +men of similar prejudices and feelings with himself: but a poor +Catholic in Ireland may be tried by twelve Percevals, and destroyed +according to the manner of that gentleman in the name of the Lord, and +with all the insulting forms of justice. I do not go the length of +saying that deliberate and wilful injustice is done. I have no doubt +that the Orange Deputy Sheriff thinks it would be a most unpardonable +breach of his duty if he did not summon a Protestant panel. I can +easily believe that the Protestant panel may conduct themselves very +conscientiously in hanging the gentlemen of the crucifix; but I blame +the law which does not guard the Catholic against the probable tenor +of those feelings which must unconsciously influence the judgments of +mankind. I detest that state of society which extends unequal degrees +of protection to different creeds and persuasions; and I cannot<a name='Page_169'></a> +describe to you the contempt I feel for a man who, calling himself a +statesman, defends a system which fills the heart of every Irishman +with treason, and makes his allegiance prudence, not choice.</p> + +<p>I request to know if the vestry taxes in Ireland are a mere matter of +romantic feeling which can affect only the Earl of Fingal? In a parish +where there are four thousand Catholics and fifty Protestants, the +Protestants may meet together in a vestry meeting at which no Catholic +has the right to vote, and tax all the lands in the parish 1s. 6d. per +acre, or in the pound, I forget which, for the repairs of the +church—and how has the necessity of these repairs been ascertained? A +Protestant plumber has discovered that it wants new leading; a +Protestant carpenter is convinced the timbers are not sound; and the +glazier who hates holy water (as an accoucheur hates celibacy, because +he gets nothing by it) is employed to put in new sashes.</p> + +<p>The grand juries in Ireland are the great scene of jobbing. They have +a power of making a county rate to a considerable extent for roads, +bridges, and other objects of general accommodation. 'You suffer the +road to be brought through my park, and I will have the bridge +constructed in a situation where it will make a beautiful object to +your house. You do my job, and I will do yours.' These are the sweet +and interesting subjects which occasionally<a name='Page_170'></a> occupy Milesian gentlemen +while they are attendant upon this grand inquest of justice. But there +is a religion, it seems, even in jobs; and it will be highly +gratifying to Mr. Perceval to learn that no man in Ireland who +believes in seven sacraments can carry a public road, or bridge, one +yard out of the direction most beneficial to the public, and that +nobody can cheat the public who does not expound the Scriptures in the +purest and most orthodox manner. This will give pleasure to Mr. +Perceval: but, from his unfairness upon these topics I appeal to the +justice and the proper feelings of Mr. Huskisson. I ask him if the +human mind can experience a more dreadful sensation than to see its +own jobs refused, and the jobs of another religion perpetually +succeeding? I ask him his opinion of a jobless faith, of a creed which +dooms a man through life to a lean and plunderless integrity. He knows +that human nature cannot and will not bear it; and if we were to paint +a political Tartarus, it would be an endless series of snug +expectations and cruel disappointments. These are a few of many +dreadful inconveniences which the Catholics of all ranks suffer from +the laws by which they are at present oppressed. Besides, look at +human nature: what is the history of all professions? Joel is to be +brought up to the bar: has Mrs. Plymley the slightest doubt of his +being Chancellor? Do not his two shrivelled aunts live in the +certainty of seeing him in<a name='Page_171'></a> that situation, and of cutting out with +their own hands his equity habiliments? And I could name a certain +minister of the Gospel who does not, in the bottom of his heart, much +differ from these opinions. Do you think that the fathers and mothers +of the holy Catholic Church are not as absurd as Protestant papas and +mammas? The probability I admit to be, in each particular case, that +the sweet little blockhead will in fact never get a brief;—but I will +venture to say there is not a parent from the Giant's Causeway to +Bantry Bay who does not conceive that his child is the unfortunate +victim of the exclusion, and that nothing short of positive law could +prevent his own dear, pre-eminent Paddy from rising to the highest +honours of the State. So with the army and parliament; in fact, few +are excluded; but, in imagination, all: you keep twenty or thirty +Catholics out, and you lose the affections of four millions; and, let +me tell you, that recent circumstances have by no means tended to +diminish in the minds of men that hope of elevation beyond their own +rank which is so congenial to our nature: from pleading for John Roe +to taxing John Bull, from jesting for Mr. Pitt and writing in the +<i>Anti-Jacobin</i>, to managing the affairs of Europe—these are leaps +which seem to justify the fondest dreams of mothers and of aunts.</p> + +<p>I do not say that the disabilities to which the Catholics are exposed +amount to such intolerable<a name='Page_172'></a> grievances, that the strength and industry +of a nation are overwhelmed by them: the increasing prosperity of +Ireland fully demonstrates to the contrary. But I repeat again, what I +have often stated in the course of our correspondence, that your laws +against the Catholics are exactly in that state in which you have +neither the benefits of rigour nor of liberality: every law which +prevented the Catholic from gaining strength and wealth is repealed; +every law which can irritate remains; if you were determined to insult +the Catholics you should have kept them weak; if you resolved to give +them strength, you should have ceased to insult them—at present your +conduct is pure, unadulterated folly.</p> + +<p>Lord Hawkesbury says, 'We heard nothing about the Catholics till we +began to mitigate the laws against them; when we relieved them in part +from this oppression they began to be disaffected.' This is very true; +but it proves just what I have said, that you have either done too +much or too little; and as there lives not, I hope, upon earth, so +depraved a courtier that he would load the Catholics with their +ancient chains, what absurdity it is, then, not to render their +dispositions friendly, when you leave their arms and legs free!</p> + +<p>You know, and many Englishmen know, what passes in China; but nobody +knows or cares what passes in Ireland. At the beginning of the +present<a name='Page_173'></a> reign no Catholic could realise property, or carry on any +business; they were absolutely annihilated, and had no more agency in +the country than so many trees. They were like Lord Mulgrave's +eloquence and Lord Camden's wit; the legislative bodies did not know +of their existence. For these twenty-five years last past the +Catholics have been engaged in commerce; within that period the +commerce of Ireland has doubled—there are four Catholics at work for +one Protestant, and eight Catholics at work for one Episcopalian. Of +course, the proportion which Catholic wealth bears to Protestant +wealth is every year altering rapidly in favour of the Catholics. I +have already told you what their purchases of land were the last year: +since that period I have been at some pains to find out the actual +state of the Catholic wealth: it is impossible upon such a subject to +arrive at complete accuracy; but I have good reason to believe that +there are at present 2000 Catholics in Ireland possessing an income of +£500 and upwards, many of these with incomes of one, two, three, and +four thousand, and some amounting to fifteen and twenty thousand per +annum:—and this is the kingdom, and these the people, for whose +conciliation we are to wait Heaven knows when, and Lord Hawkesbury +why! As for me, I never think of the situation of Ireland without +feeling the same necessity for immediate interference as I should do +if I saw blood<a name='Page_174'></a> flowing from a great artery. I rush towards it with +the instinctive rapidity of a man desirous of preventing death, and +have no other feeling but that in a few seconds the patient may be no +more.</p> + +<p>I could not help smiling, in the times of No Popery, to witness the +loyal indignation of many persons at the attempt made by the last +ministry to do something for the relief of Ireland. The general cry in +the country was, that they would not see their beloved Monarch used +ill in his old age, and that they would stand by him to the last drop +of their blood. I respect good feelings, however erroneous be the +occasions on which they display themselves; and therefore I saw in all +this as much to admire as to blame. It was a species of affection, +however, which reminded me very forcibly of the attachment displayed +by the servants of the Russian ambassador at the beginning of the last +century. His Excellency happened to fall down in a kind of apoplectic +fit, when he was paying a morning visit in the house of an +acquaintance. The confusion was of course very great, and messengers +were despatched in every direction to find a surgeon: who, upon his +arrival, declared that his Excellency must be immediately blooded, and +prepared himself forthwith to perform the operation: the barbarous +servants of the embassy, who were there in great numbers, no sooner +saw the surgeon prepared to wound the arm of their master<a name='Page_175'></a> with a +sharp, shining instrument, than they drew their swords, put themselves +in an attitude of defence, and swore in pure Sclavonic, 'that they +would murder any man who attempted to do him the slightest injury: he +had been a very good master to them, and they would not desert him in +his misfortunes, or suffer his blood to be shed while he was off his +guard, and incapable of defending himself.' By good fortune, the +secretary arrived about this period of the dispute, and his +Excellency, relieved from superfluous blood and perilous affection, +was, after much difficulty, restored to life.</p> + +<p>There is an argument brought forward with some appearance of +plausibility in the House of Commons, which certainly merits an +answer: You know that the Catholics now vote for members of parliament +in Ireland, and that they outnumber the Protestants in a very great +proportion; if you allow Catholics to sit in parliament, religion will +be found to influence votes more than property, and the greater part +of the 100 Irish members who are returned to parliament will be +Catholics. Add to these the Catholic members who are returned in +England, and you will have a phalanx of heretical strength which every +minister will be compelled to respect, and occasionally to conciliate +by concessions incompatible with the interests of the Protestant +Church. The fact is, however, that you are at this moment subjected to +every danger of this<a name='Page_176'></a> kind which you can possibly apprehend hereafter. +If the spiritual interests of the voters are more powerful than their +temporal interests, they can bind down their representatives to +support any measures favourable to the Catholic religion, and they can +change the objects of their choice till they have found Protestant +members (as they easily may do) perfectly obedient to their wishes. If +the superior possessions of the Protestants prevent the Catholics from +uniting for a common political object, then danger you fear cannot +exist: if zeal, on the contrary, gets the better of acres, then the +danger at present exists, from the right of voting already given to +the Catholics, and it will not be increased by allowing them to sit in +parliament. There are, as nearly as I can recollect, thirty seats in +Ireland for cities and counties, where the Protestants are the most +numerous, and where the members returned must of course be +Protestants. In the other seventy representations the wealth of the +Protestants is opposed to the number of the Catholics; and if all the +seventy members returned were of the Catholic persuasion, they must +still plot the destruction of our religion in the midst of 588 +Protestants. Such terrors would disgrace a cook-maid, or a toothless +aunt—when they fall from the lips of bearded and senatorial men, they +are nauseous, antiperistaltic, and emetical.</p> + +<p>How can you for a moment doubt of the rapid<a name='Page_177'></a> effects which would be +produced by the emancipation? In the first place, to my certain +knowledge the Catholics have long since expressed to his Majesty's +Ministers their perfect readiness <i>to vest in his Majesty, either with +the consent of the Pope, or without it if it cannot be obtained, the +nomination of the Catholic prelacy</i>. The Catholic prelacy in Ireland +consists of twenty-six bishops and the warden of Galway, a dignitary +enjoying Catholic jurisdiction. The number of Roman Catholic priests +in Ireland exceeds one thousand. The expenses of his peculiar worship +are, to a substantial farmer or mechanic, five shillings per annum; to +a labourer (where he is not entirely excused) one shilling per annum; +this includes the contribution of the whole family, and for this the +priest is bound to attend them when sick, and to confess them when +they apply to him; he is also to keep his chapel in order, to +celebrate divine service, and to preach on Sundays and holydays. In +the northern district a priest gains from £30 to £50; in the other +parts of Ireland from £60 to £90 per annum. The best paid Catholic +bishops receive about £400 per annum; the others from £300 to £350. My +plan is very simple: I would have 300 Catholic parishes at £100 per +annum, 300 at £200 per annum, and 400 at £300 per annum; this, for the +whole thousand parishes, would amount to £190,000. To the prelacy I +would allot £20,000 in unequal proportions,<a name='Page_178'></a> from £1000 to £500; and I +would appropriate £40,000 more for the support of Catholic Schools, +and the repairs of Catholic churches; the whole amount of which sum is +£250,000, about the expense of three days of one of our genuine, good +English <i>just and necessary wars</i>. The clergy should all receive their +salaries at the Bank of Ireland, and I would place the whole patronage +in the hands of the Crown. Now, I appeal to any human being, except +Spencer Perceval, Esq., of the parish of Hampstead, what the +disaffection of a clergy would amount to, gaping after this graduated +bounty of the Crown, and whether Ignatius Loyola himself, if he were a +living blockhead instead of a dead saint, could withstand the +temptation of bouncing from £100 a year at Sligo, to £300 in +Tipperary? This is the miserable sum of money for which the merchants +and landowners and nobility of England are exposing themselves to the +tremendous peril of losing Ireland. The sinecure places of the Roses +and the Percevals, and the 'dear and near relations,' put up to +auction at thirty years' purchase, would almost amount to the money.</p> + +<p>I admit that nothing can be more reasonable than to expect that a +Catholic priest should starve to death, genteelly and pleasantly, for +the good of the Protestant religion; but is it equally reasonable to +expect that he should do so for the Protestant pews, and Protestant +brick and mortar? On an Irish Sabbath<a name='Page_179'></a> the bell of a neat parish +church often summons to church only the parson and an occasionally +conforming clerk; while, two hundred yards off, a thousand Catholics +are huddled together in a miserable hovel, and pelted by all the +storms of heaven. Can anything be more distressing than to see a +venerable man pouring forth sublime truths in tattered breeches, and +depending for his food upon the little offal he gets from his +parishioners? I venerate a human being who starves for his principles, +let them be what they may; but starving for anything is not at all to +the taste of the honourable flagellants: strict principles, and good +pay, is the motto of Mr. Perceval: the one he keeps in great measure +for the faults of his enemies, the other for himself.</p> + +<p>There are parishes in Connaught in which a Protestant was never +settled nor even seen. In that province, in Munster, and in parts of +Leinster, the entire peasantry for sixty miles are Catholics; in these +tracts the churches are frequently shut for want of a congregation, or +opened to an assemblage of from six to twenty persons. Of what +Protestants there are in Ireland, the greatest part are gathered +together in Ulster, or they live in towns. In the country of the other +three provinces the Catholics see no other religion but their own, and +are at the least as fifteen to one Protestant. In the diocese of Tuam +they are sixty to one; in the parish of St. Mulins, diocese of<a name='Page_180'></a> +Leghlin, there are four thousand Catholics and one Protestant; in the +town of Grasgenamana, in the county of Kilkenny, there are between +four and five hundred Catholic houses, and three Protestant houses. In +the parish of Allen, county Kildare, there is no Protestant, though it +is very populous. In the parish of Arlesin, Queen's County, the +proportion is one hundred to one. In the whole county of Kilkenny, by +actual enumeration, it is seventeen to one; in the diocese of +Kilmacduagh, province of Connaught, fifty-two to one, by ditto. These +I give you as a few specimens of the present state of Ireland; and yet +there are men impudent and ignorant enough to contend that such evils +require no remedy, and that mild family man who dwelleth in Hampstead +can find none but the cautery and the knife.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>----'Omne per ignem<br /> +Excoquitur vitium.'<br /></p></div> + +<p>I cannot describe the horror and disgust which I felt at hearing Mr. +Perceval call upon the then Ministry for measures of vigour in +Ireland. If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I +walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my own +begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly combed; +if the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort—how awfully +would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the +cabins of the poor,<a name='Page_181'></a> brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of +Ireland! How easy it is to shed human blood; how easy it is to +persuade ourselves that it is our duty to do so, and that the decision +has cost us a severe struggle; how much in all ages have wounds and +shrieks and tears been the cheap and vulgar resources of the rulers of +mankind; how difficult and how noble it is to govern in kindness and +to found an empire upon the everlasting basis of justice and +affection! But what do men call vigour? To let loose hussars and to +bring up artillery, to govern with lighted matches, and to cut, and +push, and prime; I call this not vigour, but the <i>sloth of cruelty and +ignorance</i>. The vigour I love consists in finding out wherein subjects +are aggrieved, in relieving them, in studying the temper and genius of +a people, in consulting their prejudices, in selecting proper persons +to lead and manage them, in the laborious, watchful, and difficult +task of increasing public happiness by allaying each particular +discontent. In this way Hoche pacified La Vendée—and in this way only +will Ireland ever be subdued. But this, in the eyes of Mr. Perceval, +is imbecility and meanness. Houses are not broken open, women are not +insulted, the people seem all to be happy; they are not rode over by +horses, and cut by whips. Do you call this vigour? Is this government?</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_182'></a>VI.—'LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW.'</h3> + +<h4>BY WILLIAM COBBETT</h4> + +<p>(<i>Although Cobbett produced not a few political pamphlets in the +strictest sense of the term, the infinitely greater part of his work +is comprised during his earlier days in the volumes of </i>Peter +Porcupine's Gazette<i>, during his later in those of the </i>Weekly +Register<i>. This latter, however, he himself for a time actually +entitled </i>The Weekly Political Pamphlet<i>, while he alluded to it under +that name even at other times; and his whole work was imbued even more +deeply than that of Defoe with the pamphlet character. I have selected +two examples from the critical time when he was still exasperated by +his imprisonment, and stung into fresh efforts by debt and the +prospect of fresh difficulties. They exhibit in the most striking form +all Cobbett's pet<a name='Page_183'></a> hatreds—of the unreformed Parliament, of paper +money, of political economy, of potatoes, and of many other things. +The first is the </i>Register<i> of 2d November 1816, the first number of +the cheapened form, which was sold at twopence, and so acquired the +name of 'Twopenny Trash,' from a phrase of, as some say, Canning's, +others Castlereagh's. The second is an early number of the papers +written from America. They will, with the notes, explain themselves.</i>)</p> + +<h3>LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND, ON THE CAUSE OF THEIR PRESENT MISERIES; ON THE MEASURES +WHICH HAVE PRODUCED THAT CAUSE; ON THE REMEDIES WHICH SOME FOOLISH AND +SOME CRUEL AND INSOLENT MEN HAVE PROPOSED; AND ON THE LINE OF CONDUCT +WHICH JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OUGHT TO PURSUE, IN ORDER TO OBTAIN +EFFECTUAL RELIEF, AND TO ASSIST IN PROMOTING THE TRANQUILLITY AND +RESTORING THE HAPPINESS OF THEIR COUNTRY.</h3> + +<p>Friends And Fellow-countrymen—Whatever the pride of rank, of riches, +or of scholarship may have induced some men to believe, or to affect +to believe, the real strength and all the resources of a country<a name='Page_184'></a> ever +have sprung and ever must spring from the <i>labour</i> of its people; and +hence it is that this nation, which is so small in numbers and so poor +in climate and soil compared with many others, has, for many ages, +been the most powerful nation in the world: it is the most +industrious, the most laborious, and, therefore, the most powerful. +Elegant dresses, superb furniture, stately buildings, fine roads and +canals, fleet horses and carriages, numerous and stout ships, +warehouses teeming with goods; all these, and many other objects that +fall under our view, are so many marks of national wealth and +resources. But all these spring from <i>labour</i>. Without the journeyman +and the labourer none of them could exist; without the assistance of +their hands the country would be a wilderness, hardly worth the notice +of an invader.</p> + +<p>As it is the labour of those who toil which makes a country abound in +resources, so it is the same class of men, who must, by their arms, +secure its safety and uphold its fame. Titles and immense sums of +money have been bestowed upon numerous Naval and Military Commanders. +Without calling the justice of these in question, we may assert that +the victories were obtained by <i>you</i> and your fathers and brothers and +sons, in co-operation with those Commanders, who, with <i>your</i> aid, +have done great and wonderful things; but who, without that aid, would +have been as impotent as children at the breast.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_185'></a>With this correct idea of your own worth in your minds, with what +indignation must you hear yourselves called the Populace, the Rabble, +the Mob, the Swinish Multitude; and with what greater indignation, if +possible, must you hear the projects of those cool and cruel and +insolent men, who, now that you have been, without any fault of yours, +brought into a state of misery, propose to narrow the limit of parish +relief, to prevent you from marrying in the days of your youth, or to +thrust you out to seek your bread in foreign lands, never more to +behold your parents or friends? But suppress your indignation, until +we return to this topic, after we have considered the <i>cause</i> of your +present misery, and the measures which have produced that cause.</p> + +<p>The times in which we live are full of peril. The nation, as described +by the very creatures of Government, is fast advancing to that period +when an important change must take place. It is the lot of mankind +that some shall labour with their limbs and others with their minds; +and, on all occasions, more especially on an occasion like the +present, it is the duty of the latter to come to the assistance of the +former. We are all equally interested in the peace and happiness of +our common country. It is of the utmost importance that, in the +seeking to obtain these objects, our endeavours should be uniform, and +tend all to the same point. Such an uniformity cannot<a name='Page_186'></a> exist without +an uniformity of sentiment as to public matters, and to produce this +latter uniformity amongst you is the object of this address.</p> + +<p>As to the cause of our present miseries, it is the enormous amount of +the taxes which the Government compels us to pay for the support of +its army, its placemen, its pensioners, etc., and for the payment of +the interest of its debt. That this is the <i>real</i> cause has been a +thousand times proved; and it is now so acknowledged by the creatures +of the Government themselves. Two hundred and five of the +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture ascribe the ruin of the +country to taxation. Numerous writers, formerly the friends of the +Pitt system, now declare that taxation has been the cause of our +distress. Indeed, when we compare our present state to the state of +the country previous to the wars against France, we must see that our +present misery is owing to no other cause. The taxes then annually +raised amounted to about fifteen millions: they amounted last year to +seventy millions. The nation was then happy; it is now miserable.</p> + +<p>The writers and speakers who labour in the cause of corruption, have +taken great pains to make the labouring classes believe that <i>they</i> +are <i>not taxed</i>; that the taxes which are paid by the landlords, +farmers, and tradesmen, do not affect you, the journeymen and +labourers; and that the tax-makers have been very<a name='Page_187'></a> lenient towards +you. But, I hope that you see to the bottom of these things now. You +must be sensible that if all your employers were totally ruined in one +day, you would be wholly without employment and without bread; and, of +course, in whatever degree your employers are deprived of their means, +they must withhold means from you. In America the most awkward common +labourer receives five shillings a day, while provisions are cheaper +in that country than in this. Here, a carter, boarded in the house, +receives about seven pounds a year; in America, he receives about +thirty pounds a year. What is it that makes this difference? Why, in +America the whole of the taxes do not amount to more than about ten +shillings a head upon the whole of the population; while in England +they amount to nearly six pounds a head! <i>There</i>, a journeyman or +labourer may support his family well, and save from thirty to sixty +pounds a year: <i>here</i>, he amongst you is a lucky man, who can provide +his family with food and with decent clothes to cover them, without +any hope of possessing a penny in the days of sickness or of old age. +<i>There</i>, the Chief Magistrate receives six thousand pounds a year; +<i>here</i>, the civil list surpasses a million of pounds in amount, and as +much is allowed to each of the Princesses in one year, as the chief +magistrate of America receives in two years, though that country is +nearly equal to this in population.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_188'></a>A Mr. Preston, a lawyer of great eminence, and a great praiser of +Pitt, has just published a pamphlet, in which is this remark: 'It +should always be remembered, that the eighteen pounds a year paid to +any placeman or pensioner, withdraws from the public the means of +giving active employment to one individual as the head of a family; +thus depriving five persons of the means of sustenance from the fruits +of honest industry and active labour, and rendering them paupers.' +Thus this supporter of Pitt acknowledges the great truth that the +taxes are the cause of a people's poverty and misery and degradation. +We did not stand in need of this acknowledgment; the fact has been +clearly proved before; but it is good for us to see the friends and +admirers of Pitt brought to make this confession.</p> + +<p>It has been attempted to puzzle you with this sort of question: 'If +taxes be the cause of the people's misery, how comes it that they were +not so miserable before the taxes were reduced as they are now?' Here +is a fallacy which you will be careful to detect. I know that the +taxes have been reduced; that is to say, <i>nominally</i> reduced, but not +so in fact; on the contrary, they have, in reality, been greatly +augmented. This has been done by the sleight-of-hand of paper money. +Suppose, for instance, that four years ago, I had a hundred pounds to +pay in taxes, then a hundred and thirty bushels of wheat would have +paid my share. If I have now seventy-five pounds to pay in taxes, it<a name='Page_189'></a> +will require a hundred and ninety bushels of wheat to pay my share of +taxes. Consequently, though my taxes are nominally reduced, they are, +in reality, greatly augmented. This has been done by the legerdemain +of paper money. In 1812, the pound-note was worth only thirteen +shillings in silver. It is now worth twenty shillings. Therefore, when +we now pay a pound-note to the tax-gatherer, we really pay him twenty +shillings where we before paid him thirteen shillings; and the +Landholders who lent pound-notes worth thirteen shillings each, are +now paid their interest in pounds worth twenty shillings each. And the +thing is come to what Sir Francis Burdett told the Parliament it would +come to. He told them in 1811, that if they ever attempted to pay the +interest of their debt in gold and silver, or in paper money equal in +value to gold and silver, the farmers and tradesmen must be ruined, +and the journeymen and labourers reduced to the last stage of misery.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, it is clear that it is the weight of the taxes, under +which you are sinking, which has already pressed so many of you down +into the state of paupers, and which now threatens to deprive many of +you of your existence. We next come to consider what have been the +causes of this weight of taxes. Here we must go back a little in our +history, and you will soon see that this intolerable weight has all +proceeded from the want of a Parliamentary Reform.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_190'></a>In the year 1764, soon after the present king came to the throne, the +annual interest of the Debt amounted to about five millions, and the +whole of the taxes to about nine millions. But, soon after this, a war +was entered on to compel the Americans to submit to be taxed by the +Parliament, without being represented in that Parliament. The +Americans triumphed, and, after the war was over, the annual interest +of the Debt amounted to about nine millions, and the whole of the +taxes to about fifteen millions. This was our situation when the +French people began their Revolution. The French people had so long +been the slaves of a despotic government, that the friends of freedom +in England rejoiced at their emancipation. The cause of Reform, which +had never ceased to have supporters in England for a great many years, +now acquired new life, and the Reformers urged the Parliament to grant +reform, instead of going to war against the people of France. The +Reformers said: 'Give the nation reform, and you need fear no +revolution.' The Parliament, instead of listening to the Reformers, +crushed them, and went to war against the people of France; and the +consequence of these wars is, that the annual interest of the Debt now +amounts to forty-five millions, and the whole of the taxes, during +each of the last several years, to seventy millions. So that these +wars have ADDED thirty-six millions a year to the interest of the +Debt, and fifty-<a name='Page_191'></a>five millions a year to the amount of the whole of +the taxes! This is the price that we have paid for having checked (for +it is only checked) the progress of liberty in France; for having +forced upon that people the family of Bourbon, and for having enabled +another branch of that same family to restore the bloody Inquisition, +which Napoleon had put down.</p> + +<p>Since the restoration of the Bourbons and of the old Government of +France has been, as far as possible, the grand result of the contest; +since this has been the end of all our fightings and all our past +sacrifices and present misery and degradation; let us see (for the +inquiry is now very full of interest) what sort of Government that was +which the French people had just destroyed, when our Government began +its wars against that people.</p> + +<p>If, only twenty-eight years ago, any man in England had said that the +Government of France was one that ought to be suffered to exist, he +would have been hooted out of any company. It is notorious that that +Government was a cruel despotism; and that we and our forefathers +always called it such. This description of that Government is to be +found in all our histories, in all our Parliamentary debates, in all +our books on Government and politics. It is notorious, that the family +of Bourbon has produced the most perfidious and bloody monsters that +ever disgraced the human form. It is notorious that millions of +Frenchmen<a name='Page_192'></a> have been butchered, and burnt, and driven into exile by +their commands. It is recorded, even in the history of France, that +one of them said that the putrid carcass of a Protestant smelt sweet +to him. Even in these latter times, so late as the reign of Louis +XIV., it is notorious that hundreds of thousands of innocent people +were put to the most cruel death. In some instances, they were burnt +in their houses; in others they were shut into lower rooms, while the +incessant noise of kettle-drums over their heads, day and night, drove +them to raving madness. To enumerate all the infernal means employed +by this tyrant to torture and kill the people, would fill a volume. +Exile was the lot of those who escaped the swords, the wheels, the +axes, the gibbets, the torches of his hell-hounds. England was the +place of refuge for many of these persecuted people. The grandfather +of the present Earl of Radnor, and the father of the venerable Baron +Maseres were amongst them; and it is well known that England owes no +inconsiderable part of her manufacturing skill and industry to that +atrocious persecution. Enemies of freedom, wherever it existed, this +family of Bourbon, in the reign of Louis XIV. and XV., fitted out +expeditions for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the throne of +England, and thereby caused great expense and blood-shed to this +nation; and, even the Louis who was beheaded by his subjects, did, in +the most perfidious<a name='Page_193'></a> manner, make war upon England, during her war +with America. No matter what was the nature of the cause, his conduct +was perfidious; he professed peace while he was preparing for war. His +object could not be to assist freedom, because his own subjects were +slaves.</p> + +<p>Such was the family that were ruling in France when the French +Revolution began. After it was resolved to go to war against the +people of France, all the hirelings of corruption were set to work to +gloss over the character and conduct of the old Government, and to +paint in the most horrid colours the acts of vengeance which the +people were inflicting on the numerous tyrants, civil, military, and +ecclesiastical, whom the change of things had placed at their mercy. +The people's turn was now come, and, in the days of their power, they +justly bore in mind the oppressions which they and their forefathers +had endured. The taxes imposed by the Government became at last +intolerable. It had contracted a great debt to carry on its wars. In +order to be able to pay the interest of this debt, and to support an +enormous standing army in time of peace, it laid upon the people +burdens which they could no longer endure. It fined and flogged +fathers and mothers if their children were detected in smuggling. Its +courts of justice were filled with cruel and base judges. The nobility +treated the common people like dogs; these latter<a name='Page_194'></a> were compelled to +serve as soldiers, but were excluded from all share, or chance of +honour and command, which were engrossed by the nobility.</p> + +<p>Now, when the time came for the people to have the power in their +hands, was it surprising that the first use they made of it was to +take vengeance on their oppressors? I will not answer this question +myself. It shall be answered by Mr. Arthur Young, the present +Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. He was in France at the time, +and living upon the very spot, and having examined into the causes of +the Revolution, he wrote and published the following remarks, in his +<i>Travels</i>, vol. i. page 603:—</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>'It is impossible to justify the excesses of the people on + their taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of + cruelties; it is idle to deny the facts, for they have been + proved too clearly to admit of doubt. But is it really the + people to whom we are to impute the whole? Or to their + oppressors, who had kept them so long in a state of bondage? + He who chooses to be served by slaves and by ill-treated + slaves, must know that he holds both his property and his + life by a tenure far different from those who prefer the + service of well-treated freemen; and he who dines to the + music of groaning sufferers, must not, in the moment of + insurrection, complain that his sons' throats are cut. When + such evils happen, they surely are more imputable to the + tyranny of the master than to the cruelty of the servant. The + analogy holds with the French peasants. The murder of a + seigneur, or a country seat in flames, is recorded in every + newspaper; the rank of the person who suffers attracts + notice; but where do we find the registers of that seigneur's + oppressions of<a name='Page_195'></a> his peasantry, and his exactions of feudal + services from those whose children were dying around them for + want of bread? Where do we find the minutes that assigned + these starving wretches to some vile pettifogger, to be + fleeced by impositions, and mockery of justice, in the + seigneural courts? Who gives us the awards of the Intendant + and his <i>sub-delegues</i>, which took off the taxes of a man of + fashion, and laid them with accumulated weight on the poor, + who were so unfortunate as to be his neighbours? Who has + dwelt sufficiently upon explaining all the ramifications of + despotism, regal, aristocratical, and ecclesiastical, + pervading the whole mass of the people; reaching, like a + circulating fluid, the most distant capillary tubes of + poverty and wretchedness? In these cases the sufferers are + too ignoble to be known; and the mass too indiscriminate to + be pitied. But should a philosopher feel and reason thus? + Should he mistake the cause for the effect? and, giving all + his pity to the few, feel no compassion for the many, because + they suffer in his eyes not individually but by millions? The + excesses of the people cannot, I fear, be justified; it would + undoubtedly have done them credit, both as men and as + Christians, if they had possessed their new acquired power + with moderation. But let it be remembered that the populace + in no country ever use power with moderation; excess is + inherent in their aggregate constitution: and as every + Government in the world knows that violence infallibly + attends power in such hands, it is doubly bound in common + sense, and for common safety, so to conduct itself, that the + people may not find an interest in public confusions. They + will always suffer much and long, before they are effectually + roused; nothing, therefore, can kindle the flame but such + oppressions of some classes or order in society as give able + men the opportunity of seconding the general mass; discontent + will diffuse itself around; and if the Government take not + warning in time, it is alone answerable for all the burnings + and all the plunderings and all the devastation and all the + blood that follow.' </p></div> + +<p><a name='Page_196'></a>Who can deny the justice of these observations? It was the Government +alone that was justly chargeable with the excesses committed in this +early stage, and, in fact, in every other stage, of the Revolution of +France. If the Government had given way in time, none of these +excesses would have been committed. If it had listened to the +complaints, the prayers, the supplications, the cries of the +cruelly-treated and starving people; if it had changed its conduct, +reduced its expenses, it might have been safe under the protection of +the peace-officers, and might have disbanded its standing army. But it +persevered; it relied upon the bayonet, and upon its judges and +hangmen. The latter were destroyed, and the former went over to the +side of the people. Was it any wonder that the people burnt the houses +of their oppressors, and killed the owners and their families? The +country contained thousands upon thousands of men that had been ruined +by taxation, and by judgments of infamous courts of justice, 'a +mockery of justice'; and, when these ruined men saw their oppressors +at their feet, was it any wonder that they took vengeance upon them? +Was it any wonder that the son, who had seen his father and mother +flogged, because he, when a child, had smuggled a handful of salt, +should burn for an occasion to shoot through the head the ruffians who +had thus lacerated the bodies of his parents? Moses slew<a name='Page_197'></a> the insolent +Egyptian who had smitten one of his countrymen in bondage. Yet Moses +has never been called either a murderer or a cruel wretch for this +act; and the bondage of the Israelites was light as a feather compared +to the tyranny under which the people of France had groaned for ages. +Moses resisted oppression in the only way that resistance was in his +power. He knew that his countrymen had no chance of justice in any +court; he knew that petitions against his oppressors were all in vain; +and 'looking upon the burdens' of his countrymen, he resolved to begin +the only sort of resistance that was left him. Yet it was little more +than a mere insult that drew forth his anger and resistance; and, if +Moses was justified, as he clearly was, what needs there any apology +for the people of France?</p> + +<p>It seems at first sight very strange that the Government of France +should not have 'taken warning in time.' But it had so long been in +the habit of despising the people that its mind was incapable of +entertaining any notion of danger from the oppressions heaped upon +them. It was surrounded with panders and parasites who told it nothing +but flattering falsehoods; and it saw itself supported by two hundred +and fifty thousand bayonets, which it thought irresistible; though it +found in the end that those who wielded those bayonets were not long +so base as to be induced, either by threats or promises, to butcher +their<a name='Page_198'></a> brothers and sisters and parents. And, if you ask me how it +came to pass that they did not 'take warning in time,' I answer that +they did take warning, but that, seeing that the change which was +coming would deprive them of a great part of their power and +emoluments, they resolved to resist the change, and to destroy the +country, if possible, rather than not have all its wealth and power to +themselves. The ruffian whom we read of, a little time ago, who +stabbed a young woman because she was breaking from him to take the +arm of another man whom she preferred, acted upon the principle of the +ministers, the noblesse, and the clergy of France. They could no +longer unjustly possess, therefore they would destroy. They saw that +if a just government were established; that if the people were fairly +represented in a national council; they saw that if this were to take +place, they would no longer be able to wallow in wealth at the expense +of the people; and, seeing this, they resolved to throw all into +confusion, and, if possible, to make a heap of ruins of that country +which they could no longer oppress, and the substance of which they +could no longer devour.</p> + +<p>Talk of violence indeed! Was there anything too violent, anything too +severe to be inflicted on these men? It was they who produced +confusion; it was they who caused the massacres and guillotinings; it +was they who destroyed the kingly government; it was<a name='Page_199'></a> they who brought +the king to the block. They were answerable for all and for every +single part of the mischief, as much as Pharaoh was for the plagues in +Egypt, which history of Pharaoh seems, by the bye, to be intended as a +lesson to all future tyrants. He 'set taskmasters over the Israelites +to afflict them with burdens; and he made them build treasure cities +for him; he made them serve with rigour; he made their lives bitter +with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of +service of the field; he denied them straw, and insisted upon their +making the same quantity of bricks, and because they were unable to +obey, the taskmasters called them idle and beat them.' Was it too much +to scourge and to destroy all the first-born of men who could +tolerate, assist, and uphold a tyrant like this? Yet was Pharaoh less +an oppressor than the old government of France.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, we have a view of the former state of that country, by +wars against the people of which we have been brought into our present +state of misery. There are many of the hirelings of corruption, who +actually insist on it that we ought now to go to war again for the +restoring of all the cruel despotism which formerly existed in France. +This is what cannot be done, however. Our wars have sent back the +Bourbons; but the tithes, the seigneurs, and many other curses have +not been restored. The French people still enjoy much of the benefit +of the Revolu<a name='Page_200'></a>tion; and great numbers of their ancient petty tyrants +have been destroyed. So that even were things to remain as they are, +the French people have gained greatly by their Revolution. But things +cannot remain as they are. Better days are at hand.</p> + +<p>In proceeding now to examine the remedies for your distresses, I shall +first notice some of those which foolish, or cruel and insolent men +have proposed. Seeing that the cause of your misery is the weight of +taxation, one would expect to hear of nothing but a reduction of +taxation in the way of remedy; but from the friends of corruption +never do we hear of any such remedy. To hear them, one would think +that <i>you</i> had been the guilty cause of the misery you suffer; and +that you, and you alone, ought to be made answerable for what has +taken place. The emissaries of corruption are now continually crying +out against the weight of the Poor-rates, and they seem to regard all +that is taken in that way as a dead loss to the Government! Their +project is to deny relief to all who are able to work. But what is the +use of your being able to work, if no one will, or can, give you work? +To tell you that you must work for your bread, and, at the same time, +not to find any work for you, is full as bad as it would be to order +you to make bricks without straw. Indeed, it is rather more cruel and +insolent; for Pharaoh's taskmasters did point out to the Israelites +that they might go into the fields and<a name='Page_201'></a> get <i>stubble</i>. The <i>Courier</i> +newspaper of the 9th of October, says, 'We must thus be cruel only to +be kind.' I am persuaded that you will not understand this kindness, +while you will easily understand the cruelty. The notion of these +people seems to be that everybody that receives money out of the taxes +has a right to receive it, except you. They tremble at the fearful +amount of the Poor-rates: they say, and very truly, that those rates +have risen from two and a half to eight or ten millions since the +beginning of the wars against the people of France; they think, and +not without reason, that these rates will soon swallow up nearly all +the rent of the land. These assertions and apprehensions are perfectly +well founded; but how can <i>you</i> help it? You have not had the +management of the affairs of the nation. It is not you who have ruined +the farmers and tradesmen. You only want food and raiment: you are +ready to work for it; but you cannot go naked and without food.</p> + +<p>But the complaints of these persons against you are the more +unreasonable, because they say not a word against the sums paid to +sinecure placemen and pensioners. Of the five hundred and more +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture, there are scarcely ten who +do not complain of the weight of the Poor-rates, of the immense sums +taken away from them by the poor, and many of them complain of the +idleness of the poor. But not one single man<a name='Page_202'></a> complains of the immense +sums taken away to support sinecure placemen, who do nothing for their +money, and to support pensioners, many of whom are women and children, +the wives and daughters of the nobility and other persons in high +life, and who can do nothing, and never can have done anything for +what they receive. There are of these places and pensions all sizes, +from twenty pounds to thirty thousand and nearly forty thousand pounds +a year! And surely these ought to be done away before any proposition +be made to take the parish allowance from any of you who are unable to +work, or to find work to do. There are several individual placemen, +the profits of each of which would maintain a thousand families. The +names of the ladies upon the pension list would, if printed, one under +another, fill a sheet of paper like this. And is it not, then, base +and cruel at the same time in these Agricultural correspondents to cry +out so loudly against the charge of supporting the unfortunate poor, +while they utter not a word of complaint against the sinecure places +and pensions?</p> + +<p>The unfortunate journeymen and labourers and their families have a +right, they have a just claim, to relief from the purses of the rich. +For there can exist no riches and no resources which they by their +labour have not assisted to create. But I should be glad to know how +the sinecure placemen and lady pensioners<a name='Page_203'></a> have assisted to create +food and raiment, or the means of producing them. The labourer who is +out of work or ill, to-day, may be able to work, and set to work +to-morrow. While those placemen and pensioners never can work; or, at +least, it is clear that they never intend to do it.</p> + +<p>You have been represented by the <i>Times</i> newspaper, by the <i>Courier</i>, +by the <i>Morning Post</i>, by the <i>Morning Herald</i>, and others, as the +<i>scum</i> of society. They say that you have no business at public +meetings; that you are rabble, and that you pay no taxes. These +insolent hirelings, who wallow in wealth, would not be able to put +their abuse of you in print were it not for your labour. You create +all that is an object of taxation; for even the land itself would be +good for nothing without your labour. But are you not taxed? Do you +pay no taxes? One of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture +has said that care has been taken to lay as little tax as possible on +the articles used by you. One would wonder how a man could be found +impudent enough to put an assertion like this upon paper. But the +people of this country have so long been insulted by such men, that +the insolence of the latter knows no bounds.</p> + +<p>The tax gatherers do not, indeed, come to you and demand money of you: +but there are few articles which you use, in the purchase of which you +do not pay a tax.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_204'></a>On your shoes, salt, beer, malt, hops, tea, sugar, candles, soap, +paper, coffee, spirits, glass of your windows, bricks and tiles, +tobacco: on all these, and many other articles you pay a tax, and even +on your loaf you pay a tax, because everything is taxed from which the +loaf proceeds. In several cases the tax amounts to more than one half +of what you pay for the article itself; these taxes go in part to +support sinecure placemen and pensioners; and the ruffians of the +hired press call you the scum of society, and deny that you have any +right to show your faces at any public meeting to petition for a +reform, or for the removal of any abuse whatever!</p> + +<p>Mr. Preston, whom I quoted before, and who is a member of Parliament +and has a large estate, says upon this subject, 'Every family, even of +the poorest labourer, consisting of five persons, may be considered as +paying, in indirect taxes, at least ten pounds a year, or more than +half his wages at seven shillings a week!' And yet the insolent +hirelings call you the mob, the rabble, the scum, the swinish +multitude, and say that your voice is nothing; that you have no +business at public meetings; and that you are, and ought to be +considered as nothing in the body politic! Shall we never see the day +when these men will change their tone! Will they never cease to look +upon us [as on] brutes! I trust they will change their tone, and that +the day of the change is at no great distance!</p> + +<p><a name='Page_205'></a>The weight of the Poor-rate, which must increase while the present +system continues, alarms the corrupt, who plainly see that what is +paid to relieve you, they cannot have. Some of them, therefore, hint +at your early marriages as a great evil, and a clergyman named Malthus +has seriously proposed measures for checking you in this respect; +while one of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture complains +of the increase of bastards, and proposes severe punishment on the +parents! How hard these men are to please! What would they have you +do? As some have called you the swinish multitude, would it be much +wonder if they were to propose to serve you as families of young pigs +are served? Or if they were to bring forward the measure of Pharaoh, +who ordered the midwives to kill all the male children of the +Israelites?</p> + +<p>But, if you can restrain your indignation at these insolent notions +and schemes, with what feelings must you look upon the condition of +your country, where the increase of the people is now looked upon as a +curse! Thus, however, has it always been, in all countries where taxes +have produced excessive misery. Our countryman, Mr. Gibbon, in his +History of the <i>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</i>, has the +following passage: 'The horrid practice of murdering their new-born +infants was become every day more frequent in the provinces. It was +the effect of <i>distress</i>, and the distress was principally occasioned +by the<a name='Page_206'></a> <i>intolerable burden of taxes</i>, and by the vexatious as well as +cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their +insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of +mankind, instead of rejoicing at an increase of family, deemed it an +act of paternal tenderness to release the children from the impending +miseries of a life which they themselves were unable to support.'</p> + +<p>But that which took place under the base Emperor Constantine will not +take place in England. You will not murder your new-born infants, nor +will you, to please the corrupt and insolent, debar yourselves from +enjoyments to which you are invited by the very first of Nature's +laws. It is, however, a disgrace to the country that men should be +found in it capable of putting ideas so insolent upon paper. So, then, +a young man arm-in-arm with a rosy-cheeked girl must be a spectacle of +evil omen! What! and do they imagine that you are thus to be +extinguished, because some of you are now (without any fault of yours) +unable to find work? As far as you were wanted to labour, to fight, or +to pay taxes, you were welcome, and they boasted of your numbers; but +now that your country has been brought into a state of misery, these +corrupt and insolent men are busied with schemes for getting rid of +you. Just as if you had not as good a right to live and to love and to +marry as they have! They do not propose, far from it, to<a name='Page_207'></a> check the +breeding of sinecure placemen and pensioners, who are supported in +part by the taxes which you help to pay. They say not a word about the +whole families who are upon the pension list. In many cases there are +sums granted in trust for <i>the children</i> of such a lord or such a +lady. And while labourers and journeymen who have large families too, +are actually paying taxes for the support of these lords' and ladies' +children, these cruel and insolent men propose that they shall have no +relief, and that their having children ought to be checked! To such a +subject no words can do justice. You will feel as you ought to feel; +and to the effect of your feelings I leave these cruel and insolent +men.</p> + +<p>There is one more scheme to notice, which, though rather less against +nature is not less hateful and insolent; namely, to encourage you to +emigrate to foreign countries. This scheme is distinctly proposed to +the Government by one of the correspondents of the Board of +Agriculture. What he means by encouragement must be to send away by +force, or by paying for the passage; for a man who has money stands in +no need of relief. But, I trust, that not a man of you will move, let +the <i>encouragement</i> be what it may. It is impossible for many to go, +though the prospect be ever so fair. We must stand by our country, and +it is base not to stand by her, as long as there is a chance of seeing +her what she ought to be. But the proposition is,<a name='Page_208'></a> nevertheless, base +and insolent This man did not propose to encourage the sinecure +placemen and pensioners to emigrate; yet, surely, you who help to +maintain them by the taxes which you pay, have as good a right to +remain in the country as they have! You have fathers and mothers and +sisters and brothers and children and friends as well as they; but +this base projector recommends that you may be encouraged to leave +your relations and friends for ever; while he would have the sinecure +placemen and pensioners remain quietly where they are!</p> + +<p>No: you will not leave your country. If you have suffered much and +long, you have the greater right to remain in the hope of seeing +better days. And I beseech you not to look upon yourselves as the +<i>scum</i>; but, on the contrary, to be well persuaded that a great deal +will depend upon your exertions; and therefore, I now proceed to point +out to you what appears to me to be the line of conduct which +journeymen and labourers ought to pursue in order to obtain effectual +relief, and to assist in promoting tranquillity and restoring the +happiness of the country.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the cause of our miseries is the burden of taxes +occasioned by wars, by standing armies, by sinecures, by pensions, +etc. It would be endless and useless to enumerate all the different +heads or sums of expenditure. The remedy is what<a name='Page_209'></a> we have now to look +to, and that remedy consists wholly and solely of such a reform in the +Commons' or People's House of Parliament, as shall give to every payer +of direct taxes a vote at elections, and as shall cause the Members to +be elected annually.</p> + +<p>In a late <i>Register</i> I have pointed out how easily, how peaceably, how +fairly, such a Parliament might be chosen. I am aware that it may, and +not without justice, be thought wrong to deprive those of the right of +voting who pay indirect taxes. Direct taxes are those which are +directly paid by any person into the hands of the tax-gatherers, as +the assessed rates and taxes. Indirect taxes are those which are paid +indirectly through the maker or seller of goods, as the tax on soap or +candles or salt or malt. And, as no man ought to be taxed without his +consent, there has always been a difficulty upon this head. There has +been no question about the <i>right</i> of every man who is free to +exercise his will, who has a settled place in society, and who pays a +tax of any sort, to vote for Members of Parliament. The difficulty is +in taking the votes by any other means than by the Rate-book; for if +there be no list of tax-payers in the hands of any person, mere menial +servants, vagrants, pickpockets, and scamps of all sorts might not +only come to the poll, but they might poll in several parishes or +places, on one and the same day. A corrupt rich man might employ +scores of persons of this description, and<a name='Page_210'></a> in this way would the +purpose of reform be completely defeated. In America, where one branch +of the Congress is elected for four years and the other for two years, +they have still adhered to the principle of direct taxation, and in +some of the States they have made it necessary for a voter to be worth +one hundred pounds. Yet they have, in that country, duties on goods, +custom duties, and excise duties also; and, of course, there are many +persons who really pay taxes, and who, nevertheless, are not permitted +to vote. The people do not complain of this. They know that the number +of votes is so great that no corruption can take place, and they have +no desire to see livery servants, vagrants, and pickpockets take part +in their elections. Nevertheless it would be very easy for a reformed +Parliament, when once it had taken root, to make a just arrangement of +this matter. The most likely method would be to take off the indirect +taxes, and to put a small direct tax upon every master of a house, +however low his situation in life.</p> + +<p>But this and all other good things, must be done by a reformed +Parliament. We must have that first, or we shall have nothing good; +and any man who would beforehand take up your time with the detail of +what a reformed Parliament ought to do in this respect, or with +respect to any changes in the form of government, can have no other +object than that of defeating<a name='Page_211'></a> the cause of reform; and, indeed, the +very act must show, that to raise obstacles is his wish.</p> + +<p>Such men, now that they find you justly irritated, would persuade you +that, because things have been perverted from their true ends, there +is nothing good in our constitution and laws. For what, then, did +Hampden die in the field, and Sydney on the scaffold? And has it been +discovered at last that England has always been an enslaved country +from top to toe? The Americans, who are a very wise people, and who +love liberty with all their hearts, and who take care to enjoy it too, +took special care not to part with any of the great principles and +laws which they derived from their forefathers. They took special care +to speak with reverence of, and to preserve Magna Charta, the Bill of +Rights, the Habeas Corpus, and not only all the body of the Common Law +of England, but most of the rules of our courts, and all our form of +jurisprudence. Indeed it is the greatest glory of England that she has +thus supplied with sound principles of freedom those immense regions +which will be peopled perhaps by hundreds of millions.</p> + +<p>I know of no enemy of reform and of the happiness of the country so +great as that man who would persuade you that we possess nothing good, +and that all must be torn to pieces. There is no principle, no +precedent, no regulations (except as to mere matter of detail), +favourable to freedom, which is not to be found in the<a name='Page_212'></a> Laws of +England or in the example of our ancestors. Therefore I say we may ask +for, and we want nothing new. We have great constitutional laws and +principles to which we are immovably attached. We want great +alteration, but we want nothing new. Alteration, modification, to suit +the times and circumstances; but the great principles ought to be and +must, be the same, or else confusion will follow.</p> + +<p>It was the misfortune of the French people that they had no great and +settled principles to refer to in their laws or history. They sallied +forth and inflicted vengeance on their oppressors; but, for want of +settled principles to which to refer they fell into confusion; they +massacred each other; they next flew to a military chief to protect +them even against themselves; and the result has been what we too well +know. Let us therefore congratulate ourselves that we have great +constitutional principles and laws, to which we can refer, and to +which we are attached.</p> + +<p>That reform will come I know, if the people do their duty; and all +that we have to guard against is confusion, which cannot come if +reform take place in time. I have before observed to you that when the +friends of corruption in France saw that they could not prevent a +change, they bent their endeavours to produce confusion, in which they +fully succeeded. They employed numbers of unprincipled men to go about +the country proposing all sorts of mad schemes. They pro<a name='Page_213'></a>duced first a +confusion in men's minds, and next a civil war between provinces, +towns, villages and families. The tyrant Robespierre, who was exceeded +in cruelty only by some of the Bourbons, was proved to have been in +league with the open enemies of France. He butchered all the real +friends of freedom whom he could lay his hands on, except Paine, whom +he shut up in a dungeon till he was reduced to a skeleton. This +monster was at last put to death himself; and his horrid end ought to +be a warning to any man who may wish to walk in the same path. But I +am, for my part, in little fear of the influence of such men. They +cannot cajole you as Robespierre cajoled the people of Paris. It is, +nevertheless, necessary for you to be on your guard against them, and +when you hear a man talking big and hectoring about projects which go +further than a real and radical reform of the Parliament, be you well +assured that that man would be a second Robespierre if he could, and +that he would make use of you and sacrifice the life of the very last +man of you; that he would ride upon the shoulders of some through +rivers of the blood of others, for the purpose of gratifying his own +selfish and base and insolent ambition.</p> + +<p>In order effectually to avoid the rock of confusion, we should keep +steadily in our eye not only what we wish to be done but what can be +done now. We know that such a reform as would send up a Parliament, +chosen by all payers of direct taxes, is not only just and<a name='Page_214'></a> +reasonable, but easy of execution. I am therefore for accomplishing +that object first; and I am not at all afraid that a set of men who +would really hold the purse of the people, and who had been just +chosen freely by the people, would very soon do everything that the +warmest friend of freedom could wish to see done.</p> + +<p>While, however, you are upon your guard against false friends, you +should neglect no opportunity of doing all that is within your power +to give support to the cause of reform. Petition is the channel for +your sentiments, and there is no village so small that its petition +would not have some weight. You ought to attend at every public +meeting within your reach. You ought to read to and to assist, each +other in coming at a competent knowledge of all public matters. Above +all things, you ought to be unanimous in your object, and not suffer +yourselves to be divided.</p> + +<p>The subject of religion has nothing to do with this great question of +reform. A reformed Parliament would soon do away with all religious +distinctions and disabilities. In their eyes, a Catholic and a +Protestant would both appear in the same light.</p> + +<p>The <i>Courier</i>, the <i>Times</i>, and other emissaries of corruption, are +constantly endeavouring to direct your wrath against bakers, brewers, +butchers, and other persons who deal in the necessaries of life. But, +I trust that you are not to be stimulated to such a species of +violence. These tradesmen are as much<a name='Page_215'></a> in distress as you. They cannot +help their malt and hops and beer and bread and meat being too dear +for you to purchase. They all sell as cheap as they can, without being +absolutely ruined. The beer you drink is more than half <i>tax</i>, and +when the tax has been paid by the seller he must have payment back +again from you who drink, or he must be ruined. The baker has numerous +taxes to pay, and so has the butcher, and so has the miller and the +farmer. Besides, all men are eager to sell, and, if they could sell +cheaper they certainly would, because that would be the sure way of +getting more custom. It is the weight of the taxes which presses us +all to the earth, except those who receive their incomes out of those +taxes. Therefore I exhort you most earnestly not to be induced to lay +violent hands on those who really suffer as much as yourselves.</p> + +<p>On the subject of lowering wages too, you ought to consider that your +employers cannot give to you that which they have not. At present, +corn is high in price, but that high price is no benefit to the +farmer, because it has risen from the badness of the crop, which Mr. +Hunt foretold at the Common Hall, and for the foretelling of which he +was so much abused by the hirelings of the press, who, almost up to +this very moment, have been boasting and thanking God for the goodness +of the crop! The farmer whose corn is half destroyed, gains nothing by +selling the remaining<a name='Page_216'></a> half for double the price at which he would +have sold the whole. If I grow 10 quarters of wheat, and if I save it +all and sell it for two pounds a quarter, I receive as much money as +if I had sold the one-half of it for four pounds a quarter. And I am +better off in the former case, because I want wheat for seed, and +because I want some to consume myself. These matters I recommend to +your serious consideration; because it being unjust to fall upon your +employers to force them to give that which they have not to give, your +conduct in such cases must tend to weaken the great cause in which we +ought all now to be engaged, namely the removal of our burdens through +the means of a reformed Parliament. It is the interest of vile men of +all descriptions to set one part of the people against the other part; +and therefore it becomes you to be constantly on your guard against +their allurements.</p> + +<p>When journeymen find their wages reduced, they should take time to +reflect on the real cause, before they fly on their employers, who are +in many cases in as great or greater distress than themselves. How +many of those employers have of late gone to jail for debt and left +helpless families behind them! The employer's trade falls off. His +goods are reduced in price. His stock loses the half of its value. He +owes money. He is ruined; and how can he continue to pay high wages? +The cause of his ruin is the weight of the taxes, which presses so +heavily on us<a name='Page_217'></a> all, that we lose the power of purchasing goods. But it +is certain that a great many, a very large portion of the farmers, +tradesmen, and manufacturers, have, by their supineness and want of +public spirit, contributed towards the bringing of this ruin upon +themselves and upon you. They have <i>skulked</i> from their public duty. +They have kept aloof from, or opposed all measures for a redress of +grievances; and indeed, they still skulk, though ruin and destruction +stare them in the face. Why do they not now come forward and explain +to you the real cause of the reduction of your wages? Why do they not +put themselves at your head in petitioning for redress? This would +secure their property much better than the calling in of troops, which +can never afford them more than a short and precarious security. In +the days of their prosperity they were amply warned of what has now +come to pass; and the far greater part of them abused and calumniated +those who gave them the warning. Even if they would now act the part +of men worthy of being relieved, the relief to us all would speedily +follow. If they will not; if they will still skulk, they will merit +all the miseries which they are destined to suffer.</p> + +<p>Instead of coming forward to apply for a reduction of those taxes +which are pressing them as well as you to the earth, what are they +doing? Why, they are applying to the Government to add to their +receipts by passing Corn Bills, by preventing foreign wool from<a name='Page_218'></a> being +imported; and many other silly schemes. Instead of asking for a +reduction of taxes they are asking for the means of paying taxes! +Instead of asking for the abolition of sinecure places and pensions, +they pray to be enabled to continue to pay the amount of those places +and pensions! They know very well that the salaries of the judges and +of many other persons were greatly raised, some years ago, on the +ground of the rise in the price of labour and provisions, why then do +they not ask to have those salaries reduced, now that labour is +reduced? Why do they not apply to the case of the judges and others +the arguments which they apply to you? They can talk boldly enough to +you; but they are too great cowards to talk to the Government, even in +the way of petition! Far more honourable is it to be a ragged pauper +than to be numbered among such men.</p> + +<p>These people call themselves the <i>respectable</i> part of the nation. +They are, as they pretend, the virtuous part of the people, because +they are quiet; as if virtue consisted in immobility! There is a +canting Scotchman in London, who publishes a paper called the +'<i>Champion</i>' who is everlastingly harping upon the virtues of the +'fireside,' and who inculcates the duty of quiet submission. Might we +ask this Champion of the teapot and milk-jug whether Magna Charta and +the Bill of Rights were won by the fireside? Whether the tyrants of +the House of Stuart<a name='Page_219'></a> and of Bourbon were hurled down by fireside +virtues? Whether the Americans gained their independence, and have +preserved their freedom, by sitting by the fireside? O, no! these were +all achieved by action, and amidst bustle and noise. Quiet indeed! Why +in this quality a log, or a stone, far surpasses even the pupils of +this Champion of quietness; and the chairs round his fireside exceed +those who sit in them. But in order to put these quiet, fireside, +respectable people to the test, let us ask them if they approve of +drunkenness, breaches of the peace, black eyes, bloody noses, fraud, +bribery, corruption, perjury, and subornation of perjury; and if they +say no, let us ask them whether these are not going on all over the +country at every general election. If they answer yes, as they must +unless they be guilty of wilful falsehood, will they then be so good +as to tell us how they reconcile their inactivity with sentiments of +virtue? Some men, in all former ages, have been held in esteem for +their wisdom, their genius, their skill, their valour, their devotion +to country, etc., but never until this age, was <i>quietness</i> deemed a +quality to be extolled. It would be no difficult matter to show that +the quiet, fireside gentry are the most callous and cruel, and, +therefore, the most wicked part of the nation. Amongst them it is that +you find all the peculators, all the blood-suckers of various degrees, +all the borough-voters and their offspring, all the selfish and +unfeeling wretches, who, rather than risk the dis<a name='Page_220'></a>turbing of their +ease for one single month, rather than go a mile to hold up their hand +at a public meeting, would see half the people perish with hunger and +cold. The humanity, which is continually on their lips, is all +fiction. They weep over the tale of woe in a novel; but round their +'decent fireside,' never was compassion felt for a real sufferer, or +indignation at the acts of a powerful tyrant.</p> + +<p>The object of the efforts of such writers is clearly enough seen. Keep +all <i>quiet</i>! Do not rouse! Keep still! Keep down! Let those who +perish, perish in silence! It will, however, be out of the power of +these quacks, with all their laudanum, to allay the blood which is now +boiling in the veins of the people of this kingdom; who, if they are +doomed to perish, are at any rate resolved not to perish in silence. +The writer whom I have mentioned above, says that he, of course, does +not count 'the lower classes, who, under the pressure of need or under +the influence of ignorant prejudice, may blindly and weakly rush upon +certain and prompt punishment; but that the security of every decent +fireside, every respectable father's best hopes for his children, +still connect themselves with the Government.' And by Government he +clearly means all the mass as it now stands. There is nobody so +callous and so insolent as your sentimental quacks and their patients. +How these 'decent fireside' people would stare, if some morning they +were<a name='Page_221'></a> to come down and find them occupied by uninvited visitors! I +hope they never will. I hope that things will never come to this pass: +but if one thing more than any other tends to produce so sad an +effect, it is the cool insolence with which such men as this writer +treats the most numerous and most suffering classes of the people.</p> + +<p>Long as this Address already is, I cannot conclude without some +observations on the 'Charity Subscriptions' at the London Tavern. The +object of this subscription professes to be to afford relief to the +distressed labourers, etc. About forty thousand pounds have been +subscribed, and there is no probability of its going much further. +There is an absurdity on the face of the scheme; for, as all parishes +are compelled by law to afford relief to every person in distress, it +is very clear that, as far as money is given by these people to +relieve the poor, there will be so much saved in the parish rates. But +the folly of the thing is not what I wish you most to attend to. +Several of the subscribers to this fund receive each of them more than +ten thousand pounds and some more than thirty thousand pounds each, +out of those taxes which you help to pay, and which emoluments not a +man of them proposes to give up. The clergy appear very forward in +this subscription. An Archbishop and a Bishop assisted at the forming +of the scheme. Now then, observe that there has been given out of the +taxes,<a name='Page_222'></a> for several years past, one hundred thousand pounds a year, +for what, think you? Why for the relief of the poor clergy! I have no +account at hand later than that delivered last year, and there I find +this sum!—for the poor clergy! The rich clergy do not pay this sum; +but it comes out of those taxes, part, and a large part of which you +pay on your beer, malt, salt, shoes, etc. I daresay that the 'decent +firesides' of these poor clergy still connect themselves with the +Government. Amongst all our misery we have had to support the +intolerable disgrace of being an object of the charity of a Bourbon +Prince, while we are paying for supporting that family upon the throne +of France. Well! But is this all? We are taxed, at the very same +moment, for the support of the French Emigrants! And you shall see to +what amount. Nay, not only French, but Dutch and others, as appears +from the forementioned account laid before Parliament last year. The +sum, paid out of the taxes, in one year, for the relief of suffering +French Clergy and Laity, St. Domingo Sufferers, Dutch Emigrants, +Corsican Emigrants, was one hundred and eighty-seven thousand seven +hundred and fifty pounds; yes, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand +seven hundred and fifty pounds paid to this set in one year out of +those taxes of which you pay so large a share, while you are insulted +with a subscription to relieve you, and while there are projectors who +have the audacity to recommend schemes for preventing you from +marrying<a name='Page_223'></a> while young, and to induce you to emigrate from your +country! I'll venture my life that the 'decent firesides' of all this +swarm of French clergy and laity, and Dutch, and Corsicans, and St. +Domingo sufferers 'still connect themselves closely with the +Government'; and I will also venture my life that you do not stand in +need of one more word to warm every drop of blood remaining in your +bodies! As to the money subscribed by regiments of soldiers, whose pay +arises from taxes in part paid by you, though it is a most shocking +spectacle to behold, I do not think so much of it. The soldiers are +your fathers, brothers, and sons. But if they were all to give their +whole pay, and if they amount to one hundred and fifty thousand men, +it would not amount to one-half of what is now paid in Poor-rates, and +of course would not add half a pound of bread to every pound which the +unhappy paupers now receive. All the expenses of the Army and Ordnance +amount to an enormous sum—to sixteen or eighteen millions; but the +pay of one hundred and fifty thousand men, at a shilling a day each, +amounts to no more than two million seven hundred and twelve thousand +five hundred pounds. So that, supposing them all to receive a shilling +a day each, the soldiers receive only about a third part of the sum +now paid annually in Poor-rates.</p> + +<p>I have no room, nor have I any desire, to appeal to your passions upon +this occasion. I have laid before you, with all the clearness I am +master of, the causes<a name='Page_224'></a> of our misery, the measures which have led to +those causes, and I have pointed out what appears to me to be the only +remedy—namely a reform of the Commons', or People's House of +Parliament. I exhort you to proceed in a peaceable and lawful manner, +but at the same time to proceed with zeal and resolution in the +attainment of this object. If the skulkers will not join you, if the +'decent fireside' gentry still keep aloof, proceed by yourselves. Any +man can draw up a petition, and any man can carry it up to London, +with instructions to deliver it into trusty hands, to be presented +whenever the House shall meet. Some further information will be given +as to this matter in a future Number. In the meanwhile, I remain your +Friend, WM. COBBETT.</p> +<p> </p> + +<hr /> +<p> </p> + +<h3>TO JACK HARROW, AN ENGLISH LABOURER</h3> + +<h4><i>On the new Cheat which is now on foot, and which goes under the name +of Savings Banks</i></h4> + +<div class='address'><b>NORTH HAMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND,<br /> +<i>November 7th, 1818.</i></b></div> + +<p>Friend Jack—You sometimes hear the Parson talk about deceivers, who +go about in sheep's clothing; but who inwardly are ravening wolves. +You frequently hear of the tricks of the London cheats, and I dare<a name='Page_225'></a>say +you have often enough witnessed those of mountebanks and gypsies. But, +Jack, all the tricks of these deceivers and cheaters, if the trickery +of them all were put together, would fall far short of the trick now +playing off under the name of Savings Banks. And seeing that it is +possible that you may be exposed to the danger of having a few pounds +picked out of your pocket by this trick, I think it right to put you +on your guard against the cheat.</p> + +<p>You have before been informed of who and what the Boroughmongers are. +Therefore, at present, I shall enter into no explanation of their +recent conduct. But, in order to give you a clear view of their +motives in this new trick, and which, I think, is about the last in +their budget, I must go back and tell you something of the history of +their Debt, and of what are called the Funds. Some years ago the +Boroughmongers put me into a loathsome prison for two years, made me +pay a thousand pounds fine, and made me enter into recognisances for +seven years, only because I expressed my indignation at the flogging +of Englishmen, in the heart of England, under the superintendence of +hired German troops brought into the country to keep the people in +awe. It pleased God, Jack, to preserve my life and health, while I was +in that prison. And I employed a part of my time in writing a little +book entitled <i>Paper against Gold</i>. In this little book I fully +explained all the frauds of<a name='Page_226'></a> what is called the <i>National Debt</i>, and +of what are called the <i>Funds</i>. But as it is possible that you may not +have seen that little book, I will here tell you enough about these +things to make you see the reasons for the Boroughmongers using this +trick of Savings Banks.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers are, you know, those persons (some Lords, some +Baronets, and some Esquires, as they call themselves) who fill, or +nominate others to fill, the seats in the House of Commons. <i>Commons</i> +means the mass of the <i>people</i>. So that this is the House of the +People, according to the law of the land. The people—you, I, and all +of us, ought to vote for the men who sit in this House. But the said +Lords, Baronets, and Esquires have taken our rights away, and they +nominate the Members themselves. A <i>monger</i> is a <i>dealer</i>, as +ironmonger, cheesemonger, and the like: and as the Lords, Baronets, +and Esquires sometimes sell and sometimes buy seats, and as the seats +are said to be filled by the people in certain Boroughs, these Lords, +Baronets, and Esquires are very properly called <i>Boroughmongers</i>; that +is to say, dealers in boroughs or in the seats of boroughs. As all +laws and all other matters of government are set up and enforced at +the will of the two Houses, against whose will the king cannot stir +hand or foot; and as the Boroughmongers fill the seats of the two +Houses, they have all the power, and, of course, the king<a name='Page_227'></a> and the +people have none. Being possessed of all the power; being able to tax +us at their pleasure; being able to hang us for whatever they please +to call a crime; they will, of course, do with our property and +persons just what they please. And accordingly, they take from us more +than the half of our earnings; and they keep soldiers (whom they +deceive) to shoot at us and kill us, if we attempt to resist. They put +us in dungeons when they like. And, in Ireland, they compel people to +remain shut up in their houses from sunset to sunrise, and if any man, +contrary to their commands, goes out of his house in the night, in +order to go to the privy, they punish him very severely; and in that +unhappy country they transport men and women to Botany Bay without any +trial by jury, and merely by the orders of two justices of the peace +appointed by themselves.</p> + +<p>This, Jack, is horrid work to be going on amongst a people who call +themselves <i>free</i>; amongst a people who boast of their liberties. But +the facts are so; and now I shall explain to you how the +Boroughmongers, who are so few in number compared to the whole people, +are able to commit these cruel acts and to carry on this abominable +tyranny; and you will see that the trick of Savings Banks makes a part +of the means, which they now intend to use for the perpetuating of +this tyranny.</p> + +<p>Formerly, more than a hundred years ago, when<a name='Page_228'></a> the kings of England +had some real power, and before the Boroughmongers took all the powers +of king and people into their hands, the people, when the kings +behaved amiss, used to rise against them and compel them to act +justly. They beheaded Charles the First about one hundred and seventy +years ago; and they drove James the Second out of the kingdom; they +went so far as to set his family aside for ever, and they put up the +present royal family in its stead.</p> + +<p>This was all very well; but when King James had been driven out, the +Lords and Baronets and Squires conceived the notion of ruling for ever +over king and people. They made Parliaments, which used to be annual, +three years of duration; and when the members had been elected for +three years, the members themselves made a law to make the people obey +them for seven years. Thus was the usurpation completed; and from that +time to this the Boroughmongers have filled the seats just as it has +pleased them to do it; and they have, as I said before, done with our +property and our persons just what they have pleased to do.</p> + +<p>Now it will naturally be matter of wonder to you, friend Jack, that +this small band of persons, and of debauched wretched persons too, any +half dozen of whom you would be able to beat with one hand tied down; +it will be matter of wonder to you that this contemptible band should +have been able thus to subjugate, and hold in bondage so degrading, +the whole<a name='Page_229'></a> of the English people. But, Jack, recollect that once a +parcel of fat, lazy, drinking, and guttling monks and friars were able +to make this same people to work and support them in their laziness +and debaucheries, aye, and almost to adore them, too; to go to them, +and kneel down and confess their sins to them, and to believe that it +was in their power to absolve them of their sins. Now how was it that +these fat, these bastard-propagating rascals succeeded in making the +people do this? Why by fraud; by deception; by cheatery; by making +them believe lies; by frightening them half out of their wits; by +making them believe that they would go to hell if they did not work +for them. A ten-thousandth part of the people were able to knock the +greasy vagabonds on the head; and they would have done it too; but +they were afraid of going to hell if they had no priest to pardon +them.</p> + +<p>Thus did these miscreants govern by fraud. The Boroughmongers, as I +shall by and by show, have of late been compelled to resort to open +force; but for a long while they governed by fraud alone. First they, +by the artful and able agents which they have constantly kept in pay, +frightened the people with the pretended dangers of a return of the +old king's family. The people were amused with this scarecrow, while +the chains were silently forging to bind them with. But the great +fraud, the cheat of all cheats, was what they call the national debt. +And now, Jack, pray attend to<a name='Page_230'></a> me; for I am going to explain the chief +cause of all the disgraces and sufferings of the labourers in England; +and am also going to explain the reasons or motives which the +Boroughmongers have for setting on foot this new fraud of Savings +Banks. I beg you, Jack, if you have no other leisure time, to stay at +home instead of going to church, for one single Sunday. Shave +yourself, put on a clean shirt, and sit down and read this letter ten +times over, until you understand every word of it. And if you do that, +you will laugh at the parson and tax-gatherer's coaxings about Savings +Banks. You will keep your odd pennies to yourself; or lay them out in +bread or bacon.</p> + +<p>You have heard, I daresay, a great deal about the national debt; and +now I will tell you what this thing is, and how it came, and then you +will see what an imposture it is, and how shamefully the people of +England have been duped and robbed.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers having usurped all the powers of government, and +having begun to pocket the public money at a great rate, the people +grew discontented. They began to think that they had done wrong in +driving King James away. In a pretty little fable-book, there is a +fable which says that the frogs, who had a log of wood for king, +prayed to Jupiter to send them something more active. He sent them a +stork, or heron, which gobbled them up alive by scores! The people of +England found in the Boroughmongers<a name='Page_231'></a> what the poor frogs found in the +stork; and they began to cry out against them and to wish for the old +king back again.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers saw their danger, and they adopted measures to +prevent it. They saw that if they could make it the interest of a +great many rich people to uphold them and their system they should be +able to get along. They therefore passed a law to enable themselves to +borrow money of rich people; and by the same law they imposed it on +the people at large to pay, for ever, the interest of the money so by +them borrowed.</p> + +<p>The money which they thus borrowed they spent in wars, or divided +amongst themselves, in one shape or another. Indeed the money spent in +wars was pocketed, for the greater part, by themselves. Thus they +owed, in time, immense sums of money; and as they continued to pass +laws to compel the nation at large to pay the interest of what they +borrowed, spent and pocketed, they called and still call this debt, +the debt of the nation; or, in the usual words, the national debt.</p> + +<p>It is curious to observe that there has seldom been known in the world +any very wicked and mischievous scheme of which a priest of some +description or other was not at the bottom. This scheme, certainly as +wicked in itself as any that was ever known, and far more mischievous +in its consequences than any other,<a name='Page_232'></a> was the offspring of a Bishop of +Salisbury, whose name was Burnet; a name that we ought to teach our +very children to execrate. This crafty priest was made a Bishop for +his invention of this scheme; a fit reward for such a service.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers began this debt one hundred and twenty-four years +ago. They have gone on borrowing ever since; and have never paid off +one farthing, and never can. They have continued to pass Acts to make +the people pay the interest of what has been borrowed; till, at last, +the debt itself amounts to more than all the lands, all the houses, +all the trees, all the canals and all the mines would sell for at +their full sterling value; and the money to pay the interest is taken +out of men's rents and out of their earnings; and you, Jack, as I +shall by and by prove to you, pay to the Boroughmongers more than the +half of what you receive in weekly wages from your master.</p> + +<p>Is not this a pretty state of things? Pray observe, Jack, the debt far +exceeds the real full value of the whole kingdom, if there could be a +purchaser found for it. So that, you see, as to private property no +man has any, as long as this debt hangs upon the country. Your master, +Farmer Gripe, for instance, calls his farm <i>his</i>. It is none of his, +according to the Boroughmongers' law; for that law has pawned it for +the payment of the interest of the Boroughmongers' debt; and the pawn<a name='Page_233'></a> +must remain as long as the Boroughmongers' law remains. Gripe is +compelled to pay out of the yearly value of his farm a certain portion +to the debt. He may, indeed, sell the farm; but he can get only a part +of the value; because the purchaser will have to pay a yearly sum on +account of the pawn. In short, the Boroughmongers have, in fact, +passed laws to take every man's private property away from him, in +whatever portions their debt may demand such taking away; and a man +who thinks himself an owner of land, is at best only a steward who +manages it for the Boroughmongers.</p> + +<p>This, however, is only a small part of the evil; for the whole of the +rents of the houses and lands and mines and canals would not pay the +interest of this debt; no, and not much more than the half of it. The +labour is therefore pawned too. Every man's labour is pawned for the +payment of the interest of this debt. Aye, Jack, you may think that +you are working for yourself, and that, when on a Saturday night you +take nine shillings from Farmer Gripe, the shillings are for your own +use. You are grievously deceived, for more than half the sum is paid +to the Boroughmongers on account of the pawn. You do not see this, but +the fact is so. Come, what are the things in which you expend the nine +shillings? Tea, sugar, tobacco, candles, salt, soap, shoes, beer, +bread; for no meat do you ever taste. On the articles taken together, +except bread, you pay far more than half tax; and you will<a name='Page_234'></a> observe +that your master's taxes are, in part, pinched out of you. There is an +army employed in Ireland to go with the excisemen and other taxers to +make the people pay. If the taxers were to wait at the ale houses and +grocers' shops, and receive their portion from your own hands, you +would then clearly see that the Boroughmongers take away more than the +half of what you earn. You would then clearly see what it is that +makes you poor and ragged, and that makes your children cry for the +want of a bellyful. You would clearly see that what the hypocrites +tell you about this being your lot, and about Providence placing you +in such a state in order to try your patience and faith, is all a base +falsehood. Why does not Providence place the Boroughmongers and the +parsons in a state to try their patience and faith? Is Providence less +anxious to save them than to save you? If you could see clearly what +you pay on account of the Boroughmongers' pawn, you would see that +your misery arises from the designs of a benevolent Providence being +counteracted by the measures of the Borough-tyrants.</p> + +<p>Your lot, indeed! Your lot assigned by Providence! This is real +blasphemy! Just as if Providence, which sends the salt on shore all +round our coast, had ordained that you should not have any of it +unless you would pay the Boroughmongers fifteen shillings a bushel tax +upon it! But what a Providence must that be which would ordain that an +Englishman should pay<a name='Page_235'></a> fifteen shillings tax on a bushel of English +salt, while a Long Islander pays only two shillings and sixpence for a +bushel of the same salt, after it is brought to America from England? +What an idea must we have of such a Providence as this? Oh no, Jack; +this is not the work of Providence. It is the work of the +Boroughmongers; the pretext about Providence has been invented to +deceive and cheat you, and to perpetuate your slavery.</p> + +<p>Well: all is pawned then. The land, the houses, the canals, the mines, +and the labour are pawned for the payment of the interest of the +Boroughmongers debt. Your labour, mind, Jack, is pawned for the +one-half of its worth. But you will naturally ask, how is it that the +nation, that everybody submits to this? There's your mistake, Jack. It +is not <i>everybody</i> that submits. In the first place there are the +Boroughmongers themselves and all their long tribe of relations, +legitimate and spurious, who profit from the taxes, and who have the +church livings, which they enjoy without giving the poor any part of +their legal share of those livings. Then there are all the officers of +army and navy, and all the endless hosts of place-men and place-women, +pensioned men and pensioned women, and all the hosts of tax-gatherers, +who alone, these last I mean, swallow more than would be necessary to +carry on the Government under a reformed Parliament. But have you +forgotten the lenders of<a name='Page_236'></a> the money which makes the debt? These people +live wholly upon the interest of the debt; and of course they approve +of your labour, and the labour of every man being pawned. The +Boroughmongers have pawned your labour to them. Therefore they like +that your labour should be taxed. They cannot be said to submit to the +tyranny; they applaud it, and to their utmost they support it.</p> + +<p>But you will say, still the mass of the people would, if they had a +mind to bestir themselves, be too strong for all these. Very true. But +you forget the army, Jack. This is a great military force, armed with +bayonets, bullets and cannon-balls, ready at all times and in all +places to march or gallop to attack the people, if they attempt to eat +sugar or salt without paying the tax. There are forts, under the name +of barracks, all over the kingdom, where armed men are kept in +readiness for this purpose. In Ireland they actually go in person to +help to collect the taxes; and in England they are always ready to do +the same. Now, suppose, Jack, that a man who has a bit of land by the +seaside, were to take up a little of the salt that Providence sends on +shore. He would be prosecuted. He would resist the process. Soldiers +would come and take him away to be tried and <i>hanged</i>. Suppose you, +Jack, were to dip your rushes into grease, till they came to farthing +candles. The Excise would prosecute you. The sheriff would send men to +drag you to jail. You<a name='Page_237'></a> would fight in defence of your house and home. +You would beat off the sheriff's men. Soldiers would come and kill +you, or would take you away to be hanged.</p> + +<p>This is the thing by which the Boroughmongers govern. There are enough +who would gladly not submit to their tyranny; but there is nobody but +themselves who has an army at command.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless they are not altogether easy under these circumstances. +An army is a two-edged weapon. It may cut the employer as well as the +thing that it is employed upon. It is made up of flesh and blood, and +of English flesh and blood too. It may not always be willing to move, +or to strike when moved. The Boroughmongers see that their titles and +estates hang upon the army. They would fain coax the people back again +to feelings of reverence and love. They would fain wheedle them into +something that shall blunt their hostility. They have been trying +Bible-schemes, school-schemes, and soup-schemes. And at last they are +trying the Savings Banks scheme, upon which I shall now more +particularly address you.</p> + +<p>This thing is of the same nature, and its design is the same, as those +of the grand scheme of Bishop Burnet. The people are discontented. +They feel their oppressions; they seek a change; and some of them have +decidedly protested against paying any longer any<a name='Page_238'></a> part of the +interest of the debt, which they say ought to be paid, if at all, by +those who have borrowed and spent, or pocketed, the money. Now then, +in order to enlist great numbers of labourers and artisans on their +side, the Boroughmongers have fallen upon the scheme of coaxing them +to put small sums into what they call <i>banks</i>. These sums they pay +large interest upon, and suffer the parties to take them out whenever +they please. By this scheme they think to bind great numbers to them +and their tyranny. They think that great numbers of labourers and +artisans, seeing their little sums increase, as they will imagine, +will begin to conceive the hopes of becoming rich by such means; and +as these persons are to be told that their money is in the <i>funds</i>, +they will soon imbibe the spirit of fundholders, and will not care who +suffers, or whether freedom or slavery prevail, so that the funds be +but safe.</p> + +<p>Such is the scheme and such the motives. It will fail of its object, +though not unworthy the inventive powers of the servile knaves of +Edinburgh. It will fail, first because the men from whom alone the +Borough-tyrants have anything to dread, will see through the scheme +and despise it; and will, besides, well know that the funds are a mere +bubble that may burst, or be bursted at any moment. The parsons appear +to be the main tools in this coaxing scheme. They are always at the +head of everything<a name='Page_239'></a> which they think likely to support tyranny. The +depositors will be domestic servants, particularly women, who will be +tickled with the idea of having a fortune in the funds. The +Boroughmongers will hint to their tenants that they must get their +labourers into the Savings Banks. A preference will be given to such +as deposit. The Ladies, the 'Parsons' Ladies,' will scold poor people +into the funds. The parish officers will act their part in this +compulsory process: and thus will the Boroughmongers get into their +hands some millions of the people's money by a sort of 'forced loan': +or in other words, a robbery. In order to swell the thing out, the +parsons and other tools of the Boroughmongers will lend money in this +way themselves, under feigned names; and we shall, if the system last +a year or two, hear boastings of how rich the poor are become.</p> + +<p>Now then, Jack, supposing it possible that Farmer Gripe may, under +pain of being turned out of your cottage, have made you put your +twopence a week into one of these banks, let us see what is the +natural consequence of your so doing. Twopence a week is eight +shillings and eightpence a year; and the interest will make the amount +about nine shillings perhaps. What use is this to you? Will you let it +remain; and will you go on thus for years? You must go on a great many +years, indeed, before your deposit amounts to as much as the +Boroughmongers take from you in one<a name='Page_240'></a> year! Twopence will buy you a +quarter of a pound of meat. This is a dinner for your wife or +yourself. You never taste meat. And why are you to give up half a +pound of your bread to the Boroughmongers. You are ill; your wife is +ill; your children are ill. 'Go to the bank and take out your money,' +says the overseer; 'for I'll give you no aid till that be spent.' Thus +then, you will have been robbing your own starved belly weekly, to no +other end than that of favouring the parish purse, upon which you have +a just and legal claim, until the clergy restore to the poor what they +have taken from them. As the thing now stands, the poor are starved by +others, this scheme is intended to make them assist in the work +themselves, at the same time that it binds them to the tyranny.</p> + +<p>But, Jack, what a monstrous thing is this, that the Boroughmongers +should kindly pass an Act to induce you to save your money, while they +take from you five shillings out of every nine that you earn? Why not +take less from you! That would be the more natural way to go to work, +surely. Why not leave you all your earnings to yourself? Oh, no! They +cannot do that. It is from the labour of men like you that the far +greater part of the money comes to enrich the Boroughmongers, their +relations and dependants.</p> + +<p>However, suppose you have gotten together five pounds in a Savings +Bank. That is to say in the funds. This is a great deal for you, +though it is not half so<a name='Page_241'></a> much as you are compelled to give to the +Boroughmongers in one year. This is a great sum. It is much more than +you ever will have; but suppose you have it. It is <i>in the funds</i>, +mind. And now let me tell you what the funds are; which is necessary +if you have not read my little book called <i>Paper against Gold.</i> The +funds is <i>no place</i> at all, Jack. It is nothing, Jack. It is +moonshine. It is a lie, a bubble, a fraud, a cheat, a humbug. And it +is all these in the most perfect degree. People think that the funds +is a place where money is kept. They think that it is a place which +contains that which they have deposited. But the fact is, that the +funds is a word which means nothing that the most of the people think +it means. It means the <i>descriptions of the several sorts of the +debt</i>. Suppose I owed money to a tailor, to a smith, to a shoemaker, +to a carpenter, and that I had their several bills in my house. I +should in the language of the Boroughmongers, call these bills my +<i>funds</i>. The Boroughmongers owe some people annuities at three pounds +for a hundred; some at four pounds for a hundred; some at five pounds +for a hundred; and these annuities, or debts they call their funds. +And, Jack, if the Savings Bank people lend them a good parcel of +money, they will have that money in these debts or funds. They will be +owners of some of those debts which never will and never can be paid.</p> + +<p>But what is this money too in which you are to be<a name='Page_242'></a> paid back again? It +is no money. It is paper; and though that paper will pass just at this +time; it will not long pass, I can assure you, Jack. When you have +worked a fortnight, and get a pound note for it, you set a high value +upon the note, because it brings you food. But suppose nobody would +take the note from you. Suppose no one would give you anything in +exchange for it. You would go back to Farmer Gripe and fling the note +in his face. You would insist upon real money, and you would get it, +or you would tear down his house. This is what will happen, Jack, in a +very short time.</p> + +<p>I will explain to you, Jack, how this matter stands. Formerly +bank-notes were as good as real money, because anybody that had one +might go at any moment, and get real money for it at the Bank. But now +the thing is quite changed. The Bank broke some years ago; that is to +say, it could not pay its notes in real money; and it never has been +able to do it from that time to this; and what is more, it never can +do it again. To be sure the paper passes at present. You take it for +your work, and others take it of you for bread and tea. But the time +may be, and I believe is, very near at hand, when this paper will not +pass at all; and then as the Boroughmongers and the Savings Bank +people have, and can have, no real money, how are you to get your five +pounds back again?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_243'></a>The bank-notes may be all put down at any moment, if any man of +talent and resolution choose to put them down; and why may not such a +man exist, and have the Disposition to put them down? They are now of +value, as I said before, because they will pass; because people will +take them and will give victuals and drink for them; but, if nobody +would give bread and tea and beer for them, would they then be good +for anything? They are taken because people are pretty sure that they +can pass them again; but who will take them when he does not think +that he can pass them again? And I assure you, Jack, that even I +myself could, before next May-day, do that which would prevent any man +in England from ever taking a bank-note any more. If you should put +five pounds into a Savings Bank, therefore, you could, in such case, +never see a farthing in exchange for it.</p> + +<p>This being a matter of so much importance to you, I will clearly +explain to you how I might easily do the thing. Mind, I do not say +that I will do the thing. Indeed, I will not; and I do not know any +one that intends to do it. But I will show you how I <i>might</i> do it; +because it is right that you should know what a ticklish state your +poor five pounds will be in if you deposit them in the Savings Bank.</p> + +<p>You know, Jack, that <i>forged</i> notes pass till people find them out. +They keep passing very quietly till they<a name='Page_244'></a> come to the Bank, and there +being known for forged notes, the man who carries them to the Bank, or +owns them at the time, loses the amount of them. Suppose now, that Tom +were to forge a note, and pay it to Dick for a pig. Dick would pay it +to Bob for some tea. Bob would send it up to London to pay his +tea-man. The tea-man would send it to the Bank. The Bank would keep +it, and give him nothing for it. If the tea-man forgot whom he got it +from, he must lose. If he could prove that he got it from Bob, Bob +must lose it; and so on; but either Dick or Bob or the tea-man must +lose it. There must be a loss somewhere.</p> + +<p>Now, it is clear that if there were a great quantity of forged notes +in circulation, people would be afraid to take notes at all; and that +if this great quantity came out all of a sudden, it would for a while +put an end to all payments and all trade. And if such great quantity +can with safety be put out, I leave you to guess, Jack, at the +situation of your five pounds. I will now show you, then, that I could +do this myself, and with perfect safety and ease.</p> + +<p>I could have made, at a very trifling expense, a million of pounds in +bank-notes of various amounts. There are fourteen different ways in +which I could send them to England, and lodge them safely there, +without the smallest chance of their arrival being known to any soul +except the man to whom they<a name='Page_245'></a> should be confided. The Banks might +search and ransack every vessel that arrived from America. They might +do what they would. They would never detect the cargo!</p> + +<p>There they are then, safe in London; a famous stock of bank-notes, so +well executed that no human being except the Bank people would be able +to discover the counterfeit. The agent takes a parcel at a time, and +drops them in the street in the dark. This work he carries on for a +week or two in such streets as are best calculated for the purpose, +till he has well stocked the town. He may do the same at Portsmouth +and other great towns if he please, and he may send off large supplies +by post.</p> + +<p>Now, Jack, suppose you were up at London with your master's waggon. +You might find a parcel of notes. You would go to the first shop to +buy your wife a gown and your children some clothes, yourself a hat, a +greatcoat, and some shoes. The rest you would lay out at shops on the +road home; for the sooner you got rid of this <i>foundal</i>, the less +chance of having it taken from you. The shopkeepers would thank you +for your custom, and your wife's heart would bound with joy.</p> + +<p>The notes would travel about most merrily. At last they would come to +the Bank. The holders would lose them; but you would gain by them. So +that, upon the whole, there would be no loss, and the maker of the<a name='Page_246'></a> +notes would have no gain. Others would find, and nearly all would do +like you. In a few days the notes would find their way to the Bank in +great numbers, where they would all be stopped. The news would spread +abroad. The thieftakers would be busy. Every man who had had his note +stopped at the Bank would alarm his neighbourhood. The country would +ring with the news. Nobody would take a bank-note. All business would +be at a stand. The farmers would sell no corn for bank-notes. The +millers would have nothing else to pay with. No markets, because no +money. The baker would be able to get no flour. He could sell no +bread, for nobody would have money to pay him.</p> + +<p>Jack, this thing will assuredly take place. Mind, I tell you so. I +have been right in my predictions on former occasions; and I am not +wrong now. I beg you to believe me; or, at any rate, to blame yourself +if you lose by such an event. In the midst of this hubbub what will +you do? Farmer Gripe will, I daresay, give you something to eat for +your labour. But what will become of your five pounds? That sum you +have in the Savings Bank, and as you are to have it out at any time +when you please, your wife sets off to draw it. The banker gives her a +five-pound note. She brings it; but nobody will take it of you for a +pig, for bread, for clothing, or for anything else! And this, Jack, +will be the fate of all<a name='Page_247'></a> those who shall be weak enough to put their +money into those banks!</p> + +<p>I beg you, Jack, not to rely on the power of the Boroughmongers in +this case. Anything that is to be done with halters, gags, dungeons, +bayonets, powder, or ball, they can do a great deal at; but they are +not conjurers; they are not wizards. They cannot prevent a man from +dropping bank-notes in the dark; and they cannot make people believe +in the goodness of that which they must know to be bad. If they could +hold a sword to every man's breast, they might indeed do something; +but short of this, nothing that they can do would be of any avail. +However, the truth is that they, in such case, will have no sword at +all. An army is a powerful weapon; but an army must be paid. Soldiers +have been called machines; but they are eating and drinking machines. +With good food and drink they will go far and do much; but without +them, they will not stir an inch. And in such a case whence is to come +the money to pay them? In short, Jack, the Boroughmongers would drop +down dead, like men in an apoplexy, and you would, as soon as things +got to rights, have your bread and beer and meat and everything in +abundance.</p> + +<p>The Boroughmongers possess no means of preventing the complete success +of the dropping plan. If they do, they ought to thank me for giving +them a warning of their danger; and for telling them that if<a name='Page_248'></a> they do +prevent the success of such a plan, they are the cleverest fellows in +this world.</p> + +<p>I now, Jack, take my leave of you, hoping that you will not be coaxed +out of your money, and assuring you that I am your friend,</p> + +<p>WM. COBBETT.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h3><a name='Page_249'></a>VII.—'THE LETTERS OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER'</h3> + +<h4>BY SIR WALTER SCOTT</h4> + +<p>(<i>To what has been said in the Introduction respecting the </i>Letters of +Malachi Malagrowther<i> it is only necessary to add that their immediate +cause was a Bill due to the very commercial crisis which indirectly +ruined Scott himself, and introduced in the spring of 1826 for +stopping the note circulation of private banks altogether, while +limiting that of the Bank of England to notes of £5 and upwards. The +scheme, which was to extend to the whole of Great Britain, was from +the first unpopular in Scotland, and Scott plunged into the fray. The +letters excited or coincided with such violent opposition throughout +the country that the Bill was limited to England only. As Scott was a +strong Tory, his friends in the Government, especially Lord Melville +and Croker (who was officially employed to answer 'Malachi'), were +rather sore at his action.<a name='Page_250'></a> He defended himself in some spirited +private letters, which will be found in Lockhart.</i>)</p> + +<h3>A LETTER ON THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY</h3> + +<p><i>To the Editor of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal</i></p> + +<p>My dear Mr. Journalist—I am by pedigree a discontented person, so +that you may throw this letter into the fire, if you have any +apprehensions of incurring the displeasure of your superiors. I am, in +fact, the lineal descendant of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who makes a +figure in the <i>Fortunes of Nigel</i>, and have retained a reasonable +proportion of his ill-luck, and, in consequence, of his ill-temper. +If, therefore, I should chance to appear too warm and poignant in my +observations, you must impute it to the hasty and peevish humour which +I derive from my ancestor. But, at the same time, it often happens +that this disposition leads me to speak useful, though unpleasant +truths, when more prudent men hold their tongues and eat their +pudding. A lizard is an ugly and disgusting thing enough; but, +methinks, if a lizard were to run over my face and awaken me, which is +said to be their custom when they observe a snake approach a sleeping +person, I should neither scorn his intimation,<a name='Page_251'></a> nor feel justifiable +in crushing him to death, merely because he is a filthy little +abridgment of a crocodile. Therefore, 'for my love, I pray you, wrong +me not.'</p> + +<p>I am old, sir, poor, and peevish, and therefore I may be wrong; but +when I look back on the last fifteen or twenty years, and more +especially on the last ten, I think I see my native country of +Scotland, if it is yet to be called by a title so discriminative, +falling, so far as its national, or rather, perhaps, I ought now to +say its <i>provincial</i>, interests are concerned, daily into more +absolute contempt. Our ancestors were a people of some consideration +in the councils of the empire. So late as my own younger days, an +English minister would have paused, even in a favourite measure, if a +reclamation of national rights had been made by a member for Scotland, +supported as it uniformly then was, by the voice of her +representatives and her people. Such ameliorations in our peculiar +system as were thought necessary, in order that North Britain might +keep pace with her sister in the advance of improvement, were +suggested by our own countrymen, persons well acquainted with our +peculiar system of laws (as different from those of England as from +those of France), and who knew exactly how to adapt the desired +alteration to the principle of our legislative enactments, so that the +whole machine might, as mechanics say, work well<a name='Page_252'></a> and easily. For a +long time this wholesome check upon innovation, which requires the +assimilation of a proposed improvement with the general constitution +of the country to which it has been recommended, and which ensures +that important point, by stipulating that the measure shall originate +with those to whom the spirit of the constitution is familiar, has +been, so far as Scotland is concerned, considerably disused. Those who +have stepped forward to repair the gradual failure of our +constitutional system of law, have been persons that, howsoever +qualified in other respects, have had little further knowledge of its +construction than could be acquired by a hasty and partial survey, +taken just before they commenced their labours. Scotland and her laws +have been too often subjected to the alterations of any person who +chose to found himself a reputation, by bringing in a bill to cure +some defect which had never been felt in practice, but which was +represented as a frightful bugbear to English statesmen, who, wisely +and judiciously tenacious of the legal practice and principles +received at home, are proportionally startled at the idea of anything +abroad which cannot be brought to assimilate with them.</p> + +<p>The English seem to have made a compromise with the active tendency to +innovation, which is one great characteristic of the day. Wise and +sagacious themselves, they are nervously jealous of innovations<a name='Page_253'></a> in +their own laws—<i>Nolumus leges Angliae mutari</i>, is written on the +skirts of their judicial robes, as the most sacred texts of Scripture +were inscribed on the phylacteries of the Rabbis. The belief that the +Common Law of England constitutes the perfection of human reason, is a +maxim bound upon their foreheads. Law Monks they have been called in +other respects, and like monks they are devoted to their own Rule, and +admit no question of its infallibility. There can be no doubt that +their love of a system, which, if not perfect, has so much in it that +is excellent, originates in the most praiseworthy feelings. Call it if +you will the prejudice of education, it is still a prejudice +honourable in itself, and useful to the public. I only find fault with +it, because, like the Friars in the Duenna monopolising the bottle, +these English monks will not tolerate in their lay brethren of the +north the slightest pretence to a similar feeling.</p> + +<p>In England, therefore, no innovation can be proposed affecting the +administration of justice, without being subjected to the strict +enquiry of the Guardians of the Law, and afterwards resisted +pertinaciously, until time and the most mature and reiterated +discussion shall have proved its utility, nay, its necessity. The old +saying is still true in all its points—Touch but a cobweb in +Westminster Hall, and the old spider will come out in defence of it. +This caution may<a name='Page_254'></a> sometimes postpone the adoption of useful +amendments, but it operates to prevent all hasty and experimental +innovations; and it is surely better that existing evils should be +endured for some time longer, than that violent remedies should be +hastily adopted, the unforeseen and unprovided for consequences of +which are often so much more extensive than those which had been +foreseen and reckoned upon. An ordinary mason can calculate upon the +exact gap which will be made by the removal of a corner stone in an +old building; but what architect, not intimately acquainted with the +whole edifice, can presume even to guess how much of the structure is, +or is not, to follow?</p> + +<p>The English policy in this respect is a wise one, and we have only to +wish they would not insist in keeping it all to themselves. But those +who are most devoted to their own religion have least sympathy for the +feelings of dissenters; and a spirit of proselytism has of late shown +itself in England for extending the benefits of their system, in all +its strength and weakness, to a country which has been hitherto +flourishing and contented under its own. They adopted the conclusion +that all English enactments are right; but the system of municipal law +in Scotland is not English, therefore it is wrong. Under sanction of +this syllogism, our rulers have indulged and encouraged a spirit of +experiment and innovation at our expense, which they<a name='Page_255'></a> resist +obstinately when it is to be carried through at their own risk.</p> + +<p>For more than half of last century, this was a practice not to be +thought of. Scotland was during that period disaffected, in bad +humour, armed too, and smarting under various irritating +recollections. This is not the sort of patient for whom an +experimental legislator chooses to prescribe. There was little chance +of making Saunders take the patent pill by persuasion—main force was +a dangerous argument, and some thought claymores had edges.</p> + +<p>This period passed away, a happier one arrived, and Scotland, no +longer the object of terror, or at least great uneasiness, to the +British Government, was left from the year 1750 under the guardianship +of her own institutions, to win her silent way to national wealth and +consequence. Contempt probably procured for her the freedom from +interference, which had formerly been granted out of fear; for the +medical faculty are as slack in attending the garrets of paupers as +the caverns of robbers. But neglected as she was, and perhaps +<i>because</i> she was neglected, Scotland, reckoning her progress during +the space from the close of the American War to the present day, has +increased her prosperity in a ratio more than five times greater than +that of her more fortunate and richer sister. She is now worth the +attention of the learned faculty, and God knows she has had<a name='Page_256'></a> plenty of +it. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall, and <i>talked</i> into +courses of physic, for which she had little occasion. She has been of +late a sort of experimental farm, upon which every political student +has been permitted to try his theory—a kind of common property, where +every juvenile statesman has been encouraged to make his inroads, as +in Moray land, where, anciently, according to the idea of the old +Highlanders, all men had a right to take their prey—a subject in a +common dissecting room, left to the scalpel of the junior students, +with the degrading inscription,—<i>fiat experimentum in corpore vili</i>.</p> + +<p>I do not mean to dispute, Sir, that much alteration was necessary in +our laws, and that much benefit has followed many of the great changes +which have taken place. I do not mean to deprecate a gradual approach +to the English system, especially in commercial law. The Jury Court, +for example, was a fair experiment, in my opinion, cautiously +introduced as such, and placed under such regulations as might best +assimilate its forms with those of the existing Supreme Court. I beg, +therefore, to be considered as not speaking of the alterations +themselves, but of the apparent hostility towards our municipal +institutions, as repeatedly manifested in the course of late +proceedings, tending to force and wrench them into a similarity with +those of England.</p> + +<p>The opinions of our own lawyers, nay, of our<a name='Page_257'></a> Judges, than whom wiser +and more honourable men never held that character, have been, if +report speaks true, something too much neglected and controlled in the +course of these important changes, in which, methinks, they ought to +have had a leading and primary voice. They have been almost avowedly +regarded not as persons the best qualified to judge of proposed +innovations, but as prejudiced men, determined to oppose them, right +or wrong. The last public Commission was framed on the very principle, +that if Scotch lawyers were needs to be employed, a sufficient number +of these should consist of gentlemen, who, whatever their talents and +respectability might be in other respects, had been too long estranged +from the study of Scottish law to retain any accurate recollection of +an abstruse science, or any decided partiality for its technical +forms. This was done avowedly for the purpose of evading the natural +partiality of the Scottish Judges and practitioners to their own +system; that partiality which the English themselves hold so sacred a +feeling in their own Judges and Counsel learned in the law. I am not, +I repeat, complaining of the result of the Commissions, but of the +spirit in which the alterations were undertaken. Unquestionably much +was done in brushing up and improving the old machinery of Scottish +Law Courts, and in making it move more rapidly, though scarce, I +think, more correctly than before. Dispatch has<a name='Page_258'></a> been much attended +to. But it may be ultimately found that the timepiece which runs +fastest does not intimate the hour most accurately. At all events, the +changes have been made and established—there let them rest. And had +I, Malachi Malagrowther, the sole power to-morrow of doing so, I would +not restore the old forms of judicial proceedings; because I hold the +constitution of Courts of Justice too serious matters to be put back +or forward at pleasure, like a boy's first watch, merely for +experiment's sake.</p> + +<p>What I <i>do</i> complain of is the general spirit of slight and dislike +manifested to our national establishments by those of the sister +country who are so very zealous in defending their own; and not less +do I complain of their jealousy of the opinions of those who cannot +but be much better acquainted than they, both with the merits and +deficiencies of the system, which hasty and imperfectly informed +judges have shown themselves so anxious to revolutionise.</p> + +<p>There is no explanation to be given of this but one—namely, the +entire conviction and belief of our English brethren that the true +Themis is worshipped in Westminster Hall, and that her adorers cannot +be too zealous in her service; while she, whose image an ingenious +artist has depicted balancing herself upon a <i>tee-totum</i> on the +southern window of the Parliament House of Edinburgh, is a mere +idol,—a Diana of Ephesus,—whom her votaries worship, either because<a name='Page_259'></a> +her shrine brings great gain to the craftsmen, or out of an ignorant +and dotard superstition, which induces them to prefer the old Scottish +<i>Mumpsimus</i> to the modern English <i>Sumpsimus</i>. Now, this is not fair +construction in our friends, whose intentions in our behalf, we allow, +are excellent, but who certainly are scarcely entitled to beg the +question at issue without inquiry or discussion, or to treat us as the +Spaniards treated the Indians, whom they massacred for worshipping the +image of the Sun, while they themselves bowed down to that of the +Virgin Mary. Even Queen Elizabeth was contented with the evasive +answer of Melville, when hard pressed with the trying question, +whether Queen Mary or she were the fairest. We are willing, in the +spirit of that answer, to say that the Themis of Westminster Hall is +the best fitted to preside over the administration of the larger, and +more fertile country of beef and pudding; while she of the tee-totum +(placed in that precarious position, we presume, to express her +instability, since these new lights were struck out) claims a more +limited but equally respectful homage, within her ancient +jurisdiction—<i>sua paupera regna</i>—the Land of Cakes. If this +compromise does not appease the ardour of our brethren for converting +us to English forms and fashions, we must use the scriptural question, +"Who hath required these things at your hands?"</p> + +<p>The inquiries and result of another Commission<a name='Page_260'></a> are too much to the +purpose to be suppressed. The object was to investigate the conduct of +the Revenue Boards in Ireland and Scotland. In the former, it is well +known, great mismanagement was discovered; for Pat, poor fellow, had +been playing the loon to a considerable extent. In Scotland, <i>not a +shadow of abuse prevailed</i>. You would have thought, Mr. Journalist, +that the Irish Boards would have been reformed in some shape, and the +Scotch Establishments honourably acquitted, and suffered to continue +on the footing of independence which they had so long enjoyed, and of +which they had proved themselves so worthy. Not so, sir. The Revenue +Boards, in both countries, underwent exactly the same regulation, were +deprived of their independent consequence, and placed under the +superintendence of English control; the innocent and the guilty being +treated in every respect alike. Now, on the side of Scotland, this was +like Trinculo losing his bottle in the pool—there was not only +dishonour in the thing, but an infinite loss.</p> + +<p>I have heard two reasons suggested for this indiscriminating +application of punishment to the innocent and to the culpable.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it was honestly confessed that Ireland would never +have quietly submitted to the indignity offered to her, unless poor +inoffensive Scotland had been included in the regulation. The Green +Isle, it seems, was of the mind of a celebrated lady of quality,<a name='Page_261'></a> who, +being about to have a decayed tooth drawn, refused to submit to the +operation till she had seen the dentist extract a sound and +serviceable grinder from the jaws of her waiting-woman—and her humour +was to be gratified. The lady was a termagant dame—the wench a +tame-spirited simpleton—the dentist an obliging operator—and the +teeth of both were drawn accordingly.</p> + +<p>This gratification of his humours is gained by Pat's being up with the +pike and shillelagh on any or no occasion. God forbid Scotland should +retrograde towards such a state—much better that the Deil, as in +Burns's song, danced away with the whole excisemen in the country. We +do not want to hear her prate of her number of millions of men, and +her old military exploits. We had better remain in union with England, +even at the risk of becoming a subordinate species of Northumberland, +as far as national consequence is concerned, than remedy ourselves by +even hinting the possibility of a rupture. But there is no harm in +wishing Scotland to have just so much ill-nature, according to her own +proverb, as may keep her good-nature from being abused; so much +national spirit as may determine her to stand by her own rights, +conducting her assertion of them with every feeling of respect and +amity toward England.</p> + +<p>The other reason alleged for this equal distribution of <i>punishment</i>, +as if it had been the influence of the<a name='Page_262'></a> common sun, or the general +rain, to the just and the unjust, was one which is extremely +predominant at present with our Ministers—the <i>necessity</i> of +<i>Uniformity</i> in all such cases; and the consideration what an awkward +thing it would be to have a Board of Excise or Customs remaining +independent in the one country, solely because they had, without +impeachment, discharged their duty; while the same establishment was +cashiered in another, for no better reason than that it had been +misused.</p> + +<p>This reminds us of an incident, said to have befallen at the Castle of +Glammis, when these venerable towers were inhabited by a certain old +Earl of Strathmore, who was as great an admirer of uniformity as the +Chancellor of the Exchequer could have desired. He and his gardener +directed all in the garden and pleasure grounds upon the ancient +principle of exact correspondence between the different parts, so that +each alley had its brother; a principle which, renounced by gardeners, +is now adopted by statesmen. It chanced once upon a time that a fellow +was caught committing some petty theft, and, being taken in the +manner, was sentenced by the Bailie Macwheeble of the jurisdiction to +stand for a certain time in the baronial pillory, called the <i>jougs</i>, +being a collar and chain, one of which contrivances was attached to +each side of the portal of the great avenue which led to the castle. +The thief was turned over accordingly to the<a name='Page_263'></a> gardener, as +ground-officer, to see the punishment duly inflicted. When the Thane +of Glammis returned from his morning ride, he was surprised to find +both sides of the gateway accommodated each with a prisoner, like a +pair of heraldic supporters, <i>chained</i> and <i>collared proper</i>. He asked +the gardener, whom he found watching the place of punishment, as his +duty required, whether another delinquent had been detected? "No, my +Lord," said the gardener, in the tone of a man excellently well +satisfied with himself,—"but I thought the single fellow looked very +awkward standing on one side of the gateway, so I gave half a crown to +one of the labourers to stand on the other side for <i>uniformity's +sake</i>." This is exactly a case in point, and probably the only one +which can be found—with this sole difference, that I do not hear that +the members of the Scottish Revenue Board got any boon for standing in +the pillory with those of Ireland—for uniformity's sake.</p> + +<p>Lastly, sir, I come to this business of extending the provisions of +the Bill prohibiting the issue of notes under five pounds to Scotland, +in six months after the period that the regulation shall be adopted in +England.</p> + +<p>I am not about to enter upon the question which so much agitates +speculative writers upon the wealth of nations, or attempt to discuss +what proportion of the precious metals ought to be detained within a +country; what are the best means of keeping it there; or to<a name='Page_264'></a> what +extent the want of specie can be supplied by paper credit: I will not +ask if a poor man can be made a rich one, by compelling him to buy a +service of plate, instead of the delf ware which served his turn. +These are questions I am not adequate to solve. But I beg leave to +consider the question in a practical point of view, and to refer +myself entirely to experience.</p> + +<p>I assume, without much hazard of contradiction, that Banks have +existed in Scotland for near one hundred and twenty years—that they +have flourished, and the country has flourished with them—and that +during the last fifty years particularly, provincial Banks, or +branches of the principal established and chartered Banks, have +gradually extended themselves in almost every Lowland district in +Scotland; that the notes, and especially the small notes, which they +distribute, entirely supply the demand for a medium of currency; and +that the system has so completely expelled gold from the country of +Scotland, that you never by any chance espy a guinea there, unless in +the purse of an accidental stranger, or in the coffers of these Banks +themselves. This is granting the facts of the case as broadly as can +be asked.</p> + +<p>It is not less unquestionable that the consequence of this Banking +system, as conducted in Scotland, has been attended with the greatest +advantage to the country. The facility which it has afforded to the +industrious and enterprising agriculturalist or manufacturer, as well +as<a name='Page_265'></a> to the trustees of the public in executing national works, has +converted Scotland from a poor, miserable, and barren country, into +one, where, if nature has done less, art and industry have done more, +than in perhaps any country in Europe, England herself not excepted. +Through means of the credit which this system has afforded, roads have +been made, bridges built, and canals dug, opening up to reciprocal +communication the most sequestered districts of the +country—manufactures have been established, unequalled in extent or +success—wastes have been converted into productive farms—the +productions of the earth for human use have been multiplied +twentyfold, while the wealth of the rich and the comforts of the poor +have been extended in the same proportion. And all this in a country +where the rigour of the climate, and sterility of the soil, seem +united to set improvement at defiance. Let those who remember Scotland +forty years since, bear witness if I speak truth or falsehood.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that this change has been produced by the facilities +of procuring credit, which the Scottish Banks held forth, both by +discounting bills, and by granting cash-accounts. Every undertaking of +consequence, whether by the public or by individuals, has been carried +on by such means; at least exceptions are extremely rare.</p> + +<p>There is as little doubt that the Banks could not have furnished these +necessary funds of cash, without<a name='Page_266'></a> enjoying the reciprocal advantage of +their own notes being circulated in consequence, and by means of the +accommodation thus afforded. It is not to be expected that every +undertaking which the system enabled speculators or adventurers to +commence, should be well-judged, attentively carried on, or successful +in issue. Imprudence in some cases, misfortune in others, have had +their usual quantity of victims. But in Scotland, as elsewhere, it has +happened in many instances that improvements, which turned out ruinous +to those who undertook them, have, notwithstanding, themselves +ultimately produced the most beneficial advantages to the country, +which derived in such instances an addition to its general prosperity, +even from the undertakings which had proved destructive to the private +fortune of the projectors.</p> + +<p>Not only did the Banks dispersed throughout Scotland afford the means +of bringing the country to an unexpected and almost marvellous degree +of prosperity, but in no considerable instance, save one, have their +own over-speculating undertakings been the means of interrupting that +prosperity. The solitary exception was the undertaking called the Ayr +Bank, rashly entered into by a large body of country gentlemen and +others, unacquainted with commercial affairs, and who had moreover the +misfortune not only to set out on false principles, but to get false +rogues for their principal agents and managers. The fall<a name='Page_267'></a> of this Bank +brought much calamity on the country; but two things are remarkable in +its history: First, that under its too prodigal, yet beneficial +influence, a fine county (that of Ayr) was converted from a desert +into a fertile land. Secondly, that, though at a distant interval, the +Ayr Bank paid all its engagements, and the loss only fell on the +original stockholders. The warning was, however, a terrible one, and +has been so well attended to in Scotland, that very few attempts seem +to have been afterwards made to establish Banks prematurely—that is, +where the particular district was not in such an advanced state as to +require the support of additional credit; for in every such case, it +was judiciously foreseen, the forcing a capital on the district could +only lead to wild speculation, instead of supporting solid and +promising undertakings.</p> + +<p>The character and condition of the persons pursuing the profession +ought to be noticed, however slightly. The Bankers of Scotland have +been, generally speaking, <i>good</i> men, in the mercantile phrase, +showing, by the wealth of which they have died possessed, that their +credit was sound; and <i>good</i> men also, many of them eminently so, in +the more extensive and better sense of the word, manifesting, by the +excellence of their character, the fairness of the means by which +their riches were acquired. There may have been, among so numerous a +body, men of a different character, fishers in troubled waters, +capitalists who sought gain<a name='Page_268'></a> not by the encouragement of fair trade +and honest industry, but by affording temporary fuel to rashness or +avarice. But the number of upright traders in the profession has +narrowed the means of mischief which such Christian Shylocks would +otherwise have possessed. There was loss, there was discredit, in +having recourse to such characters, when honest wants could be fairly +supplied by upright men, and on liberal terms. Such reptiles have been +confined in Scotland to batten upon their proper prey of folly, and +feast, like worms, on the corruption in which they are bred.</p> + +<p>Since the period of the Ayr Bank, now near half a century, I recollect +very few instances of Banking Companies issuing notes which have +become insolvent. One, about thirty years since, was the Merchant Bank +of Stirling, which never was in high credit, having been known almost +at the time of its commencement by the odious nickname of <i>Black in +the West</i>. Another was within these ten years, the East Lothian +Banking Company, whose affairs had been very ill conducted by a +villainous manager. In both cases, the notes were paid up in full. In +the latter case, they were taken up by one of the most respectable +houses in Edinburgh; so that all current engagements were paid without +the least check to the circulation of their notes, or inconvenience to +poor or rich, who happened to have them in possession. The Union Bank +of Falkirk also became insolvent<a name='Page_269'></a> within these fifteen years, but paid +up its engagements without much loss to the creditors. Other cases +there may have occurred, not coming within my recollection; but I +think none which made any great sensation, or could at all affect the +general confidence of the country in the stability of the system. None +of these bankruptcies excited much attention, or, as we have seen, +caused any considerable loss.</p> + +<p>In the present unhappy commercial distress, I have always heard and +understood that the Scottish Banks have done all in their power to +alleviate the evils which came thickening on the country; and far from +acting illiberally, that they have come forward to support the +tottering credit of the commercial world with a frankness which +augured the most perfect confidence in their own resources. We have +heard of only one provincial Bank being even for a moment in the +predicament of suspicion; and of that copartnery the funds and credit +were so well understood, that their correspondents in Edinburgh, as in +the case of the East Lothian Bank formerly mentioned, at once +guaranteed the payment of their notes, and saved the public even from +momentary agitation, and individuals from the possibility of distress. +I ask what must be the stability of a system of credit of which such +an universal earthquake could not displace or shake even the slightest +individual portion?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_270'></a>Thus stands the case in Scotland; and it is clear any restrictive +enactment affecting the Banking system, or their mode of issuing +notes, must be adopted in consequence of evils, operating elsewhere +perhaps, but certainly unknown in this country.</p> + +<p>In England, unfortunately, things have been very different, and the +insolvency of many provincial Banking Companies, of the most +established reputation for stability, has greatly distressed the +country, and alarmed London itself, from the necessary reaction of +their misfortunes upon their correspondents in the capital.</p> + +<p>I do not think, sir, that the advocate of Scotland is called upon to +go further, in order to plead an exemption from any experiment which +England may think proper to try to cure her own malady, than to say +such malady does not exist in her jurisdiction. It is surely enough to +plead, 'We are well, our pulse and complexion prove it—let those who +are sick take physic.' But the opinion of the English Ministers is +widely different; for, granting our premisses, they deny our +conclusion.</p> + +<p>The peculiar humour of a friend, whom I lost some years ago, is the +only one I recollect, which jumps precisely with the reasoning of the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. My friend was an old Scottish laird, a +bachelor and a humorist—wealthy, convivial, and hospitable, and of +course having always plenty of<a name='Page_271'></a> company about him. He had a regular +custom of swallowing every night in the world one of Dr. Anderson's +pills, for which reasons may be readily imagined. But it is not so +easy to account for his insisting on every one of his guests taking +the same medicine, and whether it was by way of patronising the +medicine, which is in some sense a national receipt, or whether the +mischievous old wag amused himself with anticipating the scenes of +delicate embarrassment, which the dispensation sometimes produced in +the course of the night, I really cannot even guess. What is equally +strange, he pressed the request with a sort of eloquence which +succeeded with every guest. No man escaped, though there were few who +did not make resistance. His powers of persuasion would have been +invaluable to a minister of state. 'What! not one <i>Leetle Anderson</i>, +to oblige your friend, your host, your entertainer! He had taken one +himself—he would take another, if you pleased—surely what was good +for his complaint must of course be beneficial to yours?' It was in +vain you pleaded your being perfectly well,—your detesting the +medicine,—your being certain it would not agree with you—none of the +apologies were received as valid. You might be warm, pathetic or +sulky, fretful or patient, grave or serious in testifying your +repugnance, but you were equally a doomed man; escape was impossible. +Your host was in his turn eloquent,—authoritative,—facetious, +—argumentative,—precatory,—pathetic, <a name='Page_272'></a>above all, pertinacious. No +guest was known to escape the <i>Leetle Anderson</i>. The last time I +experienced the laird's hospitality there were present at the evening +meal the following catalogue of guests:—a Bond-street dandy, of the most +brilliant water, drawn thither by the temptation of grouse-shooting—a +writer from the neighbouring borough (the lairds <i>doer</i>, I +believe),—two country lairds, men of reserved and stiff habits—three +sheep-farmers, as stiff-necked and stubborn as their own haltered +rams—and I, Malachi Malagrowther, not facile or obvious to persuasion. +There was also the Esculapius of the vicinity—one who gave, but +elsewhere was never known to <i>take</i> medicine. All succumbed—each took, +after various degrees of resistance according to his peculiar fashion, +his own <i>Leetle Anderson</i>. The doer took a brace. On the event I +am silent. None had reason to congratulate himself on his complaisance. +The laird has slept with his ancestors for some years, remembered +sometimes with a smile on account of his humorous eccentricities, always +with a sigh when his surviving friends and neighbours reflect on his +kindliness and genuine beneficence. I have only to add that I hope he +has not bequeathed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, otherwise so +highly gifted, his invincible powers of persuading folks to take +medicine, which their constitutions do not require.</p> + +<p>Have I argued my case too high in supposing that<a name='Page_273'></a> the present intended +legislative enactment is as inapplicable to Scotland as a pair of +elaborate knee-buckles would be to the dress of a kilted Highlander? I +think not.</p> + +<p>I understand Lord Liverpool and the Chancellor of the Exchequer +distinctly to have admitted the fact, that no distress whatever had +originated in Scotland from the present issuing of small notes of the +bankers established there, whether provincial in the strict sense, or +sent abroad by branches of the larger establishments settled in the +metropolis. No proof can be desired better than the admission of the +adversary.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, we have been positively informed by the newspapers that +Ministers see no reason why any law adopted on this subject should not +be imperative over all his Majesty's dominions, including Scotland, +<i>for uniformity's sake</i>. In my opinion they might as well make a law +that the Scotsman, for uniformity's sake, should not eat oatmeal, +because it is found to give Englishmen the heartburn. If an ordinance +prohibiting the oatcake, can be accompanied with a regulation capable +of being enforced, that in future, for uniformity's sake, our moors +and uplands shall henceforth bear the purest wheat, I for one have no +objection to the regulation. But till Ben Nevis be level with +Norfolkshire, though the natural wants of the two nations may be the +same, the extent of these wants, natural or commercial, and the mode +of supplying<a name='Page_274'></a> them, must be widely different, let the rule of +uniformity be as absolute as it will. The nation which cannot raise +wheat, must be allowed to eat oat-bread; the nation which is too poor +to retain a circulating medium of the precious metals, must be +permitted to supply its place with paper credit; otherwise, they must +go without food, and without currency.</p> + +<p>If I were called on, Mr. Journalist, I think I could give some reasons +why the system of banking which has been found well adapted for +Scotland is not proper for England, and why there is no reason for +inflicting upon us the intended remedy; in other words, why this +political balsam of Fierabras which is to relieve Don Quixote, may +have a great chance to poison Sancho. With this view, I will mention +briefly some strong points of distinction affecting the comparative +credit of the banks in England and in Scotland; and they seem to +furnish, to one inexperienced in political economies (upon the +transcendental doctrines of which so much stress is now laid), very +satisfactory reasons for the difference which is not denied to exist +betwixt the effects of the same general system in different countries.</p> + +<p>In Scotland, almost all Banking Companies consist of a considerable +number of persons, many of them men of landed property, whose landed +estates, with the burthens legally affecting them, may be learned from +the records, for the expense of a few shillings; so that<a name='Page_275'></a> all the +world knows, or may know, the general basis on which their credit +rests, and the extent of real property, which, independent of their +personal means, is responsible for their commercial engagements. In +most banking establishments this fund of credit is considerable, in +others immense; especially in those where the shares are numerous, and +are held in small proportions, many of them by persons of landed +estates, whose fortunes, however large, and however small their share +of stock, must all be liable to the engagements of the Bank. In +England, as I believe, the number of the partners engaged in a banking +concern cannot exceed five; and though of late years their landed +property has been declared subject to be attacked by their commercial +creditors, yet no one can learn, without incalculable trouble, the +real value of that land, or with what mortgages it is burthened. Thus, +<i>cæteris paribus</i>, the English banker cannot make his solvency +manifest to the public, therefore cannot expect, or receive, the same +unlimited trust, which is willingly and securely reposed in those of +the same profession in Scotland.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the circulation of the Scottish bank-notes is free and +unlimited; an advantage arising from their superior degree of credit. +They pass without a shadow of objection through the whole limits of +Scotland, and, though they cannot be legally tendered, are current +nearly as far as York in England. Those of English Banking Companies +seldom extend beyond a very<a name='Page_276'></a> limited horizon: in two or three stages +from the place where they are issued, many of them are objected to, +and give perpetual trouble to any traveller who has happened to take +them in change on the road. Even the most creditable provincial notes +never approach London in a free tide—never circulate like blood to +the heart, and from thence to the extremities, but are current within +a limited circle; often, indeed, so very limited, that the notes +issued in the morning, to use an old simile, fly out like pigeons from +the dovecot, and are sure to return in the evening to the spot which +they have left at break of day.</p> + +<p>Owing to these causes, and others which I forbear mentioning, the +profession of provincial Bankers in England is limited in its regular +profits, and uncertain in its returns, to a degree unknown in +Scotland; and is, therefore, more apt to be adopted in the South by +men of sanguine hopes and bold adventure (both frequently +disproportioned to the extent of their capital), who sink in mines or +other hazardous speculations the funds which their banking credit +enables them to command, and deluge the country with notes, which, on +some unhappy morning, are found not worth a penny—as those to whom +the foul fiend has given apparent treasures are said in due time to +discover they are only pieces of slate.</p> + +<p>I am aware it may be urged that the restrictions imposed on those +English provincial Banks are<a name='Page_277'></a> necessary to secure the supremacy of the +Bank of England; on the same principle on which dogs, kept near the +purlieus of a royal forest, were anciently lamed by the cutting off of +one of the claws, to prevent their interfering with the royal sport. +This is a very good regulation for England, for what I know; but why +should the Scottish institutions, which do not, and cannot interfere +with the influence of the Bank of England, be put on a level with +those of which such jealousy is, justly or unjustly, entertained? We +receive no benefit from that immense establishment, which, like a +great oak, overshadows England from Tweed to Cornwall. Why should our +national plantations be cut down or cramped for the sake of what +affords us neither shade nor shelter, and which, besides, can take no +advantage by the injury done to us? Why should we be subjected to a +monopoly from which we derive no national benefit?</p> + +<p>I have only to add that Scotland has not felt the slightest +inconvenience from the want of specie, nay, that it has never been in +request among them. A tradesman will take a guinea more unwillingly +than a note of the same value—to the peasant the coin is unknown. No +one ever wishes for specie save when upon a journey to England. In +occasional runs upon particular houses, the notes of other Banking +Companies have always been the value asked for—no holder of these +notes ever demanded specie. The<a name='Page_278'></a> credit of one establishment might be +doubted for the time—that of the general system was never brought +into question. Even avarice, the most suspicious of passions, has in +no instance I ever heard of, desired to compose her hoards by an +accumulation of the precious metals. The confidence in the credit of +our ordinary medium has not been doubted even in the dreams of the +most irritable and jealous of human passions.</p> + +<p>All these considerations are so obvious that a statesman so acute as +Mr. Robinson must have taken them in at the first glance, and must at +the same time have deemed them of no weight, compared with the +necessary conformity between the laws of the two kingdoms. I must, +therefore, speak to the justice of this point of uniformity.</p> + +<p>Sir, my respected ancestor, Sir Mungo, when he had the distinguished +honour to be <i>whipping</i>, or rather <i>whipped boy</i>, to his Majesty King +James the Sixth of gracious memory, was always, in virtue of his +office, scourged when the king deserved flogging; and the same +equitable rule seems to distinguish the conduct of Government towards +Scotland, as one of the three United Kingdoms. If Pat is guilty of +peculation, Sister Peg loses her Boards of Revenue—if John Bull's +cashiers mismanage his money-matters, those who have conducted Sister +Margaret's to their own great honour, and her no less advantage, must<a name='Page_279'></a> +be deprived of the power of serving her in future; at least that power +must be greatly restricted and limited.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>'Quidquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi.' </p></div> + +<p>That is to say, if our superiors of England and Ireland eat sour +grapes, the Scottish teeth must be set on edge as well as their own. +An uniformity in benefits may be well—an uniformity in penal +measures, towards the innocent and the guilty, in prohibitory +regulations, whether necessary or not, seems harsh law, and worse +justice.</p> + +<p>This levelling system, not equitable in itself, is infinitely unjust, +if a story, often told by my poor old grandfather, was true, which I +own I am inclined to doubt. The old man, sir, had learned in his +youth, or dreamed in his dotage, that Scotland had become an integral +part of England,—not in right of conquest, or rendition, or through +any right of inheritance—but in virtue of a solemn Treaty of Union. +Nay, so distinct an idea had he of this supposed Treaty, that he used +to recite one of its articles to this effect:—'That the laws in use +within the kingdom of Scotland, do, after the Union, remain in the +same force as before, but alterable by the Parliament of Great +Britain, with this difference between the laws concerning public +right, policy, and civil government, and those which concern private +right, that the former may be made the same through the whole<a name='Page_280'></a> United +Kingdom; but that no alteration be made on laws which concern private +right, <i>excepting for the evident utility of the subjects within +Scotland</i>.' When the old gentleman came to the passage, which you will +mark in italics, he always clenched his fist, and exclaimed, 'Nemo me +impune lacessit!' which, I presume, are words belonging to the black +art, since there is no one in the Modern Athens conjuror enough to +understand their meaning, or at least to comprehend the spirit of the +sentiment which my grandfather thought they conveyed.</p> + +<p>I cannot help thinking, sir, that if there had been any truth in my +grandfather's story, some Scottish member would, on the late occasion, +have informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that, in virtue of this +Treaty, it was no sufficient reason for innovating upon the private +rights of Scotsmen in a most tender and delicate point, merely that +the Right Honourable Gentleman saw no reason why the same law should +not be current through the whole of his Majesty's dominions; and that, +on the contrary, it was incumbent upon him to go a step further, and +to show that the alteration proposed <i>was</i> for the EVIDENT UTILITY <i>of +the subjects within Scotland</i>,—a proposition disavowed by the Right +Honourable Gentleman's candid admission, as well as by that of the +Prime Minister, and contradicted in every circumstance by the actual +state of the case.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_281'></a>Methinks, sir, our 'Chosen Five and Forty,' supposing they had bound +themselves to Ministers by such oaths of silence and obedience as are +taken by Carthusian friars, must have had free-will and speech to +express their sentiments, had they been possessed of so irrefragable +an argument in such a case of extremity. The sight of a father's life +in danger is said to have restored the power of language to the dumb; +and truly, the necessary defence of the rights of our native country +is not, or at least ought not to be, a less animating motive. Lord +Lauderdale almost alone interfered, and procured, to his infinite +honour, a delay of six months in the extension of this act,—a sort of +reprieve from the southern <i>jougs</i>,—by which we may have some chance +of profiting, if, during the interval, we can show ourselves true +Scotsmen, by some better proof than merely by being 'wise behind the +hand.'</p> + +<p>In the first place, sir, I would have this old Treaty searched for, +and should it be found to be still existing, I think it decides the +question. For, how can it be possible that it should be for the +'evident utility' of Scotland to alter her laws of private right, to +the total subversion of a system under which she is admitted to have +flourished for a century, and which has never within North Britain +been attended with the inconveniences charged against it in the sister +country, where, by the way, it never existed? Even if the old<a name='Page_282'></a> +parchment should be voted obsolete, there would be some satisfaction +in having it looked out and preserved—not in the Register-Office, or +Advocates' Library, where it might awaken painful recollections—but +in the Museum of the Antiquaries, where, with the Solemn League and +Covenant, the Letter of the Scottish Nobles to the Pope on the +independence of their country, and other antiquated documents, once +held in reverence, it might silently contract dust, yet remain to bear +witness that such things had been.</p> + +<p>I earnestly hope, however, that an international league of such +importance may still be found obligatory on both the <i>high</i> and the +<i>low</i> contracting parties; on that which has the power, and apparently +the will, to break it, as well as on the weaker nation, who cannot, +without incurring still worse, and more miserable consequences, oppose +aggression, otherwise than by invoking the faith of treaties, and the +national honour of Old England.</p> + +<p>In the second place, all ranks and bodies of men in North Britain (for +all are concerned, the poor as well as the rich) should express by +petition their sense of the injustice which is offered to the country, +and the distress which will probably be the necessary consequence. +Without the power of issuing their own notes the Banks cannot supply +the manufacturer with that credit which enables him to pay his +workmen, and wait his return; or accommodate the farmer<a name='Page_283'></a> with that +fund which makes it easy for him to discharge his rent, and give wages +to his labourers, while in the act of performing expensive operations +which are to treble or quadruple the produce of his farm. The trustees +on the high-roads and other public works, so ready to stake their +personal credit for carrying on public improvements, will no longer +possess the power of raising funds by doing so. The whole existing +state of credit is to be altered from top to bottom, and Ministers are +silent on any remedy which such a state of things would imperiously +require.</p> + +<p>These are subjects worth struggling for, and rather of more importance +than generally come before County Meetings. The English legislature +seems inclined to stultify our Law Authorities in their department; +but let us at least try if they will listen to the united voice of a +Nation in matters which so intimately concern its welfare, that almost +every man must have formed a judgment on the subject, from something +like personal experience. For my part, I cannot doubt the result.</p> + +<p>Times are undoubtedly different from those of Queen Anne, when, Dean +Swift having in a political pamphlet passed some sarcasms on the +Scottish nation, as a poor and fierce people, the Scythians of +Britain,—the Scottish peers, headed by the Duke of Argyll, went in +a body to the ministers, and<a name='Page_284'></a> compelled them to disown the sentiments +which had been expressed by their partisan, and offer a reward of +three hundred pounds for the author of the libel, well known to be the +best advocate and most intimate friend of the existing administration. +They demanded also that the printer and publisher should be prosecuted +before the House of Peers; and Harley, however unwillingly, was +obliged to yield to their demand.</p> + +<p>In the celebrated case of Porteous, the English legislature saw +themselves compelled to desist from vindictive measures, on account of +a gross offence committed in the metropolis of Scotland. In that of +the Roman Catholic bill they yielded to the voice of the Scottish +people, or rather of the Scottish mob, and declared the proposed +alteration of the law should not extend to North Britain. The cases +were different, in point of merit, though the Scots were successful in +both. In the one, a boon of clemency was extorted; in the other, +concession was an act of decided weakness. But ought the present +administration of Great Britain to show less deference to our +temperate and general remonstrance on a matter concerning ourselves +only, than their predecessors did to the passions, and even the +ill-founded and unjust prejudices, of our ancestors?</p> + +<p>Times, indeed, have changed since those days, and circumstances also. +We are no longer a poor,<a name='Page_285'></a> that is, so <i>very poor</i> a country and +people; and as we have increased in wealth, we have become somewhat +poorer in spirit, and more loath to incur displeasure by contests upon +mere etiquette, or national prejudice. But we have some grounds to +plead for favour with England. We have borne our pecuniary impositions +during a long war, with a patience the more exemplary, as they lay +heavier on us from our comparative want of means—our blood has flowed +as freely as that of England or of Ireland—our lives and fortunes +have become unhesitatingly devoted to the defence of the empire—our +loyalty as warmly and willingly displayed towards the person of our +Sovereign. We have consented with submission, if not with +cheerfulness, to reductions and abolitions of public offices, required +for the good of the state at large, but which must affect materially +the condition, and even the respectability, of our overburthened +aristocracy. We have in every respect conducted ourselves as good and +faithful subjects of the general empire.</p> + +<p>We do not boast of these things as actual merits; but they are at +least duties discharged, and in an appeal to men of honour and of +judgment, must entitle us to be heard with patience, and even +deference, on the management of our own affairs, if we speak +unanimously, lay aside party feeling, and use the voice of one leaf of +the holy Trefoil,—one distinct and component part of the United +Kingdoms.</p> + +<p><a name='Page_286'></a>Let no consideration deter us from pleading our own cause temperately +but firmly, and we shall certainly receive a favourable audience. Even +our acquisition of a little wealth, which might abate our courage on +other occasions, should invigorate us to unanimous perseverance at the +present crisis, when the very source of our national prosperity is +directly, though unwittingly, struck at. Our plaids are, I trust, not +yet sunk into Jewish gaberdines, to be wantonly spit upon; nor are we +yet bound to 'receive the insult with a patient shrug.' But exertion +is now demanded on other accounts than those of mere honourable +punctilio. Misers themselves will struggle in defence of their +property, though tolerant of all aggressions by which that is not +threatened. Avarice herself, however mean-spirited, will rouse to +defend the wealth she possesses, and preserve the means of gaining +more. Scotland is now called upon to rally in defence of the sources +of her national improvement, and the means of increasing it; upon +which, as none are so much concerned in the subject, none can be such +competent judges as Scotsmen themselves.</p> + +<p>I cannot believe so generous a people as the English, so wise an +administration as the present, will disregard our humble +remonstrances, merely because they are made in the form of peaceful +entreaty, and not <i>secundum perfervidum ingenium<a name='Page_287'></a> Scotorum</i>, with +'durk and pistol at our belt.' It would be a dangerous lesson to teach +the empire at large, that threats can extort what is not yielded to +reasonable and respectful remonstrance.</p> + +<p>But this is not all. The principle of 'uniformity of laws,' if not +manfully withstood, may have other blessings in store for us. Suppose, +that when finished with blistering Scotland when in perfect health, +England should find time and courage to withdraw the veil from the +deep cancer which is gnawing her own bowels, and make an attempt to +stop the fatal progress of her <i>poor-rates</i>. Some system or other must +be proposed in its place—a grinding one it must be, for it is not an +evil to be cured by palliatives. Suppose the English, for uniformity's +sake, insist that Scotland, which is at present free from this foul +and shameful disorder, should nevertheless be included in the severe +<i>treatment</i> which the disease demands, how would the landholders of +Scotland like to undergo the scalpel and cautery, merely because +England requires to be scarified?</p> + +<p>Or again;—Supposing England should take a fancy to impart to us her +sanguinary criminal code, which, too cruel to be carried into effect, +gives every wretch that is condemned a chance of one to twelve that he +shall not be executed, and so turns the law into a lottery—would this +be an agreeable boon to North Britain?</p> + +<p><a name='Page_288'></a>Once more;—What if the English ministers should feel disposed to +extend to us their equitable system of process respecting civil debt, +which divides the advantages so admirably betwixt debtor and +creditor—<i>That</i> equal dispensation of justice, which provides that an +imprisoned debtor, if a rogue, may remain in undisturbed possession of +a great landed estate, and enjoy in a jail all the luxuries of +Sardanapalus, while the wretch to whom he owes money is starving; and +that, to balance the matter, a creditor, if cruel, may detain a debtor +in prison for a lifetime, and make, as the established phrase goes, +<i>dice of his bones</i>—would this admirable reciprocity of privilege, +indulged alternately to knave and tyrant, please Saunders better than +his own humane action of Cessio, and his equitable process of +Adjudication?</p> + +<p>I will not insist further on such topics, for I daresay that these +apparent enormities in principle are, in England where they have +operation, modified and corrected in practice by circumstances unknown +to me; so that, in passing judgment on them, I may myself fall into +the error I deprecate, of judging of foreign laws without being aware +of all the premisses. Neither do I mean that we should struggle with +illiberality against any improvements which can be borrowed from +English principle. I would only desire that such ameliorations were +adopted, not merely because they are English, but because they are +suited to be assimilated with the laws of Scotland, and lead, in +short,<a name='Page_289'></a> <i>to her evident utility</i>; and this on the principle, that in +transplanting a tree, little attention need be paid to the character +of the climate and soil from which it is brought, although the +greatest care must be taken that those of the situation to which it is +transplanted are fitted to receive it. It would be no reason for +planting mulberry-trees in Scotland, that they luxuriate in the south +of England. There is sense in the old proverb, 'Ilk land has its ain +lauch.'</p> + +<p>In the present case, it is impossible to believe the extension of +these restrictions to Scotland can be for the <i>evident utility</i> of the +country, which has prospered so long and so uniformly under directly +the contrary system.</p> + +<p>It is very probable I may be deemed illiberal in all this reasoning; +but if to look for information to practical results, rather than to +theoretical principles, and to argue from the effect of the experience +of a century, rather than the deductions of a modern hypothesis, be +illiberal, I must sit down content with a censure, which will include +wiser men than I. The philosophical tailors of Laputa, who wrought by +mathematical calculation, had, no doubt, a supreme contempt for those +humble fashioners who went to work by measuring the person of their +customer; but Gulliver tells us, that the worst clothes he ever wore, +were constructed upon abstract principles; and truly, I think, we have +seen some laws, and may see more,<a name='Page_290'></a> not much better adapted to existing +circumstances, than the Captain's philosophical uniform to his actual +person.</p> + +<p>It is true, that every wise statesman keeps sound and general +political principles in his eye, as the pilot looks upon his compass +to discover his true course. But this true course cannot always be +followed out straight and diametrically; it must be altered from time +to time, nay sometimes apparently abandoned, on account of shoals, +breakers, and headlands, not to mention contrary winds. The same +obstacles occur to the course of the statesman. The point at which he +aims may be important, the principle on which he steers may be just; +yet the obstacles arising from rooted prejudices, from intemperate +passions, from ancient practices, from a different character of +people, from varieties in climate and soil, may cause a direct +movement upon his ultimate object to be attended with distress to +individuals, and loss to the community, which no good man would wish +to occasion, and with dangers which no wise man would voluntarily +choose to encounter.</p> + +<p>Although I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been rather +precipitate in the decided opinion which he is represented to have +expressed on this occasion, I am far from entertaining the slightest +disrespect for the right honourable gentleman. 'I hear as good +exclamation upon him as on any man in<a name='Page_291'></a> Messina, and though I am but a +poor man, I am glad to hear it.' But a decided attachment to abstract +principle, and to a spirit of generalising, is—like a rash rider on a +headstrong horse—very apt to run foul of local obstacles, which might +have been avoided by a more deliberate career, where the nature of the +ground had been previously considered.</p> + +<p>I make allowance for the temptation natural to an ingenious and active +mind. There is a natural pride in following out an universal and +levelling principle. It seems to augur genius, force of conception, +and steadiness of purpose; qualities which every legislator is +desirous of being thought to possess. On the other hand, the study of +local advantages and impediments demands labour and inquiry, and is +rewarded after all only with the cold and parsimonious praise due to +humble industry. It is no less true, however, that measures which go +straight and direct to a great general object, without noticing +intervening impediments, must often resemble the fierce progress of +the thunderbolt or the cannon-ball, those dreadful agents, which, in +rushing right to their point, care not what ruin they make by the way. +The sounder and more moderate policy, accommodating its measures to +exterior circumstances, rather resembles the judicious course of a +well-conducted highway, which, turning aside frequently from its +direct course,</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>'Winds round the corn-field and the hill of vines,' +<a name='Page_292'></a></p></div> + +<p>and becomes devious, that it may respect property and avoid obstacles; +thus escaping even temporary evils, and serving the public no less in +its more circuitous, than it would have done in its direct course.</p> + +<p>Can you tell me, sir, if this <i>uniformity</i> of civil institutions, +which calls for such sacrifices, be at all descended from, or related +to, a doctrine nearly of the same nature, called Conformity in +religious doctrine, very fashionable about one hundred and fifty years +since, which undertook to unite the jarring creeds of the United +Kingdom to one common standard, and excited a universal strife by the +vain attempt, and a thousand fierce disputes, in which she</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><span style='margin-left: 4em;'>'———umpire sate,</span><br /> +And by decision more embroiled the fray'?<br /></div> + +<p>Should Uniformity have the same pedigree, Malachi Malagrowther +proclaims her 'a hawk of a very bad nest.'</p> + +<p>The universal opinion of a whole kingdom, founded upon a century's +experience, ought not to be lightly considered as founded in ignorance +and prejudice. I am something of an agriculturist; and in travelling +through the country I have often had occasion to wonder that the +inhabitants of particular districts had not adopted certain obvious +improvements in cultivation. But, upon inquiry, I have usually found +out that appearances had deceived me, and that I had not reckoned on +particular local circumstances,<a name='Page_293'></a> which either prevented the execution +of the system I should have theoretically recommended, or rendered +some other more advantageous in the particular circumstances.</p> + +<p>I do not therefore resist theoretical innovation in general; I only +humbly desire it may not outrun the suggestions arising from the +experience of ages. I would have the necessity felt and acknowledged +before old institutions are demolished—the <i>evident utility</i> of every +alteration demonstrated before it is adopted upon mere speculation. I +submit our ancient system to the primary knife of the legislature, but +would not willingly see our reformers employ a weapon, which, like the +sword of Jack the Giant-Killer, <i>cuts before the point</i>.</p> + +<p>It is always to be considered, that in human affairs, the very best +imaginable result is seldom to be obtained, and that it is wise to +content ourselves with the best which can be got. This principle +speaks with a voice of thunder against violent innovation, for the +sake of possible improvement, where things are already well. We ought +not to desire better bread than is made of wheat. Our Scotch proverb +warns us to <i>Let weel bide</i>; and all the world has heard of the +untranslatable Italian epitaph upon the man, who died of taking physic +to make him better, when he was already in health.—I am, Mr. +Journalist, yours,</p> + +<p>MALACHI MALAGROWTHER.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr /> +<p> </p> + +<h4><a name='Page_294'></a>POSTSCRIPT</h4> + +<p>Since writing these hasty thoughts, I hear it reported that we are to +have an extension of our precarious reprieve, and that our six months +are to be extended to six years. I would not have Scotland trust to +this hollow truce. The measure ought, like all others, to be canvassed +on its merits, and frankly admitted or rejected; it has been stirred +and ought to be decided. I request my countrymen not to be soothed +into inactivity by that temporising, and, I will say, unmanly +vacillation. Government is pledged to nothing by taking an open +course; for if the bill, so far as applicable to Scotland, is at +present absolutely laid aside, there can be no objection to their +resuming it at any period, when from change of circumstances, it may +be advantageous to Scotland, and when, for what I know, it may be +welcomed as a boon.</p> + +<p>But if held over our heads as a minatory measure, to take place within +a certain period, what can the event be but to cripple and ultimately +destroy the present system, on which a direct attack is found at +present inexpedient? Can the bankers continue to conduct their +profession on the same secure footing, with an abrogation of it in +prospect? Must it not cease to be what it has hitherto been—a +business carried on both for their own profit, and for the<a name='Page_295'></a> +accommodation of the country? Instead of employing their capital in +the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming +others? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from +that species of commerce? And may not the place of these be supplied +by men of daring adventure, without corresponding capital, who will +take a chance of wealth or ruin in the chances of the game?</p> + +<p>If it is the absolute and irrevocable determination that the bill is +to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the +better; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of +life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and +protracted suspense.</p> + + +<p><a name='Page_297'></a><a name='Page_296'></a></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'/> + +<h3>NOTES</h3> +<p> </p> +<ul> + <li><a href='#Page_3'>P. 3.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The exclusion</i>—of James from the succession.<br /> +<br /> +<i>The rebellion</i>—Monmouth's.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_6'>P. 6.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The Quakers</i>.—A hit, of course, at Penn.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_17'>P. 17.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Piqueer</i>, 'do outpost duty,' 'raid.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_18'>P. 18.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Lords of the Articles</i>.—A well-known body in the older Scottish +Constitution, through whom only legislation could be originated, and who +thus almost nullified the powers of Parliament.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_20'>P. 20.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Squeaziness</i> = 'squeamishness,' 'queasiness.'<br /> +<br /> +<i>It is impossible</i>.—Another form of 'No bishop no king.'<br /><a name='Page_298'></a> +<br /> +<i>The new converts</i>.—After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_22'>P. 22.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>T.W.</i> is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for +'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William +Temple.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_27'>P. 27.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Neither</i>, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the +famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in <i>Hamlet</i>.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_47'>P. 47.</a><br /> +<br /> +I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics +with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the +vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described (p. 50) as <i>'a mean ordinary +man, a hard-ware dealer</i>.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly +independent of them.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_50'>P. 50.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Written</i>—by Swift himself.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_54'>P. 54.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Bere</i>, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated +in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, +and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher +climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought +to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_55'>P. 55.</a><br /><a name='Page_299'></a> +<br /> +<i>Conolly</i>.—Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_56'>P. 56.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Pistole</i>—about ten shillings.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_60'>P. 60.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Brought to the bullion</i> seems here to have the meaning of the +French <i>billonner</i> or <i>envoyer au billon</i>, 'to melt for recoining.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_74'>P. 74.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Our Cæsar's statue</i>.—The statue of George I. on Essex Bridge, +Dublin.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_89'>P. 89.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Contignation</i>.—This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite +obsolete word (from <i>tignum</i>, 'beam') means 'having a common or +continuous roof.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_99'>P. 99.</a><br /> +<br /> +The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendéan and Chouan +movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully +explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of +the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and +though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little +positive evidence to support them.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_107'>P. 107.</a><br /><a name='Page_300'></a> +<br /> +<i>But when the possibility ... that the</i>.—It will probably seem +to a modern reader that either 'that' or 'the' has crept in improperly. +It might be so; but Burke still maintained the authoritative but rather +inelegant tradition by which 'that,' like the French <i>que</i>, could +replace any such antecedent word as 'when,' 'because,' etc.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_112'>P. 112.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Louis the Sixteenth</i>.—To this is appended a note in the editions +beginning, 'It may be right to do justice to Louis XVI. He did what he +could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.' The subject has of +late years received considerable illustration in the Duke of Broglie's +<i>Le Secret du Roi</i>, and other works by the same author.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_114'>P. 114.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Montalembert</i>.—Marc René, Marquis de (1714-1800), a voluminous +military writer.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_124'>P. 124.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Harrington</i>—of the <i>Oceana</i>.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_134'>P. 134.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Dear Abraham</i>.—'Peter Plymley' addresses his <i>Letters</i> to +'my brother Abraham, who lives in the country,' and is a +parson.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_136'>P. 136.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Baron Maseres</i>.—Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a descendant +of Huguenots, very well thought of by his contemporaries. Dr. Rennel I +know not, unless he was the Herodotus man.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_137'>P. 137.</a><br /><a name='Page_301'></a> +<br /> +<i>C——</i>, Canning.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_138'>P. 138.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Dr. Duigenan</i>.—A delightful person who, in his hot youth, as a +junior Fellow of T.C., D., threatened to 'bulge the Provost's' [Provost +Hely Hutchinson's] 'eye,' and was afterwards a pillar of Protestantism.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_144'>P. 144.</a><br /> +<br /> +This <i>light and frivolous jester</i> was <i>not</i> the Rev. Sydney +Smith, but George Canning, Esq.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_154'>P. 154.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The pecuniary Rose</i>.—'Old George' Rose, Pitt's right hand. He +was rather heavily rewarded with places and pensions; but even Liberals +now admit that the country has hardly had an abler official.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Lord Hawkesbury</i>, Jenkinson, better known as Lord Liverpool.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_157'>P. 157.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Tickell</i>—the <i>Rolliad</i> Tickell.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_170'>P. 170.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Joel</i>—Peter's nephew and Abraham's son.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_193'>P. 193.</a><br /><a name='Page_302'></a> +<br /> +<i>Paint in the most horrid colours</i>.—See, for instance, <i>The +Bloody Buoy</i> and <i>The Cannibal's Progress</i>, by William Cobbett.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_225'>P. 225.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Flogging</i>.—Some of the militia mutinied at Ely, and were +punished, the guard on the occasion being furnished by the cavalry of +the German Legion. Cobbett noticed this in the most inflammatory +manner, and it being war time, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and +sentenced as he describes.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_229'>P. 229.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Monks and friars</i>.—A time came when Cobbett thought and wrote +very differently of these persons. But that was his way.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_245'>P. 245.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Foundal</i>.—I do not know whether Cobbett invented this equivalent +for <i>trouvaille</i>, 'windfall,' or not. His notable scheme for breaking +the Bank is a good example of him in his insaner moods.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_253'>P. 253.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The Duenna</i>—Sheridan's.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_256'>P. 256.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>The Jury Court</i>.—Trial by jury in <i>civil</i> cases was only introduced +into Scotland in 1815.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_259'>P. 259.</a><br /><a name='Page_303'></a> +<br /> +<i>Evasive answer</i>—to the effect that each queen was the fairest +woman in her own country.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_272'>P. 272.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Doer</i> = 'factor' or agent.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_277'>P. 277.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Them</i>—as if 'Scotsmen' had been written for 'Scotland.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_281'>P. 281.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Chosen Five and Forty</i>—the original number of members +assigned to Scotland.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_283'>P. 283.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Political pamphlet</i>—'The Public Spirit of the Whigs.'<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_287'>P. 287.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Durk, sic</i> in original.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_288'>P. 288.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Cessio, sc. bonorum</i>, whereby a debtor on giving up his property +could be relieved of liabilities.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Adjudication</i>, whereby a creditor could attach landed as +well as personal property.<br /> +<br /> +</li> + +<li><a href='#Page_289'>P. 289.</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Lauch</i> = 'laugh.' +</li> + +</ul> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Political Pamphlets, by George Saintsbury + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL PAMPHLETS *** + +***** This file should be named 13943-h.htm or 13943-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/4/13943/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Political Pamphlets + +Author: George Saintsbury + +Release Date: November 3, 2004 [EBook #13943] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL PAMPHLETS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE POCKET LIBRARY +OF +ENGLISH LITERATURE + +Edited by GEORGE SAINTSBURY + + +A collection, in separate volumes, partly of extracts from +long books, partly of short pieces, by the same writer, on the +same subject, or of the same class. + +Vol I.--Tales of Mystery. + II.--Political Verse. + III.--Defoe's Minor Novels. + IV.--Political Pamphlets. + V.--Seventeenth Century Lyrics. + VI.--Elizabethan and Jacobean Pamphlets. + + + + +POLITICAL PAMPHLETS + + +EDITED BY +GEORGE SAINTSBURY + + +LONDON +PERCIVAL AND CO. +1892 + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. (By George Savile, Marquess of Halifax) + +II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS. (By Daniel Defoe) + +III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. (By Jonathan Swift) +To the Tradesmen, Shop-Keepers, Farmers, and Common-People in general, +of the Kingdom of Ireland; concerning the Brass half-pence coined by +Mr. Wood + +A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer, upon occasion of a Paragraph in +his News-Paper of August 1, 1724, relating to Mr. Wood's Half-pence + +IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. (By the Right Honourable +Edmund Burke) + +V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. (By Sydney Smith) + +VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW. (By William Cobbett) + +VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. (By Sir Walter Scott) + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +It is sometimes thought, and very often said, that political writing, +after its special day is done, becomes more dead than any other kind +of literature, or even journalism. I do not know whether my own +judgment is perverted by the fact of a special devotion to the +business, but it certainly seems to me that both the thought and the +saying are mistakes. Indeed, a rough-and-ready refutation of them is +supplied by the fact that, in no few cases, political pieces have +entered into the generally admitted stock of the best literary things. +If they are little read, can we honestly say that other things in the +same rank are read much more? And is there not the further plea, by no +means contradictory, nor even merely alternative, that the best +examples of them are, as a rule, merged in huge collected 'Works,' or, +in the case of authors who have not attained to that dignity, simply +inaccessible to the general? At any rate my publishers have consented +to let me try the experiment of gathering certain famous things of the +sort in this volume, and the public must decide. + +I do not begin very early, partly because examples of the Elizabethan +political pamphlet, or what supplied its place, will be given in +another volume of the series exclusively devoted to the pamphlet +literature of the reigns of Eliza and our James, partly for a still +better reason presently to be explained. On the other hand, though +another special volume is devoted to Defoe, the immortal _Shortest Way +with the Dissenters_ is separated from the rest of his work, and given +here. Most of the contents, however, represent authors not otherwise +represented in the series, and though very well known indeed by name, +less read than quoted. The suitableness of the political pamphlet, +both by size and self-containedness, for such a volume as this, needs +no justification except that which it, like everything else, must +receive, by being put to the proof of reading. + +There is no difficulty in showing, with at least sufficient critical +exactness, why it is not possible or not desirable to select examples +from very early periods even of strictly modern history. The causes +are in part the same as those which delayed the production of really +capital political verse (which has been treated in another volume), +but they are not wholly the same. The Martin Marprelate pamphlets are +strictly political; so are many things earlier, later, and +contemporary with them, by hands known and unknown, great and small, +skilled and unskilled; so are some even in the work of so great a man +as Bacon. But very many things were wanting to secure the conditions +necessary to the perfect pamphlet. There was not the political +freedom; there was not the public; there was not the immediate object; +there was not, last and most of all, the style. Political utterances +under a more or less despotic, or, as the modern euphemism goes, +'personal' government, were almost necessarily those of a retained +advocate, who expected his immediate reward, on the one hand; or of a +rebel, who stood to make his account with office if he succeeded, or +with savage punishment if he failed, on the other. A distant prospect +of impeachment, of the loss of ears, hands, or life if the tide turns, +is a stimulant to violence rather than to vigour. I do not think, +however, that this is the most important factor in the problem. +Parliamentary government, with a limited franchise of tolerably +intelligent voters, a party system, and newspapers comparatively +undeveloped, may not suit an ideally perfect _politeia_, but it is +the very hotbed in which to nourish the pamphlet. There is also a +style, as there is a time, for all things; and no style could be so +well suited for the pamphlet as the balanced, measured, pointed, and +polished style which Dryden and Tillotson and Temple brought in during +the third quarter of the seventeenth century, and which did not go out +of fashion till the second quarter of the nineteenth. We have indeed +seen pamphlets proper exercising considerable influence in quite +recent times; but in no instance that I can remember has this been due +to any literary merits, and I doubt whether even the bare fact will be +soon or often renewed in our days. The written word--the written word +of condensed, strengthened, spirited literature--has lost much, if not +all, of its force with an enormously increased electorate, and a +bewildering multiplicity of print and speech of all kinds. + +Whatever justice these reasonings may have or may lack, the facts +speak for themselves, as facts intelligently regarded have a habit of +doing. The first pamphlets proper of great literary merit and great +political influence are those of Halifax in the first movement of real +party struggle during the reign of Charles the Second; the last which +unite the same requisites are those of Scott on the eve of the first +Reform Bill. The leaflet and circular war of the anti-Corn Law League +must be ruled out as much as Mr. Gladstone's _Bulgarian Horrors_. + +This leaves us a period of almost exactly a hundred and fifty years, +during which the kind, whether in good or bad examples, was of +constant influence; while its best instances enriched literature with +permanent masterpieces in little. I do not think that any moderately +instructed person will find much difficulty in comprehending the +specimens here given. I am sure that no moderately intelligent one +will fail, with a very little trouble, to take delight in them. I do +not know whether an artful generaliser could get anything out of the +circumstances in which the best of them grew; I should say myself that +nothing more than the system of government, the conditions of the +electorate and the legislature, and the existence from time to time of +a superheated state in political feeling, can or need be collected. In +some respects, to my own taste, the first of these examples is also +the best. To Halifax full justice has never been done, for we have had +no capable historian of the late seventeenth century but Macaulay, and +Halifax's defect of fervour as a Jacobite was more than made up to +Macaulay by his defect of fervour as a Williamite. As for the moderns, +I have myself more than once failed to induce editors of 'series' to +give Halifax a place. Yet Macaulay himself has been fairer to the +great Trimmer than to most persons with whom he was not in full +sympathy. The weakness of Halifax's position is indeed obvious. When +you run first to one side of the boat and then to the other, you have +ten chances of sinking to one of trimming her. To hold fast to one +party only, and to keep that from extremes, is the only secret, and it +is no great disgrace to Halifax, that in the very infancy of the party +and parliamentary system, he did not perceive it. But this hardly +interferes at all with the excellence of his pamphlets. The polished +style, the admirable sense, the subdued and yet ever present wit, the +avoidance of excessive cleverness (the one thing that the average +Briton will not stand), the constant eye on the object, are +unmistakable. They are nearly as forcible as Dryden's political and +controversial prefaces, which are pamphlets themselves in their way, +and they excel them in knowledge of affairs, in urbanity, in +adaptation to the special purpose. In all these points they resemble +more than anything else the pamphlets of Paul Louis Courier, and +there can be no higher praise than this. + +No age in English history was more fertile in pamphlets than the +reigns of William and of Anne. Some men of real distinction +occasionally contributed to them, and others (such as Ferguson and +Maynwaring) obtained such literary notoriety as they possess by their +means. The total volume of the kind produced during the quarter of a +century between the Revolution and the accession of George the First +would probably fill a considerable library. But the examples which +really deserve exhumation are very few, and I doubt whether any can +pretend to vie with the masterpieces of Defoe and Swift. Both these +great writers were accomplished practitioners in the art, and the +characteristics of both lent themselves with peculiar yet strangely +different readiness to the work. They addressed, indeed, different +sections of what was even then the electorate. Defoe's unpolished +realism and his exact adaptation of tone, thought, taste, and fancy to +the measure of the common Englishman were what chiefly gave him a +hearing. Swift aimed and flew higher, but also did not miss the lower +mark. No one has ever doubted that Johnson's depreciation of _The +Conduct of the Allies_ was half special perversity (for he was always +unjust to Swift), half mere humorous paradox. For there was much more +of this in the doctor's utterances than his admirers, either in his +own day or since, have always recognised, or have sometimes been +qualified by Providence to recognise. As for the _Drapier's Letters_ I +can never myself admire them enough, and they seem to me to have been +on the whole under-rather than over-valued by posterity. + +The 'Great Walpolian Battle' and the attacks on Bute and other +favourite ministers were very fertile in the pamphlet, but already +there were certain signs of alteration in its character. Pulteney and +Walpole's other adversaries had already glimmerings of the newspaper +proper, that is to say, of the continual dropping fire rather than the +single heavy broadside; to adopt a better metaphor still, of a +regimental and professional soldiery rather than of single volunteer +champions. The _Letters of Junius_, which for some time past have been +gradually dropping from their former somewhat undue pride of place +(gained and kept as much by the factitious mystery of their origin as +by anything else) to a station more justly warranted, are no doubt +themselves pamphlets of a kind; but they are separated from pamphlets +proper not less by their contents than by their form and continuity. +The real difference is this, that the pamphlet, though often if not +always personal enough, should always and generally does affect at +least to discuss a general question of principle or policy, whereas +Junius is always personal first, and very generally last also. On the +other hand, Burke, whether his productions be called Speeches or +Letters, Thoughts or Reflections, is always a pamphleteer in heart and +soul, in form and matter. If the resemblance of his pamphlets to +speeches gives the force and fire, it is certain that the resemblance +of his speeches to pamphlets accounts for that 'dinner-bell' effect of +his which has puzzled some people and shocked others. Burke always +argued the point, if he only argued one side of it, and it is the +special as it is the saving grace of the pamphlet that it must, or at +least should, be an argument, and not merely an invective or an +innuendo, a sermon or a lampoon. + +Sydney Smith belonged both to the old school and the new. He was both +pamphleteer and journalist; but he kept the form and even to some +extent the style of his pamphlets and his articles well apart. I may +seem likely to have some difficulty in admitting the claim of Cobbett +after disallowing that of Junius under the definition just given, but +I have no very great fear of being unable to making it good. Much as +Cobbett disliked persons, and crotchety as he was in his dislikes, +they were always dislikes of principle in the bottom. The singular +Tory-Radicalism which Cobbett exhibited, and which has made some rank +him unduly low, was no doubt partly due to accidents of birth and +education, and to narrowness of intellectual form. But boroughmongering +after all was a Whig rather than a Tory institution, and Cobbett's +hatred of it, as well as that desire for the maintenance of a kind of +manufacturing yeomanry (not wholly different from the later ideal of +Mr. William Morris,) which was his other guiding principle throughout, +was by no means alien from pure Toryism. His work in relation to Reform, +moreover, is unmistakable--as unmistakable as is that of Sydney Smith, +who precedes him here, with regard to Catholic Emancipation. I should +have voted and written against both these things had I lived then; but +this does not make me enjoy Cobbett or Sydney any the less. + +As for the latest example I have selected, it is a crucial one. The +_Letters of Malachi Malagrowther_ come from a man who is not often +rated high as a political thinker, even by those who sympathise with +his political views. But here as elsewhere the politician, no less +than the poet, the critic, the historian, bears the penalty of the +pre-eminent greatness of the novelist. Nothing is more uncritical than +to regard Scott as a mere sentimentalist in politics, and I cannot +think that any competent judge can do so after reading _Malagrowther_, +even after reading Scott's own Diary and letters on the subject. As he +there explains, he was not greatly carried, as a rule, to interest +himself in the details of politics. As both Lockhart and he admit, he +might not have been so interested even at this juncture had it not +been for the chagrin at his own misfortunes, which, nobly and +stoically repressed as it was, required some issue. But his general +principle on this occasion was clear; it can be thoroughly apprehended +and appreciated even by an Englishman of Englishmen. It was thoroughly +justified by the event, and, I may perhaps be permitted to observe, +ran exactly contrary to a sentiment rather widely adopted of late. No +man, whether in public writings or private conduct, could be more set +than Scott was against a spurious Scotch particularism. He even earned +from silly Scots maledictions for the chivalrous justice he dealt to +England in _The Lord of the Isles_, and the common-sense justice he +dealt to her in the mouth of Bailie Jarvie. But he was not more +staunch for the political Union than he was for the preservation of +minor institutions, manners, and character; and the proposed +interference with Scotch banking seemed to him to be one of the things +tending to make good Scotchmen, as he bluntly told Croker, 'damned +mischievous Englishmen.' Therefore he arose and spoke, and though he +averted the immediate attempt, yet the prophecies which he uttered +were amply fulfilled in other ways after the Reform Bill. + +These, then, are the principles on which I have selected the pieces +that follow (some minor reasons for the particular choices being given +in the special introductions):--That they should be pamphlets proper +(_Malachi_ appeared first in a newspaper, but that was a sign of the +time chiefly, and the numbers of Cobbett's _Register_ were practically +independent pieces); that they should deal with special subjects of +burning political, and not merely personal, interest; and that they +should either directly or in the long-run have exercised an actual +determining influence on the course of politics and history. This last +point is undoubted in the case of the examples from Halifax, Swift, +Burke (who more than any one man pointed and steeled the resistance +of England to Jacobin tyranny), and Scott; it was less immediate, but +scarcely more dubious in those of Defoe, Cobbett, and Sydney Smith. +And so in all humility I make my bow as introducer once more to the +English public of these Seven Masters of English political writing. + + + + +I.--'LETTER TO A DISSENTER' + +BY GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUESS OF HALIFAX + + +(_There is no doubt that Halifax's work deserves to rank first in a +collection of political pamphlets. He signed none; it was indeed +almost impossible for a prominent person in the State then safely or +decently to do so, and different attributions were made at the time of +some of them, as of the _Character of a Trimmer_ to Coventry, and of +this _Letter_ (this 'masterly little tract,' as Macaulay justly calls +it) to Temple. But shortly after his death all were published as his +unchallenged, and there never has been any doubt of their authorship +in the minds of good judges. Four of them are so good that extrinsic +reasons have to be brought in for preferring one to the other. The +_Character of a Trimmer_ is rather too long for my scheme; the _Anatomy +of an Equivalent_ is too technical, and requires too much illustration +and exegesis; the _Cautions for Choice of Members of Parliament_, +though practically valuable to the present day, is a little too +general. The _Letter to a Dissenter_ escapes all these objections. It +is brief, it is thoroughly to the point, it is comprehensible almost +without note or comment to any one who remembers the broad fact that +by his Declaration of Indulgence James the Second attempted to detach, +and almost succeeded in detaching, the Dissenters from their common +cause with the Church in opposing his enfranchisement of the Roman +Catholics, and his preferment of them to great offices. As for its +author, his most eminent acts are written in the pages of the +universally read historian above quoted. But he was in reality more of +a Tory than it suited Macaulay to represent him, though he gloried in +the name of Trimmer, and certainly showed what is called in modern +political slang a 'crossbench mind' not only during the madness of the +Popish plot, during the greater madness of James's assaults on the +Church, the Constitution, and private rights, but also (after the +Revolution) towards William of Orange. Born about 1630 he died in +April 1695, leaving the fame, unjustified by any samples in those +unreported days, of the greatest orator of his time, a reputation as a +wit which was partly inherited by his grandson, Chesterfield, and the +small volume of _Miscellanies_, on which we here draw. The pamphlet +itself appeared in April 1687._) + + + + +A LETTER TO A DISSENTER, UPON OCCASION OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE GRACIOUS +DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE + + +Sir--Since addresses are in fashion, give me leave to make one to you. +This is neither the effect of fear, interest, or resentment; therefore +you may be sure it is sincere: and for that reason it may expect to be +kindly received. Whether it will have power enough to convince, +dependeth upon the reasons of which you are to judge; and upon your +preparation of mind, to be persuaded by truth, whenever it appeareth +to you. It ought not to be the less welcome for coming from a friendly +hand, one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of +opinion, and who will not let his thoughts for the public be so tied +or confined to this or that sub-division of Protestants as to stifle +the charity, which besides all other arguments, is at this time become +necessary to preserve us. + +I am neither surprised nor provoked, to see that in the condition you +were put into by the laws, and the ill circumstances you lay under, by +having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your charge, you were +desirous to make yourselves less uneasy and obnoxious to authority. +Men who are sore, run to the nearest remedy with too much haste to +consider all the consequences: grains of allowance are to be given, +where nature giveth such strong influences. When to men under +sufferings it offereth ease, the present pain will hardly allow time +to examine the remedies; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a +fair audience from our mind, whilst so possessed, till the smart is a +little allayed. + +I do not know whether the warmth that naturally belongeth to new +friendships, may not make it a harder task for me to persuade you. It +is like telling lovers, in the beginning of their joys, that they will +in a little time have an end. Such an unwelcome style doth not easily +find credit. But I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new +passion, but that you will hear still; and therefore I am also under +the less discouragement, when I offer to your consideration two +things. The _first_ is, the cause you have to suspect your new +friends. The _second_, the duty incumbent upon you, in Christianity +and prudence, not to hazard the public safety, neither by desire of +ease nor of revenge. + +To the _first_. Consider that notwithstanding the smooth language +which is now put on to engage you, these new friends did not make you +their choice, but their refuge. They have ever made their first +courtships to the Church of England, and when they were rejected +there, they made their application to you in the second place. The +instances of this might be given in all times. I do not repeat them, +because whatsoever is unnecessary must be tedious; the truth of this +assertion being so plain as not to admit a dispute. You cannot +therefore reasonably flatter yourselves that there is any inclination +to you. They never pretended to allow you any quarter, but to usher in +liberty for themselves under that shelter. I refer you to Mr. +Coleman's Letters, and to the Journals of Parliament, where you may be +convinced, if you can be so mistaken as to doubt; nay, at this very +hour they can hardly forbear, in the height of their courtship, to let +fall hard words of you. So little is nature to be restrained; it will +start out sometimes, disdaining to submit to the usurpation of art and +interest. + +This alliance, between liberty and infallibility, is bringing together +the two most contrary things that are in the world. The Church of Rome +doth not only dislike the allowing liberty, but by its principles it +cannot do it. Wine is not more expressly forbid to the Mahometans, +than giving heretics liberty to the Papists. They are no more able to +make good their vows to you, than men married before, and their wife +alive, can confirm their contract with another. The continuance of +their kindness would be a habit of sin, of which they are to repent; +and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms than their +promise to destroy you. You are therefore to be hugged now, only that +you may be the better squeezed at another time. There must be +something extraordinary when the Church of Rome setteth up bills, and +offereth plaisters, for tender consciences. By all that hath hitherto +appeared, her skill in chirurgery lieth chiefly in a quick hand to cut +off limbs; but she is the worst at healing of any that ever pretended +to it. + +To come so quick from another extreme is such an unnatural motion that +you ought to be upon your guard. The other day you were Sons of +Belial; now you are Angels of Light. This is a violent change, and it +will be fit for you to pause upon it before you believe it. If your +features are not altered, neither is their opinion of you, whatever +may be pretended. Do you believe less than you did that there is +idolatry in the Church of Rome? Sure you do not. See, then, how they +treat, both in words and writing, those who entertain that opinion. +Conclude from hence, how inconsistent their favour is with this single +article, except they give you a dispensation for this too, and not by +a _non obstante_, secure you that they will not think the worse of +you. + +Think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of +paradoxes. Popery now is the only friend to liberty, and the known +enemy to persecution. The men of Taunton and Tiverton are above all +other eminent for Loyalty. The Quakers, from being declared by the +Papists not to be Christians, are now made favourites, and taken into +their particular protection; they are on a sudden grown the most +accomplished men of the kingdom in good breeding, and give thanks with +the best grace in double-refined language. So that I should not +wonder, though a man of that persuasion, in spite of his hat, should +be Master of the Ceremonies. Not to say harsher words, these are such +very new things, that it is impossible not to suspend our belief, till +by a little more experience, we may be informed whether they are +realities or apparitions. We have been under shameful mistakes, if +these opinions are true; but for the present we are apt to be +incredulous, except that we could be convinced that the priest's words +in this case too are able to make such a sudden and effectual change; +and that their power is not limited to the Sacrament, but that it +extendeth to alter the nature of all other things, as often as they +are so disposed. + +Let me now speak of the instruments of your friendship, and then leave +you to judge whether they do not afford matter of suspicion. No +sharpness is to be mingled, where healing only is intended; so nothing +will be said to expose particular men, how strong soever the +temptation may be, or how clear the proofs to make it out. A word or +two in general, for your better caution, shall suffice. Suppose then, +for argument's sake, that the mediators of this new alliance should +be such as have been formerly employed in treaties of the same kind, +and there detected to have acted by order, and to have been empowered +to give encouragements and rewards. Would not this be an argument to +suspect them? + +If they should plainly be under engagements to one side, their +arguments to the other ought to be received accordingly. Their fair +pretences are to be looked upon as a part of their commission, which +may not improbably give them a dispensation in the case of truth, when +it may bring a prejudice upon the service of those by whom they are +employed. + +If there should be men, who having formerly had means and authority to +persuade by secular arguments, have, in pursuance of that power, +sprinkled money among the Dissenting ministers; and if those very men +should now have the same authority, practise the same methods, and +disburse where they cannot otherwise persuade; it seemeth to me to be +rather an evidence than a presumption of the deceit. + +If there should be ministers amongst you, who by having fallen under +temptations of this kind, are in some sort engaged to continue their +frailty, by the awe they are in lest it should be exposed; the +persuasions of these unfortunate men must sure have the less force, +and their arguments, though never so specious, are to be suspected, +when they come from men who have mortgaged themselves to severe +creditors, that expect a rigorous observance of the contract, let it +be never so unwarrantable. If these, or any others, should at this +time preach up anger and vengeance against the Church of England; may +it not without injustice be suspected that a thing so plainly out of +season springeth rather from corruption than mistake; and that those +who act this choleric part, do not believe themselves, but only pursue +higher directions, and endeavour to make good that part of their +contract, which obligeth them, upon a forfeiture, to make use of their +enflaming eloquence? They might apprehend their wages would be +retrenched if they should be moderate: and therefore, whilst violence +is their interest, those who have not the same arguments have no +reason to follow such a partial example. + +If there should be men, who by the load of their crimes against the +Government, have been bowed down to comply with it against their +conscience; who by incurring the want of a pardon, have drawn upon +themselves a necessity of an entire resignation, such men are to be +lamented, but not to be believed. Nay, they themselves, when they have +discharged their unwelcome talk, will be inwardly glad that their +forced endeavours do not succeed, and are pleased when men resist +their insinuations; which are far from being voluntary or sincere, but +are squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so obnoxious. + +If, in the height of this great dearness, by comparing things, it +should happen that at this instant there is much a surer friendship +with those who are so far from allowing liberty that they allow no +living to a Protestant under them--let the scene lie in what part of +the world it will, the argument will come home, and sure it will +afford sufficient ground to suspect. Apparent contradictions must +strike us; neither nature nor reason can digest them. Self-flattery, +and the desire to deceive ourselves, to gratify present appetite, with +all their power, which is great, cannot get the better of such broad +conviction, as some things carry along with them. Will you call these +vain and empty suspicions? Have you been at all times so void of fears +and jealousies, as to justify your being so unreasonably valiant in +having none upon this occasion? Such an extraordinary courage at this +unseasonable time, to say no more, is too dangerous a virtue to be +commended. + +If then, for these and a thousand other reasons, there is cause to +suspect, sure your new friends are not to dictate to you, or advise +you. For instance: the Addresses that fly abroad every week, and +murder us with _another to the same_; the first draughts are made by +those who are not very proper to be secretaries to the Protestant +Religion: and it is your part only to write them out fairer again. + +Strange! that you, who have been formerly so much against _set +forms_, should now be content the priests should indite for you. The +nature of thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being pleased or +obliged; they grow in the heart, and from thence show themselves +either in looks, speech, writing, or action. No man was ever thankful +because he was bid to be so, but because he had, or thought he had +some reason for it. If then there is cause in this case to pay such +extravagant acknowledgments, they will flow naturally, without taking +such pains to procure them; and it is unkindly done to tire all the +Post-horses with carrying circular letters, to solicit that which +would be done without any trouble or constraint. If it is really in +itself such a favour, what needeth so much pressing men to be +thankful, and with such eager circumstances, that where persuasions +cannot delude, threatenings are employed to fright them into a +compliance? Thanks must be voluntary, not only unconstrained but +unsolicited, else they are either trifles or snares, that either +signify nothing or a great deal more than is intended by those that +give them. If an inference should be made, that whosoever thanketh the +King for his Declaration, is by that engaged to justify it in point of +law; it is a greater stride than I presume all those care to make who +are persuaded to address. It shall be supposed that all the thankers +will be repealers of the Test, whenever a Parliament shall meet; such +an expectation is better prevented before than disappointed +afterwards; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal +is not to do anything that may give a colour to the mistake. These +bespoken thanks are little less improper than love-letters that were +solicited by the lady to whom they are to be directed: so that, +besides the little ground there is to give them, the manner of getting +them doth extremely lessen their value. It might be wished that you +would have suppressed your impatience, and have been content, for the +sake of religion, to enjoy it within yourselves, without the liberty +of a public exercise, till a Parliament had allowed it; but since that +could not be, and that the articles of some amongst you have made use +of the well-meant zeal of the generality to draw them into this +mistake, I am so far from blaming you with that sharpness, which +perhaps the matter in strictness would bear, that I am ready to err on +the side of the more gentle construction. + +There is a great difference between enjoying quietly the advantages of +an act irregularly done by others, and the going about to support it +against the laws in being. The law is so sacred that no trespass +against it is to be defended; yet frailties may in some measure be +excused when they cannot be justified. The desire of enjoying liberty, +from which men have been so long restrained, may be a temptation that +their reason is not at all times able to resist. If in such a case +some objections are leapt over, indifferent men will be more inclined +to lament the occasion than to fall too hard upon the fault, whilst it +is covered with the apology of a good intention. But where, to rescue +yourselves from the severity of one law, you give a blow to all the +laws, by which your religion and liberty are to be protected; and +instead of silently receiving the benefit of this indulgence, you set +up for advocates to support it, you become voluntary aggressors, and +look like counsel retained by the prerogative against your old friend +Magna Charta, who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under +your displeasure. + +If the case then should be, that the price expected from you for this +liberty is giving up your right in the laws, sure you will think twice +before you go any further in such a losing bargain. After giving +thanks for the breach of one law, you lose the right of complaining of +the breach of all the rest; you will not very well know how to defend +yourselves when you are pressed; and having given up the question when +it was for your advantage, you cannot recall it when it shall be to +your prejudice. If you will set up at one time a power to help you, +which at another time, by parity of reason, shall be made use of to +destroy you, you will neither be pitied nor relieved against a +mischief which you draw upon yourselves by being so unreasonably +thankful. It is like calling in auxiliaries to help, who are strong +enough to subdue you. In such a case your complaints will come too +late to be heard, and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of +compassion. + +If you think, for your excuse, to expound your thanks, so as to +restrain them to this particular case; others, for their ends, will +extend them further: and in these differing interpretations, that +which is backed by authority will be the most likely to prevail; +especially when, by the advantage you have given them, they have in +truth the better of the argument, and that the inferences from your +own concessions are very strong and express against you. This is so +far from being a groundless supposition, that there was a late +instance of it in the last session of Parliament, in the House of +Lords, where the first thanks, though things of course, were +interpreted to be the approbation of the King's whole speech, and a +restraint from the further examination of any part of it, though never +so much disliked; and it was with difficulty obtained, not to be +excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty prerogative of +dispensing, merely by this innocent and usual piece of good manners, +by which no such thing could possibly be intended. + +This showeth that some bounds are to be put to your good breeding, and +that the Constitution of England is too valuable a thing to be +ventured upon a compliment. Now that you have for some time enjoyed +the benefit of the end, it is time for you to look into the danger of +the means. The same reason that made you desirous to get liberty must +make you solicitous to preserve it, so that the next thought will +naturally be, not to engage yourself beyond retreat; and to agree so +far with the principles of all religion, as not to rely upon a +death-bed repentance. + +There are certain periods of time, which being once past, make all +cautions ineffectual, and all remedies desperate. Our understandings +are apt to be hurried on by the first heats, which, if not restrained +in time, do not give us leave to look back till it is too late. +Consider this in the case of your anger against the Church of England, +and take warning by their mistake in the same kind, when after the +late King's Restoration they preserved so long the bitter taste of +your rough usage to them in other times, that it made them forget +their interest and sacrifice it to their revenge. + +Either you will blame this proceeding in them, and for that reason not +follow it; or, if you allow it, you have no reason to be offended with +them; so that you must either dismiss your anger or lose your excuse; +except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of +your morality and understanding. + +If you had now to do with those rigid prelates who made it a matter of +conscience to give you the least indulgence, but kept you at an +uncharitable distance, and even to your most reasonable scruples +continued stiff and inexorable, the argument might be fairer on your +side; but since the common danger has so laid open that mistake, that +all the former haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished, and +that it hath turned the spirit of persecution into a spirit of peace, +charity, and condescension; shall this happy change only affect the +Church of England? And are you so in love with separation as not to be +moved by this example? It ought to be followed, were there no other +reason than that it is virtue; but when, besides that, it is become +necessary to your preservation, it is impossible to fail the having +its effect upon you. + +If it should be said that the Church of England is never humble but +when she is out of power, and therefore loseth the right of being +believed when she pretendeth to it: the answer is, _first_, It would +be an uncharitable objection, and very much mistimed; an unseasonable +triumph, not only ungenerous but unsafe: so that in these respects it +cannot be urged without scandal, even though it could be said with +truth. _Secondly_, This is not so in fact, and the argument must fall, +being built upon a false foundation; for whatever may be told you at +this very hour, and in the heat and glare of your perfect sunshine, +the Church of England can in a moment bring clouds again, and turn +the royal thunder upon your heads, blow you off the stage with a +breath, if she would give but a smile or a kind word; the least +glimpse of her compliance would throw you back into the state of +suffering, and draw upon you all the arrears of severity which have +accrued during the time of this kindness to you; and yet the Church of +England, with all her faults, will not allow herself to be rescued by +such unjustifiable means, but chooseth to bear the weight of power +rather than lie under the burden of being criminal. + +It cannot be said that she is unprovoked: books and letters come out +every day to call for answers, yet she will not be stirred. From the +supposed authors and the style, one would swear they were undertakers, +and had made a contract to fall out with the Church of England. There +are lashes in every address, challenges to draw the pen in every +pamphlet. In short, the fairest occasions in the world given to +quarrel; but she wisely distinguisheth between the body of Dissenters, +whom she will suppose to act, as they do, with no ill intent, and +these small skirmishers, picked and sent out to piqueer, and to begin +a fray amongst the Protestants for the entertainment as well as the +advantage of the Church of Rome. + +This conduct is so good, that it will be scandalous not to applaud it. +It is not equal dealing to blame our adversaries for doing ill, and +not commend them when they do well. + +To hate them because they are persecuted, and not to be reconciled to +them when they are ready to suffer rather than receive all the +advantages that can be gained by a criminal compliance, is a principle +no sort of Christians can own, since it would give an objection to +them never to be answered. + +Think a little who they were that promoted your former persecutions, +and then consider how it will look to be angry with the instruments, +and at the same time to make a league with the authors of your +sufferings. + +Have you enough considered what will be expected from you? Are you +ready to stand in every borough by virtue of a _conge d'elire_, and +instead of election be satisfied if you are returned? + +Will you, in parliament, justify the dispensing power, with all its +consequences, and repeal the test, by which you will make way for the +repeal of all the laws that were made to preserve your religion, and +to enact others that shall destroy it? + +Are you disposed to change the liberty of debate into the merit of +obedience; and to be made instruments to repeal or enact laws, when +the Roman Consistory are Lords of the Articles? + +Are you so linked to your new friends as to reject any indulgence a +parliament shall offer you, if it shall not be so comprehensive as to +include the Papists in it? + +Consider that the implied conditions of your new treaty are no less +than that you are to do everything you are desired, without examining; +and that for this pretended liberty of conscience, your real freedom +is to be sacrificed; your former faults hang like chains still about +you, you are let loose only upon bail; the first act of non-compliance +sendeth you to gaol again. + +You may see that the Papists themselves do not rely upon the legality +of this power which you are to justify, since the being so very +earnest to get it established by a law, and the doing such very hard +things in order, as they think, to obtain it, is a clear evidence that +they do not think that the single power of the Crown is in this case a +good foundation; especially when this is done under a prince so very +tender of the rights of sovereignty that he would think it a +diminution to his prerogative, where he conceiveth it strong enough to +go alone, to call in the legislative help to strengthen and support +it. + +You have formerly blamed the Church of England, and not without +reason, for going so far as they did in their compliance; and yet so +soon as they stopped, you see they are not only deserted, but +prosecuted. Conclude, then, from this example, that you must either +break off your friendship or resolve to have no bounds in it. If they +do succeed in their design, they will leave you first: if they do, you +must either leave them, when it will be too late for your safety, or +else, after the squeaziness of starting at a surplice, you must be +forced to swallow Transubstantiation. + +Remember that the other day those of the Church of England were +Trimmers for enduring you; and now, by a sudden turn, you are become +the favourites. Do not deceive yourselves; it is not the nature of +lasting plants thus to shoot up in a night; you may look gay and green +for a little time, but you want a root to give you a continuance. It +is not so long since, as to be forgotten, that the maxim was, It is +impossible for a Dissenter not to be a REBEL. Consider at this time in +France, even the new converts are so far from being employed that they +are disarmed; their sudden change maketh them still to be distrusted, +notwithstanding that they are reconciled; what are you to expect then +from your dear friends, to whom, whenever they shall think fit to +throw you off again, you have in other times given such arguments for +their excuse? + +Besides all this you act very unskilfully against your visible +interest, if you throw away the advantages of which you can hardly +fail in the next probable Revolution. Things tend naturally to what +you would have, if you would let them alone, and not by an +unseasonable activity lose the influences of your good star, which +promiseth you everything that is prosperous. + +The Church of England, convinced of its error in being severe to you; +the Parliament, whenever it meeteth sure to be gentle to you; the next +heir, bred in the country which you have so often quoted for a pattern +of indulgence; a general agreement of all thinking men, that we must +no more cut ourselves off from the Protestants abroad, but rather +enlarge the foundations upon which we are to build our defences +against the common enemy; so that in truth, all things seem to +conspire to give you ease and satisfaction, if by too much haste to +anticipate your good fortune you do not destroy it. + +The Protestants have but one article of human strength to oppose the +power which is now against them, and that is not to lose the advantage +of their numbers by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided. + +We all agree in our duty to our prince; our objections to his belief +do not hinder us from seeing his virtues; and our not complying with +his religion hath no effect upon our allegiance. We are not to be +laughed out of our passive obedience, and the doctrine of +non-resistance, though even those who perhaps owe the best part of +their security to that principle are apt to make a jest of it. + +So that if we give no advantage by the fatal mistake of misapplying +our anger, by the natural course of things this danger will pass away +like a shower of hail; fair weather will succeed, as lowering as the +sky now looketh, and all this by a plain and easy receipt. Let us be +still, quiet, and undivided, firm at the same time to our religion, +our loyalty, and our laws; and so long as we continue this method it +is next to impossible that the odds of two hundred to one should lose +the bet; except the Church of Rome, which hath been so long barren of +miracles, should now, in her declining age, be brought to bed of one +that would outdo the best she can brag of in her legend. + +To conclude, the short question will be, Whether you will join with +those who must in the end run the same fate with you? If Protestants +of all sorts, in their behaviour to one another, have been to blame, +they are upon more equal terms, and, for that very reason, it is +fitter for them now to be reconciled. Our disunion is not only a +reproach, but a danger to us. Those who believe in modern miracles +have more right, or at least more excuse, to neglect all secular +caution; but for us, it is as justifiable to have no religion as +wilfully to throw away the human means of preserving it.--I am, Dear +Sir, your most affectionate humble Servant, T.W. + + + + +II.--'THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS' + +BY DANIEL DEFOE + + +(_Defoe wrote an enormous number of pamphlets; for great part of his +life he might almost have been described as a pamphleteer pure and +simple. In the vast lists of publications which his biographers and +bibliographers have compiled, partly by industry and partly by +imagination, by far the larger number of entries is of the pamphlet +kind. Indeed, as most people know, Defoe did not take to the +composition of the fiction which has made his name famous till very +late in life. Born in the year 1661, he began pamphleteering when he +was scarcely of age, and continued in that way (with occasional +excursions into work larger in scale, but not very different in style +or matter) for nearly forty years before the publication of _Robinson +Crusoe_. His two most famous and most effective pamphlets were the +so-called _Legion Letter_ and _The Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ +(given here), to which may perhaps be added the _Reasons against War +with France_. All these, with many others, appeared within the +compass of the years 1700-1702. The three together touched upon the +three most burning questions of the late seventeenth and early +eighteenth centuries--parliamentary factiousness, an aggressive policy +abroad, and toleration at home. Little or no annotation is required +for their comprehension, but the reader may amuse himself if he likes +by meditating whether the _Shortest Way_ is irony or not. My own +opinion is that it is not; being a simple statement of the actual +views of the other side. The anecdotic history of the piece--how it +was taken for serious by both sides, was prosecuted by Government, the +author proclaimed, and a reward offered for his detection; how, the +printer and publisher being arrested, Defoe surrendered, was tried, +pleaded guilty, was fined, pilloried, and imprisoned--may be read in +the biographies. His imprisonment lasted till August 1704, when Harley +let him out, and he entered upon a course of rather mysterious service +as a Government free-lance, which was continued under various +ministries, and has not on the whole brought him credit with +posterity. For many years, his remarkable _Review_, a political +journal which he conducted single-handed, served as his chief organ; +but he never gave up writing pamphlets till his death in 1731, though +he never approached either the merit or the effect of that here +given._) + + +Sir Roger L'Estrange tells us a story in his collection of fables, of +the cock and the horses. The cock was gotten to roost in the stable +among the horses, and there being no racks or other conveniences for +him, it seems he was forced to roost upon the ground. The horses +jostling about for room, and putting the cock in danger of his life, +he gives them this grave advice, 'Pray, gentlefolks, let us stand +still, for fear we should tread upon one another.' + +There are some people in the world, who now they are unperched, and +reduced to an equality with other people, and under strong and very +just apprehensions of being further treated as they deserve, begin, +with AEsop's cock, to preach up peace and union, and the Christian +duties of moderation, forgetting that, when they had the power in +their hands, these graces were strangers in their gates. + +It is now near fourteen years that the glory and peace of the purest +and most flourishing Church in the world has been eclipsed, buffeted, +and disturbed by a sort of men whom God in His providence has suffered +to insult over her and bring her down. These have been the days of her +humiliation and tribulation. She has borne with invincible patience +the reproach of the wicked, and God has at last heard her prayers, and +delivered her from the oppression of the stranger. + +And now they find their day is over, their power gone, and the throne +of this nation possessed by a royal, English, true, and ever-constant +member of, and friend to, the Church of England. Now they find that +they are in danger of the Church of England's just resentments; now +they cry out peace, union, forbearance, and charity, as if the Church +had not too long harboured her enemies under her wing, and nourished +the viperous brood till they hiss and fly in the face of the mother +that cherished them. + +No, gentlemen, the time of mercy is past, your day of grace is over; +you should have practised peace, and moderation, and charity, if you +expected any yourselves. + +We have heard none of this lesson for fourteen years past. We have +been huffed and bullied with your Act of Toleration; you have told us +that you are the Church established by law, as well as others; have +set up your canting synagogues at our church doors, and the Church and +members have been loaded with reproaches, with oaths, associations, +abjurations, and what not. Where has been the mercy, the forbearance, +the charity, you have shown to tender consciences of the Church of +England, that could not take oaths as fast as you made them; that +having sworn allegiance to their lawful and rightful King, could not +dispense with that oath, their King being still alive, and swear to +your new hodge-podge of a Dutch Government? These have been turned out +of their livings, and they and their families left to starve; their +estates double taxed to carry on a war they had no hand in, and you +got nothing by. What account can you give of the multitudes you have +forced to comply, against their consciences, with your new sophistical +politics, who, like new converts in France, sin because they cannot +starve? And now the tables are turned upon you; you must not be +persecuted; it is not a Christian spirit. + +You have butchered one king, deposed another king, and made a mock +king of a third, and yet you could have the face to expect to be +employed and trusted by the fourth. Anybody that did not know the +temper of your party would stand amazed at the impudence, as well as +folly, to think of it. + +Your management of your Dutch monarch, whom you reduced to a mere King +of Clouts, is enough to give any future princes such an idea of your +principles as to warn them sufficiently from coming into your +clutches; and God be thanked the Queen is out of your hands, knows +you, and will have a care of you. + +There is no doubt but the supreme authority of a nation has in itself +a power, and a right to that power, to execute the laws upon any part +of that nation it governs. The execution of the known laws of the +land, and that with a weak and gentle hand neither, was all this +fanatical party of this land have ever called persecution; this they +have magnified to a height, that the sufferings of the Huguenots in +France were not to be compared with. Now, to execute the known laws +of a nation upon those who transgress them, after voluntarily +consenting to the making those laws, can never be called persecution, +but justice. But justice is always violence to the party offending, +for every man is innocent in his own eyes. The first execution of the +laws against Dissenters in England was in the days of King James the +First; and what did it amount to truly? The worst they suffered was at +their own request: to let them go to New England and erect a new +colony, and give them great privileges, grants, and suitable powers, +keep them under protection, and defend them against all invaders, and +receive no taxes or revenue from them. This was the cruelty of the +Church of England. Fatal leniency! It was the ruin of that excellent +prince, King Charles the First. Had King James sent all the Puritans +in England away to the West Indies, we had been a national, unmixed +Church; the Church of England had been kept undivided and entire. + +To requite the lenity of the father they take up arms against the son; +conquer, pursue, take, imprison, and at last put to death the anointed +of God, and destroy the very being and nature of government, setting +up a sordid impostor, who had neither title to govern nor +understanding to manage, but supplied that want with power, bloody and +desperate counsels, and craft without conscience. + +Had not King James the First withheld the full execution of the laws, +had he given them strict justice, he had cleared the nation of them, +and the consequences had been plain: his son had never been murdered +by them nor the monarchy overwhelmed. It was too much mercy shown them +was the ruin of his posterity and the ruin of the nation's peace. One +would think the Dissenters should not have the face to believe that we +are to be wheedled and canted into peace and toleration when they know +that they have once requited us with a civil war, and once with an +intolerable and unrighteous persecution for our former civility. + +Nay, to encourage us to be easy with them, it is apparent that they +never had the upper hand of the Church, but they treated her with all +the severity, with all the reproach and contempt that was possible. +What peace and what mercy did they show the loyal gentry of the Church +of England in the time of their triumphant Commonwealth? How did they +put all the gentry of England to ransom, whether they were actually in +arms for the King or not, making people compound for their estates and +starve their families? How did they treat the clergy of the Church of +England, sequestered the ministers, devoured the patrimony of the +Church, and divided the spoil by sharing the Church lands among their +soldiers, and turning her clergy out to starve? Just such measure as +they have meted should be measured them again. + +Charity and love is the known doctrine of the Church of England, and +it is plain she has put it in practice towards the Dissenters, even +beyond what they ought, till she has been wanting to herself, and in +effect unkind to her sons, particularly in the too much lenity of King +James the First, mentioned before. Had he so rooted the Puritans from +the face of the land, which he had an opportunity early to have done, +they had not had the power to vex the Church as since they have done. + +In the days of King Charles the Second how did the Church reward their +bloody doings with lenity and mercy, except the barbarous regicides of +the pretended court of justice? Not a soul suffered for all the blood +in an unnatural war. King Charles came in all mercy and love, +cherished them, preferred them, employed them, withheld the rigour of +the law, and oftentimes, even against the advice of his Parliament, +gave them liberty of conscience; and how did they requite him with the +villanous contrivance to depose and murder him and his successor at +the Rye Plot? + +King James, as if mercy was the inherent quality of the family, began +his reign with unusual favour to them. Nor could their joining with +the Duke of Monmouth against him move him to do himself justice upon +them; but that mistaken prince thought to win them by gentleness and +love, proclaimed an universal liberty to them, and rather +discountenanced the Church of England than them. How they requited him +all the world knows. + +The late reign is too fresh in the memory of all the world to need a +comment; how, under pretence of joining with the Church in redressing +some grievances, they pushed things to that extremity, in conjunction +with some mistaken gentlemen, as to depose the late King, as if the +grievance of the nation could not have been redressed but by the +absolute ruin of the prince. Here is an instance of their temper, +their peace, and charity. To what height they carried themselves +during the reign of a king of their own; how they crept into all +places of trust and profit; how they insinuated into the favour of the +King, and were at first preferred to the highest places in the nation; +how they engrossed the ministry, and above all, how pitifully they +managed, is too plain to need any remarks. + +But particularly their mercy and charity, the spirit of union, they +tell us so much of, has been remarkable in Scotland. If any man would +see the spirit of a Dissenter, let him look into Scotland. There they +made entire conquest of the Church, trampled down the sacred orders, +and suppressed the Episcopal government with an absolute, and, as they +suppose, irretrievable victory, though it is possible they may find +themselves mistaken. Now it would be a very proper question to ask +their impudent advocate, the Observator, pray how much mercy and +favour did the members of the Episcopal Church find in Scotland from +the Scotch Presbyterian Government? and I shall undertake for the +Church of England that the Dissenters shall still receive as much +here, though they deserve but little. + +In a small treatise of the sufferings of the Episcopal clergy in +Scotland, it will appear what usage they met with; how they not only +lost their livings, but in several places were plundered and abused in +their persons; the ministers that could not conform turned out with +numerous families and no maintenance, and hardly charity enough left +to relieve them with a bit of bread. And the cruelties of the parties +are innumerable, and not to be attempted in this short piece. + +And now to prevent the distant cloud which they perceived to hang over +their heads from England, with a true Presbyterian policy they put in +for a union of nations, that England might unite their Church with the +Kirk of Scotland, and their Presbyterian members sit in our House of +Commons, and their Assembly of Scotch canting long-cloaks in our +Convocation. What might have been if our fanatic Whiggish statesmen +continued, God only knows; but we hope we are out of fear of that now. + +It is alleged by some of the faction--and they began to bully us with +it--that if we won't unite with them they will not settle the crown +with us again, but when Her Majesty dies, will choose a king for +themselves. + +If they won't, we must make them, and it is not the first time we have +let them know that we are able. The crowns of these kingdoms have not +so far disowned the right of succession but they may retrieve it +again; and if Scotland thinks to come off from a successive to an +elective state of government, England has not promised not to assist +the right heir and put them into possession without any regard to +their ridiculous settlements. + +These are the gentlemen, these their ways of treating the Church, both +at home and abroad. Now let us examine the reasons they pretend to +give why we should be favourable to them, why we should continue and +tolerate them among us. + +First, they are very numerous, they say; they are a great part of the +nation, and we cannot suppress them. + +To this may be answered:-- + +1. They are not so numerous as the Protestants in France, and yet the +French King effectually cleared the nation of them at once, and we +don't find he misses them at home. But I am not of the opinion they +are so numerous as is pretended; their party is more numerous than +their persons, and those mistaken people of the Church who are misled +and deluded by their wheedling artifices to join with them, make +their party the greater; but these will open their eyes when the +Government shall set heartily about the work, and come off from them, +as some animals, which they say always desert a house when it is +likely to fall. + +2. The more numerous the more dangerous, and therefore the more need +to suppress them; and God has suffered us to bear them as goads in our +sides for not utterly extinguishing them long ago. + +3. If we are to allow them only because we cannot suppress them, then +it ought to be tried whether we can or not; and I am of opinion it is +easy to be done, and could prescribe ways and means, if it were +proper; but I doubt not the Government will find effectual methods for +the rooting the contagion from the face of this land. + +Another argument they use, which is this, that it is a time of war, +and we have need to unite against the common enemy. + +We answer, this common enemy had been no enemy if they had not made +him so. He was quiet, in peace, and no way disturbed or encroached +upon us, and we know no reason we had to quarrel with him. + +But further, we make no question but we are able to deal with this +common enemy without their help; but why must we unite with them +because of the enemy? Will they go over to the enemy if we do not +prevent it by a union with them? We are very well contented they +should, and make no question we shall be ready to deal with them and +the common enemy too, and better without them than with them. + +Besides, if we have a common enemy, there is the more need to be +secure against our private enemies. If there is one common enemy, we +have the less need to have an enemy in our bowels. + +It was a great argument some people used against suppressing the old +money, that it was a time of war, and it was too great a risk for the +nation to run; if we should not master it, we should be undone. And +yet the sequel proved the hazard was not so great but it might be +mastered, and the success was answerable. The suppressing the +Dissenters is not a harder work nor a work of less necessity to the +public. We can never enjoy a settled, uninterrupted union and +tranquillity in this nation till the spirit of Whiggism, faction, and +schism is melted down like the old money. + +To talk of the difficulty is to frighten ourselves with chimeras and +notions of a powerful party, which are indeed a party without power. +Difficulties often appear greater at a distance than when they are +searched into with judgment and distinguished from the vapours and +shadows that attend them. + +We are not to be frightened with it; this age is wiser than that by +all our own experience and theirs too. King Charles the First had +early suppressed this party if he had taken more deliberate measures. +In short, it is not worth arguing to talk of their arms. Their +Monmouths, and Shaftesburys, and Argyles are gone; their Dutch +sanctuary is at an end; Heaven has made way for their destruction, and +if we do not close with the Divine occasion we are to blame ourselves, +and may remember that we had once an opportunity to serve the Church +of England by extirpating her implacable enemies, and having let slip +the minute that Heaven presented, may experimentally complain, _Post +est occasio calva_. + +Here are some popular objections in the way:-- + +As first, the Queen has promised them to continue them in their +tolerated liberty, and has told us she will be a religious observer of +her word. + +What Her Majesty will do we cannot help; but what, as head of the +Church, she ought to do, is another case. Her Majesty has promised to +protect and defend the Church of England, and if she cannot +effectually do that without the destruction of the Dissenters, she +must of course dispense with one promise to comply with another. But +to answer this cavil more effectually: Her Majesty did never promise +to maintain the toleration to the destruction of the Church; but it is +upon supposition that it may be compatible with the well-being and +safety of the Church, which she had declared she would take especial +care of. Now if these two interests clash, it is plain Her Majesty's +intentions are to uphold, protect, defend, and establish the Church, +and this we conceive is impossible. + +Perhaps it may be said that the Church is in no immediate danger from +the Dissenters, and therefore it is time enough. But this is a weak +answer. + +For first, if a danger be real, the distance of it is no argument +against, but rather a spur to quicken us to prevention, lest it be too +late hereafter. + +And secondly, here is the opportunity, and the only one perhaps that +ever the Church had, to secure herself and destroy her enemies. + +The representatives of the nation have now an opportunity; the time is +come which all good men have wished for, that the gentlemen of England +may serve the Church of England. Now they are protected and encouraged +by a Church of England Queen. + +What will you do for your sister in the day that she shall be spoken +for? + +If ever you will establish the best Christian Church in the world; if +ever you will suppress the spirit of enthusiasm; if ever you will free +the nation from the viperous brood that have so long sucked the blood +of their mother; if ever you will leave your posterity free from +faction and rebellion, this is the time. This is the time to pull up +this heretical weed of sedition that has so long disturbed the peace +of our Church and poisoned the good corn. + +But, says another hot and cold objector, this is renewing fire and +faggot, reviving the act _De Heretico Comburendo_; this will be +cruelty in its nature, and barbarous to all the world. + +I answer, it is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but +the poison of their nature makes it a charity to our neighbours to +destroy those creatures, not for any personal injury received, but for +prevention; not for the evil they have done, but the evil they may do. + +Serpents, toads, vipers, etc., are noxious to the body, and poison the +sensitive life; these poison the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare +our children, destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future +felicity, and contaminate the whole mass. + +Shall any law be given to such wild creatures? Some beasts are for +sport, and the huntsmen give them advantages of ground; but some are +knocked on the head by all possible ways of violence and surprise. + +I do not prescribe fire and faggot, but, as Scipio said of Carthage, +_Delenda est Carthago_. They are to be rooted out of this nation, if +ever we will live in peace, serve God, or enjoy our own. As for the +manner, I leave it to those hands who have a right to execute God's +justice on the nation's and the Church's enemies. + +But if we must be frighted from this justice under the specious +pretences and odious sense of cruelty, nothing will be effected: it +will be more barbarous to our own children and dear posterity when +they shall reproach their fathers, as we do ours, and tell us, 'You +had an opportunity to root out this cursed race from the world under +the favour and protection of a true English queen; and out of your +foolish pity you spared them, because, forsooth, you would not be +cruel; and now our Church is suppressed and persecuted, our religion +trampled under foot, our estates plundered, our persons imprisoned and +dragged to jails, gibbets, and scaffolds: your sparing this Amalekite +race is our destruction, your mercy to them proves cruelty to your +poor posterity.' + +How just will such reflections be when our posterity shall fall under +the merciless clutches of this uncharitable generation, when our +Church shall be swallowed up in schism, faction, enthusiasm, and +confusion; when our Government shall be devolved upon foreigners, and +our monarchy dwindled into a republic. + +It would be more rational for us, if we must spare this generation, to +summon our own to a general massacre, and as we have brought them into +the world free, send them out so, and not betray them to destruction +by our supine negligence, and then cry, 'It is mercy.' + +Moses was a merciful, meek man, and yet with what fury did he run +through the camp, and cut the throats of three and thirty thousand of +his dear Israelites that were fallen into idolatry. What was the +reason? It was mercy to the rest to make these examples, to prevent +the destruction of the whole army. + +How many millions of future souls we save from infection and delusion +if the present race of poisoned spirits were purged from the face of +the land! + +It is vain to trifle in this matter, the light, foolish handling of +them by mulcts, fines, etc.,--it is their glory and their advantage. +If the gallows instead of the Counter, and the galleys instead of the +fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, to preach or hear, +there would not be so many sufferers. The spirit of martyrdom is over; +they that will go to church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors would go +to forty churches rather than be hanged. + +If one severe law were made and punctually executed, that whoever was +found at a conventicle should be banished the nation and the preacher +be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale. They would all come +to church, and one age would make us all one again. + +To talk of five shillings a month for not coming to the sacrament, and +one shilling per week for not coming to church, this is such a way of +converting people as never was known; this is selling them a liberty +to transgress for so much money. If it be not a crime, why don't we +give them full license? And if it be, no price ought to compound for +the committing it, for that is selling a liberty to people to sin +against God and the Government. + +If it be a crime of the highest consequence both against the peace and +welfare of the nation, the glory of God, the good of the Church, and +the happiness of the soul, let us rank it among capital offences, and +let it receive a punishment in proportion to it. + +We hang men for trifles, and banish them for things not worth naming; +but an offence against God and the Church, against the welfare of the +world and the dignity of religion, shall be bought off for five +shillings! This is such a shame to a Christian Government that it is +with regret I transmit it to posterity. + +If men sin against God, affront His ordinances, rebel against His +Church, and disobey the precepts of their superiors, let them suffer +as such capital crimes deserve. So will religion flourish, and this +divided nation be once again united. + +And yet the title of barbarous and cruel will soon be taken off from +this law too. I am not supposing that all the Dissenters in England +should be hanged or banished, but, as in cases of rebellions and +insurrections, if a few of the ringleaders suffer, the multitude are +dismissed; so, a few obstinate people being made examples, there is no +doubt but the severity of the law would find a stop in the compliance +of the multitude. + +To make the reasonableness of this matter out of question, and more +unanswerably plain, let us examine for what it is that this nation is +divided into parties and factions, and let us see how they can justify +a separation, or we of the Church of England can justify our bearing +the insults and inconveniences of the party. + +One of their leading pastors, and a man of as much learning as most +among them, in his answer to a pamphlet, entitled 'An Inquiry into the +Occasional Conformity,' has these words, p. 27, 'Do the religion of +the Church and the meeting-houses make two religions? Wherein do they +differ? The substance of the same religion is common to them both; and +the modes and accidents are the things in which only they differ.' P. +28: 'Thirty-nine articles are given us for the summary of our +religion; thirty-six contain the substance of it, wherein we agree; +three the additional appendices, about which we have some +differences.' + +Now, if, as by their own acknowledgment, the Church of England is a +true Church, and the difference between them is only in a few modes +and accidents, why should we expect that they will suffer galleys, +corporeal punishment, and banishment for these trifles? There is no +question but they will be wiser; even their own principles will not +bear them out in it; they will certainly comply with the laws and with +reason; and though at the first severity they may seem hard, the next +age will feel nothing of it; the contagion will be rooted out; the +disease being cured, there will be no need of the operation; but if +they should venture to transgress and fall into the pit, all the world +must condemn their obstinacy, as being without ground from their own +principles. + +Thus the pretence of cruelty will be taken off, and the party actually +suppressed, and the disquiets they have so often brought upon the +nation prevented. + +Their numbers and their wealth make them haughty, and that is so far +from being an argument to persuade us to forbear them, that it is a +warning to us, without any delay, to reconcile them to the unity of +the Church or remove them from us. + +At present, Heaven be praised, they are not so formidable as they have +been, and it is our own fault if ever we suffer them to be so. +Providence and the Church of England seem to join in this particular, +that now the destroyers of the nation's peace may be overturned, and +to this end the present opportunity seems to be put into our hands. + +To this end her present Majesty seems reserved to enjoy the crown, +that the ecclesiastic as well as civil rights of the nation may be +restored by her hand. To this end the face of affairs have received +such a turn in the process of a few months as never has been before; +the leading men of the nation, the universal cry of the people, the +unanimous request of the clergy, agree in this, that the deliverance +of our Church is at hand. For this end has Providence given us such a +Parliament, such a Convocation, such a gentry, and such a Queen as we +never had before. And what may be the consequences of a neglect of +such opportunities? The succession of the crown has but a dark +prospect; another Dutch turn may make the hopes of it ridiculous and +the practice impossible. Be the house of our future princes never so +well inclined, they will be foreigners, and many years will be spent +in suiting the genius of strangers to this crown and the interests of +the nation; and how many ages it may be before the English throne be +filled with so much zeal and candour, so much tenderness and hearty +affection to the Church as we see it now covered with, who can +imagine? + +It is high time, then, for the friends of the Church of England to +think of building up and establishing her in such a manner that she +may be no more invaded by foreigners nor divided by factions, schisms, +and error. + +If this could be done by gentle and easy methods, I should be glad; +but the wound is corroded, the vitals begin to mortify, and nothing +but amputation of members can complete the cure; all the ways of +tenderness and compassion, all persuasive arguments, have been made +use of in vain. + +The humour of the Dissenters has so increased among the people that +they hold the Church in defiance, and the house of God is an +abomination among them; nay, they have brought up their posterity in +such prepossessed aversions to our holy religion that the ignorant mob +think we are all idolaters and worshippers of Baal, and account it a +sin to come within the walls of our churches. + +The primitive Christians were not more shy of a heathen temple or of +meat offered to idols, nor the Jews of swine's flesh, than some of our +Dissenters are of the Church, and the divine service selemnised +therein. + +This obstinacy must be rooted out with the profession of it; while the +generation are less at liberty daily to affront God Almighty and +dishonour His holy worship, we are wanting in our duty to God and our +mother, the Church of England. + +How can we answer it to God, to the Church, and to our posterity, to +leave them entangled with fanaticism, error, and obstinacy in the +bowels of the nation; to leave them an enemy in their streets, that in +time may involve them in the same crimes, and endanger the utter +extirpation of religion in the nation? + +What is the difference betwixt this and being subjected to the power +of the Church of Rome, from whence we have reformed? If one be an +extreme on one hand, and one on another, it is equally destructive to +the truth to have errors settled among us, let them be of what nature +they will. + +Both are enemies of our Church and of our peace; and why should it not +be as criminal to admit an enthusiast as a Jesuit? Why should the +Papist with his seven sacraments be worse than the Quaker with no +sacraments at all? Why should religious houses be more intolerable +than meeting-houses? Alas, the Church of England! What with Popery on +one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified +between two thieves! + +Now let us crucify the thieves. Let her foundations be established +upon the destruction of her enemies. The doors of mercy being always +open to the returning part of the deluded people, let the obstinate be +ruled with the rod of iron. + +Let all true sons of so holy and oppressed a mother, exasperated by +her afflictions, harden their hearts against those who have oppressed +her. + +And may God Almighty put it into the hearts of all the friends of +truth to lift up a standard against pride and Antichrist, that the +posterity of the sons of error may be rooted out from the face of this +land for ever. + + + + +III.--THE 'DRAPIER'S LETTERS' + +(NOS. I AND 2) + +BY JONATHAN SWIFT + + +(_The two pamphlets entitled _The Conduct of the Allies_ and _The +Public Spirit of the Whigs_--which are sometimes considered the +capital examples of the political efforts of Swift's magnificent +genius--were the very Jachin and Boaz of the Tory administration in +the last years of Anne, and the effect of them has been admitted by +such a violent Whig and such a good critic as Jeffrey. They seemed, +however, not wholly suitable for insertion here; first, because of +their length (for one would have occupied nearly a third, the other +nearly a fourth of this volume), and secondly, because the greater +part of each does really, to some extent, underlie the charge brought +against political pamphlets generally, and, being occupied with a +great number of personal and particular matters, requires either much +intimacy with the period or elaborate and probably tedious comparison +and elucidation, to make it intelligible. No such drawback attaches +to the almost more famous _Drapier's Letters_, of which I give the +first and second. They were written at the very zenith of their +author's marvellous powers, and at the time when his _saeva indignatio_ +was heated seven times hotter than usual by the conviction that his +last hope of English promotion was gone. Their circumstances are +simple and well known. Wood had received a patent to coin copper money +for Ireland to the amount of L108,000. Most commentators seem to think +that he would have done this honestly enough; to me the simple fact +that on the revocation of his patent a pension of L3000 a year was +given to him in compensation is proof enough of the contrary. It is +impossible to imagine any honest profit on a transaction of such a +nature to such an amount which could rise to the capital value of such +a pension. That Swift was instigated to take up his pen against the +transaction by private griefs against the Ministry is extremely +probable; that the thing was not a job less so. As before, I must +refer to biographers for the details of the matter; the text is what +interests us here. I shall only remind the reader that Swift was +fifty-seven when the 'Drapier' wrote, that _Gulliver_ appeared about +three years later, and that Swift himself expired--lunatic and +miserable beyond utterance--on the 19th October 1745, twenty-one years +after all Dublin and half England had rung with the boldness and the +triumph of the 'Drapier.'_) + + +I + +TO THE TRADESMEN, SHOP-KEEPERS, FARMERS, AND COMMON-PEOPLE IN GENERAL, +OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND; CONCERNING THE BRASS HALF-PENCE COINED BY +MR. WOOD. + +Brethren, Friends, Countrymen, and Fellow Subjects--What I intend now +to say to you, is, next to your duty to God, and the care of your +salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves, and your children; +your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life entirely +depend upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men, as +Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country, to read this +paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; +which that you may do at the less expence, I have ordered the printer +to sell it at the lowest rate. + +It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no other +intention than to do you good you will not be at the pains to read his +advices: one copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you, which will +be less than a farthing a-piece. It is your folly that you have no +common or general interest in your view, not even the wisest among +you, neither do you know or enquire, or care who are your friends or +who are your enemies. + +About four years ago, a little book was written, to advise all people +to wear the manufactures of this our own dear country: it had no other +design, said nothing against the king or Parliament, or any man, yet +the poor printer was prosecuted two years, with the utmost violence, +and even some weavers themselves, for whose sake it was written, being +upon the jury, found him guilty. This would be enough to discourage +any man from endeavouring to do you good, when you will either neglect +him or fly in his face for his pains, and when he must expect only +danger to himself and loss of money, perhaps to his ruin. + +However, I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest destruction +before your eyes, if you do not behave yourselves as you ought. + +I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact; and then +I will lay before you how you ought to act in common prudence, and +according to the laws of your country. + +The fact is thus, It having been many years since copper half-pence or +farthings were last coined in this kingdom, they have been for some +time very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about under the name of +raps. Several applications were made to England, that we might have +liberty to coin new ones, as in former times we did; but they did not +succeed. At last one Mr. Wood a mean ordinary man, a hard-ware dealer, +procured a patent under his Majesty's Broad Seal to coin fourscore and +ten thousand pounds in copper for this kingdom, which patent however +did not oblige any one here to take them, unless they pleased. Now you +must know, that the half-pence and farthings in England pass for very +little more than they are worth. And if you should beat them to +pieces, and sell them to the brazier, you would not lose above a penny +in a shilling. But Mr. Wood made his half-pence of such base metal, +and so much smaller than the English ones, that the brazier would not +give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of his; so that +this sum of fourscore and ten thousand pounds in good gold and silver, +must be given for trash that will not be worth above eight or nine +thousand pounds real value. But this is not the worst, for Mr. Wood, +when he pleases, may by stealth send over another and another +fourscore and ten thousand pounds, and buy all our goods for eleven +parts in twelve, under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a +dozen of hats for five shillings a-piece, which amounts to three +pounds, and receives the payment in Mr. Wood's coin, he really +receives only the value of five shillings. + +Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood +could have so much interest as to get his Majesty's Broad Seal for so +great a sum of bad money to be sent to this poor country, and that +all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and +let us make our own half-pence, as we used to do. Now I will make that +matter very plain. We are at a great distance from the king's court, +and have nobody there to solicit for us, although a great number of +lords and squires, whose estates are here, and are our countrymen, +spend all their lives and fortunes there. But this same Mr. Wood was +able to attend constantly for his own interest; he is an Englishman +and had great friends, and it seems knew very well where to give money +to those that would speak to others that could speak to the king and +could tell a fair story. And his majesty, and perhaps the great lord +or lords who advised him, might think it was for our country's good; +and so, as the lawyers express it, the king was deceived in his grant, +which often happens in all reigns. And I am sure if his majesty knew +that such a patent, if it should take effect according to the desire +of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin this kingdom, which hath given such +great proofs of its loyalty, he would immediately recall it, and +perhaps show his displeasure to somebody or other: but a word to the +wise is enough. Most of you must have heard, with what anger our +honourable House of Commons receiv'd an account of this Wood's patent. +There were several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proofs that +it was all a wicked cheat from the bottom to the top, and several +smart votes were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to +answer likewise in print, and in so confident a way, as if he were a +better man than our whole Parliament put together. + +This Wood, as soon as his patent was passed, or soon after, sends over +a great many barrels of those half-pence, to Cork and other seaport +towns, and to get them off, offered an hundred pounds in his coin for +seventy or eighty in silver: but the collectors of the king's customs +very honestly refused to take them, and so did almost everybody else. +And since the Parliament hath condemned them, and desired the king +that they might be stopped, all the kingdom do abominate them. + +But Wood is still working under hand to force his half-pence upon us, +and if he can by help of his friends in England prevail so far as to +get an order that the commissioners and collectors of the king's money +shall receive them, and that the army is to be paid with them, then he +thinks his work shall be done. And this is the difficulty you will be +under in such a case: for the common soldier when he goes to the +market or ale-house will offer this money, and if it be refused, +perhaps he will swagger and hector, and threaten to beat the butcher +or ale-wife, or take the goods by force, and throw them the bad +half-pence. In this and the like cases the shop-keeper, or victualler, +or any other tradesman, has no more to do than to demand ten times +the price of his goods if it is to be paid in Wood's money; for +example, twenty pence of that money for a quart of ale, and so in all +things else, and not part with his goods till he gets the money. + +For suppose you go to an ale-house with that base money, and the +landlord gives you a quart for four of these half-pence, what must the +victualler do? His brewer will not be paid in that coin, or if the +brewer should be such a fool, the farmers will not take it from them +for their bere, because they are bound by their leases to pay their +rents in good and lawful money of England, which this is not, nor of +Ireland neither, and the Squire their landlord will never be so +bewitched to take such trash for his land; so that it must certainly +stop somewhere or other, and where-ever it stops it is the same thing, +and we are all undone. + +The common weight of these half-pence is between four and five to an +ounce; suppose five, then three shillings and fourpence will weigh a +pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pounds butter +weight. Now there are many hundred farmers who pay two hundred pound a +year rent. Therefore when one of these farmers comes with his half +year's rent, which is one hundred pound, it will be at least six +hundred pound weight, which is three horses load. + +If a squire has a mind to come to town to buy clothes and wine and +spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter here, he +must bring with him five or six horses loaden with sacks as the +farmers bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach to our +shops, it must be followed by a car loaded with Mr. Wood's money. And +I hope we shall have the grace to take it for no more than it is +worth. + +They say Squire Conolly has sixteen thousand pounds a year; now if he +sends for his rent to town, as it is likely he does, he must have two +hundred and fifty horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or +three great cellars in his house for stowage. But what the bankers +will do I cannot tell. For I am assured that some great bankers keep +by them forty thousand pounds in ready cash, to answer all payments, +which sum, in Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to +carry it. + +For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a pretty +good shop of Irish stuffs and silks, and instead of taking Mr. Wood's +bad copper, I intend to truck with my neighbours the butchers, and +bakers, and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods, and the little +gold and silver I have I will keep by me like my heart's blood till +better times, or till I am just ready to starve, and then I will buy +Mr. Wood's money, as my father did the brass money in K. James's time, +who could buy ten pound of it with a guinea, and I hope to get as +much for a pistole, and so purchase bread from those who will be such +fools as to sell it me. + +These half-pence, if they once pass, will soon be counterfeit, because +it may be cheaply done, the stuff is so base. The Dutch likewise will +probably do the same thing, and send them over to us to pay for our +goods; and Mr. Wood will never be at rest but coin on: so that in some +years we shall have at least five times fourscore and ten thousand +pounds of this lumber. Now the current money of this kingdom is not +reckoned to be above four hundred thousand pounds in all; and while +there is a silver sixpence left, these blood-suckers will never be +quiet. + +When once the kingdom is reduced to such a condition I will tell you +what must be the end: the gentlemen of estates will all turn off their +tenants for want of payment, because, as I told you before, the +tenants are obliged by their leases to pay sterling, which is lawful +current money of England; then they will turn their own farmers, as +too many of them do already, run all into sheep where they can, +keeping only such other cattle as are necessary; then they will be +their own merchants, and send their wool and butter and hides and +linen beyond sea for ready money and wine and spices and silks. They +will keep only a few miserable cottiers. The farmers must rob or beg, +or leave their country. The shop-keepers in this and every other town +must break and starve: for it is the landed man that maintains the +merchant, and shop-keeper, and handicraftsman. + +But when the squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the good +money he gets from abroad he will hoard up to send for England, and +keep some poor tailor or weaver and the like in his own house, who +will be glad to get bread at any rate. + +I should never have done, if I were to tell you all the miseries that +we shall undergo if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this cursed +coin. It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into one +scale, and this sorry fellow Wood into the other, that Mr. Wood should +weigh down this whole kingdom, by which England gets above a million +of good money every year clear into their pockets, and that is more +than the English do by all the world besides. + +But your great comfort is, that, as his majesty's patent does not +oblige you to take this money, so the laws have not given the Crown a +power of forcing the subjects to take what money the king pleases: for +then, by the same reason, we might be bound to take pebble-stones or +cockle-shells, or stamped leather for current coin, if ever we should +happen to live under an ill prince, who might likewise by the same +power make a guinea pass for ten pounds, a shilling for twenty +shillings, and so on, by which he would in a short time get all the +silver and gold of the kingdom into his own hands, and leave us +nothing but brass or leather or what he pleased. Neither is anything +reckoned more cruel or oppressive in the French Government than their +common practice of calling in all their money after they have sunk it +very low, and then coining it a-new at a much higher value, which +however is not the thousandth part so wicked as this abominable +project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects silver for +silver, and gold for gold; but this fellow will not so much as give us +good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a twelfth part +of their worth. + +Having said this much, I will now go on to tell you the judgments of +some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose for your +sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be sure +I went upon good grounds. + +A famous law-book call'd the _Mirrour of Justice_, discoursing of the +articles (or laws) ordained by our ancient kings, declares the law to +be as follows: It was ordained that no king of this realm should +change, impair, or amend the money or make any other money than of +gold or silver without the assent of all the counties, that is, as my +Lord Coke says, without the assent of Parliament. + +This book is very ancient, and of great authority for the time in +which it was wrote, and with that character is often quoted by that +great lawyer my Lord Coke. By the laws of England, several metals are +divided into lawful or true metal and unlawful or false metal; the +former comprehends silver or gold, the latter all baser metals: that +the former is only to pass in payments appears by an Act of Parliament +made the twentieth year of Edward the First, called the statute +concerning the passing of pence, which I give you here as I got it +translated into English; for some of our laws at that time were, as I +am told, writ in Latin: Whoever in buying or selling presumeth to +refuse an half-penny or farthing of lawful money, bearing the stamp +which it ought to have, let him be seized on as a contemner of the +king's majesty, and cast to prison. + +By this statute, no person is to be reckoned a contemner of the king's +majesty, and for that crime to be committed to prison, but he who +refuses to accept the king's coin made of lawful metal, by which, as I +observ'd before, silver and gold only are intended. + +That this is the true construction of the Act, appears not only from +the plain meaning of the words, but from my Lord Coke's observation +upon it. By this Act (says he) it appears that no subject can be +forc'd to take in buying or selling or other payments, any money made +but of lawful metal; that is, of silver or gold. + +The law of England gives the king all mines of gold and silver, but +not the mines of other metals; the reason of which prerogative or +power, as it is given by my Lord Coke, is, because money can be made +of gold and silver, but not of other metals. + +Pursuant to this opinion half-pence and farthings were anciently made +of silver, which is more evident from the Act of Parliament of Henry +the IVth. chap. 4, by which it is enacted as follows: Item, for the +great scarcity that is at present within the realm of England of +half-pence and farthings of silver, it is ordained and established +that the third part of all the money of silver plate which shall be +brought to the bullion, shall be made in half-pence and farthings. +This shows that by the words half-penny and farthing of lawful money +in that statute concerning the passing of pence, is meant a small coin +in half-pence and farthings of silver. + +This is further manifest from the statute of the ninth year of Edward +the IIId. chap. 3, which enacts, That no sterling half-penny or +farthing be molten for to make vessel, or any other thing by the +goldsmiths, nor others, upon forfeiture of the money so molten (or +melted). + +By another Act in this king's reign black money was not to be current +in England, and by an Act made in the eleventh year of his reign, +chap. 5, galley half-pence were not to pass: what kind of coin these +were I do not know, but I presume they were made of base metal, and +that these Acts were no new laws, but further declarations of the old +laws relating to the coin. + +Thus the law stands in relation to coin, nor is there any example to +the contrary, except one in Davis's _Reports_, who tells us, that in +the time of Tyrone's rebellion Queen Elizabeth ordered money of mixt +metal to be coined in the Tower of London, and sent over hither for +payment of the army, obliging all people to receive it, and commanding +that all silver money should be taken only as bullion, that is, for as +much as it weighed. Davis tells us several particulars in this matter +too long here to trouble you with, and that the Privy Council of this +kingdom obliged a merchant in England to receive this mixt money for +goods transmitted hither. + +But this proceeding is rejected by all the best lawyers as contrary to +law, the Privy Council here having no such power. And, besides, it is +to be considered that the Queen was then under great difficulties by a +rebellion in this kingdom, assisted from Spain, and whatever is done +in great exigences and dangerous times should never be an example to +proceed by in seasons of peace and quietness. + +I will now, my dear friends, to save you the trouble, set before you, +in short, what the law obliges you to do, and what it does not oblige +you to. + +First, You are oblig'd to take all money in payments which is coin'd +by the king and is of the English standard or weight, provided it be +of gold or silver. + +Secondly, You are not oblig'd to take any money which is not of gold +or silver, not only the half-pence or farthings of England, or of any +other country; and it is only for convenience, or ease, that you are +content to take them, because the custom of coining silver half-pence +and farthings hath long been left off, I will suppose on account of +their being subject to be lost. + +Thirdly, Much less are we oblig'd to take those vile half-pence of +that same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven-pence in every +shilling. + +Therefore, my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy +trash: it is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood; his majesty in his +patent obliges nobody to take these half-pence; our gracious prince +hath no so ill advisers about him; or if he had, yet you see the laws +have not left it in the king's power, to force us to take any coin but +what is lawful, of right standard, gold and silver; therefore you have +nothing to fear. + +And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who are +the poor sort of tradesmen: perhaps you may think you will not be so +great losers as the rich if these half-pence should pass, because you +seldom see any silver, and your customers come to your shops or stalls +with nothing but brass, which you likewise find hard to be got; but +you may take my word, whenever this money gains footing among you, you +will be utterly undone; if you carry these half-pence to a shop for +tobacco or brandy, or any other thing you want, the shop-keeper will +advance his goods accordingly, or else he must break and leave the key +under the door. Do you think I will sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff +for twenty of Mr. Wood's half-pence? No, not under two hundred at +least, neither will I be at the trouble of counting, but weigh them in +a lump. I will tell you one thing further, that if Mr. Wood's project +should take it will ruin even our beggars: for when I give a beggar an +half-penny, it will quench his thirst, or go a good way to fill his +belly; but the twelfth part of a half-penny will do him no more +service than if I should give him three pins out of my sleeve. + +In short those half-pence are like the accursed thing, which, as the +Scripture tells us, the children of Israel were forbidden to touch; +they will run about like the plague and destroy every one who lays his +hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told a king +that he had invented a way to torment people by putting them into a +bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the projector +first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment; this very much +resembles the project of Mr. Wood; and the like of this may possibly +be Mr. Wood's fate, that the brass he contrived to torment this +kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his destruction at last. + +_N.B._--The author of this paper is inform'd by persons who have made +it their business to be exact in their observations on the true value +of these half-pence, that any person may expect to get a quart of +twopenny ale for thirty-six of them. + +I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to refresh +their memories whenever they shall have further notice of Mr. Wood's +half-pence or any other the like imposture. + + +II. + +A LETTER TO MR. HARDING THE PRINTER, UPON OCCASION OF A PARAGRAPH IN +HIS NEWS-PAPER OF AUGUST 1, 1724, RELATING TO MR. WOOD'S HALF-PENCE. + +In your news-letter of the first instant there is a paragraph dated +from London, July 25th, relating to Wood's half-pence; whereby it is +plain, what I foretold in my letter to the shop-keepers, etc., that +this vile fellow would never be at rest, and that the danger of our +ruin approaches nearer, and therefore the kingdom requires new and +fresh warning; however I take that paragraph to be, in a great +measure, an imposition upon the public, at least I hope so, because I +am informed that Wood is generally his own news-writer. I cannot but +observe from that paragraph that this public enemy of ours, not +satisfied to ruin us with his trash, takes every occasion to treat +this kingdom with the utmost contempt. He represents several of our +merchants and traders upon examination before a committee of a +council, agreeing that there was the utmost necessity of copper-money +here, before his patent, so that several gentlemen have been forced to +tally with their workmen, and give them bits of cards sealed and +subscribed with their names. What then? If a physician prescribe to a +patient a dram of physic, shall a rascal apothecary cram him with a +pound, and mix it up with poison? And is not a landlord's hand and +seal to his own labourers a better security for five or ten shillings, +than Wood's brass seven times below the real value, can be to the +kingdom, for an hundred and four thousand pounds? + +But who are these merchants and traders of Ireland that make this +report of the utmost necessity we are under of copper money? They are +only a few betrayers of their country, confederates with Wood, from +whom they are to purchase a great quantity of his coin, perhaps at +half value, and vend it among us to the ruin of the public and their +own private advantage. Are not these excellent witnesses, upon whose +integrity the fate of a kingdom must depend, who are evidences in +their own cause, and sharers in this work of iniquity? + +If we could have deserved the liberty of coining for ourselves, as we +formerly did (and why we have not is everybody's wonder as well as +mine), ten thousand pounds might have been coined here in Dublin of +only one fifth below the intrinsic value, and this sum, with the stock +of half-pence we then had, would have been sufficient: but Wood by his +emissaries, enemies to God and this kingdom, hath taken care to buy up +as many of our old half-pence as he could, and from thence the present +want of change arises; to remove which, by Mr. Wood's remedy, would +be, to cure a scratch on the finger by cutting off the arm. But +supposing there were not one farthing of change in the whole nation, I +will maintain that five and twenty thousand pounds would be a sum +fully sufficient to answer all our occasions. I am no inconsiderable +shop-keeper in this town, I have discoursed with several of my own and +other trades, with many gentlemen both of city and country, and also +with great numbers of farmers, cottagers, and labourers, who all agree +that two shillings in change for every family would be more than +necessary in all dealings. Now by the largest computation (even before +that grievous discouragement of agriculture, which hath so much +lessened our numbers) the souls in this kingdom are computed to be +one million and a half, which, allowing but six to a family, makes two +hundred and fifty thousand families, and consequently two shillings to +each family will amount only to five and twenty thousand pounds, +whereas this honest liberal hard-ware-man Wood, would impose upon us +above four times that sum. + +Your paragraph relates further, that Sir Isaac Newton reported an +assay taken at the Tower, of Wood's metal, by which it appears that +Wood had in all respects performed his contract. His contract! With +whom? Was it with the Parliament or people of Ireland? Are not they to +be the purchasers? But they detest, abhor, and reject it, as corrupt, +fraudulent, mingled with dirt and trash. Upon which he grows angry, +goes to law, and will impose his goods upon us by force. + +But your news-letter says that an assay was made of the coin. How +impudent and insupportable is this? Wood takes care to coin a dozen or +two half-pence of good metal, sends them to the Tower and they are +approved, and these must answer all that he hath already coined or +shall coin for the future. It is true, indeed, that a gentleman often +sends to my shop for a pattern of stuff, I cut it fairly off, and if +he likes it he comes or sends and compares the pattern with the whole +piece, and probably we come to a bargain. But if I were to buy an +hundred sheep, and the grazier should bring me one single weather fat +and well fleeced by way of pattern, and expect the same price round +for the whole hundred, without suffering me to see them before he was +paid, or giving me good security to restore my money for those that +were lean or shorn or scabby, I would be none of his customer. I have +heard of a man who had a mind to sell his house, and therefore carried +a piece of brick in his pocket, which he showed as a pattern to +encourage purchasers: and this is directly the case in point with Mr. +Wood's assay. + +The next part of the paragraph contains Mr. Wood's voluntary proposals +for preventing any future objections or apprehensions. + +His first proposal is, that whereas he hath already coined seventeen +thousand pounds, and has copper prepared to make it up forty thousand +pounds, he will be content to coin no more, unless the exigences of +trade require it, though his patent empowers him to coin a far greater +quantity. + +To which if I were to answer it should be thus: Let Mr. Wood and his +crew of founders and tinkers coin on till there is not an old kettle +left in the kingdom; let them coin old leather, tobacco-pipe clay, or +the dirt in the streets, and call their trumpery by what name they +please from a guinea to a farthing, we are not under any concern to +know how he and his tribe or accomplices think fit to employ +themselves. But I hope and trust that we are all to a man fully +determined to have nothing to do with him or his ware. + +The king has given him a patent to coin half-pence, but hath not +obliged us to take them, and I have already shown in my Letter to the +Shop-keepers, etc., that the law hath not left it in the power of the +prerogative to compel the subject to take any money, beside gold and +silver of the right sterling and standard. + +Wood further proposes, (if I understand him right, for his expressions +are dubious) that he will not coin above forty thousand pounds unless +the exigences of trade require it: First, I observe that this sum of +forty thousand pounds is almost double to what I proved to be +sufficient for the whole kingdom, although we had not one of our old +half-pence left. Again I ask, who is to be judge when the exigences of +trade require it? Without doubt he means himself, for as to us of this +poor kingdom, who must be utterly ruined if his project should +succeed, we were never once consulted till the matter was over, and he +will judge of our exigences by his own; neither will these be ever at +an end till he and his accomplices will think they have enough: and it +now appears that he will not be content with all our gold and silver, +but intends to buy up our goods and manufactures with the same coin. + +I shall not enter into examination of the prices for which he now +proposes to sell his half-pence or what he calls his copper, by the +pound; I have said enough of it in my former letter, and it hath +likewise been considered by others. It is certain that, by his own +first computation, we were to pay three shillings for what was +intrinsically worth but one, although it had been of the true weight +and standard for which he pretended to have contracted; but there is +so great a difference both in weight and badness in several of his +coins that some of them have been nine in ten below the intrinsic +value, and most of them six or seven. + +His last proposal being of a peculiar strain and nature, deserves to +be very particularly consider'd, both on account of the matter and the +style. It is as follows. + +Lastly, in consideration of the direful apprehensions which prevail in +Ireland, that Mr. Wood will by such coinage drain them of their gold +and silver, he proposes to take their manufactures in exchange, and +that no person be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +at one payment. + +First, observe this little impudent hard-ware-man turning into +ridicule the direful apprehensions of a whole kingdom, priding himself +as the cause of them, and daring to prescribe what no king of England +ever attempted, how far a whole nation shall be obliged to take his +brass coin. And he has reason to insult; for sure there was never an +example in history of a great kingdom kept in awe for above a year in +daily dread of utter destruction, not by a powerful invader at the +head of twenty thousand men, not by a plague or a famine, not by a +tyrannical prince (for we never had one more gracious) or a corrupt +administration, but by one single, diminutive, insignificant, +mechanic. + +But to go on. To remove our direful apprehensions that he will drain +us of our gold and silver by his coinage, this little arbitrary +mock-monarch most graciously offers to take our manufactures in +exchange. Are our Irish understandings indeed so low in his opinion? +Is not this the very misery we complain of? That his cursed project +will put us under the necessity of selling our goods for what is equal +to nothing. How would such a proposal sound from France or Spain, or +any other country we deal with, if they should offer to deal with us +only upon this condition, that we should take their money at ten times +higher than the intrinsic value? Does Mr. Wood think, for instance, +that we will sell him a stone of wool for a parcel of his counters not +worth sixpence, when we can send it to England and receive as many +shillings in gold and silver? Surely there was never heard such a +compound of impudence, villainy and folly. + +His proposals conclude with perfect high-treason. He promises, that +no person shall be obliged to receive more than five-pence half-penny +of his coin in one payment: by which it is plain that he pretends to +oblige every subject in this kingdom to take so much in every payment, +if it be offered; whereas his patent obliges no man, nor can the +prerogative by law claim such a power, as I have often observed; so +that here Mr. Wood takes upon him the entire legislature, and an +absolute dominion over the properties of the whole nation. + +Good God! Who are this wretch's advisers? Who are his supporters, +abettors, encouragers, or sharers? Mr. Wood will oblige me to take +five-pence half-penny of his brass in every payment. And I will shoot +Mr. Wood and his deputies through the head, like highway-men or +house-breakers, if they dare to force one farthing of their coin upon +me in the payment of an hundred pounds. It is no loss of honour to +submit to the lion; but who, with the figure of a man can think with +patience of being devoured alive by a rat? He has laid a tax upon the +people of Ireland of seventeen shillings at least in the pound; a tax, +I say, not only upon lands, but interest-money, goods, manufactures, +the hire of handicraftsmen, labourers and servants. Shop-keepers, look +to yourselves. Wood will oblige and force you to take five-pence +half-penny of his trash in every payment, and many of you receive +twenty, thirty, forty, payments in one day, or else you can hardly +find bread: and pray consider how much that will amount to in a year; +twenty times five-pence half-penny is nine shillings and two-pence, +which is above an hundred and sixty pounds a year, whereof you will be +losers of at least one hundred and forty pounds by taking your +payments in his money. If any of you be content to deal with Mr. Wood +on such conditions they may. But for my own particular, let his money +perish with him. If the famous Mr. Hampden rather chose to go to +prison than pay a few shillings to King Charles I. without authority +of Parliament, I will rather choose to be hanged than have all my +substance taxed at seventeen shillings in the pound, at the arbitrary +will and pleasure of the venerable Mr. Wood. + +The paragraph concludes thus. _N.B._ (that is to say _nota bene_, or +mark well) No evidence appeared from Ireland or elsewhere, to prove +the mischiefs complained of, or any abuses whatsoever committed in the +execution of the said grant. + +The impudence of this remark exceeds all that went before. First, the +House of Commons in Ireland, which represents the whole people of the +kingdom; and secondly the Privy Council, addressed his majesty against +these half-pence. What could be done more to express the universal +sense and opinion of the nation? If his copper were diamonds, and the +kingdom were entirely against it, would not that be sufficient to +reject it? Must a committee of the House of Commons, and our whole +Privy Council go over to argue pro and con with Mr. Wood? To what end +did the king give his patent for coining of half-pence in Ireland? Was +it not, because it was represented to his sacred majesty, that such a +coinage would be of advantage to the good of this kingdom, and of all +his subjects here? It is to the patentee's peril if his representation +be false, and the execution of his patent be fraudulent and corrupt. +Is he so wicked and foolish to think that his patent was given him to +ruin a million and a half of people, that he might be a gainer of +three or fourscore thousand pounds to himself? Before he was at the +charge of passing a patent, much more of raking up so much filthy +dross, and stamping it with his majesty's image and superscription, +should he not first in common sense, in common equity, and common +manners, have consulted the principal party concerned; that is to say, +the people of the kingdom, the House of Lords or Commons, or the Privy +Council? If any foreigner should ask us, whose image and +superscription there is on Wood's coin, we should be ashamed to tell +him, it was Caesar's. In that great want of copper half-pence, which +he alleges we were, our city set up our Caesar's statue in excellent +copper, at an expence that is equal in value to thirty thousand +pounds of his coin; and we will not receive his image in worse metal. + +I observe many of our people putting a melancholy case on this +subject. It is true say they, we are all undone if Wood's half-pence +must pass; but what shall we do, if his majesty puts out a +proclamation commanding us to take them? This has been often dinned in +my ears. But I desire my countrymen to be assured that there is +nothing in it. The king never issues out a proclamation but to enjoin +what the law permits him. He will not issue out a proclamation against +law, or if such a thing should happen by a mistake, we are no more +obliged to obey it than to run our heads into the fire. Besides, his +majesty will never command us by a proclamation, what he does not +offer to command us in the patent itself. There he leaves it to our +discretion, so that our destruction must be entirely owing to +ourselves. Therefore let no man be afraid of a proclamation, which +will never be granted; and if it should, yet upon this occasion, will +be of no force. The king's revenues here are near four hundred +thousand pounds a year, can you think his ministers will advise him to +take them in Wood's brass, which will reduce the value to fifty +thousand pounds? England gets a million sterl. by this nation, which, +if this project goes on, will be almost reduc'd to nothing: and do you +think those who live in England upon Irish estates will be content to +take an eighth or a tenth part, by being paid in Wood's dross? + +If Wood and his confederates were not convinced of our stupidity, they +never would have attempted so audacious an enterprise. He now sees a +spirit hath been raised against him, and he only watches till it +begins to flag, he goes about watching when to devour us. He hopes we +shall be weary of contending with him, and at last out of ignorance, +or fear, or of being perfectly tired with opposition, we shall be +forced to yield. And therefore I confess it is my chief endeavour to +keep up your spirits and resentments. If I tell you there is a +precipice under you, and that if you go forwards you will certainly +break your necks--if I point to it before your eyes, must I be at the +trouble of repeating it every morning? Are our people's hearts waxed +gross? Are their ears dull of hearing, and have they closed their +eyes? I fear there are some few vipers among us, who, for ten or +twenty pounds' gain, would sell their souls and their country, though +at last it would end in their own ruin as well as ours. Be not like +the deaf adder, who refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he +never so wisely. + +Though my letter be directed to you, Mr. Harding, yet I intend it for +all my countrymen. I have no interest in this affair but what is +common to the public; I can live better than many others, I have some +gold and silver by me, and a shop well furnished, and shall be able +to make a shift when many of my betters are starving. But I am grieved +to see the coldness and indifference of many people with whom I +discourse. Some are afraid of a proclamation, others shrug up their +shoulders, and cry, what would you have us to do? Some give out, there +is no danger at all. Others are comforted that it will be a common +calamity and they shall fare no worse than their neighbours. Will a +man, who hears midnight-robbers at his door, get out of bed, and raise +his family for a common defence, and shall a whole kingdom lie in a +lethargy, while Mr. Wood comes at the head of his confederates to rob +them of all they have, to ruin us and our posterity for ever? If an +high-way-man meets you on the road, you give him your money to save +your life; but, God be thanked, Mr. Wood cannot touch a hair of your +heads. You have all the laws of God and man on your side. When he or +his accomplices offer you his dross, it is but saying No, and you are +safe. If a madman should come to my shop with a handful of dirt raked +out of the kennel, and offer it in payment for ten yards of stuff, I +would pity or laugh at him, or, if his behaviour deserved it, kick him +out of my doors. And if Mr. Wood comes to demand any gold or silver, +or commodities for which I have paid my gold and silver, in exchange +for his trash, can he deserve or expect better treatment? + +When the evil day is come (if it must come) let us mark and observe +those who presume to offer these half-pence in payment. Let their +names and trades, and places of abode be made public, that every one +may be aware of them, as betrayers of their country, and confederates +with Mr. Wood. Let them be watched at markets and fairs, and let the +first honest discoverer give the word about, that Wood's half-pence +have been offered, and caution the poor innocent people not to receive +them. + +Perhaps I have been too tedious; but there would never be an end, if I +attempt to say all that this melancholy subject will bear. I will +conclude with humbly offering one proposal, which if it were put in +practice, would blow up this destructive project at once. Let some +skilful judicious pen draw up an advertisement to the following +purpose: + +_Whereas one William Wood, hard-ware-man, now or lately sojourning in +the city of London, hath, by many misrepresentations, procured a +patent for coining an hundred and forty thousand pounds in copper +half-pence for this kingdom, which is a sum five times greater than +our occasions require: And whereas it is notorious that the said Wood +hath coined his half-pence of such base metal and false weight, that +they are, at least, six parts in seven below the real value: And +whereas we have reason to apprehend that the said Wood may, at any +time hereafter, clandestinely coin as many more half-pence as he +pleases: And whereas the said patent neither doth nor can oblige his +majesty's subjects to receive the said half-pence in any payment, but +leaves it to their voluntary choice, because, by law the subject +cannot be obliged to take any money except gold or silver: And +whereas, contrary to the letter and meaning of the said patent, the +said Wood hath declared that every person shall be obliged to take +five-pence half-penny of his coin in every payment: And whereas the +House of Commons and Privy Council have severally addressed his most +sacred majesty representing the ill consequences which the said +coinage may have upon this kingdom: And lastly, whereas it is +universally agreed, that the whole nation to a man (except Mr. Wood +and his confederates) are in the utmost apprehensions of the ruinous +consequences that must follow from the said coinage. Therefore we, +whose names are underwritten, being persons of considerable estates in +this kingdom, and residers therein, do unanimously resolve and declare +that we will never receive one farthing or half-penny of the said +Wood's coining, and that we will direct all our tenants to refuse the +said coin from any person whatsoever; of which, that they may not be +ignorant, we have sent them a copy of this advertisement, to be read +to them by our stewards, receivers, etc._ + +I could wish, that a paper of this nature might be drawn up, and +signed by two or three hundred principal gentlemen of this kingdom, +and printed copies thereof sent to their several tenants; I am +deceived, if anything could sooner defeat this execrable design of +Wood and his accomplices. This would immediately give the alarm, and +set the kingdom on their guard. This would give courage to the meanest +tenant and cottager. _How long, O Lord, righteous and true_, etc. + +I must tell you in particular, Mr. Harding, that you are much to +blame. Several hundred persons have enquired at your house for my +Letter to the Shop-keepers, etc., and you had none to sell them. Pray +keep yourself provided with that letter and with this; you have got +very well by the former, but I did not then write for your sake, any +more than I do now. Pray advertise both in every news-paper, and let +it not be your fault or mine if our countrymen will not take warning. +I desire you likewise to sell them as cheap as you can.--I am your +Servant, M.B. + +_Aug. 4, 1724._ + + + + +IV.--'SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE' + +BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE + + +(_I have found the selection of a suitable sample of Burke to be my +most difficult task in this volume. All his writings, as I have +pointed out in the general introduction, are, after a sort, pamphlets; +and this of itself was an embarrassment. It was partly complicated and +partly lessened by the fact that the form of his speeches naturally +excluded them. Many of his other works--notably the _Thoughts on the +Present Discontents_, the immortal _Reflections on the French +Revolution_, and the _Appeal from the New Whigs to the Old_--were much +too long for a scheme in which I have made it a rule to give in each +case entire works or divisions of works. I at last reduced the +suitable candidates to three--the _Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe_, +that _To a Noble Lord_, and the present number of the _Letters on a +Regicide Peace_. The first went as being to some extent identical in +subject with the examples of another writer, Sydney Smith, which I had +already resolved on giving; the second as being too much in the nature +of a personal apologia. With the third, which I looked on at first +with least favour, I have become increasingly well satisfied. It has +not the gorgeous rhetoric of _The Letter to a Noble Lord_, the +_Reflections_, and others. It has nothing so lively as the contrast +between France and Algiers in its immediate predecessor. It may even +seem, to those who have accustomed themselves to think of Burke wholly +or mainly as a gorgeous rhetorician, rather tame as a whole. But if it +does not soar, it never droops; it is admirably proportioned, +admirably written, and admirably argued throughout, and it shows great +knowledge and mastery of foreign politics--the point in which English +statesmen have always been weakest. I may add that it seems to me a +triumphant refutation of the charge--constantly brought against Burke +not merely by extreme democrats, but by the usual advocate of the +_juste milieu_,--that in his later years, and especially in these very +Letters, he became a mere raving Gallophobe, with no sense of +proportion or circumstance. For my part, I have read scores, probably +hundreds, of books--English, French, and German--on the French +Revolution; I have never read one that made Burke obsolete. Let it +only be added that the author, who was born in 1730, was very near the +end of his career--he died next year--when he wrote these letters, +and that the peace proposals which he deprecated, and which he did not +a little to avert, were dictated on the one side by the sobering down +of the first Revolutionary fervour under the Directory; on the other +by the persistent ill-success of the Allies, and the conflicts of +interest and principle which had arisen among them._) + + +My dear Sir--I closed my first letter with serious matter, and I hope +it has employed your thoughts. The system of peace must have a +reference to the system of the war. On that ground, I must therefore +again recall your mind to our original opinions, which time and events +have not taught me to vary. + +My ideas and my principles led me, in this contest, to encounter +France, not as a state, but as a faction. The vast territorial extent +of that country, its immense population, its riches of production, its +riches of commerce and convention--the whole aggregate mass of what, +in ordinary cases, constitutes the force of a state, to me were but +objects of secondary consideration. They might be balanced; and they +have been often more than balanced. Great as these things are, they +are not what make the faction formidable. It is the faction that makes +them truly dreadful. That faction is the evil spirit that possesses +the body of France; that informs it as a soul; that stamps upon its +ambition, and upon all its pursuits, a characteristic mark, which +strongly distinguishes them from the same general passions, and the +same general views, in other men and in other communities. It is that +spirit which inspires into them a new, a pernicious, a desolating +activity. Constituted as France was ten years ago, it was not in that +France to shake, to shatter, and to overwhelm Europe in the manner +that we behold. A sure destruction impends over those infatuated +princes, who, in the conflict with this new and unheard-of power, +proceed as if they were engaged in a war that bore a resemblance to +their former contests; or that they can make peace in the spirit of +their former arrangements of pacification. Here the beaten path is the +very reverse of the safe road. + +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 it is the +bank of deposit, and the bank of circulation, of all the pernicious +principles that are forming in every state. It will be 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 civilised +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 piece '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. 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. The 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. + +It was not of that sort of war that I was amongst the least +considerable, but amongst the most zealous advisers; and it is not by +the sort of peace now talked of, that I wish it concluded. It would +answer no great purpose to enter into the particular errors of the +war. The whole has been but one error. It was but nominally a war of +alliance. As the combined powers pursued it there was nothing to hold +an alliance together. There could be no tie of _honour_, in a society +for pillage. There could be no tie of a common _interest_ where the +object did not offer such a division amongst the parties as could well +give them a warm concern in the gains of each other, or could indeed +form such a body of equivalents, as might make one of them willing to +abandon a separate object of his ambition for the gratification of any +other member of the alliance. The partition of Poland offered an +object of spoil in which the parties _might_ agree. They were +circumjacent, and each might take a portion convenient to his own +territory. They might dispute about the value of their several shares, +but the contiguity to each of the demandants always furnished the +means of an adjustment. Though hereafter the world will have cause to +rue this iniquitous measure, and they most who were the most +concerned in it, for the moment there was wherewithal in the object to +preserve peace amongst confederates in wrong. But the spoil of France +did not afford the same facilities for accommodation. What might +satisfy the house of Austria in a Flemish frontier, afforded no +equivalent to tempt the cupidity of the king of Prussia. What might be +desired by Great Britain in the West Indies, must be coldly and +remotely, if at all, felt as an interest at Vienna; and it would be +felt as something worse than a negative interest at Madrid. Austria, +long possessed with unwise and dangerous designs on Italy, could not +be very much in earnest about the conservation of the old patrimony of +the house of Savoy; and Sardinia, who owed to an Italian force all her +means of shutting out France from Italy, of which she has been +supposed to hold the key, would not purchase the means of strength +upon one side by yielding it on the other. She would not readily give +the possession of Novara for the hope of Savoy. No continental power +was willing to lose any of its continental objects for the increase of +the naval power of Great Britain; and Great Britain would not give up +any of the objects she sought for as the means of an increase to her +naval power, to further their aggrandisement. + +The moment this war came to be considered as a war merely of profit, +the actual circumstances are such that it never could become really a +war of alliance. Nor can the peace be a peace of alliance, until +things are put upon their right bottom. + +I do not find it denied that when a treaty is entered into for peace, +a demand will be made on the regicides to surrender a great part of +their conquests on the continent. Will they, in the present state of +the war, make that surrender without an equivalent? This continental +cession must of course be made in favour of that party in the alliance +that has suffered losses. That party has nothing to furnish towards an +equivalent. What equivalent, for instance, has Holland to offer, who +has lost her all? What equivalent can come from the Emperor, every +part of whose territories contiguous to France is already within the +pale of the regicide dominions? What equivalent has Sardinia to offer +for Savoy and for Nice, I may say for her whole being? What has she +taken from the faction of France? she has lost very near her all; and +she has gained nothing. What equivalent has Spain to give? Alas! she +has already paid for her own ransom the fund of equivalent, and a +dreadful equivalent it is, to England and to herself. But I put Spain +out of the question; she is a province of the Jacobin empire, and she +must make peace or war according to the orders she receives from the +directory of assassins. In effect and substance, her crown is a fief +of regicide. + +Whence then can the compensation be demanded? Undoubtedly from that +power which alone has made some conquests. That power is England. Will +the allies then give away their ancient patrimony, that England may +keep islands in the West Indies? They never can protract the war in +good earnest for that object; nor can they act in concert with us, in +our refusal to grant anything towards their redemption. In that case +we are thus situated. Either we must give Europe, bound hand and foot, +to France; or we must quit the West Indies without any one object, +great or small, towards indemnity and security. I repeat it, without +any advantage whatever: because, supposing that our conquest could +comprise all that France ever possessed in the tropical America, it +never can amount in any fair estimation to a fair equivalent for +Holland, for the Austrian Netherlands, for the lower Germany, that is, +for the whole ancient kingdom or circle of Burgundy, now under the +yoke of regicide, to say nothing of almost all Italy under the same +barbarous domination. If we treat in the present situation of things, +we have nothing in our hands that can redeem Europe. Nor is the +Emperor, as I have observed, more rich in the fund of equivalents. + +If we look to our stock in the eastern world, our most valuable and +systematic acquisitions are made in that quarter. Is it from France +they are made? France has but one or two contemptible factories, +subsisting by the offal of the private fortunes of English individuals +to support them, in any part of India. I look on the taking of the +Cape of Good Hope as the securing of a post of great moment. It does +honour to those who planned, and to those who executed, that +enterprise: but I speak of it always as comparatively good; as good as +anything can be in a scheme of war that repels us from a centre, and +employs all our forces where nothing can be finally decisive. But +giving, as I freely give, every possible credit to these eastern +conquests, I ask one question,--on whom are they made? It is evident, +that if we can keep our eastern conquests we keep them not at the +expense of France, but at the expense of Holland our _ally_; of +Holland, the immediate cause of the war, the nation whom we had +undertaken to protect, and not of the republic which it was our +business to destroy. If we return the African and the Asiatic +conquests, we put them into the hands of a nominal state (to that +Holland is reduced) unable to retain them; and which will virtually +leave them under the direction of France. If we withhold them, Holland +declines still more as a state. She loses so much carrying trade, and +that means of keeping up the small degree of naval power she holds; +for which policy alone, and not for any commercial gain, she maintains +the Cape, or any settlement beyond it. In that case, resentment, +faction, and even necessity, will throw her more and more into the +power of the new, mischievous republic. But on the probable state of +Holland I shall say more, when in this correspondence I come to talk +over with you the state in which any sort of Jacobin peace will leave +all Europe. + +So far as to the East Indies. + +As to the West Indies, indeed as to either, if we look for matter of +exchange in order to ransom Europe, it is easy to show that we have +taken a terribly roundabout road. I cannot conceive, even if, for the +sake of holding conquests there, we should refuse to redeem Holland, +and the Austrian Netherlands, and the hither Germany, that Spain, +merely as she is Spain, (and forgetting that the regicide ambassador +governs at Madrid,) will see, with perfect satisfaction, Great Britain +sole mistress of the isles. In truth it appears to me, that, when we +come to balance our account, we shall find in the proposed peace only +the pure, simple, and unendowed charms of Jacobin amity. We shall have +the satisfaction of knowing, that no blood or treasure has been spared +by the allies for support of the regicide system. We shall reflect at +leisure on one great truth, that it was ten times more easy totally to +destroy the system itself, than, when established, it would be to +reduce its power; and that this republic, most formidable abroad, was +of all things the weakest at home; that her frontier was terrible, her +interior feeble; that it was matter of choice to attack her where she +is invincible, and to spare her where she was ready to dissolve by her +own internal disorders. We shall reflect, that our plan was good +neither for offence nor defence. + +It would not be at all difficult to prove, that an army of a hundred +thousand men, horse, foot, and artillery, might have been employed +against the enemy on the very soil which he has usurped, at a far less +expense than has been squandered away upon tropical adventures. In +these adventures it was not an enemy we had to vanquish, but a +cemetery to conquer. In carrying on the war in the West Indies, the +hostile sword is merciful; the country in which we engage is the +dreadful enemy. There the European conqueror finds a cruel defeat in +the very fruits of his success. Every advantage is but a new demand on +England for recruits to the West Indian grave. In a West India war, +the regicides have, for their troops, a race of fierce barbarians, to +whom the poisoned air, in which our youth inhale certain death, is +salubrity and life. To them the climate is the surest and most +faithful of allies. + +Had we carried on the war on the side of France which looks towards +the Channel or the Atlantic, we should have attacked our enemy on his +weak and unarmed side. We should not have to reckon on the loss of a +man who did not fall in battle. We should have an ally in the heart +of the country, who, to our hundred thousand, would at one time have +added eighty thousand men at the least, and all animated by principle, +by enthusiasm, and by vengeance; motives which secured them to the +cause in a very different manner from some of those allies whom we +subsidised with millions. This ally, (or rather this principal in the +war,) by the confession of the regicide himself, was more formidable +to him than all his other foes united. Warring there, we should have +led our arms to the capital of Wrong. Defeated, we could not fail +(proper precautions taken) of a sure retreat. Stationary, and only +supporting the royalists, an impenetrable barrier, an impregnable +rampart, would have been formed between the enemy and his naval power. +We are probably the only nation who have declined to act against an +enemy, when it might have been done in his own country; and who having +an armed, a powerful, and a long-victorious ally in that country, +declined all effectual co-operation, and suffered him to perish for +want of support. On the plan of a war in France, every advantage that +our allies might obtain would be doubled in its effect. Disasters on +the one side might have a fair chance of being compensated by +victories on the other. Had we brought the main of our force to bear +upon that quarter, all the operations of the British and Imperial +crowns would have been combined. The war would have had system, +correspondence, and a certain direction. But as the war has been +pursued, the operations of the two crowns have not the smallest degree +of mutual bearing or relation. + +Had acquisitions in the West Indies been our object, on success in +France, everything reasonable in those remote parts might be demanded +with decorum, and justice, and a sure effect. Well might we call for a +recompence in America, for those services to which Europe owed its +safety. Having abandoned this obvious policy connected with principle, +we have seen the regicide power taking the reverse course, and making +real conquests in the West Indies, to which all our dear-bought +advantages (if we could hold them) are mean and contemptible. The +noblest island within the tropics, worth all that we possess put +together, is, by the vassal Spaniard, delivered into her hands. The +island of Hispaniola (of which we have but one poor corner, by a +slippery hold) is perhaps equal to England in extent, and in fertility +is far superior. The part possessed by Spain, of that great island, +made for the seat and centre of a tropical empire, was not improved, +to be sure, as the French division had been, before it was +systematically destroyed by the cannibal republic; but it is not only +the far larger, but the far more salubrious and more fertile part. + +It was delivered into the hands of the barbarians without, as I can +find, any public reclamation on our part, not only in contravention to +one of the fundamental treaties that compose the public law of Europe, +but in defiance of the fundamental colonial policy of Spain herself. +This part of the treaty of Utrecht was made for great general ends +unquestionably; but whilst it provided for those general ends, it was +in affirmance of that particular policy. It was not to injure, but to +save Spain by making a settlement of her estate, which prohibited her +to alienate to France. It is her policy not to see the balance of West +Indian power overturned by France or by Great Britain. Whilst the +monarchies subsisted, this unprincipled cession was what the influence +of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon never dared to attempt on +the younger: but cannibal terror has been more powerful than family +influence. The Bourbon monarchy of Spain is united to the republic of +France, by what may be truly called the ties of blood. + +By this measure the balance of power in the West Indies is totally +destroyed. It has followed the balance of power in Europe. It is not +alone what shall be left nominally to the assassins that is theirs. +Theirs is the whole empire of Spain in America. That stroke finishes +all. I should be glad to see our suppliant negotiator in the act of +putting his feather to the ear of the directory, to make it unclinch +the fist; and, by his tickling, to charm that rich prize out of the +iron gripe of robbery and ambition! It does not require much sagacity +to discern that no power wholly baffled and defeated in Europe can +flatter itself with conquests in the West Indies. In that state of +things it can neither keep nor hold. No! It cannot even long make war +if the grand bank and deposit of its force is at all in the West +Indies. But here a scene opens to my view too important to pass by, +perhaps too critical to touch. Is it possible that it should not +present itself in all its relations to a mind habituated to consider +either war or peace on a large scale, or as one whole? + +Unfortunately other ideas have prevailed. A remote, an expensive, a +murderous, and, in the end, an unproductive adventure, carried on upon +ideas of mercantile knight-errantry, without any of the generous +wildness of Quixotism, is considered as sound, solid sense; and a war +in a wholesome climate, a war at our door, a war directly on the +enemy, a war in the heart of his country, a war in concert with an +internal ally, and in combination with the external, is regarded as +folly and romance. + +My dear friend, I hold it impossible that these considerations should +have escaped the statesmen on both sides of the water, and on both +sides of the House of Commons. 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 connexion 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 +from the digest and jurisprudence of the Christian world. In these +treasures are to be found the _usual_ relations of peace and amity in +civilised 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. + +The Revolution in France had the relation of France to other nations +as one of its principal objects. The changes made by that Revolution +were not the better to accommodate her to the old and usual relations, +but to produce new ones. The Revolution was made, not to make France +free, but to make her formidable; not to make her a neighbour, but a +mistress; not to make her more observant of laws, but to put her in a +condition to impose them. To make France truly formidable it was +necessary that France should be new modelled. They, who have not +followed the train of the late proceedings, have been led by deceitful +representations (which deceit made a part in the plan) to conceive +that this totally new model of a state, in which nothing escaped a +change, was made with a view to its internal relations only. + +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 proselytising 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 counterwork 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 Vergniaux, +Francias of Nantz, 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 phrensy 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 straight forward 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. Without question, to bring about the unexampled event of the +French Revolution, the concurrence of a very great number of views and +passions was necessary. In that stupendous work, no one principle, by +which the human mind may have its faculties at once invigorated and +depraved, was left unemployed; but I can speak it to a certainty, and +support it by undoubted proofs, that the ruling principle of those who +acted in the Revolution as _statesmen_, had the exterior +aggrandisement of France as their ultimate end in the most minute part +of the internal changes that were made. We, who of late years have +been drawn from an attention to foreign affairs by the importance of +our domestic discussions, cannot easily form a conception of the +general eagerness of the active and energetic part of the French +nation, itself the most active and energetic of all nations, previous +to its Revolution, upon that subject. I am convinced that the foreign +speculators in France, under the old government, were twenty to one of +the same description then or now in England; and few of that +description there were, who did not emulously set forward the +Revolution. The whole official system, particularly in the diplomatic +part, the regulars, the irregulars, down to the clerks in office, (a +corps, without comparison, more numerous than the same amongst us,) +co-operated in it. All the intriguers in foreign politics, all the +spies, all the intelligencers, actually or late in function, all the +candidates for that sort of employment, acted solely upon that +principle. + +On that system of aggrandisement there was but one mind: but two +violent factions arose about the means. The first wished France, +diverted from the politics of the continent, to attend solely to her +marine, to feed it by an increase of commerce, and thereby to +overpower England on her own element. They contended, that if England +were disabled, the powers on the continent would fall into their +proper subordination; that it was England which deranged the whole +continental system of Europe. The others, who were by far the more +numerous, though not the most outwardly prevalent at court, considered +this plan for France as contrary to her genius, her situation, and her +natural means. They agree as to the ultimate object, the reduction of +the British power, and, if possible, its naval power; but they +considered an ascendency on the continent as a necessary preliminary +to that undertaking. They argued, that the proceedings of England +herself had proved the soundness of this policy. That her greatest and +ablest statesmen had not considered the support of a continental +balance against France as a deviation from the principle of her naval +power, but as one of the most effectual modes of carrying it into +effect. That such had been her policy ever since the Revolution, +during which period the naval strength of Great Britain had gone on +increasing in the direct ratio of her interference in the politics of +the continent. With much stronger reason ought the politics of France +to take the same direction; as well for pursuing objects which her +situation would dictate to her, though England had no existence, as +for counteracting the politics of that nation; to France continental +politics are primary; they looked on them only of secondary +consideration to England, and, however necessary, but as means +necessary to an end. + +What is truly astonishing, the partisans of those two opposite systems +were at once prevalent, and at once employed, and in the very same +transactions--the one ostensibly, the other secretly, during the +latter part of the reign of Louis XV. Nor was there one court in which +an ambassador resided on the part of the ministers, in which another, +as a spy on him, did not also reside on the part of the king. They who +pursued the scheme for keeping peace on the continent, and +particularly with Austria, acting officially and publicly, the other +faction counteracting and opposing them. These private agents were +continually going from their function to the Bastile, and from the +Bastile to employment, and favour again. An inextricable cabal was +formed, some of persons of rank, others of subordinates. But by this +means the corps of politicians was augmented in number, and the whole +formed a body of active, adventuring, ambitious, discontented people, +despising the regular ministry, despising the courts at which they +were employed, despising the court which employed them. + +The unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth was not the first cause of the +evil by which he suffered. He came to it, as to a sort of inheritance, +by the false politics of his immediate predecessor. This system of +dark and perplexed intrigue had come to its perfection before he came +to the throne: and even then the Revolution strongly operated in all +its causes. + +There was no point on which the discontented diplomatic politicians so +bitterly arraigned their cabinet, as for the decay of French influence +in all others. From quarrelling with the court, they began to complain +of monarchy itself, as a system of government too variable for any +regular plan of national aggrandisement. They observed, that in that +sort of regimen too much depended on the personal character of the +prince; that the vicissitudes produced by the succession of princes of +a different character, and even the vicissitudes produced in the same +man, by the different views and inclinations belonging to youth, +manhood, and age, disturbed and distracted the policy of a country +made by nature for extensive empire, or, what was still more to their +taste, for that sort of general over-ruling influence which prepared +empire or supplied the place of it. They had continually in their +hands the observations of _Machiavel_ on _Livy_. They had +_Montesquieu's Grandeur et Decadence des Romains_ as a manual; and +they compared, with mortification, the systematic proceedings of a +Roman senate with the fluctuations of a monarchy. They observed the +very small additions of territory which all the power of France, +actuated by all the ambition of France, had acquired in two centuries. +The Romans had frequently acquired more in a single year. They +severely and in every part of it criticised the reign of Louis XIV., +whose irregular and desultory ambition had more provoked than +endangered Europe. Indeed, they who will be at the pains of seriously +considering the history of that period will see that those French +politicians had some reason. They who will not take the trouble of +reviewing it through all its wars and all its negotiations, will +consult the short but judicious criticism of the Marquis de +Montalembert on that subject. It may be read separately from his +ingenious system of fortification and military defence, on the +practical merit of which I am unable to form a judgment. + +The diplomatic politicians of whom I speak, and who formed by far the +majority in that class, made disadvantageous comparisons even between +their more legal and formalising monarchy, and the monarchies of other +states, as a system of power and influence. They observed that France +not only lost ground herself, but, through the languor and +unsteadiness of her pursuits, and from her aiming through commerce at +naval force which she never could attain without losing more on one +side than she could gain on the other, that three great powers, each +of them (as military states) capable of balancing her, had grown up on +the continent. Russia and Prussia had been created almost within +memory; and Austria, though not a new power, and even curtailed in +territory, was, by the very collision in which she lost that +territory, greatly improved in her military discipline and force. +During the reign of Maria Theresa the interior economy of the country +was made more to correspond with the support of great armies than +formerly it had been. As to Prussia, a merely military power, they +observed that one war had enriched her with as considerable a conquest +as France had acquired in centuries. Russia had broken the Turkish +power by which Austria might be, as formerly she had been, balanced in +favour of France. They felt it with pain, that the two northern powers +of Sweden and Denmark were in general under the sway of Russia; or +that, at best, France kept up a very doubtful conflict, with many +fluctuations of fortune, and at an enormous expense, in Sweden. In +Holland, the French party seemed, if not extinguished, at least +utterly obscured, and kept under by a stadtholder, leaning for support +sometimes on Great Britain, sometimes on Prussia, sometimes on both, +never on France. Even the spreading of the Bourbon family had become +merely a family accommodation; and had little effect on the national +politics. This alliance, they said, extinguished Spain by destroying +all its energy, without adding anything to the real power of France in +the accession of the forces of its great rival. In Italy, the same +family accommodation, the same national insignificance, were equally +visible. What cure for the radical weakness of the French monarchy, to +which all the means which wit could devise, or nature and fortune +could bestow, towards universal empire, was not of force to give life, +or vigour, or consistency,--but in a Republic? Out the word came; and +it never went back. + +Whether they reasoned, right or wrong, or that there was some mixture +of right and wrong in their reasoning, I am sure, that in this manner +they felt and reasoned. The different effects of a great military and +ambitious republic, and of a monarchy of the same description, were +constantly in their mouths. The principle was ready to operate when +opportunities should offer, which few of them indeed foresaw in the +extent in which they were afterwards presented; but these +opportunities, in some degree or other, they all ardently wished for. + +When I was in Paris in 1773, the treaty of 1756 between Austria and +France was deplored as a national calamity; because it united France +in friendship with a power at whose expense alone they could hope any +continental aggrandisement. When the first partition of Poland was +made, in which France had no share, and which had further aggrandised +every one of the three powers of which they were most jealous, I found +them in a perfect phrensy of rage and indignation: not that they were +hurt at the shocking and uncoloured violence and injustice of that +partition, but at the debility, improvidence, and want of activity, in +their government, in not preventing it as a means of aggrandisement to +their rivals, or in not contriving, by exchanges of some kind or +other, to obtain their share of advantage from that robbery. + +In that or nearly in that state of things and of opinions, came the +Austrian match; which promised to draw the knot, as afterwards in +effect it did, still more closely between the old rival houses. This +added exceedingly to their hatred and contempt of their monarchy. It +was for this reason that the late glorious queen, who on all accounts +was formed to produce general love and admiration, and whose life was +as mild and beneficent as her death was beyond example great and +heroic, became so very soon and so very much the object of an +implacable rancour, never to be extinguished but in her blood. When I +wrote my letter in answer to M. de Menonville, in the beginning of +January, 1791, I had good reason for thinking that this description of +revolutionists did not so early nor so steadily point their murderous +designs at the martyr king as at the royal heroine. It was accident, +and the momentary depression of that part of the faction, that gave to +the husband the happy priority in death. + +From this their restless desire of an over-ruling influence, they bent +a very great part of their designs and efforts to revive the old +French party, which was a democratic party in Holland, and to make a +revolution there. They were happy at the troubles which the singular +imprudence of Joseph the Second had stirred up in the Austrian +Netherlands. They rejoiced when they saw him irritate his subjects, +profess philosophy, send away the Dutch garrisons, and dismantle his +fortifications. As to Holland, they never forgave either the king or +the ministry, for suffering that object, which they justly looked on +as principal in their design of reducing the power of England, to +escape out of their hands. This was the true secret of the commercial +treaty, made, on their part, against all the old rules and principles +of commerce, with a view of diverting the English nation, by a pursuit +of immediate profit, from an attention to the progress of France in +its designs upon that republic. The system of the economists, which +led to the general opening of commerce, facilitated that treaty, but +did not produce it. They were in despair when they found that by the +vigour of Mr. Pitt, supported in this point by Mr. Fox and the +opposition, the object to which they had sacrificed their manufactures +was lost to their ambition. + +This eager desire of raising France from the condition into which she +had fallen, as they conceived, from her monarchical imbecility, had +been the main-spring of their precedent interference in that unhappy +American quarrel, the bad effects of which to this nation have not, as +yet, fully disclosed themselves. These sentiments had been long +lurking in their breasts, though their views were only discovered now +and then, in heat and as by escapes; but on this occasion they +exploded suddenly. They were professed with ostentation and propagated +with zeal. These sentiments were not produced, as some think, by +their American alliance. The American alliance was produced by their +republican principles and republican policy. This new relation +undoubtedly did much. The discourses and cabals that it produced, the +intercourse that it established, and, above all, the example, which +made it seem practicable to establish a republic in a great extent of +country, finished the work, and gave to that part of the revolutionary +faction a degree of strength which required other energies than the +late king possessed, to resist, or even to restrain. It spread +everywhere; but it was nowhere more prevalent than in the heart of the +court. The palace of Versailles, by its language, seemed a forum of +democracy. To have pointed out to most of those politicians, from +their dispositions and movements, what has since happened, the fall of +their own monarchy, of their own laws, of their own religion, would +have been to furnish a motive the more for pushing forward a system on +which they considered all these things as encumbrances. Such in truth +they were. And we have seen them succeed not only in the destruction +of their monarchy, but in all the objects of ambition that they +proposed from that destruction. 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 concentred, 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 complexity 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. In that country entirely to cut off a +branch of commerce, to extinguish a manufacture, to destroy the +circulation of money, to violate credit, to suspend the course of +agriculture, even to burn a city, or to lay waste a province of their +own, does not cost them a moment's anxiety. To them the will, the +wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals, is as +nothing. Individuality is left out of their scheme of government. The +state is all in all. Everything is referred to the production of +force; afterwards, everything is trusted to the use of it. It is +military in its principle, in its maxims, in its spirit, and in all +its movements. The state has dominion and conquest for its sole +objects; dominion over minds by proselytism, over bodies by arms. + +Thus constituted, with an immense body of natural means which are +lessened in their amount only to be increased in their effect, France +has, since the accomplishment of the Revolution, a complete unity in +its direction. It has destroyed every resource of the state which +depends upon opinion and the good-will of individuals. The riches of +convention disappear. The advantages of nature in some measure remain: +even these, I admit, are astonishingly lessened; the command over what +remains is complete and absolute. We go about asking when assignats +will expire, and we laugh at the last price of them. But what +signifies the fate of those tickets of despotism? The despotism will +find despotic means of supply. They have found the short cut to the +productions of nature, while others, in pursuit of them, are obliged +to wind through the labyrinth of a very intricate state of society. +They seize upon the fruit of the labour; they seize upon the labourer +himself. Were France but half of what it is in population, in +compactness, in applicability of its force, situated as it is, and +being what it is, it would be too strong for most of the states of +Europe, constituted as they are, and proceeding as they proceed. Would +it be wise to estimate what the world of Europe, as well as the world +of Asia, had to dread from Genghiz Khan, upon a contemplation of the +resources of the cold and barren spot in the remotest Tartary, from +whence first issued that scourge of the human race? Ought we to judge +from the excise and stamp duties of the rocks, or from the paper +circulation of the sands of Arabia, the power by which Mahomet and his +tribes laid hold at once on the two most powerful empires of the +world; beat one of them totally to the ground, broke to pieces the +other, and, in not much longer space of time than I have lived, +overturned governments, laws, manners, religion, and extended an +empire from the Indus to the Pyrenees? + +Material resources never have supplied, nor ever can supply, the want +of unity in design, and constancy in pursuit. But unity in design, and +perseverance and boldness in pursuit, have never wanted resources, and +never will. We have not considered as we ought the dreadful energy of +a state in which the property has nothing to do with the government. +Reflect, my dear Sir, reflect again and again, on a government, in +which the property is in complete subjection, and where nothing rules +but the mind of desperate men. The condition of a commonwealth not +governed by its property was a combination of things which the learned +and ingenious speculator Harrington, who has tossed about society into +all forms, never could imagine to be possible. We have seen it; the +world has felt it; and if the world will shut their eyes to this state +of things, they will feel it more. The rulers there have found their +resources in crimes. The discovery is dreadful; the mine exhaustless. +They have everything to gain, and they have nothing to lose. They have +a boundless inheritance in hope; and there is no medium for them, +betwixt the highest elevation, and death with infamy. Never can they, +who; from the miserable servitude of the desk, have been raised to +empire, again submit to the bondage of a starving bureau, or the +profit of copying music, or writing plaidoyers by the sheet. It has +made me often smile in bitterness, when I have heard talk of an +indemnity to such men, provided they return to their allegiance. + +From all this, what is my inference? It is, that this new system of +robbery in France cannot be rendered safe by any art; that it _must_ +be destroyed, or that it will destroy all Europe; that to destroy that +enemy, by some means or other, the force opposed to it should be made +to bear some analogy and resemblance to the force and spirit which +that system exerts; that war ought to be made against it, in its +vulnerable parts. These are my inferences. In one word, with this +republic nothing independent can co-exist The errors of Louis XVI. +were more pardonable to prudence, than any of those of the same kind +into which the allied courts may fall. They have the benefit of his +dreadful example. + +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 impostors. 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 all 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 +negotiations, 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 XIII. had force enough to +destroy the republican system of the Protestants at home. + +Louis XVI. 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 connexions, 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 violently 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 XVI., 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 +XVI. 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 out-work +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. + +With this example before their eyes, do any ministers in England, do +any ministers in Austria, really flatter themselves that they can +erect, not on the remote shores of the Atlantic, but in their view, in +their vicinity, in absolute contact with one of them, not a commercial +but a martial republic--a republic not of simple husbandmen or +fishermen, but of intriguers, and of warriors--a republic of a +character the most restless, the most enterprising, the most impious, +the most fierce and bloody, the most hypocritical and perfidious, the +most bold and daring, that ever has been seen, or indeed that can be +conceived to exist, without bringing on their own certain ruin? + +Such is the republic to which we are going to give a place in +civilised fellowship: the republic, which, with joint consent, we are +going to establish in the centre of Europe, in a post that overlooks +and commands every other state, and which eminently confronts and +menaces this kingdom. + +You cannot fail to observe that I speak as if the allied powers were +actually consenting, and not compelled by events to the establishment +of this faction in France. The words have not escaped me. You will +hereafter naturally expect that I should make them good. But whether +in adopting this measure we are madly active, or weakly passive, or +pusillanimously panic struck, the effects will be the same. You may +call this faction, which has eradicated the monarchy,--expelled the +proprietary, persecuted religion, and trampled upon law,--you may call +this France if you please: but of the ancient France nothing remains +but its central geography; its iron frontier; its spirit of ambition; +its audacity of enterprise; its perplexing intrigue. These, and these +alone, remain: and they remain heightened in their principle and +augmented in their means. All the former correctives, whether of +virtue or of weakness, which existed in the old monarchy, are gone. No +single new corrective is to be found in the whole body of the new +institutions. How should such a thing be found there, when everything +has been chosen with care and selection to forward all those ambitious +designs and dispositions, not to control them? The whole is a body of +ways and means for the supply of dominion, without one heterogeneous +particle in it. + +Here I suffer you to breathe, and leave to your meditation what has +occurred to me on the _genius and character_ of the French Revolution. +From having this before us, we may be better able to determine on the +first question I proposed, that is, how far nations, called foreign, +are likely to be affected with the system established within that +territory. I intended to proceed next on the question of her +facilities, from _the internal state of other nations, and +particularly of this_, for obtaining her ends: but I ought to be +aware that my notions are controverted.--I mean, therefore, in my next +letter, to take notice of what, in that way, has been recommended to +me as the most deserving of notice. In the examination of those +pieces, I shall have occasion to discuss some others of the topics to +which I have called your attention. You know that the letters which I +now send to the press, as well as a part of what is to follow, have +been in their substance long since written. A circumstance which your +partiality alone could make of importance to you, but which to the +public is of no importance at all, retarded their appearance. The late +events which press upon us obliged me to make some additions; but no +substantial change in the matter. + +This discussion, my friend, will be long. But the matter is serious; +and if ever the fate of the world could be truly said to depend on a +particular measure, it is upon this peace. For the present, farewell. + + + + +V.--'PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS' + +BY SYDNEY SMITH + +(LETTERS II., VI., VII., IX.) + + +(_The pamphleteering spirit is strong in almost all Sydney Smith's +'Contributions to the _Edinburgh Review_,' but the form and subjects +of those contributions exclude them here. Of his two great pamphlet +issues proper, _Peter Plymley's Letters_ and those _To Archdeacon +Singleton_, the former are, though perhaps of less polished and +perfect wit than the latter, more distinctly political, and have more +of that _diable au corps_ which Voltaire considered necessary to +success in the arts. They have also the advantage that, while the +_Letters to Archdeacon Singleton_, though not an avowed recantation, +are in the nature of a palinode--always an awkward thing--_Plymley_ is +frankly and confidently, not to say wantonly, aggressive. These +_Letters_, ten in number, were written just after the fall of the +mainly Whig Ministry of 'All the Talents,' to which Sydney had been +indebted for his preferment of Foston, and which lost its position +not least owing to its intended support of the 'Catholic' claims. +Those claims were not admitted for twenty years later; and Sydney's +advocacy of them was regarded as a little too exuberant by some even +of his own party. But there is no doubt that the _Letters_ had a great +influence in laughing if not in arguing sections of the public round +to the Emancipation side._) + + +LETTER II. + +Dear Abraham--The Catholic not respect an oath! why not? What upon +earth has kept him out of Parliament, or excluded him from all the +offices whence he is excluded, but his respect for oaths? There is no +law which prohibits a Catholic to sit in Parliament. There could be no +such law; because it is impossible to find out what passes in the +interior of any man's mind. Suppose it were in contemplation to +exclude all men from certain offices who contended for the legality of +taking tithes: the only mode of discovering that fervid love of +decimation which I know you to possess would be to tender you an oath +"against that damnable doctrine, that it is lawful for a spiritual man +to take, abstract, appropriate, subduct, or lead away the tenth calf, +sheep, lamb, ox, pigeon, duck," etc., etc., etc., and every other +animal that ever existed, which of course the lawyers would take care +to enumerate. Now this oath I am sure you would rather die than take; +and so the Catholic is excluded from Parliament because he will not +swear that he disbelieves the leading doctrines of his religion! The +Catholic asks you to abolish some oaths which oppress him; your answer +is that he does not respect oaths. Then why subject him to the test of +oaths? The oaths keep him out of Parliament; why, then, he respects +them. Turn which way you will, either your laws are nugatory, or the +Catholic is bound by religious obligations as you are; but no eel in +the well-sanded fist of a cook-maid, upon the eve of being skinned, +ever twisted and writhed as an orthodox parson does when he is +compelled by the gripe of reason to admit anything in favour of a +dissenter. + +I will not dispute with you whether the Pope be or be not the Scarlet +Lady of Babylon. I hope it is not so; because I am afraid it will +induce His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer to introduce several +severe bills against popery, if that is the case; and though he will +have the decency to appoint a previous committee of inquiry as to the +fact, the committee will be garbled, and the report inflammatory. +Leaving this to be settled as he pleases to settle it, I wish to +inform you, that, previously to the bill last passed in favour of the +Catholics, at the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, and for his satisfaction, +the opinions of six of the most celebrated of the foreign Catholic +universities were taken as to the right of the Pope to interfere in +the temporal concerns of any country. The answer cannot possibly leave +the shadow of a doubt, even in the mind of Baron Maseres; and Dr. +Rennel would be compelled to admit it, if three Bishops lay dead at +the very moment the question were put to him. To this answer might be +added also the solemn declaration and signature of all the Catholics +in Great Britain. + +I should perfectly agree with you, if the Catholics admitted such a +dangerous dispensing power in the hands of the Pope; but they all deny +it, and laugh at it, and are ready to abjure it in the most decided +manner you can devise. They obey the Pope as the spiritual head of +their Church; but are you really so foolish as to be imposed upon by +mere names? What matters it the seven-thousandth part of a farthing +who is the spiritual head of any Church? Is not Mr. Wilberforce at the +head of the Church of Clapham? Is not Dr. Letsom at the head of the +Quaker Church? Is not the General Assembly at the head of the Church +of Scotland? How is the government disturbed by these many-headed +Churches? or in what way is the power of the Crown augmented by this +almost nominal dignity? + +The King appoints a fast-day once a year, and he makes the bishops: +and if the government would take half the pains to keep the Catholics +out of the arms of France that it does to widen Temple Bar, or +improve Snow Hill, the King would get into his hands the appointments +of the titular Bishops of Ireland. Both Mr. C----'s sisters enjoy +pensions more than sufficient to place the two greatest dignitaries of +the Irish Catholic Church entirely at the disposal of the Crown. +Everybody who knows Ireland knows perfectly well, that nothing would +be easier, with the expenditure of a little money, than to preserve +enough of the ostensible appointment in the hands of the Pope to +satisfy the scruples of the Catholics, while the real nomination +remained with the Crown. But, as I have before said, the moment the +very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to +common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the +barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots. + +Whatever your opinion may be of the follies of the Roman Catholic +religion, remember they are the follies of four millions of human +beings, increasing rapidly in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, who, +if firmly united with this country, would set at defiance the power of +France, and if once wrested from their alliance with England, would in +three years render its existence as an independent nation absolutely +impossible. You speak of danger to the Establishment: I request to +know when the Establishment was ever so much in danger as when Hoche +was in Bantry Bay, and whether all the books of Bossuet, or the arts +of the Jesuits, were half so terrible? Mr. Perceval and his parsons +forget all this, in their horror lest twelve or fourteen old women may +be converted to holy water and Catholic nonsense. They never see that, +while they are saving these venerable ladies from perdition, Ireland +may be lost, England broken down, and the Protestant Church, with all +its deans, prebendaries, Percevals, and Rennels, be swept into the +vortex of oblivion. + +Do not, I beseech you, ever mention to me again the name of Dr. +Duigenan. I have been in every corner of Ireland, and have studied its +present strength and condition with no common labour. Be assured +Ireland does not contain at this moment less than five millions of +people. There were returned in the year 1791 to the hearth tax 701,000 +houses, and there is no kind of question that there were about 50,000 +houses omitted in that return. Taking, however, only the number +returned for the tax, and allowing the average of six to a house (a +very small average for a potato-fed people), this brings the +population to 4,200,000 people in the year 1791: and it can be shown +from the clearest evidence (and Mr. Newenham in his book shows it), +that Ireland for the last fifty years has increased in its population +at the rate of 50 or 60,000 per annum; which leaves the present +population of Ireland at about five millions, after every possible +deduction for _existing circumstances, just and necessary wars, +monstrous and unnatural rebellions_, and all other sources of human +destruction. Of this population, two out of ten are Protestants; and +the half of the Protestant population are Dissenters, and as inimical +to the Church as the Catholics themselves. In this state of things +thumbscrews and whipping--admirable engines of policy as they must be +considered to be--will not ultimately avail. The Catholics will hang +over you; they will watch for the moment, and compel you hereafter to +give them ten times as much, against your will, as they would now be +contented with, if it were voluntarily surrendered. Remember what +happened in the American war, when Ireland compelled you to give her +everything she asked, and to renounce, in the most explicit manner, +your claim of Sovereignty over her. God Almighty grant the folly of +these present men may not bring on such another crisis of public +affairs! + +What are your dangers which threaten the Establishment?--Reduce this +declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean. The most +ample allowance does not calculate that there would be more than +twenty members who were Roman Catholics in one house, and ten in the +other, if the Catholic emancipation were carried into effect. Do you +mean that these thirty members would bring in a bill to take away the +tithes from the Protestant, and to pay them to the Catholic clergy? Do +you mean that a Catholic general would march his army into the House +of Commons, and purge it of Mr. Perceval and Dr. Duigenan? or, that +the theological writers would become all of a sudden more acute or +more learned, if the present civil incapacities were removed? Do you +fear for your tithes, or your doctrines, or your person, or the +English Constitution? Every fear, taken separately, is so glaringly +absurd, that no man has the folly or the boldness to state it. Every +one conceals his ignorance, or his baseness, in a stupid general +panic, which, when called on, he is utterly incapable of explaining. +Whatever you think of the Catholics, there they are--you cannot get +rid of them; your alternative is to give them a lawful place for +stating their grievances, or an unlawful one: if you do not admit them +to the House of Commons, they will hold their parliament in Potatoe +Place, Dublin, and be ten times as violent and inflammatory as they +would be in Westminster. Nothing would give me such an idea of +security as to see twenty or thirty Catholic gentlemen in Parliament, +looked upon by all the Catholics as the fair and proper organ of their +party. I should have thought it the height of good fortune that such a +wish existed on their part, and the very essence of madness and +ignorance to reject it. Can you murder the Catholics? Can you neglect +them? They are too numerous for both these expedients. What remains to +be done is obvious to every human being--but to that man who, instead +of being a Methodist preacher, is, for the curse of us and our +children, and for the ruin of Troy and the misery of good old Priam +and his sons, become a legislator and a politician. + +A distinction, I perceive, is taken by one of the most feeble noblemen +in Great Britain, between persecution and the deprivation of political +power; whereas, there is no more distinction between these two things +than there is between him who makes the distinction and a booby. If I +strip off the relic-covered jacket of a Catholic, and give him twenty +stripes ... I persecute; if I say, Everybody in the town where you +live shall be a candidate for lucrative and honourable offices, but +you, who are a Catholic ... I do not persecute! What barbarous +nonsense is this! as if degradation was not as great an evil as bodily +pain or as severe poverty: as if I could not be as great a tyrant by +saying, You shall not enjoy--as by saying, You shall suffer. The +English, I believe, are as truly religious as any nation in Europe: I +know no greater blessing; but it carries with it this evil in its +train, that any villain who will bawl out, '_The Church is in +danger!_' may get a place and a good pension; and that any +administration who will do the same thing may bring a set of men into +power who, at a moment of stationary and passive piety, would be +hooted by the very boys in the streets. But it is not all religion; it +is, in great part, the narrow and exclusive spirit which delights to +keep the common blessings of sun and air and freedom from other human +beings. 'Your religion has always been degraded; you are in the dust, +and I will take care you never rise again. I should enjoy less the +possession of an earthly good by every additional person to whom it +was extended.' You may not be aware of it yourself, most reverend +Abraham, but you deny their freedom to the Catholics upon the same +principle that Sarah your wife refuses to give the receipt for a ham +or a gooseberry dumpling: she values her receipts, not because they +secure to her a certain flavour, but because they remind her that her +neighbours want it:--a feeling laughable in a priestess, shameful in a +priest; venial when it withholds the blessings of a ham, tyrannical +and execrable when it narrows the boon of religious freedom. + +You spend a great deal of ink about the character of the present prime +minister. Grant you all that you write--I say, I fear he will ruin +Ireland, and pursue a line of policy destructive to the true interest +of his country: and then you tell me, he is faithful to Mrs. Perceval, +and kind to the Master Percevals! These are, undoubtedly, the first +qualifications to be looked to in a time of the most serious public +danger; but somehow or another (if public and private virtues must +always be incompatible), I should prefer that he destroyed the +domestic happiness of Wood or Cockell, owed for the veal of the +preceding year, whipped his boys, and saved his country. + +The late administration did not do right; they did not build their +measures upon the solid basis of facts. They should have caused +several Catholics to have been dissected after death by surgeons of +either religion; and the report to have been published with +accompanying plates. If the viscera, and other organs of life, had +been found to be the same as in Protestant bodies; if the provisions +of nerves, arteries, cerebrum, and cerebellum, had been the same as we +are provided with, or as the Dissenters are now known to possess; +then, indeed, they might have met Mr. Perceval upon a proud eminence, +and convinced the country at large of the strong probability that the +Catholics are really human creatures, endowed with the feelings of +men, and entitled to all their rights. But instead of this wise and +prudent measure, Lord Howick, with his usual precipitation, brings +forward a bill in their favour, without offering the slightest proof +to the country that they were anything more than horses and oxen. The +person who shows the lama at the corner of Piccadilly has the +precaution to write up--_Allowed by Sir Joseph Banks to be a real +quadruped_, so his Lordship might have said--_Allowed by the bench of +Bishops to be real human creatures_.... I could write you twenty +letters upon this subject; but I am tired, and so I suppose are you. +Our friendship is now of forty years' standing; you know me to be a +truly religious man; but I shudder to see religion treated like a +cockade, or a pint of beer, and made the instrument of a party. I love +the king, but I love the people as well as the king; and if I am sorry +to see his old age molested, I am much more sorry to see four millions +of Catholics baffled in their just expectations. If I love Lord +Grenville, and Lord Howick, it is because they love their country; if +I abhor ... it is because I know there is but one man among them who +is not laughing at the enormous folly and credulity of the country, +and that he is an ignorant and mischievous bigot. As for the light and +frivolous jester, of whom it is your misfortune to think so highly, +learn, my dear Abraham, that this political Killigrew, just before the +breaking-up of the last administration, was in actual treaty with them +for a place; and if they had survived twenty-four hours longer, he +would have been now declaiming against the cry of No Popery! instead +of inflaming it. With this practical comment on the baseness of human +nature, I bid you adieu! + + +LETTER VI. + +Dear Abraham--What amuses me the most is to hear of the _indulgences_ +which the Catholics have received, and their exorbitance in not being +satisfied with those indulgences: now if you complain to me that a +man is obtrusive and shameless in his requests, and that it is +impossible to bring him to reason, I must first of all hear the whole +of your conduct towards him; for you may have taken from him so much +in the first instance that, in spite of a long series of restitution, +a vast latitude for petition may still remain behind. + +There is a village, no matter where, in which the inhabitants, on one +day in the year, sit down to a dinner prepared at the common expense: +by an extraordinary piece of tyranny, which Lord Hawkesbury would call +the wisdom of the village ancestors, the inhabitants of three of the +streets, about a hundred years ago, seized upon the inhabitants of the +fourth street, bound them hand and foot, laid them upon their backs, +and compelled them to look on while the rest were stuffing themselves +with beef and beer; the next year the inhabitants of the persecuted +street, though they contributed an equal quota of the expense, were +treated precisely in the same manner. The tyranny grew into a custom; +and, as the manner of our nature is, it was considered as the most +sacred of all duties to keep these poor fellows without their annual +dinner. The village was so tenacious of this practice, that nothing +could induce them to resign it; every enemy to it was looked upon as a +disbeliever in Divine Providence, and any nefarious churchwarden who +wished to succeed in his election had nothing to do but to represent +his antagonist as an abolitionist, in order to frustrate his ambition, +endanger his life, and throw the village into a state of the most +dreadful commotion. By degrees, however, the obnoxious street grew to +be so well peopled, and its inhabitants so firmly united, that their +oppressors, more afraid of injustice, were more disposed to be just. +At the next dinner they are unbound, the year after allowed to sit +upright, then a bit of bread and a glass of water; till at last, after +a long series of concessions, they are emboldened to ask, in pretty +plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at the bottom of the +table, and to fill their bellies as well as the rest. Forthwith a +general cry of shame and scandal: 'Ten years ago, were you not laid +upon your backs? Don't you remember what a great thing you thought it +to get a piece of bread? How thankful you were for cheese parings? +Have you forgotten that memorable era, when the lord of the manor +interfered to obtain for you a slice of the public pudding? And now, +with an audacity only equalled by your ingratitude, you have the +impudence to ask for knives and forks, and to request, in terms too +plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down to table with the rest, +and be indulged even with beef and beer: there are not more than half +a dozen dishes which we have reserved for ourselves; the rest has been +thrown open to you in the utmost profusion; you have potatoes, and +carrots, suet dumplings, sops in the pan, and delicious toast and +water in incredible quantities. Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal are +ours; and if you were not the most restless and dissatisfied of human +beings, you would never think of aspiring to enjoy them.' + +Is not this, my dainty Abraham, the very nonsense and the very insult +which is talked to and practised upon the Catholics? You are surprised +that men who have tasted of partial justice should ask for perfect +justice; that he who has been robbed of coat and cloak will not be +contented with the restitution of one of his garments. He would be a +very lazy blockhead if he were content, and I (who, though an +inhabitant of the village, have preserved, thank God, some sense of +justice) most earnestly counsel these half-fed claimants to persevere +in their just demands, till they are admitted to a more complete share +of a dinner for which they pay as much as the others; and if they see +a little attenuated lawyer squabbling at the head of their opponents, +let them desire him to empty his pockets, and to pull out all the +pieces of duck, fowl, and pudding which he has filched from the public +feast, to carry home to his wife and children. + +You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this country +to the Irish before the Union. I deny that any voluntary concession +was ever made by England to Ireland. What did Ireland ever ask that +was granted? What did she ever demand that was not refused? How did +she get her Mutiny Bill--a limited Parliament--a repeal of Poyning's +Law--a constitution? Not by the concessions of England, but by her +fears. When Ireland asked for all these things upon her knees, her +petitions were rejected with Percevalism and contempt; when she +demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, they were granted +with every mark of consternation and dismay. Ask of Lord Auckland the +fatal consequences of trifling with such a people as the Irish. He +himself was the organ of these refusals. As secretary to the Lord +Lieutenant, the insolence and the tyranny of this country passed +through his hands. Ask him if he remembers the consequences. Ask him +if he has forgotten that memorable evening when he came down booted +and mantled to the House of Commons, when he told the House he was +about to set off for Ireland that night, and declared before God, if +he did not carry with him a compliance with all their demands, Ireland +was for ever lost to this country. The present generation have +forgotten this; but I have not forgotten it; and I know, hasty and +undignified as the submission of England then was, that Lord Auckland +was right, that the delay of a single day might very probably have +separated the two peoples for ever. The terms submission and fear are +galling terms when applied from the lesser nation to the greater; but +it is the plain historical truth, it is the natural consequence of +injustice, it is the predicament in which every country places itself +which leaves such a mass of hatred and discontent by its side. No +empire is powerful enough to endure it; it would exhaust the strength +of China, and sink it with all its mandarins and tea-kettles to the +bottom of the deep. By refusing them justice now when you are strong +enough to refuse them anything more than justice, you will act over +again, with the Catholics, the same scene of mean and precipitate +submission which disgraced you before America, and before the +volunteers of Ireland. We shall live to hear the Hampstead Protestant +pronouncing such extravagant panegyrics upon holy water, and paying +such fulsome compliments to the thumbs and offals of departed saints, +that parties will change sentiments, and Lord Henry Petty and Sam +Whitbread take a spell at No Popery. The wisdom of Mr. Fox was alike +employed in teaching his country justice when Ireland was weak, and +dignity when Ireland was strong. We are fast pacing round the same +miserable circle of ruin and imbecility. Alas! where is our guide? + +You say that Ireland is a millstone about our necks; that it would be +better for us if Ireland were sunk at the bottom of the sea; that the +Irish are a nation of irreclaimable savages and barbarians. How often +have I heard these sentiments fall from the plump and thoughtless +squire, and from the thriving English shopkeeper, who has never felt +the rod of an Orange master upon his back. Ireland a millstone about +your neck! Why is it not a stone of Ajax in your hand? I agree with +you most cordially that, governed as Ireland now is, it would be a +vast accession of strength if the waves of the sea were to rise and +engulf her to-morrow. At this moment, opposed as we are to all the +world, the annihilation of one of the most fertile islands on the face +of the globe, containing five millions of human creatures, would be +one of the most solid advantages which could happen to this country. I +doubt very much, in spite of all the just abuse which has been +lavished upon Bonaparte, whether there is any one of his conquered +countries the blotting out of which would be as beneficial to him as +the destruction of Ireland would be to us: of countries I speak +differing in language from the French, little habituated to their +intercourse, and inflamed with all the resentments of a recently +conquered people. Why will you attribute the turbulence of our people +to any cause but the right--to any cause but your own scandalous +oppression? If you tie your horse up to a gate, and beat him cruelly, +is he vicious because he kicks you? If you have plagued and worried a +mastiff dog for years, is he mad because he flies at you whenever he +sees you? Hatred is an active, troublesome passion. Depend upon it, +whole nations have always some reason for their hatred. Before you +refer the turbulence of the Irish to incurable defects in their +character, tell me if you have treated them as friends and equals? +Have you protected their commerce? Have you respected their religion? +Have you been as anxious for their freedom as your own? Nothing of all +this. What then? Why you have confiscated the territorial surface of +the country twice over: you have massacred and exported her +inhabitants: you have deprived four-fifths of them of every civil +privilege: you have at every period made her commerce and manufactures +slavishly subordinate to your own: and yet the hatred which the Irish +bear to you is the result of an original turbulence of character, and +of a primitive, obdurate wildness, utterly incapable of civilisation. +The embroidered inanities and the sixth-form effusions of Mr. Canning +are really not powerful enough to make me believe this; nor is there +any authority on earth (always excepting the Dean of Christ Church) +which could make it credible to me. I am sick of Mr. Canning. There is +not a 'ha'porth of bread to all this sugar and sack.' I love not the +cretaceous and incredible countenance of his colleague. The only +opinion in which I agree with these two gentlemen is that which they +entertain of each other. I am sure that the insolence of Mr. Pitt, and +the unbalanced accounts of Melville, were far better than the perils +of this new ignorance:-- + + Nonne fuit satius, tristes Amaryllidis iras + Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan? + Quamvis ille _niger_? + +In the midst of the most profound peace, the secret articles of the +Treaty of Tilsit, in which the destruction of Ireland is resolved +upon, induce you to rob the Danes of their fleet. After the expedition +sailed comes the Treaty of Tilsit, containing no article, public or +private, alluding to Ireland. The state of the world, you tell me, +justified us in doing this. Just God! do we think only of the state of +the world when there is an opportunity for robbery, for murder, and +for plunder; and do we forget the state of the world when we are +called upon to be wise, and good, and just? Does the state of the +world never remind us that we have four millions of subjects whose +injuries we ought to atone for, and whose affections we ought to +conciliate? Does the state of the world never warn us to lay aside our +infernal bigotry, and to arm every man who acknowledges a God, and can +grasp a sword? Did it never occur to this administration that they +might virtuously get hold of a force ten times greater than the force +of the Danish fleet? Was there no other way of protecting Ireland but +by bringing eternal shame upon Great Britain, and by making the earth +a den of robbers? See what the men whom you have supplanted would have +done. They would have rendered the invasion of Ireland impossible, by +restoring to the Catholics their long-lost rights: they would have +acted in such a manner that the French would neither have wished for +invasion nor dared to attempt it: they would have increased the +permanent strength of the country while they preserved its reputation +unsullied. Nothing of this kind your friends have done, because they +are solemnly pledged to do nothing of this kind; because, to tolerate +all religions, and to equalise civil rights to all sects, is to oppose +some of the worst passions of our nature--to plunder and to oppress is +to gratify them all. They wanted the huzzas of mobs, and they have for +ever blasted the fame of England to obtain them. Were the fleets of +Holland, France, and Spain destroyed by larceny? You resisted the +power of 150 sail of the line by sheer courage, and violated every +principle of morals from the dread of fifteen hulks, while the +expedition itself cost you three times more than the value of the +larcenous matter brought away. The French trample on the laws of God +and man, not for old cordage, but for kingdoms, and always take care +to be well paid for their crimes. We contrive, under the present +administration, to unite moral with intellectual deficiency, and to +grow weaker and worse by the same action. If they had any evidence of +the intended hostility of the Danes, why was it not produced? Why have +the nations of Europe been allowed to feel an indignation against this +country beyond the reach of all subsequent information? Are these +times, do you imagine, when we can trifle with a year of universal +hatred, dally with the curses of Europe, and then regain a lost +character at pleasure, by the parliamentary perspirations of the +Foreign Secretary, or the solemn asseverations of the pecuniary Rose? +Believe me, Abraham, it is not under such ministers as these that the +dexterity of honest Englishmen will ever equal the dexterity of French +knaves; it is not in their presence that the serpent of Moses will +ever swallow up the serpents of the magician. + +Lord Hawkesbury says that nothing is to be granted to the Catholics +from fear. What! not even justice? Why not? There are four millions of +disaffected people within twenty miles of your own coast. I fairly +confess that the dread which I have of their physical power is with me +a very strong motive for listening to their claims. To talk of not +acting from fear is mere parliamentary cant. From what motive but +fear, I should be glad to know, have all the improvements in our +constitution proceeded? I question if any justice has ever been done +to large masses of mankind from any other motive. By what other +motives can the plunderers of the Baltic suppose nations to be +governed in their intercourse _with each other_? If I say, Give this +people what they ask because it is just, do you think I should get ten +people to listen to me? Would not the lesser of the two Jenkinsons be +the first to treat me with contempt? The only true way to make the +mass of mankind see the beauty of justice is by showing to them, in +pretty plain terms, the consequences of injustice. If any body of +French troops land in Ireland, the whole population of that country +will rise against you to a man, and you could not possibly survive +such an event three years. Such, from the bottom of my soul, do I +believe to be the present state of that country; and so far does it +appear to me to be impolitic and unstatesman-like to conceed anything +to such a danger, that if the Catholics, in addition to their present +just demands, were to petition for the perpetual removal of the said +Lord Hawkesbury from his Majesty's councils, I think, whatever might +be the effect upon the destinies of Europe, and however it might +retard our own individual destruction, that the prayer of the petition +should be instantly complied with. Canning's crocodile tears should +not move me; the hoops of the maids of honour should not hide him. I +would tear him from the banisters of the back stairs, and plunge him +in the fishy fumes of the dirtiest of all his Cinque Ports. + + +LETTER VII. + +Dear Abraham--In the correspondence which is passing between us, you +are perpetually alluding to the Foreign Secretary; and in answer to +the dangers of Ireland, which I am pressing upon your notice, you have +nothing to urge but the confidence which you repose in the discretion +and sound sense of this gentleman. I can only say, that I have +listened to him long and often with the greatest attention; I have +used every exertion in my power to take a fair measure of him, and it +appears to me impossible to hear him upon any arduous topic without +perceiving that he is eminently deficient in those solid and serious +qualities upon which, and upon which alone, the confidence of a great +country can properly repose. He sweats and labours, and works for +sense, and Mr. Ellis seems always to think it is coming, but it does +not come; the machine can't draw up what is not to be found in the +spring; Providence has made him a light, jesting, paragraph-writing +man, and that he will remain to his dying day. When he is jocular he +is strong, when he is serious he is like Samson in a wig; any ordinary +person is a match for him: a song, an ironical letter, a burlesque +ode, an attack in the newspaper upon Nicoll's eye, a smart speech of +twenty minutes, full of gross misrepresentations and clever turns, +excellent language, a spirited manner, lucky quotation, success in +provoking dull men, some half information picked up in Pall Mall in +the morning; these are your friend's natural weapons; all these things +he can do: here I allow him to be truly great; nay, I will be just, +and go still further, if he would confine himself to these things, and +consider the _facete_ and the playful to be the basis of his +character, he would, for that species of man, be universally regarded +as a person of a very good understanding; call him a legislator, a +reasoner, and the conductor of the affairs of a great nation, and it +seems to me as absurd as if a butterfly were to teach bees to make +honey. That he is an extraordinary writer of small poetry, and a diner +out of the highest lustre, I do most readily admit. After George +Selwyn, and perhaps Tickell, there has been no such man for this +half-century. The Foreign Secretary is a gentleman, a respectable as +well as a highly agreeable man in private life; but you may as well +feed me with decayed potatoes as console me for the miseries of +Ireland by the resources of his _sense_ and his _discretion_. It is +only the public situation which this gentleman holds which entitles me +or induces me to say so much about him. He is a fly in amber, nobody +cares about the fly; the only question is, How the devil did it get +there? Nor do I attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of +utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke for fear it +should flood a province. + +The friends of the Catholic question are, I observe, extremely +embarrassed in arguing when they come to the loyalty of the Irish +Catholics. As for me, I shall go straight forward to my object, and +state what I have no manner of doubt, from an intimate knowledge of +Ireland, to be the plain truth. Of the great Roman Catholic +proprietors, and of the Catholic prelates, there may be a few, and but +a few, who would follow the fortunes of England at all events: there +is another set of men who, thoroughly detesting this country, have too +much property and too much character to lose, not to wait for some +very favourable event before they show themselves; but the great mass +of Catholic population, upon the slightest appearance of a French +force in that country, would rise upon you to a man. It is the most +mistaken policy to conceal the plain truth. There is no loyalty among +the Catholics: they detest you as their worst oppressors, and they +will continue to detest you till you remove the cause of their hatred. +It is in your power in six months' time to produce a total revolution +of opinions among this people; and in some future letter I will show +you that this is clearly the case. At present, see what a dreadful +state Ireland is in. The common toast among the low Irish is, the +feast of the _passover_. Some allusion to _Bonaparte_, in a play +lately acted at Dublin, produced thunders of applause from the pit and +the galleries; and a politician should not be inattentive to the +public feelings expressed in theatres. Mr. Perceval thinks he has +disarmed the Irish: he has no more disarmed the Irish than he has +resigned a shilling of his own public emoluments. An Irish peasant +fills the barrel of his gun full of tow dipped in oil, butters up the +lock, buries it in a bog, and allows the Orange bloodhound to ransack +his cottage at pleasure. Be just and kind to the Irish, and you will +indeed disarm them; rescue them from the degraded servitude in which +they are held by a handful of their own countrymen, and you will add +four millions of brave and affectionate men to your strength. Nightly +visits, Protestant inspectors, licenses to possess a pistol, or a +knife and fork, the odious vigour of the _evangelical_ Perceval--acts +of Parliament, drawn up by some English attorney, to save you from the +hatred of four millions of people--the guarding yourselves from +universal disaffection by a police; a confidence in the little cunning +of Bow Street, when you might rest your security upon the eternal +basis of the best feelings: this is the meanness and madness to which +nations are reduced when they lose sight of the first elements of +justice, without which a country can be no more secure than it can be +healthy without air. I sicken at such policy and such men. The fact +is, the Ministers know nothing about the present state of Ireland; Mr. +Perceval sees a few clergymen, Lord Castlereagh a few general +officers, who take care, of course, to report what is pleasant rather +than what is true. As for the joyous and lepid consul, he jokes upon +neutral flags and frauds, jokes upon Irish rebels, jokes upon +northern and western and southern foes, and gives himself no trouble +upon any subject; nor is the mediocrity of the idolatrous deputy of +the slightest use. Dissolved in grins, he reads no memorials upon the +state of Ireland, listens to no reports, asks no questions, and is the + + "_Bourn_ from whom no traveller returns." + +The danger of an immediate insurrection is now, I _believe_, blown +over. You have so strong an army in Ireland, and the Irish are become +so much more cunning from the last insurrection, that you may perhaps +be tolerably secure just at present from that evil: but are you secure +from the efforts which the French may make to throw a body of troops +into Ireland? and do you consider that event to be difficult and +improbable? From Brest Harbour to Cape St. Vincent, you have above +three thousand miles of hostile sea coast, and twelve or fourteen +harbours quite capable of containing a sufficient force for the +powerful invasion of Ireland. The nearest of these harbours is not two +days' sail from the southern coast of Ireland, with a fair leading +wind; and the furthest not ten. Five ships of the line, for so very +short a passage, might carry five or six thousand troops with cannon +and ammunition; and Ireland presents to their attack a southern coast +of more than 500 miles, abounding in deep bays, admirable harbours, +and disaffected inhabitants. Your blockading ships may be forced to +come home for provisions and repairs, or they may be blown off in a +gale of wind and compelled to bear away for their own coast; and you +will observe that the very same wind which locks you up in the British +Channel, when you are got there, is evidently favourable for the +invasion of Ireland. And yet this is called Government, and the people +huzza Mr. Perceval for continuing to expose his country day after day +to such tremendous perils as these; cursing the men who would have +given up a question in theology to have saved us from such a risk. The +British empire at this moment is in the state of a peach-blossom--if +the wind blows gently from one quarter, it survives; if furiously from +the other, it perishes. A stiff breeze may set in from the north, the +Rochefort squadron will be taken, and the Minister will be the most +holy of men: if it comes from some other point, Ireland is gone; we +curse ourselves as a set of monastic madmen, and call out for the +unavailing satisfaction of Mr. Perceval's head. Such a state of +political existence is scarcely credible: it is the action of a mad +young fool standing upon one foot, and peeping down the crater of +Mount AEtna, not the conduct of a wise and sober people deciding upon +their best and dearest interests: and in the name, the much-injured +name, of heaven, what is it all for that we expose ourselves to these +dangers? Is it that we may sell more muslin? Is it that we may acquire +more territory? Is it that we may strengthen what we have already +acquired? No; nothing of all this; but that one set of Irishmen may +torture another set of Irishmen--that Sir Phelim O'Callaghan may +continue to whip Sir Toby M'Tackle, his next door neighbour, and +continue to ravish his Catholic daughters; and these are the measures +which the honest and consistent Secretary supports; and this is the +Secretary whose genius in the estimation of Brother Abraham is to +extinguish the genius of Bonaparte. Pompey was killed by a slave, +Goliath smitten by a stripling. Pyrrhus died by the hand of a woman; +tremble, thou great Gaul, from whose head an armed Minerva leaps forth +in the hour of danger; tremble, thou scourge of God, a pleasant man is +come out against thee, and thou shall be laid low by a joker of jokes, +and he shall talk his pleasant talk against thee, and thou shall be no +more! + +You tell me, in spite of all this parade of sea-coast, Bonaparte has +neither ships nor sailors: but this is a mistake. He has not ships and +sailors to contest the empire of the seas with Great Britain, but +there remains quite sufficient of the navies of France, Spain, +Holland, and Denmark, for these short excursions and invasions. Do you +think, too, that Bonaparte does not add to his navy every year? Do +you suppose, with all Europe at his feet, that he can find any +difficulty in obtaining timber, and that money will not procure for +him any quantity of naval stores he may want? The mere machine, the +empty ship, he can build as well, and as quickly, as you can; and +though he may not find enough of practised sailors to man large +fighting-fleets--it is not possible to conceive that he can want +sailors for such sort of purposes as I have stated. He is at present +the despotic monarch of above twenty thousand miles of sea-coast, and +yet you suppose he cannot procure sailors for the invasion of Ireland. +Believe, if you please, that such a fleet met at sea by any number of +our ships at all comparable to them in point of force, would be +immediately taken, let it be so; I count nothing upon their power of +resistance, only upon their power of escaping unobserved. If +experience has taught us anything, it is the impossibility of +perpetual blockades. The instances are innumerable, during the course +of this war, where whole fleets have sailed in and out of harbour, in +spite of every vigilance used to prevent it. I shall only mention +those cases where Ireland is concerned. In December, 1796, seven ships +of the line, and ten transports, reached Bantry Bay from Brest, +without having seen an English ship in their passage. It blew a storm +when they were off shore, and therefore England still continues to be +an independent kingdom. You will observe that at the very time the +French fleet sailed out of Brest Harbour, Admiral Colpoys was cruising +off there with a powerful squadron, and still, from the particular +circumstances of the weather, found it impossible to prevent the +French from coming out. During the time that Admiral Colpoys was +cruising off Brest, Admiral Richery, with six ships of the line, +passed him, and got safe into the harbour. At the very moment when the +French squadron was lying in Bantry Bay, Lord Bridport with his fleet +was locked up by a foul wind in the Channel, and for several days +could not stir to the assistance of Ireland. Admiral Colpoys, totally +unable to find the French fleet, came home. Lord Bridport, at the +change of the wind, cruised for them in vain, and they got safe back +to Brest, without having seen a single one of those floating bulwarks, +the possession of which we believe will enable us with impunity to set +justice and common sense at defiance. Such is the miserable and +precarious state of an anemocracy, of a people who put their trust in +hurricanes, and are governed by wind. In August, 1798, three forty-gun +frigates landed 1100 men under Humbert, making the passage from +Rochelle to Killala without seeing any English ship. In October of the +same year, four French frigates anchored in Killala Bay with 2000 +troops; and though they did not land their troops they returned to +France in safety. In the same month, a line-of-battle ship, eight +stout frigates, and a brig, all full of troops and stores, reached the +coast of Ireland, and were fortunately, in sight of land, destroyed, +after an obstinate engagement, by Sir John Warren. + +If you despise the little troop which, in these numerous experiments, +did make good its landing, take with you, if you please, this _precis_ +of its exploits: eleven hundred men, commanded by a soldier raised +from the ranks, put to rout a select army of 6000 men, commanded by +General Lake, seized their ordnance, ammunition, and stores, advanced +150 miles into a country containing an armed force of 150,000 men, and +at last surrendered to the Viceroy, an experienced general, gravely +and cautiously advancing at the head of all his chivalry and of an +immense army to oppose him. You must excuse these details about +Ireland, but it appears to me to be of all other subjects the most +important. If we conciliate Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do +not, we can do nothing well. If Ireland was friendly, we might equally +set at defiance the talents of Bonaparte and the blunders of his +rival, Mr. Canning; we could then support the ruinous and silly bustle +of our useless expeditions, and the almost incredible ignorance of our +commercial orders in council. Let the present administration give up +but this one point, and there is nothing which I would not consent to +grant them. Mr. Perceval shall have full liberty to insult the tomb +of Mr. Fox, and to torment every eminent Dissenter in Great Britain; +Lord Camden shall have large boxes of plums; Mr. Rose receive +permission to prefix to his name the appellative of virtuous; and to +the Viscount Castlereagh a round sum of ready money shall be well and +truly paid into his hand. Lastly, what remains to Mr. George Canning, +but that he ride up and down Pall Mall glorious upon a white horse, +and that they cry out before him, Thus shall it be done to the +statesman who hath written 'The Needy Knife-Grinder,' and the German +play? Adieu only for the present; you shall soon hear from me again; +it is a subject upon which I cannot long be silent. + + +LETTER IX. + +Dear Abraham--No Catholic can be chief Governor or Governor of this +kingdom, Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord High Treasurer, +Chief of any of the Courts of Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, +Puisne Judge, Judge in the Admiralty, Master of the Rolls, Secretary +of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer or his Deputy, +Teller or Cashier of Exchequer, Auditor or General, Governor or Gustos +Rotulorum of Counties, Chief Governor's Secretary, Privy Councillor, +King's Counsel, Serjeant, Attorney, Solicitor-General, Master in +Chancery, Provost or Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, +Postmaster-General, Master and Lieutenant-General of Ordnance, +Commander-in-Chief, General on the Staff, Sheriff, Sub-Sheriff, Mayor, +Bailiff, Recorder, Burgess, or any other officer in a City, or a +Corporation. No Catholic can be guardian to a Protestant, and no +priest guardian at all; no Catholic can be a gamekeeper, or have for +sale, or otherwise, any arms or warlike stores; no Catholic can +present to a living, unless he choose to turn Jew in order to obtain +that privilege; the pecuniary qualification of Catholic jurors is made +higher than that of Protestants, and no relaxation of the ancient +rigorous code is permitted, unless to those who shall take an oath +prescribed by 13 and 14 George III. Now if this is not picking the +plums out of the pudding and leaving the mere batter to the Catholics, +I know not what is. If it were merely the Privy Council, it would be +(I allow) nothing but a point of honour for which the mass of +Catholics were contending, the honour of being chief-mourners or +pall-bearers to the country; but surely no man will contend that every +barrister may not speculate upon the possibility of being a Puisne +Judge; and that every shopkeeper must not feel himself injured by his +exclusion from borough offices. + +One of the greatest practical evils which the Catholics suffer in +Ireland is their exclusion from the offices of Sheriff and Deputy +Sheriff. Nobody who is unacquainted with Ireland can conceive the +obstacles which this opposes to the fair administration of justice. +The formation of juries is now entirely in the hands of the +Protestants; the lives, liberties, and properties of the Catholics in +the hands of the juries; and this is the arrangement for the +administration of justice in a country where religious prejudices are +inflamed to the greatest degree of animosity! In this country, if a +man be a foreigner, if he sell slippers, and sealing wax, and +artificial flowers, we are so tender of human life that we take care +half the number of persons who are to decide upon his fate should be +men of similar prejudices and feelings with himself: but a poor +Catholic in Ireland may be tried by twelve Percevals, and destroyed +according to the manner of that gentleman in the name of the Lord, and +with all the insulting forms of justice. I do not go the length of +saying that deliberate and wilful injustice is done. I have no doubt +that the Orange Deputy Sheriff thinks it would be a most unpardonable +breach of his duty if he did not summon a Protestant panel. I can +easily believe that the Protestant panel may conduct themselves very +conscientiously in hanging the gentlemen of the crucifix; but I blame +the law which does not guard the Catholic against the probable tenor +of those feelings which must unconsciously influence the judgments of +mankind. I detest that state of society which extends unequal degrees +of protection to different creeds and persuasions; and I cannot +describe to you the contempt I feel for a man who, calling himself a +statesman, defends a system which fills the heart of every Irishman +with treason, and makes his allegiance prudence, not choice. + +I request to know if the vestry taxes in Ireland are a mere matter of +romantic feeling which can affect only the Earl of Fingal? In a parish +where there are four thousand Catholics and fifty Protestants, the +Protestants may meet together in a vestry meeting at which no Catholic +has the right to vote, and tax all the lands in the parish 1s. 6d. per +acre, or in the pound, I forget which, for the repairs of the +church--and how has the necessity of these repairs been ascertained? A +Protestant plumber has discovered that it wants new leading; a +Protestant carpenter is convinced the timbers are not sound; and the +glazier who hates holy water (as an accoucheur hates celibacy, because +he gets nothing by it) is employed to put in new sashes. + +The grand juries in Ireland are the great scene of jobbing. They have +a power of making a county rate to a considerable extent for roads, +bridges, and other objects of general accommodation. 'You suffer the +road to be brought through my park, and I will have the bridge +constructed in a situation where it will make a beautiful object to +your house. You do my job, and I will do yours.' These are the sweet +and interesting subjects which occasionally occupy Milesian gentlemen +while they are attendant upon this grand inquest of justice. But there +is a religion, it seems, even in jobs; and it will be highly +gratifying to Mr. Perceval to learn that no man in Ireland who +believes in seven sacraments can carry a public road, or bridge, one +yard out of the direction most beneficial to the public, and that +nobody can cheat the public who does not expound the Scriptures in the +purest and most orthodox manner. This will give pleasure to Mr. +Perceval: but, from his unfairness upon these topics I appeal to the +justice and the proper feelings of Mr. Huskisson. I ask him if the +human mind can experience a more dreadful sensation than to see its +own jobs refused, and the jobs of another religion perpetually +succeeding? I ask him his opinion of a jobless faith, of a creed which +dooms a man through life to a lean and plunderless integrity. He knows +that human nature cannot and will not bear it; and if we were to paint +a political Tartarus, it would be an endless series of snug +expectations and cruel disappointments. These are a few of many +dreadful inconveniences which the Catholics of all ranks suffer from +the laws by which they are at present oppressed. Besides, look at +human nature: what is the history of all professions? Joel is to be +brought up to the bar: has Mrs. Plymley the slightest doubt of his +being Chancellor? Do not his two shrivelled aunts live in the +certainty of seeing him in that situation, and of cutting out with +their own hands his equity habiliments? And I could name a certain +minister of the Gospel who does not, in the bottom of his heart, much +differ from these opinions. Do you think that the fathers and mothers +of the holy Catholic Church are not as absurd as Protestant papas and +mammas? The probability I admit to be, in each particular case, that +the sweet little blockhead will in fact never get a brief;--but I will +venture to say there is not a parent from the Giant's Causeway to +Bantry Bay who does not conceive that his child is the unfortunate +victim of the exclusion, and that nothing short of positive law could +prevent his own dear, pre-eminent Paddy from rising to the highest +honours of the State. So with the army and parliament; in fact, few +are excluded; but, in imagination, all: you keep twenty or thirty +Catholics out, and you lose the affections of four millions; and, let +me tell you, that recent circumstances have by no means tended to +diminish in the minds of men that hope of elevation beyond their own +rank which is so congenial to our nature: from pleading for John Roe +to taxing John Bull, from jesting for Mr. Pitt and writing in the +_Anti-Jacobin_, to managing the affairs of Europe--these are leaps +which seem to justify the fondest dreams of mothers and of aunts. + +I do not say that the disabilities to which the Catholics are exposed +amount to such intolerable grievances, that the strength and industry +of a nation are overwhelmed by them: the increasing prosperity of +Ireland fully demonstrates to the contrary. But I repeat again, what I +have often stated in the course of our correspondence, that your laws +against the Catholics are exactly in that state in which you have +neither the benefits of rigour nor of liberality: every law which +prevented the Catholic from gaining strength and wealth is repealed; +every law which can irritate remains; if you were determined to insult +the Catholics you should have kept them weak; if you resolved to give +them strength, you should have ceased to insult them--at present your +conduct is pure, unadulterated folly. + +Lord Hawkesbury says, 'We heard nothing about the Catholics till we +began to mitigate the laws against them; when we relieved them in part +from this oppression they began to be disaffected.' This is very true; +but it proves just what I have said, that you have either done too +much or too little; and as there lives not, I hope, upon earth, so +depraved a courtier that he would load the Catholics with their +ancient chains, what absurdity it is, then, not to render their +dispositions friendly, when you leave their arms and legs free! + +You know, and many Englishmen know, what passes in China; but nobody +knows or cares what passes in Ireland. At the beginning of the +present reign no Catholic could realise property, or carry on any +business; they were absolutely annihilated, and had no more agency in +the country than so many trees. They were like Lord Mulgrave's +eloquence and Lord Camden's wit; the legislative bodies did not know +of their existence. For these twenty-five years last past the +Catholics have been engaged in commerce; within that period the +commerce of Ireland has doubled--there are four Catholics at work for +one Protestant, and eight Catholics at work for one Episcopalian. Of +course, the proportion which Catholic wealth bears to Protestant +wealth is every year altering rapidly in favour of the Catholics. I +have already told you what their purchases of land were the last year: +since that period I have been at some pains to find out the actual +state of the Catholic wealth: it is impossible upon such a subject to +arrive at complete accuracy; but I have good reason to believe that +there are at present 2000 Catholics in Ireland possessing an income of +L500 and upwards, many of these with incomes of one, two, three, and +four thousand, and some amounting to fifteen and twenty thousand per +annum:--and this is the kingdom, and these the people, for whose +conciliation we are to wait Heaven knows when, and Lord Hawkesbury +why! As for me, I never think of the situation of Ireland without +feeling the same necessity for immediate interference as I should do +if I saw blood flowing from a great artery. I rush towards it with +the instinctive rapidity of a man desirous of preventing death, and +have no other feeling but that in a few seconds the patient may be no +more. + +I could not help smiling, in the times of No Popery, to witness the +loyal indignation of many persons at the attempt made by the last +ministry to do something for the relief of Ireland. The general cry in +the country was, that they would not see their beloved Monarch used +ill in his old age, and that they would stand by him to the last drop +of their blood. I respect good feelings, however erroneous be the +occasions on which they display themselves; and therefore I saw in all +this as much to admire as to blame. It was a species of affection, +however, which reminded me very forcibly of the attachment displayed +by the servants of the Russian ambassador at the beginning of the last +century. His Excellency happened to fall down in a kind of apoplectic +fit, when he was paying a morning visit in the house of an +acquaintance. The confusion was of course very great, and messengers +were despatched in every direction to find a surgeon: who, upon his +arrival, declared that his Excellency must be immediately blooded, and +prepared himself forthwith to perform the operation: the barbarous +servants of the embassy, who were there in great numbers, no sooner +saw the surgeon prepared to wound the arm of their master with a +sharp, shining instrument, than they drew their swords, put themselves +in an attitude of defence, and swore in pure Sclavonic, 'that they +would murder any man who attempted to do him the slightest injury: he +had been a very good master to them, and they would not desert him in +his misfortunes, or suffer his blood to be shed while he was off his +guard, and incapable of defending himself.' By good fortune, the +secretary arrived about this period of the dispute, and his +Excellency, relieved from superfluous blood and perilous affection, +was, after much difficulty, restored to life. + +There is an argument brought forward with some appearance of +plausibility in the House of Commons, which certainly merits an +answer: You know that the Catholics now vote for members of parliament +in Ireland, and that they outnumber the Protestants in a very great +proportion; if you allow Catholics to sit in parliament, religion will +be found to influence votes more than property, and the greater part +of the 100 Irish members who are returned to parliament will be +Catholics. Add to these the Catholic members who are returned in +England, and you will have a phalanx of heretical strength which every +minister will be compelled to respect, and occasionally to conciliate +by concessions incompatible with the interests of the Protestant +Church. The fact is, however, that you are at this moment subjected to +every danger of this kind which you can possibly apprehend hereafter. +If the spiritual interests of the voters are more powerful than their +temporal interests, they can bind down their representatives to +support any measures favourable to the Catholic religion, and they can +change the objects of their choice till they have found Protestant +members (as they easily may do) perfectly obedient to their wishes. If +the superior possessions of the Protestants prevent the Catholics from +uniting for a common political object, then danger you fear cannot +exist: if zeal, on the contrary, gets the better of acres, then the +danger at present exists, from the right of voting already given to +the Catholics, and it will not be increased by allowing them to sit in +parliament. There are, as nearly as I can recollect, thirty seats in +Ireland for cities and counties, where the Protestants are the most +numerous, and where the members returned must of course be +Protestants. In the other seventy representations the wealth of the +Protestants is opposed to the number of the Catholics; and if all the +seventy members returned were of the Catholic persuasion, they must +still plot the destruction of our religion in the midst of 588 +Protestants. Such terrors would disgrace a cook-maid, or a toothless +aunt--when they fall from the lips of bearded and senatorial men, they +are nauseous, antiperistaltic, and emetical. + +How can you for a moment doubt of the rapid effects which would be +produced by the emancipation? In the first place, to my certain +knowledge the Catholics have long since expressed to his Majesty's +Ministers their perfect readiness _to vest in his Majesty, either with +the consent of the Pope, or without it if it cannot be obtained, the +nomination of the Catholic prelacy_. The Catholic prelacy in Ireland +consists of twenty-six bishops and the warden of Galway, a dignitary +enjoying Catholic jurisdiction. The number of Roman Catholic priests +in Ireland exceeds one thousand. The expenses of his peculiar worship +are, to a substantial farmer or mechanic, five shillings per annum; to +a labourer (where he is not entirely excused) one shilling per annum; +this includes the contribution of the whole family, and for this the +priest is bound to attend them when sick, and to confess them when +they apply to him; he is also to keep his chapel in order, to +celebrate divine service, and to preach on Sundays and holydays. In +the northern district a priest gains from L30 to L50; in the other +parts of Ireland from L60 to L90 per annum. The best paid Catholic +bishops receive about L400 per annum; the others from L300 to L350. My +plan is very simple: I would have 300 Catholic parishes at L100 per +annum, 300 at L200 per annum, and 400 at L300 per annum; this, for the +whole thousand parishes, would amount to L190,000. To the prelacy I +would allot L20,000 in unequal proportions, from L1000 to L500; and I +would appropriate L40,000 more for the support of Catholic Schools, +and the repairs of Catholic churches; the whole amount of which sum is +L250,000, about the expense of three days of one of our genuine, good +English _just and necessary wars_. The clergy should all receive their +salaries at the Bank of Ireland, and I would place the whole patronage +in the hands of the Crown. Now, I appeal to any human being, except +Spencer Perceval, Esq., of the parish of Hampstead, what the +disaffection of a clergy would amount to, gaping after this graduated +bounty of the Crown, and whether Ignatius Loyola himself, if he were a +living blockhead instead of a dead saint, could withstand the +temptation of bouncing from L100 a year at Sligo, to L300 in +Tipperary? This is the miserable sum of money for which the merchants +and landowners and nobility of England are exposing themselves to the +tremendous peril of losing Ireland. The sinecure places of the Roses +and the Percevals, and the 'dear and near relations,' put up to +auction at thirty years' purchase, would almost amount to the money. + +I admit that nothing can be more reasonable than to expect that a +Catholic priest should starve to death, genteelly and pleasantly, for +the good of the Protestant religion; but is it equally reasonable to +expect that he should do so for the Protestant pews, and Protestant +brick and mortar? On an Irish Sabbath the bell of a neat parish +church often summons to church only the parson and an occasionally +conforming clerk; while, two hundred yards off, a thousand Catholics +are huddled together in a miserable hovel, and pelted by all the +storms of heaven. Can anything be more distressing than to see a +venerable man pouring forth sublime truths in tattered breeches, and +depending for his food upon the little offal he gets from his +parishioners? I venerate a human being who starves for his principles, +let them be what they may; but starving for anything is not at all to +the taste of the honourable flagellants: strict principles, and good +pay, is the motto of Mr. Perceval: the one he keeps in great measure +for the faults of his enemies, the other for himself. + +There are parishes in Connaught in which a Protestant was never +settled nor even seen. In that province, in Munster, and in parts of +Leinster, the entire peasantry for sixty miles are Catholics; in these +tracts the churches are frequently shut for want of a congregation, or +opened to an assemblage of from six to twenty persons. Of what +Protestants there are in Ireland, the greatest part are gathered +together in Ulster, or they live in towns. In the country of the other +three provinces the Catholics see no other religion but their own, and +are at the least as fifteen to one Protestant. In the diocese of Tuam +they are sixty to one; in the parish of St. Mulins, diocese of +Leghlin, there are four thousand Catholics and one Protestant; in the +town of Grasgenamana, in the county of Kilkenny, there are between +four and five hundred Catholic houses, and three Protestant houses. In +the parish of Allen, county Kildare, there is no Protestant, though it +is very populous. In the parish of Arlesin, Queen's County, the +proportion is one hundred to one. In the whole county of Kilkenny, by +actual enumeration, it is seventeen to one; in the diocese of +Kilmacduagh, province of Connaught, fifty-two to one, by ditto. These +I give you as a few specimens of the present state of Ireland; and yet +there are men impudent and ignorant enough to contend that such evils +require no remedy, and that mild family man who dwelleth in Hampstead +can find none but the cautery and the knife. + + ----'Omne per ignem + Excoquitur vitium.' + +I cannot describe the horror and disgust which I felt at hearing Mr. +Perceval call upon the then Ministry for measures of vigour in +Ireland. If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I +walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my own +begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly combed; +if the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort--how awfully +would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the +cabins of the poor, brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of +Ireland! How easy it is to shed human blood; how easy it is to +persuade ourselves that it is our duty to do so, and that the decision +has cost us a severe struggle; how much in all ages have wounds and +shrieks and tears been the cheap and vulgar resources of the rulers of +mankind; how difficult and how noble it is to govern in kindness and +to found an empire upon the everlasting basis of justice and +affection! But what do men call vigour? To let loose hussars and to +bring up artillery, to govern with lighted matches, and to cut, and +push, and prime; I call this not vigour, but the _sloth of cruelty and +ignorance_. The vigour I love consists in finding out wherein subjects +are aggrieved, in relieving them, in studying the temper and genius of +a people, in consulting their prejudices, in selecting proper persons +to lead and manage them, in the laborious, watchful, and difficult +task of increasing public happiness by allaying each particular +discontent. In this way Hoche pacified La Vendee--and in this way only +will Ireland ever be subdued. But this, in the eyes of Mr. Perceval, +is imbecility and meanness. Houses are not broken open, women are not +insulted, the people seem all to be happy; they are not rode over by +horses, and cut by whips. Do you call this vigour? Is this government? + + + + +VI.--'LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW.' + +BY WILLIAM COBBETT + + +(_Although Cobbett produced not a few political pamphlets in the +strictest sense of the term, the infinitely greater part of his work +is comprised during his earlier days in the volumes of _Peter +Porcupine's Gazette_, during his later in those of the _Weekly +Register_. This latter, however, he himself for a time actually +entitled _The Weekly Political Pamphlet_, while he alluded to it under +that name even at other times; and his whole work was imbued even more +deeply than that of Defoe with the pamphlet character. I have selected +two examples from the critical time when he was still exasperated by +his imprisonment, and stung into fresh efforts by debt and the +prospect of fresh difficulties. They exhibit in the most striking form +all Cobbett's pet hatreds--of the unreformed Parliament, of paper +money, of political economy, of potatoes, and of many other things. +The first is the _Register_ of 2d November 1816, the first number of +the cheapened form, which was sold at twopence, and so acquired the +name of 'Twopenny Trash,' from a phrase of, as some say, Canning's, +others Castlereagh's. The second is an early number of the papers +written from America. They will, with the notes, explain themselves._) + + +LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, +AND IRELAND, ON THE CAUSE OF THEIR PRESENT MISERIES; ON THE MEASURES +WHICH HAVE PRODUCED THAT CAUSE; ON THE REMEDIES WHICH SOME FOOLISH AND +SOME CRUEL AND INSOLENT MEN HAVE PROPOSED; AND ON THE LINE OF CONDUCT +WHICH JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OUGHT TO PURSUE, IN ORDER TO OBTAIN +EFFECTUAL RELIEF, AND TO ASSIST IN PROMOTING THE TRANQUILLITY AND +RESTORING THE HAPPINESS OF THEIR COUNTRY. + +Friends And Fellow-countrymen--Whatever the pride of rank, of riches, +or of scholarship may have induced some men to believe, or to affect +to believe, the real strength and all the resources of a country ever +have sprung and ever must spring from the _labour_ of its people; and +hence it is that this nation, which is so small in numbers and so poor +in climate and soil compared with many others, has, for many ages, +been the most powerful nation in the world: it is the most +industrious, the most laborious, and, therefore, the most powerful. +Elegant dresses, superb furniture, stately buildings, fine roads and +canals, fleet horses and carriages, numerous and stout ships, +warehouses teeming with goods; all these, and many other objects that +fall under our view, are so many marks of national wealth and +resources. But all these spring from _labour_. Without the journeyman +and the labourer none of them could exist; without the assistance of +their hands the country would be a wilderness, hardly worth the notice +of an invader. + +As it is the labour of those who toil which makes a country abound in +resources, so it is the same class of men, who must, by their arms, +secure its safety and uphold its fame. Titles and immense sums of +money have been bestowed upon numerous Naval and Military Commanders. +Without calling the justice of these in question, we may assert that +the victories were obtained by _you_ and your fathers and brothers and +sons, in co-operation with those Commanders, who, with _your_ aid, +have done great and wonderful things; but who, without that aid, would +have been as impotent as children at the breast. + +With this correct idea of your own worth in your minds, with what +indignation must you hear yourselves called the Populace, the Rabble, +the Mob, the Swinish Multitude; and with what greater indignation, if +possible, must you hear the projects of those cool and cruel and +insolent men, who, now that you have been, without any fault of yours, +brought into a state of misery, propose to narrow the limit of parish +relief, to prevent you from marrying in the days of your youth, or to +thrust you out to seek your bread in foreign lands, never more to +behold your parents or friends? But suppress your indignation, until +we return to this topic, after we have considered the _cause_ of your +present misery, and the measures which have produced that cause. + +The times in which we live are full of peril. The nation, as described +by the very creatures of Government, is fast advancing to that period +when an important change must take place. It is the lot of mankind +that some shall labour with their limbs and others with their minds; +and, on all occasions, more especially on an occasion like the +present, it is the duty of the latter to come to the assistance of the +former. We are all equally interested in the peace and happiness of +our common country. It is of the utmost importance that, in the +seeking to obtain these objects, our endeavours should be uniform, and +tend all to the same point. Such an uniformity cannot exist without +an uniformity of sentiment as to public matters, and to produce this +latter uniformity amongst you is the object of this address. + +As to the cause of our present miseries, it is the enormous amount of +the taxes which the Government compels us to pay for the support of +its army, its placemen, its pensioners, etc., and for the payment of +the interest of its debt. That this is the _real_ cause has been a +thousand times proved; and it is now so acknowledged by the creatures +of the Government themselves. Two hundred and five of the +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture ascribe the ruin of the +country to taxation. Numerous writers, formerly the friends of the +Pitt system, now declare that taxation has been the cause of our +distress. Indeed, when we compare our present state to the state of +the country previous to the wars against France, we must see that our +present misery is owing to no other cause. The taxes then annually +raised amounted to about fifteen millions: they amounted last year to +seventy millions. The nation was then happy; it is now miserable. + +The writers and speakers who labour in the cause of corruption, have +taken great pains to make the labouring classes believe that _they_ +are _not taxed_; that the taxes which are paid by the landlords, +farmers, and tradesmen, do not affect you, the journeymen and +labourers; and that the tax-makers have been very lenient towards +you. But, I hope that you see to the bottom of these things now. You +must be sensible that if all your employers were totally ruined in one +day, you would be wholly without employment and without bread; and, of +course, in whatever degree your employers are deprived of their means, +they must withhold means from you. In America the most awkward common +labourer receives five shillings a day, while provisions are cheaper +in that country than in this. Here, a carter, boarded in the house, +receives about seven pounds a year; in America, he receives about +thirty pounds a year. What is it that makes this difference? Why, in +America the whole of the taxes do not amount to more than about ten +shillings a head upon the whole of the population; while in England +they amount to nearly six pounds a head! _There_, a journeyman or +labourer may support his family well, and save from thirty to sixty +pounds a year: _here_, he amongst you is a lucky man, who can provide +his family with food and with decent clothes to cover them, without +any hope of possessing a penny in the days of sickness or of old age. +_There_, the Chief Magistrate receives six thousand pounds a year; +_here_, the civil list surpasses a million of pounds in amount, and as +much is allowed to each of the Princesses in one year, as the chief +magistrate of America receives in two years, though that country is +nearly equal to this in population. + +A Mr. Preston, a lawyer of great eminence, and a great praiser of +Pitt, has just published a pamphlet, in which is this remark: 'It +should always be remembered, that the eighteen pounds a year paid to +any placeman or pensioner, withdraws from the public the means of +giving active employment to one individual as the head of a family; +thus depriving five persons of the means of sustenance from the fruits +of honest industry and active labour, and rendering them paupers.' +Thus this supporter of Pitt acknowledges the great truth that the +taxes are the cause of a people's poverty and misery and degradation. +We did not stand in need of this acknowledgment; the fact has been +clearly proved before; but it is good for us to see the friends and +admirers of Pitt brought to make this confession. + +It has been attempted to puzzle you with this sort of question: 'If +taxes be the cause of the people's misery, how comes it that they were +not so miserable before the taxes were reduced as they are now?' Here +is a fallacy which you will be careful to detect. I know that the +taxes have been reduced; that is to say, _nominally_ reduced, but not +so in fact; on the contrary, they have, in reality, been greatly +augmented. This has been done by the sleight-of-hand of paper money. +Suppose, for instance, that four years ago, I had a hundred pounds to +pay in taxes, then a hundred and thirty bushels of wheat would have +paid my share. If I have now seventy-five pounds to pay in taxes, it +will require a hundred and ninety bushels of wheat to pay my share of +taxes. Consequently, though my taxes are nominally reduced, they are, +in reality, greatly augmented. This has been done by the legerdemain +of paper money. In 1812, the pound-note was worth only thirteen +shillings in silver. It is now worth twenty shillings. Therefore, when +we now pay a pound-note to the tax-gatherer, we really pay him twenty +shillings where we before paid him thirteen shillings; and the +Landholders who lent pound-notes worth thirteen shillings each, are +now paid their interest in pounds worth twenty shillings each. And the +thing is come to what Sir Francis Burdett told the Parliament it would +come to. He told them in 1811, that if they ever attempted to pay the +interest of their debt in gold and silver, or in paper money equal in +value to gold and silver, the farmers and tradesmen must be ruined, +and the journeymen and labourers reduced to the last stage of misery. + +Thus, then, it is clear that it is the weight of the taxes, under +which you are sinking, which has already pressed so many of you down +into the state of paupers, and which now threatens to deprive many of +you of your existence. We next come to consider what have been the +causes of this weight of taxes. Here we must go back a little in our +history, and you will soon see that this intolerable weight has all +proceeded from the want of a Parliamentary Reform. + +In the year 1764, soon after the present king came to the throne, the +annual interest of the Debt amounted to about five millions, and the +whole of the taxes to about nine millions. But, soon after this, a war +was entered on to compel the Americans to submit to be taxed by the +Parliament, without being represented in that Parliament. The +Americans triumphed, and, after the war was over, the annual interest +of the Debt amounted to about nine millions, and the whole of the +taxes to about fifteen millions. This was our situation when the +French people began their Revolution. The French people had so long +been the slaves of a despotic government, that the friends of freedom +in England rejoiced at their emancipation. The cause of Reform, which +had never ceased to have supporters in England for a great many years, +now acquired new life, and the Reformers urged the Parliament to grant +reform, instead of going to war against the people of France. The +Reformers said: 'Give the nation reform, and you need fear no +revolution.' The Parliament, instead of listening to the Reformers, +crushed them, and went to war against the people of France; and the +consequence of these wars is, that the annual interest of the Debt now +amounts to forty-five millions, and the whole of the taxes, during +each of the last several years, to seventy millions. So that these +wars have ADDED thirty-six millions a year to the interest of the +Debt, and fifty-five millions a year to the amount of the whole of +the taxes! This is the price that we have paid for having checked (for +it is only checked) the progress of liberty in France; for having +forced upon that people the family of Bourbon, and for having enabled +another branch of that same family to restore the bloody Inquisition, +which Napoleon had put down. + +Since the restoration of the Bourbons and of the old Government of +France has been, as far as possible, the grand result of the contest; +since this has been the end of all our fightings and all our past +sacrifices and present misery and degradation; let us see (for the +inquiry is now very full of interest) what sort of Government that was +which the French people had just destroyed, when our Government began +its wars against that people. + +If, only twenty-eight years ago, any man in England had said that the +Government of France was one that ought to be suffered to exist, he +would have been hooted out of any company. It is notorious that that +Government was a cruel despotism; and that we and our forefathers +always called it such. This description of that Government is to be +found in all our histories, in all our Parliamentary debates, in all +our books on Government and politics. It is notorious, that the family +of Bourbon has produced the most perfidious and bloody monsters that +ever disgraced the human form. It is notorious that millions of +Frenchmen have been butchered, and burnt, and driven into exile by +their commands. It is recorded, even in the history of France, that +one of them said that the putrid carcass of a Protestant smelt sweet +to him. Even in these latter times, so late as the reign of Louis +XIV., it is notorious that hundreds of thousands of innocent people +were put to the most cruel death. In some instances, they were burnt +in their houses; in others they were shut into lower rooms, while the +incessant noise of kettle-drums over their heads, day and night, drove +them to raving madness. To enumerate all the infernal means employed +by this tyrant to torture and kill the people, would fill a volume. +Exile was the lot of those who escaped the swords, the wheels, the +axes, the gibbets, the torches of his hell-hounds. England was the +place of refuge for many of these persecuted people. The grandfather +of the present Earl of Radnor, and the father of the venerable Baron +Maseres were amongst them; and it is well known that England owes no +inconsiderable part of her manufacturing skill and industry to that +atrocious persecution. Enemies of freedom, wherever it existed, this +family of Bourbon, in the reign of Louis XIV. and XV., fitted out +expeditions for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts to the throne of +England, and thereby caused great expense and blood-shed to this +nation; and, even the Louis who was beheaded by his subjects, did, in +the most perfidious manner, make war upon England, during her war +with America. No matter what was the nature of the cause, his conduct +was perfidious; he professed peace while he was preparing for war. His +object could not be to assist freedom, because his own subjects were +slaves. + +Such was the family that were ruling in France when the French +Revolution began. After it was resolved to go to war against the +people of France, all the hirelings of corruption were set to work to +gloss over the character and conduct of the old Government, and to +paint in the most horrid colours the acts of vengeance which the +people were inflicting on the numerous tyrants, civil, military, and +ecclesiastical, whom the change of things had placed at their mercy. +The people's turn was now come, and, in the days of their power, they +justly bore in mind the oppressions which they and their forefathers +had endured. The taxes imposed by the Government became at last +intolerable. It had contracted a great debt to carry on its wars. In +order to be able to pay the interest of this debt, and to support an +enormous standing army in time of peace, it laid upon the people +burdens which they could no longer endure. It fined and flogged +fathers and mothers if their children were detected in smuggling. Its +courts of justice were filled with cruel and base judges. The nobility +treated the common people like dogs; these latter were compelled to +serve as soldiers, but were excluded from all share, or chance of +honour and command, which were engrossed by the nobility. + +Now, when the time came for the people to have the power in their +hands, was it surprising that the first use they made of it was to +take vengeance on their oppressors? I will not answer this question +myself. It shall be answered by Mr. Arthur Young, the present +Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. He was in France at the time, +and living upon the very spot, and having examined into the causes of +the Revolution, he wrote and published the following remarks, in his +_Travels_, vol. i. page 603:-- + + 'It is impossible to justify the excesses of the people on + their taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of + cruelties; it is idle to deny the facts, for they have been + proved too clearly to admit of doubt. But is it really the + people to whom we are to impute the whole? Or to their + oppressors, who had kept them so long in a state of bondage? + He who chooses to be served by slaves and by ill-treated + slaves, must know that he holds both his property and his + life by a tenure far different from those who prefer the + service of well-treated freemen; and he who dines to the + music of groaning sufferers, must not, in the moment of + insurrection, complain that his sons' throats are cut. When + such evils happen, they surely are more imputable to the + tyranny of the master than to the cruelty of the servant. The + analogy holds with the French peasants. The murder of a + seigneur, or a country seat in flames, is recorded in every + newspaper; the rank of the person who suffers attracts + notice; but where do we find the registers of that seigneur's + oppressions of his peasantry, and his exactions of feudal + services from those whose children were dying around them for + want of bread? Where do we find the minutes that assigned + these starving wretches to some vile pettifogger, to be + fleeced by impositions, and mockery of justice, in the + seigneural courts? Who gives us the awards of the Intendant + and his _sub-delegues_, which took off the taxes of a man of + fashion, and laid them with accumulated weight on the poor, + who were so unfortunate as to be his neighbours? Who has + dwelt sufficiently upon explaining all the ramifications of + despotism, regal, aristocratical, and ecclesiastical, + pervading the whole mass of the people; reaching, like a + circulating fluid, the most distant capillary tubes of + poverty and wretchedness? In these cases the sufferers are + too ignoble to be known; and the mass too indiscriminate to + be pitied. But should a philosopher feel and reason thus? + Should he mistake the cause for the effect? and, giving all + his pity to the few, feel no compassion for the many, because + they suffer in his eyes not individually but by millions? The + excesses of the people cannot, I fear, be justified; it would + undoubtedly have done them credit, both as men and as + Christians, if they had possessed their new acquired power + with moderation. But let it be remembered that the populace + in no country ever use power with moderation; excess is + inherent in their aggregate constitution: and as every + Government in the world knows that violence infallibly + attends power in such hands, it is doubly bound in common + sense, and for common safety, so to conduct itself, that the + people may not find an interest in public confusions. They + will always suffer much and long, before they are effectually + roused; nothing, therefore, can kindle the flame but such + oppressions of some classes or order in society as give able + men the opportunity of seconding the general mass; discontent + will diffuse itself around; and if the Government take not + warning in time, it is alone answerable for all the burnings + and all the plunderings and all the devastation and all the + blood that follow.' + +Who can deny the justice of these observations? It was the Government +alone that was justly chargeable with the excesses committed in this +early stage, and, in fact, in every other stage, of the Revolution of +France. If the Government had given way in time, none of these +excesses would have been committed. If it had listened to the +complaints, the prayers, the supplications, the cries of the +cruelly-treated and starving people; if it had changed its conduct, +reduced its expenses, it might have been safe under the protection of +the peace-officers, and might have disbanded its standing army. But it +persevered; it relied upon the bayonet, and upon its judges and +hangmen. The latter were destroyed, and the former went over to the +side of the people. Was it any wonder that the people burnt the houses +of their oppressors, and killed the owners and their families? The +country contained thousands upon thousands of men that had been ruined +by taxation, and by judgments of infamous courts of justice, 'a +mockery of justice'; and, when these ruined men saw their oppressors +at their feet, was it any wonder that they took vengeance upon them? +Was it any wonder that the son, who had seen his father and mother +flogged, because he, when a child, had smuggled a handful of salt, +should burn for an occasion to shoot through the head the ruffians who +had thus lacerated the bodies of his parents? Moses slew the insolent +Egyptian who had smitten one of his countrymen in bondage. Yet Moses +has never been called either a murderer or a cruel wretch for this +act; and the bondage of the Israelites was light as a feather compared +to the tyranny under which the people of France had groaned for ages. +Moses resisted oppression in the only way that resistance was in his +power. He knew that his countrymen had no chance of justice in any +court; he knew that petitions against his oppressors were all in vain; +and 'looking upon the burdens' of his countrymen, he resolved to begin +the only sort of resistance that was left him. Yet it was little more +than a mere insult that drew forth his anger and resistance; and, if +Moses was justified, as he clearly was, what needs there any apology +for the people of France? + +It seems at first sight very strange that the Government of France +should not have 'taken warning in time.' But it had so long been in +the habit of despising the people that its mind was incapable of +entertaining any notion of danger from the oppressions heaped upon +them. It was surrounded with panders and parasites who told it nothing +but flattering falsehoods; and it saw itself supported by two hundred +and fifty thousand bayonets, which it thought irresistible; though it +found in the end that those who wielded those bayonets were not long +so base as to be induced, either by threats or promises, to butcher +their brothers and sisters and parents. And, if you ask me how it +came to pass that they did not 'take warning in time,' I answer that +they did take warning, but that, seeing that the change which was +coming would deprive them of a great part of their power and +emoluments, they resolved to resist the change, and to destroy the +country, if possible, rather than not have all its wealth and power to +themselves. The ruffian whom we read of, a little time ago, who +stabbed a young woman because she was breaking from him to take the +arm of another man whom she preferred, acted upon the principle of the +ministers, the noblesse, and the clergy of France. They could no +longer unjustly possess, therefore they would destroy. They saw that +if a just government were established; that if the people were fairly +represented in a national council; they saw that if this were to take +place, they would no longer be able to wallow in wealth at the expense +of the people; and, seeing this, they resolved to throw all into +confusion, and, if possible, to make a heap of ruins of that country +which they could no longer oppress, and the substance of which they +could no longer devour. + +Talk of violence indeed! Was there anything too violent, anything too +severe to be inflicted on these men? It was they who produced +confusion; it was they who caused the massacres and guillotinings; it +was they who destroyed the kingly government; it was they who brought +the king to the block. They were answerable for all and for every +single part of the mischief, as much as Pharaoh was for the plagues in +Egypt, which history of Pharaoh seems, by the bye, to be intended as a +lesson to all future tyrants. He 'set taskmasters over the Israelites +to afflict them with burdens; and he made them build treasure cities +for him; he made them serve with rigour; he made their lives bitter +with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of +service of the field; he denied them straw, and insisted upon their +making the same quantity of bricks, and because they were unable to +obey, the taskmasters called them idle and beat them.' Was it too much +to scourge and to destroy all the first-born of men who could +tolerate, assist, and uphold a tyrant like this? Yet was Pharaoh less +an oppressor than the old government of France. + +Thus, then, we have a view of the former state of that country, by +wars against the people of which we have been brought into our present +state of misery. There are many of the hirelings of corruption, who +actually insist on it that we ought now to go to war again for the +restoring of all the cruel despotism which formerly existed in France. +This is what cannot be done, however. Our wars have sent back the +Bourbons; but the tithes, the seigneurs, and many other curses have +not been restored. The French people still enjoy much of the benefit +of the Revolution; and great numbers of their ancient petty tyrants +have been destroyed. So that even were things to remain as they are, +the French people have gained greatly by their Revolution. But things +cannot remain as they are. Better days are at hand. + +In proceeding now to examine the remedies for your distresses, I shall +first notice some of those which foolish, or cruel and insolent men +have proposed. Seeing that the cause of your misery is the weight of +taxation, one would expect to hear of nothing but a reduction of +taxation in the way of remedy; but from the friends of corruption +never do we hear of any such remedy. To hear them, one would think +that _you_ had been the guilty cause of the misery you suffer; and +that you, and you alone, ought to be made answerable for what has +taken place. The emissaries of corruption are now continually crying +out against the weight of the Poor-rates, and they seem to regard all +that is taken in that way as a dead loss to the Government! Their +project is to deny relief to all who are able to work. But what is the +use of your being able to work, if no one will, or can, give you work? +To tell you that you must work for your bread, and, at the same time, +not to find any work for you, is full as bad as it would be to order +you to make bricks without straw. Indeed, it is rather more cruel and +insolent; for Pharaoh's taskmasters did point out to the Israelites +that they might go into the fields and get _stubble_. The _Courier_ +newspaper of the 9th of October, says, 'We must thus be cruel only to +be kind.' I am persuaded that you will not understand this kindness, +while you will easily understand the cruelty. The notion of these +people seems to be that everybody that receives money out of the taxes +has a right to receive it, except you. They tremble at the fearful +amount of the Poor-rates: they say, and very truly, that those rates +have risen from two and a half to eight or ten millions since the +beginning of the wars against the people of France; they think, and +not without reason, that these rates will soon swallow up nearly all +the rent of the land. These assertions and apprehensions are perfectly +well founded; but how can _you_ help it? You have not had the +management of the affairs of the nation. It is not you who have ruined +the farmers and tradesmen. You only want food and raiment: you are +ready to work for it; but you cannot go naked and without food. + +But the complaints of these persons against you are the more +unreasonable, because they say not a word against the sums paid to +sinecure placemen and pensioners. Of the five hundred and more +Correspondents of the Board of Agriculture, there are scarcely ten who +do not complain of the weight of the Poor-rates, of the immense sums +taken away from them by the poor, and many of them complain of the +idleness of the poor. But not one single man complains of the immense +sums taken away to support sinecure placemen, who do nothing for their +money, and to support pensioners, many of whom are women and children, +the wives and daughters of the nobility and other persons in high +life, and who can do nothing, and never can have done anything for +what they receive. There are of these places and pensions all sizes, +from twenty pounds to thirty thousand and nearly forty thousand pounds +a year! And surely these ought to be done away before any proposition +be made to take the parish allowance from any of you who are unable to +work, or to find work to do. There are several individual placemen, +the profits of each of which would maintain a thousand families. The +names of the ladies upon the pension list would, if printed, one under +another, fill a sheet of paper like this. And is it not, then, base +and cruel at the same time in these Agricultural correspondents to cry +out so loudly against the charge of supporting the unfortunate poor, +while they utter not a word of complaint against the sinecure places +and pensions? + +The unfortunate journeymen and labourers and their families have a +right, they have a just claim, to relief from the purses of the rich. +For there can exist no riches and no resources which they by their +labour have not assisted to create. But I should be glad to know how +the sinecure placemen and lady pensioners have assisted to create +food and raiment, or the means of producing them. The labourer who is +out of work or ill, to-day, may be able to work, and set to work +to-morrow. While those placemen and pensioners never can work; or, at +least, it is clear that they never intend to do it. + +You have been represented by the _Times_ newspaper, by the _Courier_, +by the _Morning Post_, by the _Morning Herald_, and others, as the +_scum_ of society. They say that you have no business at public +meetings; that you are rabble, and that you pay no taxes. These +insolent hirelings, who wallow in wealth, would not be able to put +their abuse of you in print were it not for your labour. You create +all that is an object of taxation; for even the land itself would be +good for nothing without your labour. But are you not taxed? Do you +pay no taxes? One of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture +has said that care has been taken to lay as little tax as possible on +the articles used by you. One would wonder how a man could be found +impudent enough to put an assertion like this upon paper. But the +people of this country have so long been insulted by such men, that +the insolence of the latter knows no bounds. + +The tax gatherers do not, indeed, come to you and demand money of you: +but there are few articles which you use, in the purchase of which you +do not pay a tax. + +On your shoes, salt, beer, malt, hops, tea, sugar, candles, soap, +paper, coffee, spirits, glass of your windows, bricks and tiles, +tobacco: on all these, and many other articles you pay a tax, and even +on your loaf you pay a tax, because everything is taxed from which the +loaf proceeds. In several cases the tax amounts to more than one half +of what you pay for the article itself; these taxes go in part to +support sinecure placemen and pensioners; and the ruffians of the +hired press call you the scum of society, and deny that you have any +right to show your faces at any public meeting to petition for a +reform, or for the removal of any abuse whatever! + +Mr. Preston, whom I quoted before, and who is a member of Parliament +and has a large estate, says upon this subject, 'Every family, even of +the poorest labourer, consisting of five persons, may be considered as +paying, in indirect taxes, at least ten pounds a year, or more than +half his wages at seven shillings a week!' And yet the insolent +hirelings call you the mob, the rabble, the scum, the swinish +multitude, and say that your voice is nothing; that you have no +business at public meetings; and that you are, and ought to be +considered as nothing in the body politic! Shall we never see the day +when these men will change their tone! Will they never cease to look +upon us [as on] brutes! I trust they will change their tone, and that +the day of the change is at no great distance! + +The weight of the Poor-rate, which must increase while the present +system continues, alarms the corrupt, who plainly see that what is +paid to relieve you, they cannot have. Some of them, therefore, hint +at your early marriages as a great evil, and a clergyman named Malthus +has seriously proposed measures for checking you in this respect; +while one of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture complains +of the increase of bastards, and proposes severe punishment on the +parents! How hard these men are to please! What would they have you +do? As some have called you the swinish multitude, would it be much +wonder if they were to propose to serve you as families of young pigs +are served? Or if they were to bring forward the measure of Pharaoh, +who ordered the midwives to kill all the male children of the +Israelites? + +But, if you can restrain your indignation at these insolent notions +and schemes, with what feelings must you look upon the condition of +your country, where the increase of the people is now looked upon as a +curse! Thus, however, has it always been, in all countries where taxes +have produced excessive misery. Our countryman, Mr. Gibbon, in his +History of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, has the +following passage: 'The horrid practice of murdering their new-born +infants was become every day more frequent in the provinces. It was +the effect of _distress_, and the distress was principally occasioned +by the _intolerable burden of taxes_, and by the vexatious as well as +cruel prosecutions of the officers of the revenue against their +insolvent debtors. The less opulent or less industrious part of +mankind, instead of rejoicing at an increase of family, deemed it an +act of paternal tenderness to release the children from the impending +miseries of a life which they themselves were unable to support.' + +But that which took place under the base Emperor Constantine will not +take place in England. You will not murder your new-born infants, nor +will you, to please the corrupt and insolent, debar yourselves from +enjoyments to which you are invited by the very first of Nature's +laws. It is, however, a disgrace to the country that men should be +found in it capable of putting ideas so insolent upon paper. So, then, +a young man arm-in-arm with a rosy-cheeked girl must be a spectacle of +evil omen! What! and do they imagine that you are thus to be +extinguished, because some of you are now (without any fault of yours) +unable to find work? As far as you were wanted to labour, to fight, or +to pay taxes, you were welcome, and they boasted of your numbers; but +now that your country has been brought into a state of misery, these +corrupt and insolent men are busied with schemes for getting rid of +you. Just as if you had not as good a right to live and to love and to +marry as they have! They do not propose, far from it, to check the +breeding of sinecure placemen and pensioners, who are supported in +part by the taxes which you help to pay. They say not a word about the +whole families who are upon the pension list. In many cases there are +sums granted in trust for _the children_ of such a lord or such a +lady. And while labourers and journeymen who have large families too, +are actually paying taxes for the support of these lords' and ladies' +children, these cruel and insolent men propose that they shall have no +relief, and that their having children ought to be checked! To such a +subject no words can do justice. You will feel as you ought to feel; +and to the effect of your feelings I leave these cruel and insolent +men. + +There is one more scheme to notice, which, though rather less against +nature is not less hateful and insolent; namely, to encourage you to +emigrate to foreign countries. This scheme is distinctly proposed to +the Government by one of the correspondents of the Board of +Agriculture. What he means by encouragement must be to send away by +force, or by paying for the passage; for a man who has money stands in +no need of relief. But, I trust, that not a man of you will move, let +the _encouragement_ be what it may. It is impossible for many to go, +though the prospect be ever so fair. We must stand by our country, and +it is base not to stand by her, as long as there is a chance of seeing +her what she ought to be. But the proposition is, nevertheless, base +and insolent This man did not propose to encourage the sinecure +placemen and pensioners to emigrate; yet, surely, you who help to +maintain them by the taxes which you pay, have as good a right to +remain in the country as they have! You have fathers and mothers and +sisters and brothers and children and friends as well as they; but +this base projector recommends that you may be encouraged to leave +your relations and friends for ever; while he would have the sinecure +placemen and pensioners remain quietly where they are! + +No: you will not leave your country. If you have suffered much and +long, you have the greater right to remain in the hope of seeing +better days. And I beseech you not to look upon yourselves as the +_scum_; but, on the contrary, to be well persuaded that a great deal +will depend upon your exertions; and therefore, I now proceed to point +out to you what appears to me to be the line of conduct which +journeymen and labourers ought to pursue in order to obtain effectual +relief, and to assist in promoting tranquillity and restoring the +happiness of the country. + +We have seen that the cause of our miseries is the burden of taxes +occasioned by wars, by standing armies, by sinecures, by pensions, +etc. It would be endless and useless to enumerate all the different +heads or sums of expenditure. The remedy is what we have now to look +to, and that remedy consists wholly and solely of such a reform in the +Commons' or People's House of Parliament, as shall give to every payer +of direct taxes a vote at elections, and as shall cause the Members to +be elected annually. + +In a late _Register_ I have pointed out how easily, how peaceably, how +fairly, such a Parliament might be chosen. I am aware that it may, and +not without justice, be thought wrong to deprive those of the right of +voting who pay indirect taxes. Direct taxes are those which are +directly paid by any person into the hands of the tax-gatherers, as +the assessed rates and taxes. Indirect taxes are those which are paid +indirectly through the maker or seller of goods, as the tax on soap or +candles or salt or malt. And, as no man ought to be taxed without his +consent, there has always been a difficulty upon this head. There has +been no question about the _right_ of every man who is free to +exercise his will, who has a settled place in society, and who pays a +tax of any sort, to vote for Members of Parliament. The difficulty is +in taking the votes by any other means than by the Rate-book; for if +there be no list of tax-payers in the hands of any person, mere menial +servants, vagrants, pickpockets, and scamps of all sorts might not +only come to the poll, but they might poll in several parishes or +places, on one and the same day. A corrupt rich man might employ +scores of persons of this description, and in this way would the +purpose of reform be completely defeated. In America, where one branch +of the Congress is elected for four years and the other for two years, +they have still adhered to the principle of direct taxation, and in +some of the States they have made it necessary for a voter to be worth +one hundred pounds. Yet they have, in that country, duties on goods, +custom duties, and excise duties also; and, of course, there are many +persons who really pay taxes, and who, nevertheless, are not permitted +to vote. The people do not complain of this. They know that the number +of votes is so great that no corruption can take place, and they have +no desire to see livery servants, vagrants, and pickpockets take part +in their elections. Nevertheless it would be very easy for a reformed +Parliament, when once it had taken root, to make a just arrangement of +this matter. The most likely method would be to take off the indirect +taxes, and to put a small direct tax upon every master of a house, +however low his situation in life. + +But this and all other good things, must be done by a reformed +Parliament. We must have that first, or we shall have nothing good; +and any man who would beforehand take up your time with the detail of +what a reformed Parliament ought to do in this respect, or with +respect to any changes in the form of government, can have no other +object than that of defeating the cause of reform; and, indeed, the +very act must show, that to raise obstacles is his wish. + +Such men, now that they find you justly irritated, would persuade you +that, because things have been perverted from their true ends, there +is nothing good in our constitution and laws. For what, then, did +Hampden die in the field, and Sydney on the scaffold? And has it been +discovered at last that England has always been an enslaved country +from top to toe? The Americans, who are a very wise people, and who +love liberty with all their hearts, and who take care to enjoy it too, +took special care not to part with any of the great principles and +laws which they derived from their forefathers. They took special care +to speak with reverence of, and to preserve Magna Charta, the Bill of +Rights, the Habeas Corpus, and not only all the body of the Common Law +of England, but most of the rules of our courts, and all our form of +jurisprudence. Indeed it is the greatest glory of England that she has +thus supplied with sound principles of freedom those immense regions +which will be peopled perhaps by hundreds of millions. + +I know of no enemy of reform and of the happiness of the country so +great as that man who would persuade you that we possess nothing good, +and that all must be torn to pieces. There is no principle, no +precedent, no regulations (except as to mere matter of detail), +favourable to freedom, which is not to be found in the Laws of +England or in the example of our ancestors. Therefore I say we may ask +for, and we want nothing new. We have great constitutional laws and +principles to which we are immovably attached. We want great +alteration, but we want nothing new. Alteration, modification, to suit +the times and circumstances; but the great principles ought to be and +must, be the same, or else confusion will follow. + +It was the misfortune of the French people that they had no great and +settled principles to refer to in their laws or history. They sallied +forth and inflicted vengeance on their oppressors; but, for want of +settled principles to which to refer they fell into confusion; they +massacred each other; they next flew to a military chief to protect +them even against themselves; and the result has been what we too well +know. Let us therefore congratulate ourselves that we have great +constitutional principles and laws, to which we can refer, and to +which we are attached. + +That reform will come I know, if the people do their duty; and all +that we have to guard against is confusion, which cannot come if +reform take place in time. I have before observed to you that when the +friends of corruption in France saw that they could not prevent a +change, they bent their endeavours to produce confusion, in which they +fully succeeded. They employed numbers of unprincipled men to go about +the country proposing all sorts of mad schemes. They produced first a +confusion in men's minds, and next a civil war between provinces, +towns, villages and families. The tyrant Robespierre, who was exceeded +in cruelty only by some of the Bourbons, was proved to have been in +league with the open enemies of France. He butchered all the real +friends of freedom whom he could lay his hands on, except Paine, whom +he shut up in a dungeon till he was reduced to a skeleton. This +monster was at last put to death himself; and his horrid end ought to +be a warning to any man who may wish to walk in the same path. But I +am, for my part, in little fear of the influence of such men. They +cannot cajole you as Robespierre cajoled the people of Paris. It is, +nevertheless, necessary for you to be on your guard against them, and +when you hear a man talking big and hectoring about projects which go +further than a real and radical reform of the Parliament, be you well +assured that that man would be a second Robespierre if he could, and +that he would make use of you and sacrifice the life of the very last +man of you; that he would ride upon the shoulders of some through +rivers of the blood of others, for the purpose of gratifying his own +selfish and base and insolent ambition. + +In order effectually to avoid the rock of confusion, we should keep +steadily in our eye not only what we wish to be done but what can be +done now. We know that such a reform as would send up a Parliament, +chosen by all payers of direct taxes, is not only just and +reasonable, but easy of execution. I am therefore for accomplishing +that object first; and I am not at all afraid that a set of men who +would really hold the purse of the people, and who had been just +chosen freely by the people, would very soon do everything that the +warmest friend of freedom could wish to see done. + +While, however, you are upon your guard against false friends, you +should neglect no opportunity of doing all that is within your power +to give support to the cause of reform. Petition is the channel for +your sentiments, and there is no village so small that its petition +would not have some weight. You ought to attend at every public +meeting within your reach. You ought to read to and to assist, each +other in coming at a competent knowledge of all public matters. Above +all things, you ought to be unanimous in your object, and not suffer +yourselves to be divided. + +The subject of religion has nothing to do with this great question of +reform. A reformed Parliament would soon do away with all religious +distinctions and disabilities. In their eyes, a Catholic and a +Protestant would both appear in the same light. + +The _Courier_, the _Times_, and other emissaries of corruption, are +constantly endeavouring to direct your wrath against bakers, brewers, +butchers, and other persons who deal in the necessaries of life. But, +I trust that you are not to be stimulated to such a species of +violence. These tradesmen are as much in distress as you. They cannot +help their malt and hops and beer and bread and meat being too dear +for you to purchase. They all sell as cheap as they can, without being +absolutely ruined. The beer you drink is more than half _tax_, and +when the tax has been paid by the seller he must have payment back +again from you who drink, or he must be ruined. The baker has numerous +taxes to pay, and so has the butcher, and so has the miller and the +farmer. Besides, all men are eager to sell, and, if they could sell +cheaper they certainly would, because that would be the sure way of +getting more custom. It is the weight of the taxes which presses us +all to the earth, except those who receive their incomes out of those +taxes. Therefore I exhort you most earnestly not to be induced to lay +violent hands on those who really suffer as much as yourselves. + +On the subject of lowering wages too, you ought to consider that your +employers cannot give to you that which they have not. At present, +corn is high in price, but that high price is no benefit to the +farmer, because it has risen from the badness of the crop, which Mr. +Hunt foretold at the Common Hall, and for the foretelling of which he +was so much abused by the hirelings of the press, who, almost up to +this very moment, have been boasting and thanking God for the goodness +of the crop! The farmer whose corn is half destroyed, gains nothing by +selling the remaining half for double the price at which he would +have sold the whole. If I grow 10 quarters of wheat, and if I save it +all and sell it for two pounds a quarter, I receive as much money as +if I had sold the one-half of it for four pounds a quarter. And I am +better off in the former case, because I want wheat for seed, and +because I want some to consume myself. These matters I recommend to +your serious consideration; because it being unjust to fall upon your +employers to force them to give that which they have not to give, your +conduct in such cases must tend to weaken the great cause in which we +ought all now to be engaged, namely the removal of our burdens through +the means of a reformed Parliament. It is the interest of vile men of +all descriptions to set one part of the people against the other part; +and therefore it becomes you to be constantly on your guard against +their allurements. + +When journeymen find their wages reduced, they should take time to +reflect on the real cause, before they fly on their employers, who are +in many cases in as great or greater distress than themselves. How +many of those employers have of late gone to jail for debt and left +helpless families behind them! The employer's trade falls off. His +goods are reduced in price. His stock loses the half of its value. He +owes money. He is ruined; and how can he continue to pay high wages? +The cause of his ruin is the weight of the taxes, which presses so +heavily on us all, that we lose the power of purchasing goods. But it +is certain that a great many, a very large portion of the farmers, +tradesmen, and manufacturers, have, by their supineness and want of +public spirit, contributed towards the bringing of this ruin upon +themselves and upon you. They have _skulked_ from their public duty. +They have kept aloof from, or opposed all measures for a redress of +grievances; and indeed, they still skulk, though ruin and destruction +stare them in the face. Why do they not now come forward and explain +to you the real cause of the reduction of your wages? Why do they not +put themselves at your head in petitioning for redress? This would +secure their property much better than the calling in of troops, which +can never afford them more than a short and precarious security. In +the days of their prosperity they were amply warned of what has now +come to pass; and the far greater part of them abused and calumniated +those who gave them the warning. Even if they would now act the part +of men worthy of being relieved, the relief to us all would speedily +follow. If they will not; if they will still skulk, they will merit +all the miseries which they are destined to suffer. + +Instead of coming forward to apply for a reduction of those taxes +which are pressing them as well as you to the earth, what are they +doing? Why, they are applying to the Government to add to their +receipts by passing Corn Bills, by preventing foreign wool from being +imported; and many other silly schemes. Instead of asking for a +reduction of taxes they are asking for the means of paying taxes! +Instead of asking for the abolition of sinecure places and pensions, +they pray to be enabled to continue to pay the amount of those places +and pensions! They know very well that the salaries of the judges and +of many other persons were greatly raised, some years ago, on the +ground of the rise in the price of labour and provisions, why then do +they not ask to have those salaries reduced, now that labour is +reduced? Why do they not apply to the case of the judges and others +the arguments which they apply to you? They can talk boldly enough to +you; but they are too great cowards to talk to the Government, even in +the way of petition! Far more honourable is it to be a ragged pauper +than to be numbered among such men. + +These people call themselves the _respectable_ part of the nation. +They are, as they pretend, the virtuous part of the people, because +they are quiet; as if virtue consisted in immobility! There is a +canting Scotchman in London, who publishes a paper called the +'_Champion_' who is everlastingly harping upon the virtues of the +'fireside,' and who inculcates the duty of quiet submission. Might we +ask this Champion of the teapot and milk-jug whether Magna Charta and +the Bill of Rights were won by the fireside? Whether the tyrants of +the House of Stuart and of Bourbon were hurled down by fireside +virtues? Whether the Americans gained their independence, and have +preserved their freedom, by sitting by the fireside? O, no! these were +all achieved by action, and amidst bustle and noise. Quiet indeed! Why +in this quality a log, or a stone, far surpasses even the pupils of +this Champion of quietness; and the chairs round his fireside exceed +those who sit in them. But in order to put these quiet, fireside, +respectable people to the test, let us ask them if they approve of +drunkenness, breaches of the peace, black eyes, bloody noses, fraud, +bribery, corruption, perjury, and subornation of perjury; and if they +say no, let us ask them whether these are not going on all over the +country at every general election. If they answer yes, as they must +unless they be guilty of wilful falsehood, will they then be so good +as to tell us how they reconcile their inactivity with sentiments of +virtue? Some men, in all former ages, have been held in esteem for +their wisdom, their genius, their skill, their valour, their devotion +to country, etc., but never until this age, was _quietness_ deemed a +quality to be extolled. It would be no difficult matter to show that +the quiet, fireside gentry are the most callous and cruel, and, +therefore, the most wicked part of the nation. Amongst them it is that +you find all the peculators, all the blood-suckers of various degrees, +all the borough-voters and their offspring, all the selfish and +unfeeling wretches, who, rather than risk the disturbing of their +ease for one single month, rather than go a mile to hold up their hand +at a public meeting, would see half the people perish with hunger and +cold. The humanity, which is continually on their lips, is all +fiction. They weep over the tale of woe in a novel; but round their +'decent fireside,' never was compassion felt for a real sufferer, or +indignation at the acts of a powerful tyrant. + +The object of the efforts of such writers is clearly enough seen. Keep +all _quiet_! Do not rouse! Keep still! Keep down! Let those who +perish, perish in silence! It will, however, be out of the power of +these quacks, with all their laudanum, to allay the blood which is now +boiling in the veins of the people of this kingdom; who, if they are +doomed to perish, are at any rate resolved not to perish in silence. +The writer whom I have mentioned above, says that he, of course, does +not count 'the lower classes, who, under the pressure of need or under +the influence of ignorant prejudice, may blindly and weakly rush upon +certain and prompt punishment; but that the security of every decent +fireside, every respectable father's best hopes for his children, +still connect themselves with the Government.' And by Government he +clearly means all the mass as it now stands. There is nobody so +callous and so insolent as your sentimental quacks and their patients. +How these 'decent fireside' people would stare, if some morning they +were to come down and find them occupied by uninvited visitors! I +hope they never will. I hope that things will never come to this pass: +but if one thing more than any other tends to produce so sad an +effect, it is the cool insolence with which such men as this writer +treats the most numerous and most suffering classes of the people. + +Long as this Address already is, I cannot conclude without some +observations on the 'Charity Subscriptions' at the London Tavern. The +object of this subscription professes to be to afford relief to the +distressed labourers, etc. About forty thousand pounds have been +subscribed, and there is no probability of its going much further. +There is an absurdity on the face of the scheme; for, as all parishes +are compelled by law to afford relief to every person in distress, it +is very clear that, as far as money is given by these people to +relieve the poor, there will be so much saved in the parish rates. But +the folly of the thing is not what I wish you most to attend to. +Several of the subscribers to this fund receive each of them more than +ten thousand pounds and some more than thirty thousand pounds each, +out of those taxes which you help to pay, and which emoluments not a +man of them proposes to give up. The clergy appear very forward in +this subscription. An Archbishop and a Bishop assisted at the forming +of the scheme. Now then, observe that there has been given out of the +taxes, for several years past, one hundred thousand pounds a year, +for what, think you? Why for the relief of the poor clergy! I have no +account at hand later than that delivered last year, and there I find +this sum!--for the poor clergy! The rich clergy do not pay this sum; +but it comes out of those taxes, part, and a large part of which you +pay on your beer, malt, salt, shoes, etc. I daresay that the 'decent +firesides' of these poor clergy still connect themselves with the +Government. Amongst all our misery we have had to support the +intolerable disgrace of being an object of the charity of a Bourbon +Prince, while we are paying for supporting that family upon the throne +of France. Well! But is this all? We are taxed, at the very same +moment, for the support of the French Emigrants! And you shall see to +what amount. Nay, not only French, but Dutch and others, as appears +from the forementioned account laid before Parliament last year. The +sum, paid out of the taxes, in one year, for the relief of suffering +French Clergy and Laity, St. Domingo Sufferers, Dutch Emigrants, +Corsican Emigrants, was one hundred and eighty-seven thousand seven +hundred and fifty pounds; yes, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand +seven hundred and fifty pounds paid to this set in one year out of +those taxes of which you pay so large a share, while you are insulted +with a subscription to relieve you, and while there are projectors who +have the audacity to recommend schemes for preventing you from +marrying while young, and to induce you to emigrate from your +country! I'll venture my life that the 'decent firesides' of all this +swarm of French clergy and laity, and Dutch, and Corsicans, and St. +Domingo sufferers 'still connect themselves closely with the +Government'; and I will also venture my life that you do not stand in +need of one more word to warm every drop of blood remaining in your +bodies! As to the money subscribed by regiments of soldiers, whose pay +arises from taxes in part paid by you, though it is a most shocking +spectacle to behold, I do not think so much of it. The soldiers are +your fathers, brothers, and sons. But if they were all to give their +whole pay, and if they amount to one hundred and fifty thousand men, +it would not amount to one-half of what is now paid in Poor-rates, and +of course would not add half a pound of bread to every pound which the +unhappy paupers now receive. All the expenses of the Army and Ordnance +amount to an enormous sum--to sixteen or eighteen millions; but the +pay of one hundred and fifty thousand men, at a shilling a day each, +amounts to no more than two million seven hundred and twelve thousand +five hundred pounds. So that, supposing them all to receive a shilling +a day each, the soldiers receive only about a third part of the sum +now paid annually in Poor-rates. + +I have no room, nor have I any desire, to appeal to your passions upon +this occasion. I have laid before you, with all the clearness I am +master of, the causes of our misery, the measures which have led to +those causes, and I have pointed out what appears to me to be the only +remedy--namely a reform of the Commons', or People's House of +Parliament. I exhort you to proceed in a peaceable and lawful manner, +but at the same time to proceed with zeal and resolution in the +attainment of this object. If the skulkers will not join you, if the +'decent fireside' gentry still keep aloof, proceed by yourselves. Any +man can draw up a petition, and any man can carry it up to London, +with instructions to deliver it into trusty hands, to be presented +whenever the House shall meet. Some further information will be given +as to this matter in a future Number. In the meanwhile, I remain your +Friend, WM. COBBETT. + + +TO JACK HARROW, AN ENGLISH LABOURER + +_On the new Cheat which is now on foot, and which goes under the name +of Savings Banks_ + +NORTH HAMPSTEAD, LONG ISLAND, +_November 7th, 1818._ + +Friend Jack--You sometimes hear the Parson talk about deceivers, who +go about in sheep's clothing; but who inwardly are ravening wolves. +You frequently hear of the tricks of the London cheats, and I daresay +you have often enough witnessed those of mountebanks and gypsies. But, +Jack, all the tricks of these deceivers and cheaters, if the trickery +of them all were put together, would fall far short of the trick now +playing off under the name of Savings Banks. And seeing that it is +possible that you may be exposed to the danger of having a few pounds +picked out of your pocket by this trick, I think it right to put you +on your guard against the cheat. + +You have before been informed of who and what the Boroughmongers are. +Therefore, at present, I shall enter into no explanation of their +recent conduct. But, in order to give you a clear view of their +motives in this new trick, and which, I think, is about the last in +their budget, I must go back and tell you something of the history of +their Debt, and of what are called the Funds. Some years ago the +Boroughmongers put me into a loathsome prison for two years, made me +pay a thousand pounds fine, and made me enter into recognisances for +seven years, only because I expressed my indignation at the flogging +of Englishmen, in the heart of England, under the superintendence of +hired German troops brought into the country to keep the people in +awe. It pleased God, Jack, to preserve my life and health, while I was +in that prison. And I employed a part of my time in writing a little +book entitled _Paper against Gold_. In this little book I fully +explained all the frauds of what is called the _National Debt_, and +of what are called the _Funds_. But as it is possible that you may not +have seen that little book, I will here tell you enough about these +things to make you see the reasons for the Boroughmongers using this +trick of Savings Banks. + +The Boroughmongers are, you know, those persons (some Lords, some +Baronets, and some Esquires, as they call themselves) who fill, or +nominate others to fill, the seats in the House of Commons. _Commons_ +means the mass of the _people_. So that this is the House of the +People, according to the law of the land. The people--you, I, and all +of us, ought to vote for the men who sit in this House. But the said +Lords, Baronets, and Esquires have taken our rights away, and they +nominate the Members themselves. A _monger_ is a _dealer_, as +ironmonger, cheesemonger, and the like: and as the Lords, Baronets, +and Esquires sometimes sell and sometimes buy seats, and as the seats +are said to be filled by the people in certain Boroughs, these Lords, +Baronets, and Esquires are very properly called _Boroughmongers_; that +is to say, dealers in boroughs or in the seats of boroughs. As all +laws and all other matters of government are set up and enforced at +the will of the two Houses, against whose will the king cannot stir +hand or foot; and as the Boroughmongers fill the seats of the two +Houses, they have all the power, and, of course, the king and the +people have none. Being possessed of all the power; being able to tax +us at their pleasure; being able to hang us for whatever they please +to call a crime; they will, of course, do with our property and +persons just what they please. And accordingly, they take from us more +than the half of our earnings; and they keep soldiers (whom they +deceive) to shoot at us and kill us, if we attempt to resist. They put +us in dungeons when they like. And, in Ireland, they compel people to +remain shut up in their houses from sunset to sunrise, and if any man, +contrary to their commands, goes out of his house in the night, in +order to go to the privy, they punish him very severely; and in that +unhappy country they transport men and women to Botany Bay without any +trial by jury, and merely by the orders of two justices of the peace +appointed by themselves. + +This, Jack, is horrid work to be going on amongst a people who call +themselves _free_; amongst a people who boast of their liberties. But +the facts are so; and now I shall explain to you how the +Boroughmongers, who are so few in number compared to the whole people, +are able to commit these cruel acts and to carry on this abominable +tyranny; and you will see that the trick of Savings Banks makes a part +of the means, which they now intend to use for the perpetuating of +this tyranny. + +Formerly, more than a hundred years ago, when the kings of England +had some real power, and before the Boroughmongers took all the powers +of king and people into their hands, the people, when the kings +behaved amiss, used to rise against them and compel them to act +justly. They beheaded Charles the First about one hundred and seventy +years ago; and they drove James the Second out of the kingdom; they +went so far as to set his family aside for ever, and they put up the +present royal family in its stead. + +This was all very well; but when King James had been driven out, the +Lords and Baronets and Squires conceived the notion of ruling for ever +over king and people. They made Parliaments, which used to be annual, +three years of duration; and when the members had been elected for +three years, the members themselves made a law to make the people obey +them for seven years. Thus was the usurpation completed; and from that +time to this the Boroughmongers have filled the seats just as it has +pleased them to do it; and they have, as I said before, done with our +property and our persons just what they have pleased to do. + +Now it will naturally be matter of wonder to you, friend Jack, that +this small band of persons, and of debauched wretched persons too, any +half dozen of whom you would be able to beat with one hand tied down; +it will be matter of wonder to you that this contemptible band should +have been able thus to subjugate, and hold in bondage so degrading, +the whole of the English people. But, Jack, recollect that once a +parcel of fat, lazy, drinking, and guttling monks and friars were able +to make this same people to work and support them in their laziness +and debaucheries, aye, and almost to adore them, too; to go to them, +and kneel down and confess their sins to them, and to believe that it +was in their power to absolve them of their sins. Now how was it that +these fat, these bastard-propagating rascals succeeded in making the +people do this? Why by fraud; by deception; by cheatery; by making +them believe lies; by frightening them half out of their wits; by +making them believe that they would go to hell if they did not work +for them. A ten-thousandth part of the people were able to knock the +greasy vagabonds on the head; and they would have done it too; but +they were afraid of going to hell if they had no priest to pardon +them. + +Thus did these miscreants govern by fraud. The Boroughmongers, as I +shall by and by show, have of late been compelled to resort to open +force; but for a long while they governed by fraud alone. First they, +by the artful and able agents which they have constantly kept in pay, +frightened the people with the pretended dangers of a return of the +old king's family. The people were amused with this scarecrow, while +the chains were silently forging to bind them with. But the great +fraud, the cheat of all cheats, was what they call the national debt. +And now, Jack, pray attend to me; for I am going to explain the chief +cause of all the disgraces and sufferings of the labourers in England; +and am also going to explain the reasons or motives which the +Boroughmongers have for setting on foot this new fraud of Savings +Banks. I beg you, Jack, if you have no other leisure time, to stay at +home instead of going to church, for one single Sunday. Shave +yourself, put on a clean shirt, and sit down and read this letter ten +times over, until you understand every word of it. And if you do that, +you will laugh at the parson and tax-gatherer's coaxings about Savings +Banks. You will keep your odd pennies to yourself; or lay them out in +bread or bacon. + +You have heard, I daresay, a great deal about the national debt; and +now I will tell you what this thing is, and how it came, and then you +will see what an imposture it is, and how shamefully the people of +England have been duped and robbed. + +The Boroughmongers having usurped all the powers of government, and +having begun to pocket the public money at a great rate, the people +grew discontented. They began to think that they had done wrong in +driving King James away. In a pretty little fable-book, there is a +fable which says that the frogs, who had a log of wood for king, +prayed to Jupiter to send them something more active. He sent them a +stork, or heron, which gobbled them up alive by scores! The people of +England found in the Boroughmongers what the poor frogs found in the +stork; and they began to cry out against them and to wish for the old +king back again. + +The Boroughmongers saw their danger, and they adopted measures to +prevent it. They saw that if they could make it the interest of a +great many rich people to uphold them and their system they should be +able to get along. They therefore passed a law to enable themselves to +borrow money of rich people; and by the same law they imposed it on +the people at large to pay, for ever, the interest of the money so by +them borrowed. + +The money which they thus borrowed they spent in wars, or divided +amongst themselves, in one shape or another. Indeed the money spent in +wars was pocketed, for the greater part, by themselves. Thus they +owed, in time, immense sums of money; and as they continued to pass +laws to compel the nation at large to pay the interest of what they +borrowed, spent and pocketed, they called and still call this debt, +the debt of the nation; or, in the usual words, the national debt. + +It is curious to observe that there has seldom been known in the world +any very wicked and mischievous scheme of which a priest of some +description or other was not at the bottom. This scheme, certainly as +wicked in itself as any that was ever known, and far more mischievous +in its consequences than any other, was the offspring of a Bishop of +Salisbury, whose name was Burnet; a name that we ought to teach our +very children to execrate. This crafty priest was made a Bishop for +his invention of this scheme; a fit reward for such a service. + +The Boroughmongers began this debt one hundred and twenty-four years +ago. They have gone on borrowing ever since; and have never paid off +one farthing, and never can. They have continued to pass Acts to make +the people pay the interest of what has been borrowed; till, at last, +the debt itself amounts to more than all the lands, all the houses, +all the trees, all the canals and all the mines would sell for at +their full sterling value; and the money to pay the interest is taken +out of men's rents and out of their earnings; and you, Jack, as I +shall by and by prove to you, pay to the Boroughmongers more than the +half of what you receive in weekly wages from your master. + +Is not this a pretty state of things? Pray observe, Jack, the debt far +exceeds the real full value of the whole kingdom, if there could be a +purchaser found for it. So that, you see, as to private property no +man has any, as long as this debt hangs upon the country. Your master, +Farmer Gripe, for instance, calls his farm _his_. It is none of his, +according to the Boroughmongers' law; for that law has pawned it for +the payment of the interest of the Boroughmongers' debt; and the pawn +must remain as long as the Boroughmongers' law remains. Gripe is +compelled to pay out of the yearly value of his farm a certain portion +to the debt. He may, indeed, sell the farm; but he can get only a part +of the value; because the purchaser will have to pay a yearly sum on +account of the pawn. In short, the Boroughmongers have, in fact, +passed laws to take every man's private property away from him, in +whatever portions their debt may demand such taking away; and a man +who thinks himself an owner of land, is at best only a steward who +manages it for the Boroughmongers. + +This, however, is only a small part of the evil; for the whole of the +rents of the houses and lands and mines and canals would not pay the +interest of this debt; no, and not much more than the half of it. The +labour is therefore pawned too. Every man's labour is pawned for the +payment of the interest of this debt. Aye, Jack, you may think that +you are working for yourself, and that, when on a Saturday night you +take nine shillings from Farmer Gripe, the shillings are for your own +use. You are grievously deceived, for more than half the sum is paid +to the Boroughmongers on account of the pawn. You do not see this, but +the fact is so. Come, what are the things in which you expend the nine +shillings? Tea, sugar, tobacco, candles, salt, soap, shoes, beer, +bread; for no meat do you ever taste. On the articles taken together, +except bread, you pay far more than half tax; and you will observe +that your master's taxes are, in part, pinched out of you. There is an +army employed in Ireland to go with the excisemen and other taxers to +make the people pay. If the taxers were to wait at the ale houses and +grocers' shops, and receive their portion from your own hands, you +would then clearly see that the Boroughmongers take away more than the +half of what you earn. You would then clearly see what it is that +makes you poor and ragged, and that makes your children cry for the +want of a bellyful. You would clearly see that what the hypocrites +tell you about this being your lot, and about Providence placing you +in such a state in order to try your patience and faith, is all a base +falsehood. Why does not Providence place the Boroughmongers and the +parsons in a state to try their patience and faith? Is Providence less +anxious to save them than to save you? If you could see clearly what +you pay on account of the Boroughmongers' pawn, you would see that +your misery arises from the designs of a benevolent Providence being +counteracted by the measures of the Borough-tyrants. + +Your lot, indeed! Your lot assigned by Providence! This is real +blasphemy! Just as if Providence, which sends the salt on shore all +round our coast, had ordained that you should not have any of it +unless you would pay the Boroughmongers fifteen shillings a bushel tax +upon it! But what a Providence must that be which would ordain that an +Englishman should pay fifteen shillings tax on a bushel of English +salt, while a Long Islander pays only two shillings and sixpence for a +bushel of the same salt, after it is brought to America from England? +What an idea must we have of such a Providence as this? Oh no, Jack; +this is not the work of Providence. It is the work of the +Boroughmongers; the pretext about Providence has been invented to +deceive and cheat you, and to perpetuate your slavery. + +Well: all is pawned then. The land, the houses, the canals, the mines, +and the labour are pawned for the payment of the interest of the +Boroughmongers debt. Your labour, mind, Jack, is pawned for the +one-half of its worth. But you will naturally ask, how is it that the +nation, that everybody submits to this? There's your mistake, Jack. It +is not _everybody_ that submits. In the first place there are the +Boroughmongers themselves and all their long tribe of relations, +legitimate and spurious, who profit from the taxes, and who have the +church livings, which they enjoy without giving the poor any part of +their legal share of those livings. Then there are all the officers of +army and navy, and all the endless hosts of place-men and place-women, +pensioned men and pensioned women, and all the hosts of tax-gatherers, +who alone, these last I mean, swallow more than would be necessary to +carry on the Government under a reformed Parliament. But have you +forgotten the lenders of the money which makes the debt? These people +live wholly upon the interest of the debt; and of course they approve +of your labour, and the labour of every man being pawned. The +Boroughmongers have pawned your labour to them. Therefore they like +that your labour should be taxed. They cannot be said to submit to the +tyranny; they applaud it, and to their utmost they support it. + +But you will say, still the mass of the people would, if they had a +mind to bestir themselves, be too strong for all these. Very true. But +you forget the army, Jack. This is a great military force, armed with +bayonets, bullets and cannon-balls, ready at all times and in all +places to march or gallop to attack the people, if they attempt to eat +sugar or salt without paying the tax. There are forts, under the name +of barracks, all over the kingdom, where armed men are kept in +readiness for this purpose. In Ireland they actually go in person to +help to collect the taxes; and in England they are always ready to do +the same. Now, suppose, Jack, that a man who has a bit of land by the +seaside, were to take up a little of the salt that Providence sends on +shore. He would be prosecuted. He would resist the process. Soldiers +would come and take him away to be tried and _hanged_. Suppose you, +Jack, were to dip your rushes into grease, till they came to farthing +candles. The Excise would prosecute you. The sheriff would send men to +drag you to jail. You would fight in defence of your house and home. +You would beat off the sheriff's men. Soldiers would come and kill +you, or would take you away to be hanged. + +This is the thing by which the Boroughmongers govern. There are enough +who would gladly not submit to their tyranny; but there is nobody but +themselves who has an army at command. + +Nevertheless they are not altogether easy under these circumstances. +An army is a two-edged weapon. It may cut the employer as well as the +thing that it is employed upon. It is made up of flesh and blood, and +of English flesh and blood too. It may not always be willing to move, +or to strike when moved. The Boroughmongers see that their titles and +estates hang upon the army. They would fain coax the people back again +to feelings of reverence and love. They would fain wheedle them into +something that shall blunt their hostility. They have been trying +Bible-schemes, school-schemes, and soup-schemes. And at last they are +trying the Savings Banks scheme, upon which I shall now more +particularly address you. + +This thing is of the same nature, and its design is the same, as those +of the grand scheme of Bishop Burnet. The people are discontented. +They feel their oppressions; they seek a change; and some of them have +decidedly protested against paying any longer any part of the +interest of the debt, which they say ought to be paid, if at all, by +those who have borrowed and spent, or pocketed, the money. Now then, +in order to enlist great numbers of labourers and artisans on their +side, the Boroughmongers have fallen upon the scheme of coaxing them +to put small sums into what they call _banks_. These sums they pay +large interest upon, and suffer the parties to take them out whenever +they please. By this scheme they think to bind great numbers to them +and their tyranny. They think that great numbers of labourers and +artisans, seeing their little sums increase, as they will imagine, +will begin to conceive the hopes of becoming rich by such means; and +as these persons are to be told that their money is in the _funds_, +they will soon imbibe the spirit of fundholders, and will not care who +suffers, or whether freedom or slavery prevail, so that the funds be +but safe. + +Such is the scheme and such the motives. It will fail of its object, +though not unworthy the inventive powers of the servile knaves of +Edinburgh. It will fail, first because the men from whom alone the +Borough-tyrants have anything to dread, will see through the scheme +and despise it; and will, besides, well know that the funds are a mere +bubble that may burst, or be bursted at any moment. The parsons appear +to be the main tools in this coaxing scheme. They are always at the +head of everything which they think likely to support tyranny. The +depositors will be domestic servants, particularly women, who will be +tickled with the idea of having a fortune in the funds. The +Boroughmongers will hint to their tenants that they must get their +labourers into the Savings Banks. A preference will be given to such +as deposit. The Ladies, the 'Parsons' Ladies,' will scold poor people +into the funds. The parish officers will act their part in this +compulsory process: and thus will the Boroughmongers get into their +hands some millions of the people's money by a sort of 'forced loan': +or in other words, a robbery. In order to swell the thing out, the +parsons and other tools of the Boroughmongers will lend money in this +way themselves, under feigned names; and we shall, if the system last +a year or two, hear boastings of how rich the poor are become. + +Now then, Jack, supposing it possible that Farmer Gripe may, under +pain of being turned out of your cottage, have made you put your +twopence a week into one of these banks, let us see what is the +natural consequence of your so doing. Twopence a week is eight +shillings and eightpence a year; and the interest will make the amount +about nine shillings perhaps. What use is this to you? Will you let it +remain; and will you go on thus for years? You must go on a great many +years, indeed, before your deposit amounts to as much as the +Boroughmongers take from you in one year! Twopence will buy you a +quarter of a pound of meat. This is a dinner for your wife or +yourself. You never taste meat. And why are you to give up half a +pound of your bread to the Boroughmongers. You are ill; your wife is +ill; your children are ill. 'Go to the bank and take out your money,' +says the overseer; 'for I'll give you no aid till that be spent.' Thus +then, you will have been robbing your own starved belly weekly, to no +other end than that of favouring the parish purse, upon which you have +a just and legal claim, until the clergy restore to the poor what they +have taken from them. As the thing now stands, the poor are starved by +others, this scheme is intended to make them assist in the work +themselves, at the same time that it binds them to the tyranny. + +But, Jack, what a monstrous thing is this, that the Boroughmongers +should kindly pass an Act to induce you to save your money, while they +take from you five shillings out of every nine that you earn? Why not +take less from you! That would be the more natural way to go to work, +surely. Why not leave you all your earnings to yourself? Oh, no! They +cannot do that. It is from the labour of men like you that the far +greater part of the money comes to enrich the Boroughmongers, their +relations and dependants. + +However, suppose you have gotten together five pounds in a Savings +Bank. That is to say in the funds. This is a great deal for you, +though it is not half so much as you are compelled to give to the +Boroughmongers in one year. This is a great sum. It is much more than +you ever will have; but suppose you have it. It is _in the funds_, +mind. And now let me tell you what the funds are; which is necessary +if you have not read my little book called _Paper against Gold._ The +funds is _no place_ at all, Jack. It is nothing, Jack. It is +moonshine. It is a lie, a bubble, a fraud, a cheat, a humbug. And it +is all these in the most perfect degree. People think that the funds +is a place where money is kept. They think that it is a place which +contains that which they have deposited. But the fact is, that the +funds is a word which means nothing that the most of the people think +it means. It means the _descriptions of the several sorts of the +debt_. Suppose I owed money to a tailor, to a smith, to a shoemaker, +to a carpenter, and that I had their several bills in my house. I +should in the language of the Boroughmongers, call these bills my +_funds_. The Boroughmongers owe some people annuities at three pounds +for a hundred; some at four pounds for a hundred; some at five pounds +for a hundred; and these annuities, or debts they call their funds. +And, Jack, if the Savings Bank people lend them a good parcel of +money, they will have that money in these debts or funds. They will be +owners of some of those debts which never will and never can be paid. + +But what is this money too in which you are to be paid back again? It +is no money. It is paper; and though that paper will pass just at this +time; it will not long pass, I can assure you, Jack. When you have +worked a fortnight, and get a pound note for it, you set a high value +upon the note, because it brings you food. But suppose nobody would +take the note from you. Suppose no one would give you anything in +exchange for it. You would go back to Farmer Gripe and fling the note +in his face. You would insist upon real money, and you would get it, +or you would tear down his house. This is what will happen, Jack, in a +very short time. + +I will explain to you, Jack, how this matter stands. Formerly +bank-notes were as good as real money, because anybody that had one +might go at any moment, and get real money for it at the Bank. But now +the thing is quite changed. The Bank broke some years ago; that is to +say, it could not pay its notes in real money; and it never has been +able to do it from that time to this; and what is more, it never can +do it again. To be sure the paper passes at present. You take it for +your work, and others take it of you for bread and tea. But the time +may be, and I believe is, very near at hand, when this paper will not +pass at all; and then as the Boroughmongers and the Savings Bank +people have, and can have, no real money, how are you to get your five +pounds back again? + +The bank-notes may be all put down at any moment, if any man of +talent and resolution choose to put them down; and why may not such a +man exist, and have the Disposition to put them down? They are now of +value, as I said before, because they will pass; because people will +take them and will give victuals and drink for them; but, if nobody +would give bread and tea and beer for them, would they then be good +for anything? They are taken because people are pretty sure that they +can pass them again; but who will take them when he does not think +that he can pass them again? And I assure you, Jack, that even I +myself could, before next May-day, do that which would prevent any man +in England from ever taking a bank-note any more. If you should put +five pounds into a Savings Bank, therefore, you could, in such case, +never see a farthing in exchange for it. + +This being a matter of so much importance to you, I will clearly +explain to you how I might easily do the thing. Mind, I do not say +that I will do the thing. Indeed, I will not; and I do not know any +one that intends to do it. But I will show you how I _might_ do it; +because it is right that you should know what a ticklish state your +poor five pounds will be in if you deposit them in the Savings Bank. + +You know, Jack, that _forged_ notes pass till people find them out. +They keep passing very quietly till they come to the Bank, and there +being known for forged notes, the man who carries them to the Bank, or +owns them at the time, loses the amount of them. Suppose now, that Tom +were to forge a note, and pay it to Dick for a pig. Dick would pay it +to Bob for some tea. Bob would send it up to London to pay his +tea-man. The tea-man would send it to the Bank. The Bank would keep +it, and give him nothing for it. If the tea-man forgot whom he got it +from, he must lose. If he could prove that he got it from Bob, Bob +must lose it; and so on; but either Dick or Bob or the tea-man must +lose it. There must be a loss somewhere. + +Now, it is clear that if there were a great quantity of forged notes +in circulation, people would be afraid to take notes at all; and that +if this great quantity came out all of a sudden, it would for a while +put an end to all payments and all trade. And if such great quantity +can with safety be put out, I leave you to guess, Jack, at the +situation of your five pounds. I will now show you, then, that I could +do this myself, and with perfect safety and ease. + +I could have made, at a very trifling expense, a million of pounds in +bank-notes of various amounts. There are fourteen different ways in +which I could send them to England, and lodge them safely there, +without the smallest chance of their arrival being known to any soul +except the man to whom they should be confided. The Banks might +search and ransack every vessel that arrived from America. They might +do what they would. They would never detect the cargo! + +There they are then, safe in London; a famous stock of bank-notes, so +well executed that no human being except the Bank people would be able +to discover the counterfeit. The agent takes a parcel at a time, and +drops them in the street in the dark. This work he carries on for a +week or two in such streets as are best calculated for the purpose, +till he has well stocked the town. He may do the same at Portsmouth +and other great towns if he please, and he may send off large supplies +by post. + +Now, Jack, suppose you were up at London with your master's waggon. +You might find a parcel of notes. You would go to the first shop to +buy your wife a gown and your children some clothes, yourself a hat, a +greatcoat, and some shoes. The rest you would lay out at shops on the +road home; for the sooner you got rid of this _foundal_, the less +chance of having it taken from you. The shopkeepers would thank you +for your custom, and your wife's heart would bound with joy. + +The notes would travel about most merrily. At last they would come to +the Bank. The holders would lose them; but you would gain by them. So +that, upon the whole, there would be no loss, and the maker of the +notes would have no gain. Others would find, and nearly all would do +like you. In a few days the notes would find their way to the Bank in +great numbers, where they would all be stopped. The news would spread +abroad. The thieftakers would be busy. Every man who had had his note +stopped at the Bank would alarm his neighbourhood. The country would +ring with the news. Nobody would take a bank-note. All business would +be at a stand. The farmers would sell no corn for bank-notes. The +millers would have nothing else to pay with. No markets, because no +money. The baker would be able to get no flour. He could sell no +bread, for nobody would have money to pay him. + +Jack, this thing will assuredly take place. Mind, I tell you so. I +have been right in my predictions on former occasions; and I am not +wrong now. I beg you to believe me; or, at any rate, to blame yourself +if you lose by such an event. In the midst of this hubbub what will +you do? Farmer Gripe will, I daresay, give you something to eat for +your labour. But what will become of your five pounds? That sum you +have in the Savings Bank, and as you are to have it out at any time +when you please, your wife sets off to draw it. The banker gives her a +five-pound note. She brings it; but nobody will take it of you for a +pig, for bread, for clothing, or for anything else! And this, Jack, +will be the fate of all those who shall be weak enough to put their +money into those banks! + +I beg you, Jack, not to rely on the power of the Boroughmongers in +this case. Anything that is to be done with halters, gags, dungeons, +bayonets, powder, or ball, they can do a great deal at; but they are +not conjurers; they are not wizards. They cannot prevent a man from +dropping bank-notes in the dark; and they cannot make people believe +in the goodness of that which they must know to be bad. If they could +hold a sword to every man's breast, they might indeed do something; +but short of this, nothing that they can do would be of any avail. +However, the truth is that they, in such case, will have no sword at +all. An army is a powerful weapon; but an army must be paid. Soldiers +have been called machines; but they are eating and drinking machines. +With good food and drink they will go far and do much; but without +them, they will not stir an inch. And in such a case whence is to come +the money to pay them? In short, Jack, the Boroughmongers would drop +down dead, like men in an apoplexy, and you would, as soon as things +got to rights, have your bread and beer and meat and everything in +abundance. + +The Boroughmongers possess no means of preventing the complete success +of the dropping plan. If they do, they ought to thank me for giving +them a warning of their danger; and for telling them that if they do +prevent the success of such a plan, they are the cleverest fellows in +this world. + +I now, Jack, take my leave of you, hoping that you will not be coaxed +out of your money, and assuring you that I am your friend, + +WM. COBBETT. + + + + +VII.--'THE LETTERS OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER' + +BY SIR WALTER SCOTT + + +(_To what has been said in the Introduction respecting the _Letters of +Malachi Malagrowther_ it is only necessary to add that their immediate +cause was a Bill due to the very commercial crisis which indirectly +ruined Scott himself, and introduced in the spring of 1826 for +stopping the note circulation of private banks altogether, while +limiting that of the Bank of England to notes of L5 and upwards. The +scheme, which was to extend to the whole of Great Britain, was from +the first unpopular in Scotland, and Scott plunged into the fray. The +letters excited or coincided with such violent opposition throughout +the country that the Bill was limited to England only. As Scott was a +strong Tory, his friends in the Government, especially Lord Melville +and Croker (who was officially employed to answer 'Malachi'), were +rather sore at his action. He defended himself in some spirited +private letters, which will be found in Lockhart._) + + +A LETTER ON THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY + +_To the Editor of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal_ + +My dear Mr. Journalist--I am by pedigree a discontented person, so +that you may throw this letter into the fire, if you have any +apprehensions of incurring the displeasure of your superiors. I am, in +fact, the lineal descendant of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who makes a +figure in the _Fortunes of Nigel_, and have retained a reasonable +proportion of his ill-luck, and, in consequence, of his ill-temper. +If, therefore, I should chance to appear too warm and poignant in my +observations, you must impute it to the hasty and peevish humour which +I derive from my ancestor. But, at the same time, it often happens +that this disposition leads me to speak useful, though unpleasant +truths, when more prudent men hold their tongues and eat their +pudding. A lizard is an ugly and disgusting thing enough; but, +methinks, if a lizard were to run over my face and awaken me, which is +said to be their custom when they observe a snake approach a sleeping +person, I should neither scorn his intimation, nor feel justifiable +in crushing him to death, merely because he is a filthy little +abridgment of a crocodile. Therefore, 'for my love, I pray you, wrong +me not.' + +I am old, sir, poor, and peevish, and therefore I may be wrong; but +when I look back on the last fifteen or twenty years, and more +especially on the last ten, I think I see my native country of +Scotland, if it is yet to be called by a title so discriminative, +falling, so far as its national, or rather, perhaps, I ought now to +say its _provincial_, interests are concerned, daily into more +absolute contempt. Our ancestors were a people of some consideration +in the councils of the empire. So late as my own younger days, an +English minister would have paused, even in a favourite measure, if a +reclamation of national rights had been made by a member for Scotland, +supported as it uniformly then was, by the voice of her +representatives and her people. Such ameliorations in our peculiar +system as were thought necessary, in order that North Britain might +keep pace with her sister in the advance of improvement, were +suggested by our own countrymen, persons well acquainted with our +peculiar system of laws (as different from those of England as from +those of France), and who knew exactly how to adapt the desired +alteration to the principle of our legislative enactments, so that the +whole machine might, as mechanics say, work well and easily. For a +long time this wholesome check upon innovation, which requires the +assimilation of a proposed improvement with the general constitution +of the country to which it has been recommended, and which ensures +that important point, by stipulating that the measure shall originate +with those to whom the spirit of the constitution is familiar, has +been, so far as Scotland is concerned, considerably disused. Those who +have stepped forward to repair the gradual failure of our +constitutional system of law, have been persons that, howsoever +qualified in other respects, have had little further knowledge of its +construction than could be acquired by a hasty and partial survey, +taken just before they commenced their labours. Scotland and her laws +have been too often subjected to the alterations of any person who +chose to found himself a reputation, by bringing in a bill to cure +some defect which had never been felt in practice, but which was +represented as a frightful bugbear to English statesmen, who, wisely +and judiciously tenacious of the legal practice and principles +received at home, are proportionally startled at the idea of anything +abroad which cannot be brought to assimilate with them. + +The English seem to have made a compromise with the active tendency to +innovation, which is one great characteristic of the day. Wise and +sagacious themselves, they are nervously jealous of innovations in +their own laws--_Nolumus leges Angliae mutari_, is written on the +skirts of their judicial robes, as the most sacred texts of Scripture +were inscribed on the phylacteries of the Rabbis. The belief that the +Common Law of England constitutes the perfection of human reason, is a +maxim bound upon their foreheads. Law Monks they have been called in +other respects, and like monks they are devoted to their own Rule, and +admit no question of its infallibility. There can be no doubt that +their love of a system, which, if not perfect, has so much in it that +is excellent, originates in the most praiseworthy feelings. Call it if +you will the prejudice of education, it is still a prejudice +honourable in itself, and useful to the public. I only find fault with +it, because, like the Friars in the Duenna monopolising the bottle, +these English monks will not tolerate in their lay brethren of the +north the slightest pretence to a similar feeling. + +In England, therefore, no innovation can be proposed affecting the +administration of justice, without being subjected to the strict +enquiry of the Guardians of the Law, and afterwards resisted +pertinaciously, until time and the most mature and reiterated +discussion shall have proved its utility, nay, its necessity. The old +saying is still true in all its points--Touch but a cobweb in +Westminster Hall, and the old spider will come out in defence of it. +This caution may sometimes postpone the adoption of useful +amendments, but it operates to prevent all hasty and experimental +innovations; and it is surely better that existing evils should be +endured for some time longer, than that violent remedies should be +hastily adopted, the unforeseen and unprovided for consequences of +which are often so much more extensive than those which had been +foreseen and reckoned upon. An ordinary mason can calculate upon the +exact gap which will be made by the removal of a corner stone in an +old building; but what architect, not intimately acquainted with the +whole edifice, can presume even to guess how much of the structure is, +or is not, to follow? + +The English policy in this respect is a wise one, and we have only to +wish they would not insist in keeping it all to themselves. But those +who are most devoted to their own religion have least sympathy for the +feelings of dissenters; and a spirit of proselytism has of late shown +itself in England for extending the benefits of their system, in all +its strength and weakness, to a country which has been hitherto +flourishing and contented under its own. They adopted the conclusion +that all English enactments are right; but the system of municipal law +in Scotland is not English, therefore it is wrong. Under sanction of +this syllogism, our rulers have indulged and encouraged a spirit of +experiment and innovation at our expense, which they resist +obstinately when it is to be carried through at their own risk. + +For more than half of last century, this was a practice not to be +thought of. Scotland was during that period disaffected, in bad +humour, armed too, and smarting under various irritating +recollections. This is not the sort of patient for whom an +experimental legislator chooses to prescribe. There was little chance +of making Saunders take the patent pill by persuasion--main force was +a dangerous argument, and some thought claymores had edges. + +This period passed away, a happier one arrived, and Scotland, no +longer the object of terror, or at least great uneasiness, to the +British Government, was left from the year 1750 under the guardianship +of her own institutions, to win her silent way to national wealth and +consequence. Contempt probably procured for her the freedom from +interference, which had formerly been granted out of fear; for the +medical faculty are as slack in attending the garrets of paupers as +the caverns of robbers. But neglected as she was, and perhaps +_because_ she was neglected, Scotland, reckoning her progress during +the space from the close of the American War to the present day, has +increased her prosperity in a ratio more than five times greater than +that of her more fortunate and richer sister. She is now worth the +attention of the learned faculty, and God knows she has had plenty of +it. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall, and _talked_ into +courses of physic, for which she had little occasion. She has been of +late a sort of experimental farm, upon which every political student +has been permitted to try his theory--a kind of common property, where +every juvenile statesman has been encouraged to make his inroads, as +in Moray land, where, anciently, according to the idea of the old +Highlanders, all men had a right to take their prey--a subject in a +common dissecting room, left to the scalpel of the junior students, +with the degrading inscription,--_fiat experimentum in corpore vili_. + +I do not mean to dispute, Sir, that much alteration was necessary in +our laws, and that much benefit has followed many of the great changes +which have taken place. I do not mean to deprecate a gradual approach +to the English system, especially in commercial law. The Jury Court, +for example, was a fair experiment, in my opinion, cautiously +introduced as such, and placed under such regulations as might best +assimilate its forms with those of the existing Supreme Court. I beg, +therefore, to be considered as not speaking of the alterations +themselves, but of the apparent hostility towards our municipal +institutions, as repeatedly manifested in the course of late +proceedings, tending to force and wrench them into a similarity with +those of England. + +The opinions of our own lawyers, nay, of our Judges, than whom wiser +and more honourable men never held that character, have been, if +report speaks true, something too much neglected and controlled in the +course of these important changes, in which, methinks, they ought to +have had a leading and primary voice. They have been almost avowedly +regarded not as persons the best qualified to judge of proposed +innovations, but as prejudiced men, determined to oppose them, right +or wrong. The last public Commission was framed on the very principle, +that if Scotch lawyers were needs to be employed, a sufficient number +of these should consist of gentlemen, who, whatever their talents and +respectability might be in other respects, had been too long estranged +from the study of Scottish law to retain any accurate recollection of +an abstruse science, or any decided partiality for its technical +forms. This was done avowedly for the purpose of evading the natural +partiality of the Scottish Judges and practitioners to their own +system; that partiality which the English themselves hold so sacred a +feeling in their own Judges and Counsel learned in the law. I am not, +I repeat, complaining of the result of the Commissions, but of the +spirit in which the alterations were undertaken. Unquestionably much +was done in brushing up and improving the old machinery of Scottish +Law Courts, and in making it move more rapidly, though scarce, I +think, more correctly than before. Dispatch has been much attended +to. But it may be ultimately found that the timepiece which runs +fastest does not intimate the hour most accurately. At all events, the +changes have been made and established--there let them rest. And had +I, Malachi Malagrowther, the sole power to-morrow of doing so, I would +not restore the old forms of judicial proceedings; because I hold the +constitution of Courts of Justice too serious matters to be put back +or forward at pleasure, like a boy's first watch, merely for +experiment's sake. + +What I _do_ complain of is the general spirit of slight and dislike +manifested to our national establishments by those of the sister +country who are so very zealous in defending their own; and not less +do I complain of their jealousy of the opinions of those who cannot +but be much better acquainted than they, both with the merits and +deficiencies of the system, which hasty and imperfectly informed +judges have shown themselves so anxious to revolutionise. + +There is no explanation to be given of this but one--namely, the +entire conviction and belief of our English brethren that the true +Themis is worshipped in Westminster Hall, and that her adorers cannot +be too zealous in her service; while she, whose image an ingenious +artist has depicted balancing herself upon a _tee-totum_ on the +southern window of the Parliament House of Edinburgh, is a mere +idol,--a Diana of Ephesus,--whom her votaries worship, either because +her shrine brings great gain to the craftsmen, or out of an ignorant +and dotard superstition, which induces them to prefer the old Scottish +_Mumpsimus_ to the modern English _Sumpsimus_. Now, this is not fair +construction in our friends, whose intentions in our behalf, we allow, +are excellent, but who certainly are scarcely entitled to beg the +question at issue without inquiry or discussion, or to treat us as the +Spaniards treated the Indians, whom they massacred for worshipping the +image of the Sun, while they themselves bowed down to that of the +Virgin Mary. Even Queen Elizabeth was contented with the evasive +answer of Melville, when hard pressed with the trying question, +whether Queen Mary or she were the fairest. We are willing, in the +spirit of that answer, to say that the Themis of Westminster Hall is +the best fitted to preside over the administration of the larger, and +more fertile country of beef and pudding; while she of the tee-totum +(placed in that precarious position, we presume, to express her +instability, since these new lights were struck out) claims a more +limited but equally respectful homage, within her ancient +jurisdiction--_sua paupera regna_--the Land of Cakes. If this +compromise does not appease the ardour of our brethren for converting +us to English forms and fashions, we must use the scriptural question, +"Who hath required these things at your hands?" + +The inquiries and result of another Commission are too much to the +purpose to be suppressed. The object was to investigate the conduct of +the Revenue Boards in Ireland and Scotland. In the former, it is well +known, great mismanagement was discovered; for Pat, poor fellow, had +been playing the loon to a considerable extent. In Scotland, _not a +shadow of abuse prevailed_. You would have thought, Mr. Journalist, +that the Irish Boards would have been reformed in some shape, and the +Scotch Establishments honourably acquitted, and suffered to continue +on the footing of independence which they had so long enjoyed, and of +which they had proved themselves so worthy. Not so, sir. The Revenue +Boards, in both countries, underwent exactly the same regulation, were +deprived of their independent consequence, and placed under the +superintendence of English control; the innocent and the guilty being +treated in every respect alike. Now, on the side of Scotland, this was +like Trinculo losing his bottle in the pool--there was not only +dishonour in the thing, but an infinite loss. + +I have heard two reasons suggested for this indiscriminating +application of punishment to the innocent and to the culpable. + +In the first place, it was honestly confessed that Ireland would never +have quietly submitted to the indignity offered to her, unless poor +inoffensive Scotland had been included in the regulation. The Green +Isle, it seems, was of the mind of a celebrated lady of quality, who, +being about to have a decayed tooth drawn, refused to submit to the +operation till she had seen the dentist extract a sound and +serviceable grinder from the jaws of her waiting-woman--and her humour +was to be gratified. The lady was a termagant dame--the wench a +tame-spirited simpleton--the dentist an obliging operator--and the +teeth of both were drawn accordingly. + +This gratification of his humours is gained by Pat's being up with the +pike and shillelagh on any or no occasion. God forbid Scotland should +retrograde towards such a state--much better that the Deil, as in +Burns's song, danced away with the whole excisemen in the country. We +do not want to hear her prate of her number of millions of men, and +her old military exploits. We had better remain in union with England, +even at the risk of becoming a subordinate species of Northumberland, +as far as national consequence is concerned, than remedy ourselves by +even hinting the possibility of a rupture. But there is no harm in +wishing Scotland to have just so much ill-nature, according to her own +proverb, as may keep her good-nature from being abused; so much +national spirit as may determine her to stand by her own rights, +conducting her assertion of them with every feeling of respect and +amity toward England. + +The other reason alleged for this equal distribution of _punishment_, +as if it had been the influence of the common sun, or the general +rain, to the just and the unjust, was one which is extremely +predominant at present with our Ministers--the _necessity_ of +_Uniformity_ in all such cases; and the consideration what an awkward +thing it would be to have a Board of Excise or Customs remaining +independent in the one country, solely because they had, without +impeachment, discharged their duty; while the same establishment was +cashiered in another, for no better reason than that it had been +misused. + +This reminds us of an incident, said to have befallen at the Castle of +Glammis, when these venerable towers were inhabited by a certain old +Earl of Strathmore, who was as great an admirer of uniformity as the +Chancellor of the Exchequer could have desired. He and his gardener +directed all in the garden and pleasure grounds upon the ancient +principle of exact correspondence between the different parts, so that +each alley had its brother; a principle which, renounced by gardeners, +is now adopted by statesmen. It chanced once upon a time that a fellow +was caught committing some petty theft, and, being taken in the +manner, was sentenced by the Bailie Macwheeble of the jurisdiction to +stand for a certain time in the baronial pillory, called the _jougs_, +being a collar and chain, one of which contrivances was attached to +each side of the portal of the great avenue which led to the castle. +The thief was turned over accordingly to the gardener, as +ground-officer, to see the punishment duly inflicted. When the Thane +of Glammis returned from his morning ride, he was surprised to find +both sides of the gateway accommodated each with a prisoner, like a +pair of heraldic supporters, _chained_ and _collared proper_. He asked +the gardener, whom he found watching the place of punishment, as his +duty required, whether another delinquent had been detected? "No, my +Lord," said the gardener, in the tone of a man excellently well +satisfied with himself,--"but I thought the single fellow looked very +awkward standing on one side of the gateway, so I gave half a crown to +one of the labourers to stand on the other side for _uniformity's +sake_." This is exactly a case in point, and probably the only one +which can be found--with this sole difference, that I do not hear that +the members of the Scottish Revenue Board got any boon for standing in +the pillory with those of Ireland--for uniformity's sake. + +Lastly, sir, I come to this business of extending the provisions of +the Bill prohibiting the issue of notes under five pounds to Scotland, +in six months after the period that the regulation shall be adopted in +England. + +I am not about to enter upon the question which so much agitates +speculative writers upon the wealth of nations, or attempt to discuss +what proportion of the precious metals ought to be detained within a +country; what are the best means of keeping it there; or to what +extent the want of specie can be supplied by paper credit: I will not +ask if a poor man can be made a rich one, by compelling him to buy a +service of plate, instead of the delf ware which served his turn. +These are questions I am not adequate to solve. But I beg leave to +consider the question in a practical point of view, and to refer +myself entirely to experience. + +I assume, without much hazard of contradiction, that Banks have +existed in Scotland for near one hundred and twenty years--that they +have flourished, and the country has flourished with them--and that +during the last fifty years particularly, provincial Banks, or +branches of the principal established and chartered Banks, have +gradually extended themselves in almost every Lowland district in +Scotland; that the notes, and especially the small notes, which they +distribute, entirely supply the demand for a medium of currency; and +that the system has so completely expelled gold from the country of +Scotland, that you never by any chance espy a guinea there, unless in +the purse of an accidental stranger, or in the coffers of these Banks +themselves. This is granting the facts of the case as broadly as can +be asked. + +It is not less unquestionable that the consequence of this Banking +system, as conducted in Scotland, has been attended with the greatest +advantage to the country. The facility which it has afforded to the +industrious and enterprising agriculturalist or manufacturer, as well +as to the trustees of the public in executing national works, has +converted Scotland from a poor, miserable, and barren country, into +one, where, if nature has done less, art and industry have done more, +than in perhaps any country in Europe, England herself not excepted. +Through means of the credit which this system has afforded, roads have +been made, bridges built, and canals dug, opening up to reciprocal +communication the most sequestered districts of the country--manufactures +have been established, unequalled in extent or success--wastes have +been converted into productive farms--the productions of the earth for +human use have been multiplied twentyfold, while the wealth of the rich +and the comforts of the poor have been extended in the same proportion. +And all this in a country where the rigour of the climate, and +sterility of the soil, seem united to set improvement at defiance. Let +those who remember Scotland forty years since, bear witness if I speak +truth or falsehood. + +There is no doubt that this change has been produced by the facilities +of procuring credit, which the Scottish Banks held forth, both by +discounting bills, and by granting cash-accounts. Every undertaking of +consequence, whether by the public or by individuals, has been carried +on by such means; at least exceptions are extremely rare. + +There is as little doubt that the Banks could not have furnished these +necessary funds of cash, without enjoying the reciprocal advantage of +their own notes being circulated in consequence, and by means of the +accommodation thus afforded. It is not to be expected that every +undertaking which the system enabled speculators or adventurers to +commence, should be well-judged, attentively carried on, or successful +in issue. Imprudence in some cases, misfortune in others, have had +their usual quantity of victims. But in Scotland, as elsewhere, it has +happened in many instances that improvements, which turned out ruinous +to those who undertook them, have, notwithstanding, themselves +ultimately produced the most beneficial advantages to the country, +which derived in such instances an addition to its general prosperity, +even from the undertakings which had proved destructive to the private +fortune of the projectors. + +Not only did the Banks dispersed throughout Scotland afford the means +of bringing the country to an unexpected and almost marvellous degree +of prosperity, but in no considerable instance, save one, have their +own over-speculating undertakings been the means of interrupting that +prosperity. The solitary exception was the undertaking called the Ayr +Bank, rashly entered into by a large body of country gentlemen and +others, unacquainted with commercial affairs, and who had moreover the +misfortune not only to set out on false principles, but to get false +rogues for their principal agents and managers. The fall of this Bank +brought much calamity on the country; but two things are remarkable in +its history: First, that under its too prodigal, yet beneficial +influence, a fine county (that of Ayr) was converted from a desert +into a fertile land. Secondly, that, though at a distant interval, the +Ayr Bank paid all its engagements, and the loss only fell on the +original stockholders. The warning was, however, a terrible one, and +has been so well attended to in Scotland, that very few attempts seem +to have been afterwards made to establish Banks prematurely--that is, +where the particular district was not in such an advanced state as to +require the support of additional credit; for in every such case, it +was judiciously foreseen, the forcing a capital on the district could +only lead to wild speculation, instead of supporting solid and +promising undertakings. + +The character and condition of the persons pursuing the profession +ought to be noticed, however slightly. The Bankers of Scotland have +been, generally speaking, _good_ men, in the mercantile phrase, +showing, by the wealth of which they have died possessed, that their +credit was sound; and _good_ men also, many of them eminently so, in +the more extensive and better sense of the word, manifesting, by the +excellence of their character, the fairness of the means by which +their riches were acquired. There may have been, among so numerous a +body, men of a different character, fishers in troubled waters, +capitalists who sought gain not by the encouragement of fair trade +and honest industry, but by affording temporary fuel to rashness or +avarice. But the number of upright traders in the profession has +narrowed the means of mischief which such Christian Shylocks would +otherwise have possessed. There was loss, there was discredit, in +having recourse to such characters, when honest wants could be fairly +supplied by upright men, and on liberal terms. Such reptiles have been +confined in Scotland to batten upon their proper prey of folly, and +feast, like worms, on the corruption in which they are bred. + +Since the period of the Ayr Bank, now near half a century, I recollect +very few instances of Banking Companies issuing notes which have +become insolvent. One, about thirty years since, was the Merchant Bank +of Stirling, which never was in high credit, having been known almost +at the time of its commencement by the odious nickname of _Black in +the West_. Another was within these ten years, the East Lothian +Banking Company, whose affairs had been very ill conducted by a +villainous manager. In both cases, the notes were paid up in full. In +the latter case, they were taken up by one of the most respectable +houses in Edinburgh; so that all current engagements were paid without +the least check to the circulation of their notes, or inconvenience to +poor or rich, who happened to have them in possession. The Union Bank +of Falkirk also became insolvent within these fifteen years, but paid +up its engagements without much loss to the creditors. Other cases +there may have occurred, not coming within my recollection; but I +think none which made any great sensation, or could at all affect the +general confidence of the country in the stability of the system. None +of these bankruptcies excited much attention, or, as we have seen, +caused any considerable loss. + +In the present unhappy commercial distress, I have always heard and +understood that the Scottish Banks have done all in their power to +alleviate the evils which came thickening on the country; and far from +acting illiberally, that they have come forward to support the +tottering credit of the commercial world with a frankness which +augured the most perfect confidence in their own resources. We have +heard of only one provincial Bank being even for a moment in the +predicament of suspicion; and of that copartnery the funds and credit +were so well understood, that their correspondents in Edinburgh, as in +the case of the East Lothian Bank formerly mentioned, at once +guaranteed the payment of their notes, and saved the public even from +momentary agitation, and individuals from the possibility of distress. +I ask what must be the stability of a system of credit of which such +an universal earthquake could not displace or shake even the slightest +individual portion? + +Thus stands the case in Scotland; and it is clear any restrictive +enactment affecting the Banking system, or their mode of issuing +notes, must be adopted in consequence of evils, operating elsewhere +perhaps, but certainly unknown in this country. + +In England, unfortunately, things have been very different, and the +insolvency of many provincial Banking Companies, of the most +established reputation for stability, has greatly distressed the +country, and alarmed London itself, from the necessary reaction of +their misfortunes upon their correspondents in the capital. + +I do not think, sir, that the advocate of Scotland is called upon to +go further, in order to plead an exemption from any experiment which +England may think proper to try to cure her own malady, than to say +such malady does not exist in her jurisdiction. It is surely enough to +plead, 'We are well, our pulse and complexion prove it--let those who +are sick take physic.' But the opinion of the English Ministers is +widely different; for, granting our premisses, they deny our +conclusion. + +The peculiar humour of a friend, whom I lost some years ago, is the +only one I recollect, which jumps precisely with the reasoning of the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. My friend was an old Scottish laird, a +bachelor and a humorist--wealthy, convivial, and hospitable, and of +course having always plenty of company about him. He had a regular +custom of swallowing every night in the world one of Dr. Anderson's +pills, for which reasons may be readily imagined. But it is not so +easy to account for his insisting on every one of his guests taking +the same medicine, and whether it was by way of patronising the +medicine, which is in some sense a national receipt, or whether the +mischievous old wag amused himself with anticipating the scenes of +delicate embarrassment, which the dispensation sometimes produced in +the course of the night, I really cannot even guess. What is equally +strange, he pressed the request with a sort of eloquence which +succeeded with every guest. No man escaped, though there were few who +did not make resistance. His powers of persuasion would have been +invaluable to a minister of state. 'What! not one _Leetle Anderson_, +to oblige your friend, your host, your entertainer! He had taken one +himself--he would take another, if you pleased--surely what was good +for his complaint must of course be beneficial to yours?' It was in +vain you pleaded your being perfectly well,--your detesting the +medicine,--your being certain it would not agree with you--none of the +apologies were received as valid. You might be warm, pathetic or +sulky, fretful or patient, grave or serious in testifying your +repugnance, but you were equally a doomed man; escape was impossible. +Your host was in his turn eloquent,--authoritative,--facetious, +--argumentative,--precatory,--pathetic, above all, pertinacious. No +guest was known to escape the _Leetle Anderson_. The last time I +experienced the laird's hospitality there were present at the evening +meal the following catalogue of guests:--a Bond-street dandy, of the most +brilliant water, drawn thither by the temptation of grouse-shooting--a +writer from the neighbouring borough (the lairds _doer_, I +believe),--two country lairds, men of reserved and stiff habits--three +sheep-farmers, as stiff-necked and stubborn as their own haltered +rams--and I, Malachi Malagrowther, not facile or obvious to persuasion. +There was also the Esculapius of the vicinity--one who gave, but +elsewhere was never known to _take_ medicine. All succumbed--each took, +after various degrees of resistance according to his peculiar fashion, +his own _Leetle Anderson_. The doer took a brace. On the event I +am silent. None had reason to congratulate himself on his complaisance. +The laird has slept with his ancestors for some years, remembered +sometimes with a smile on account of his humorous eccentricities, always +with a sigh when his surviving friends and neighbours reflect on his +kindliness and genuine beneficence. I have only to add that I hope he +has not bequeathed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, otherwise so +highly gifted, his invincible powers of persuading folks to take +medicine, which their constitutions do not require. + +Have I argued my case too high in supposing that the present intended +legislative enactment is as inapplicable to Scotland as a pair of +elaborate knee-buckles would be to the dress of a kilted Highlander? I +think not. + +I understand Lord Liverpool and the Chancellor of the Exchequer +distinctly to have admitted the fact, that no distress whatever had +originated in Scotland from the present issuing of small notes of the +bankers established there, whether provincial in the strict sense, or +sent abroad by branches of the larger establishments settled in the +metropolis. No proof can be desired better than the admission of the +adversary. + +Nevertheless, we have been positively informed by the newspapers that +Ministers see no reason why any law adopted on this subject should not +be imperative over all his Majesty's dominions, including Scotland, +_for uniformity's sake_. In my opinion they might as well make a law +that the Scotsman, for uniformity's sake, should not eat oatmeal, +because it is found to give Englishmen the heartburn. If an ordinance +prohibiting the oatcake, can be accompanied with a regulation capable +of being enforced, that in future, for uniformity's sake, our moors +and uplands shall henceforth bear the purest wheat, I for one have no +objection to the regulation. But till Ben Nevis be level with +Norfolkshire, though the natural wants of the two nations may be the +same, the extent of these wants, natural or commercial, and the mode +of supplying them, must be widely different, let the rule of +uniformity be as absolute as it will. The nation which cannot raise +wheat, must be allowed to eat oat-bread; the nation which is too poor +to retain a circulating medium of the precious metals, must be +permitted to supply its place with paper credit; otherwise, they must +go without food, and without currency. + +If I were called on, Mr. Journalist, I think I could give some reasons +why the system of banking which has been found well adapted for +Scotland is not proper for England, and why there is no reason for +inflicting upon us the intended remedy; in other words, why this +political balsam of Fierabras which is to relieve Don Quixote, may +have a great chance to poison Sancho. With this view, I will mention +briefly some strong points of distinction affecting the comparative +credit of the banks in England and in Scotland; and they seem to +furnish, to one inexperienced in political economies (upon the +transcendental doctrines of which so much stress is now laid), very +satisfactory reasons for the difference which is not denied to exist +betwixt the effects of the same general system in different countries. + +In Scotland, almost all Banking Companies consist of a considerable +number of persons, many of them men of landed property, whose landed +estates, with the burthens legally affecting them, may be learned from +the records, for the expense of a few shillings; so that all the +world knows, or may know, the general basis on which their credit +rests, and the extent of real property, which, independent of their +personal means, is responsible for their commercial engagements. In +most banking establishments this fund of credit is considerable, in +others immense; especially in those where the shares are numerous, and +are held in small proportions, many of them by persons of landed +estates, whose fortunes, however large, and however small their share +of stock, must all be liable to the engagements of the Bank. In +England, as I believe, the number of the partners engaged in a banking +concern cannot exceed five; and though of late years their landed +property has been declared subject to be attacked by their commercial +creditors, yet no one can learn, without incalculable trouble, the +real value of that land, or with what mortgages it is burthened. Thus, +_caeteris paribus_, the English banker cannot make his solvency +manifest to the public, therefore cannot expect, or receive, the same +unlimited trust, which is willingly and securely reposed in those of +the same profession in Scotland. + +Secondly, the circulation of the Scottish bank-notes is free and +unlimited; an advantage arising from their superior degree of credit. +They pass without a shadow of objection through the whole limits of +Scotland, and, though they cannot be legally tendered, are current +nearly as far as York in England. Those of English Banking Companies +seldom extend beyond a very limited horizon: in two or three stages +from the place where they are issued, many of them are objected to, +and give perpetual trouble to any traveller who has happened to take +them in change on the road. Even the most creditable provincial notes +never approach London in a free tide--never circulate like blood to +the heart, and from thence to the extremities, but are current within +a limited circle; often, indeed, so very limited, that the notes +issued in the morning, to use an old simile, fly out like pigeons from +the dovecot, and are sure to return in the evening to the spot which +they have left at break of day. + +Owing to these causes, and others which I forbear mentioning, the +profession of provincial Bankers in England is limited in its regular +profits, and uncertain in its returns, to a degree unknown in +Scotland; and is, therefore, more apt to be adopted in the South by +men of sanguine hopes and bold adventure (both frequently +disproportioned to the extent of their capital), who sink in mines or +other hazardous speculations the funds which their banking credit +enables them to command, and deluge the country with notes, which, on +some unhappy morning, are found not worth a penny--as those to whom +the foul fiend has given apparent treasures are said in due time to +discover they are only pieces of slate. + +I am aware it may be urged that the restrictions imposed on those +English provincial Banks are necessary to secure the supremacy of the +Bank of England; on the same principle on which dogs, kept near the +purlieus of a royal forest, were anciently lamed by the cutting off of +one of the claws, to prevent their interfering with the royal sport. +This is a very good regulation for England, for what I know; but why +should the Scottish institutions, which do not, and cannot interfere +with the influence of the Bank of England, be put on a level with +those of which such jealousy is, justly or unjustly, entertained? We +receive no benefit from that immense establishment, which, like a +great oak, overshadows England from Tweed to Cornwall. Why should our +national plantations be cut down or cramped for the sake of what +affords us neither shade nor shelter, and which, besides, can take no +advantage by the injury done to us? Why should we be subjected to a +monopoly from which we derive no national benefit? + +I have only to add that Scotland has not felt the slightest +inconvenience from the want of specie, nay, that it has never been in +request among them. A tradesman will take a guinea more unwillingly +than a note of the same value--to the peasant the coin is unknown. No +one ever wishes for specie save when upon a journey to England. In +occasional runs upon particular houses, the notes of other Banking +Companies have always been the value asked for--no holder of these +notes ever demanded specie. The credit of one establishment might be +doubted for the time--that of the general system was never brought +into question. Even avarice, the most suspicious of passions, has in +no instance I ever heard of, desired to compose her hoards by an +accumulation of the precious metals. The confidence in the credit of +our ordinary medium has not been doubted even in the dreams of the +most irritable and jealous of human passions. + +All these considerations are so obvious that a statesman so acute as +Mr. Robinson must have taken them in at the first glance, and must at +the same time have deemed them of no weight, compared with the +necessary conformity between the laws of the two kingdoms. I must, +therefore, speak to the justice of this point of uniformity. + +Sir, my respected ancestor, Sir Mungo, when he had the distinguished +honour to be _whipping_, or rather _whipped boy_, to his Majesty King +James the Sixth of gracious memory, was always, in virtue of his +office, scourged when the king deserved flogging; and the same +equitable rule seems to distinguish the conduct of Government towards +Scotland, as one of the three United Kingdoms. If Pat is guilty of +peculation, Sister Peg loses her Boards of Revenue--if John Bull's +cashiers mismanage his money-matters, those who have conducted Sister +Margaret's to their own great honour, and her no less advantage, must +be deprived of the power of serving her in future; at least that power +must be greatly restricted and limited. + + 'Quidquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi.' + +That is to say, if our superiors of England and Ireland eat sour +grapes, the Scottish teeth must be set on edge as well as their own. +An uniformity in benefits may be well--an uniformity in penal +measures, towards the innocent and the guilty, in prohibitory +regulations, whether necessary or not, seems harsh law, and worse +justice. + +This levelling system, not equitable in itself, is infinitely unjust, +if a story, often told by my poor old grandfather, was true, which I +own I am inclined to doubt. The old man, sir, had learned in his +youth, or dreamed in his dotage, that Scotland had become an integral +part of England,--not in right of conquest, or rendition, or through +any right of inheritance--but in virtue of a solemn Treaty of Union. +Nay, so distinct an idea had he of this supposed Treaty, that he used +to recite one of its articles to this effect:--'That the laws in use +within the kingdom of Scotland, do, after the Union, remain in the +same force as before, but alterable by the Parliament of Great +Britain, with this difference between the laws concerning public +right, policy, and civil government, and those which concern private +right, that the former may be made the same through the whole United +Kingdom; but that no alteration be made on laws which concern private +right, _excepting for the evident utility of the subjects within +Scotland_.' When the old gentleman came to the passage, which you will +mark in italics, he always clenched his fist, and exclaimed, 'Nemo me +impune lacessit!' which, I presume, are words belonging to the black +art, since there is no one in the Modern Athens conjuror enough to +understand their meaning, or at least to comprehend the spirit of the +sentiment which my grandfather thought they conveyed. + +I cannot help thinking, sir, that if there had been any truth in my +grandfather's story, some Scottish member would, on the late occasion, +have informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that, in virtue of this +Treaty, it was no sufficient reason for innovating upon the private +rights of Scotsmen in a most tender and delicate point, merely that +the Right Honourable Gentleman saw no reason why the same law should +not be current through the whole of his Majesty's dominions; and that, +on the contrary, it was incumbent upon him to go a step further, and +to show that the alteration proposed _was_ for the EVIDENT UTILITY _of +the subjects within Scotland_,--a proposition disavowed by the Right +Honourable Gentleman's candid admission, as well as by that of the +Prime Minister, and contradicted in every circumstance by the actual +state of the case. + +Methinks, sir, our 'Chosen Five and Forty,' supposing they had bound +themselves to Ministers by such oaths of silence and obedience as are +taken by Carthusian friars, must have had free-will and speech to +express their sentiments, had they been possessed of so irrefragable +an argument in such a case of extremity. The sight of a father's life +in danger is said to have restored the power of language to the dumb; +and truly, the necessary defence of the rights of our native country +is not, or at least ought not to be, a less animating motive. Lord +Lauderdale almost alone interfered, and procured, to his infinite +honour, a delay of six months in the extension of this act,--a sort of +reprieve from the southern _jougs_,--by which we may have some chance +of profiting, if, during the interval, we can show ourselves true +Scotsmen, by some better proof than merely by being 'wise behind the +hand.' + +In the first place, sir, I would have this old Treaty searched for, +and should it be found to be still existing, I think it decides the +question. For, how can it be possible that it should be for the +'evident utility' of Scotland to alter her laws of private right, to +the total subversion of a system under which she is admitted to have +flourished for a century, and which has never within North Britain +been attended with the inconveniences charged against it in the sister +country, where, by the way, it never existed? Even if the old +parchment should be voted obsolete, there would be some satisfaction +in having it looked out and preserved--not in the Register-Office, or +Advocates' Library, where it might awaken painful recollections--but +in the Museum of the Antiquaries, where, with the Solemn League and +Covenant, the Letter of the Scottish Nobles to the Pope on the +independence of their country, and other antiquated documents, once +held in reverence, it might silently contract dust, yet remain to bear +witness that such things had been. + +I earnestly hope, however, that an international league of such +importance may still be found obligatory on both the _high_ and the +_low_ contracting parties; on that which has the power, and apparently +the will, to break it, as well as on the weaker nation, who cannot, +without incurring still worse, and more miserable consequences, oppose +aggression, otherwise than by invoking the faith of treaties, and the +national honour of Old England. + +In the second place, all ranks and bodies of men in North Britain (for +all are concerned, the poor as well as the rich) should express by +petition their sense of the injustice which is offered to the country, +and the distress which will probably be the necessary consequence. +Without the power of issuing their own notes the Banks cannot supply +the manufacturer with that credit which enables him to pay his +workmen, and wait his return; or accommodate the farmer with that +fund which makes it easy for him to discharge his rent, and give wages +to his labourers, while in the act of performing expensive operations +which are to treble or quadruple the produce of his farm. The trustees +on the high-roads and other public works, so ready to stake their +personal credit for carrying on public improvements, will no longer +possess the power of raising funds by doing so. The whole existing +state of credit is to be altered from top to bottom, and Ministers are +silent on any remedy which such a state of things would imperiously +require. + +These are subjects worth struggling for, and rather of more importance +than generally come before County Meetings. The English legislature +seems inclined to stultify our Law Authorities in their department; +but let us at least try if they will listen to the united voice of a +Nation in matters which so intimately concern its welfare, that almost +every man must have formed a judgment on the subject, from something +like personal experience. For my part, I cannot doubt the result. + +Times are undoubtedly different from those of Queen Anne, when, Dean +Swift having in a political pamphlet passed some sarcasms on the +Scottish nation, as a poor and fierce people, the Scythians of +Britain,--the Scottish peers, headed by the Duke of Argyll, went in +a body to the ministers, and compelled them to disown the sentiments +which had been expressed by their partisan, and offer a reward of +three hundred pounds for the author of the libel, well known to be the +best advocate and most intimate friend of the existing administration. +They demanded also that the printer and publisher should be prosecuted +before the House of Peers; and Harley, however unwillingly, was +obliged to yield to their demand. + +In the celebrated case of Porteous, the English legislature saw +themselves compelled to desist from vindictive measures, on account of +a gross offence committed in the metropolis of Scotland. In that of +the Roman Catholic bill they yielded to the voice of the Scottish +people, or rather of the Scottish mob, and declared the proposed +alteration of the law should not extend to North Britain. The cases +were different, in point of merit, though the Scots were successful in +both. In the one, a boon of clemency was extorted; in the other, +concession was an act of decided weakness. But ought the present +administration of Great Britain to show less deference to our +temperate and general remonstrance on a matter concerning ourselves +only, than their predecessors did to the passions, and even the +ill-founded and unjust prejudices, of our ancestors? + +Times, indeed, have changed since those days, and circumstances also. +We are no longer a poor, that is, so _very poor_ a country and +people; and as we have increased in wealth, we have become somewhat +poorer in spirit, and more loath to incur displeasure by contests upon +mere etiquette, or national prejudice. But we have some grounds to +plead for favour with England. We have borne our pecuniary impositions +during a long war, with a patience the more exemplary, as they lay +heavier on us from our comparative want of means--our blood has flowed +as freely as that of England or of Ireland--our lives and fortunes +have become unhesitatingly devoted to the defence of the empire--our +loyalty as warmly and willingly displayed towards the person of our +Sovereign. We have consented with submission, if not with +cheerfulness, to reductions and abolitions of public offices, required +for the good of the state at large, but which must affect materially +the condition, and even the respectability, of our overburthened +aristocracy. We have in every respect conducted ourselves as good and +faithful subjects of the general empire. + +We do not boast of these things as actual merits; but they are at +least duties discharged, and in an appeal to men of honour and of +judgment, must entitle us to be heard with patience, and even +deference, on the management of our own affairs, if we speak +unanimously, lay aside party feeling, and use the voice of one leaf of +the holy Trefoil,--one distinct and component part of the United +Kingdoms. + +Let no consideration deter us from pleading our own cause temperately +but firmly, and we shall certainly receive a favourable audience. Even +our acquisition of a little wealth, which might abate our courage on +other occasions, should invigorate us to unanimous perseverance at the +present crisis, when the very source of our national prosperity is +directly, though unwittingly, struck at. Our plaids are, I trust, not +yet sunk into Jewish gaberdines, to be wantonly spit upon; nor are we +yet bound to 'receive the insult with a patient shrug.' But exertion +is now demanded on other accounts than those of mere honourable +punctilio. Misers themselves will struggle in defence of their +property, though tolerant of all aggressions by which that is not +threatened. Avarice herself, however mean-spirited, will rouse to +defend the wealth she possesses, and preserve the means of gaining +more. Scotland is now called upon to rally in defence of the sources +of her national improvement, and the means of increasing it; upon +which, as none are so much concerned in the subject, none can be such +competent judges as Scotsmen themselves. + +I cannot believe so generous a people as the English, so wise an +administration as the present, will disregard our humble +remonstrances, merely because they are made in the form of peaceful +entreaty, and not _secundum perfervidum ingenium Scotorum_, with +'durk and pistol at our belt.' It would be a dangerous lesson to teach +the empire at large, that threats can extort what is not yielded to +reasonable and respectful remonstrance. + +But this is not all. The principle of 'uniformity of laws,' if not +manfully withstood, may have other blessings in store for us. Suppose, +that when finished with blistering Scotland when in perfect health, +England should find time and courage to withdraw the veil from the +deep cancer which is gnawing her own bowels, and make an attempt to +stop the fatal progress of her _poor-rates_. Some system or other must +be proposed in its place--a grinding one it must be, for it is not an +evil to be cured by palliatives. Suppose the English, for uniformity's +sake, insist that Scotland, which is at present free from this foul +and shameful disorder, should nevertheless be included in the severe +_treatment_ which the disease demands, how would the landholders of +Scotland like to undergo the scalpel and cautery, merely because +England requires to be scarified? + +Or again;--Supposing England should take a fancy to impart to us her +sanguinary criminal code, which, too cruel to be carried into effect, +gives every wretch that is condemned a chance of one to twelve that he +shall not be executed, and so turns the law into a lottery--would this +be an agreeable boon to North Britain? + +Once more;--What if the English ministers should feel disposed to +extend to us their equitable system of process respecting civil debt, +which divides the advantages so admirably betwixt debtor and +creditor--_That_ equal dispensation of justice, which provides that an +imprisoned debtor, if a rogue, may remain in undisturbed possession of +a great landed estate, and enjoy in a jail all the luxuries of +Sardanapalus, while the wretch to whom he owes money is starving; and +that, to balance the matter, a creditor, if cruel, may detain a debtor +in prison for a lifetime, and make, as the established phrase goes, +_dice of his bones_--would this admirable reciprocity of privilege, +indulged alternately to knave and tyrant, please Saunders better than +his own humane action of Cessio, and his equitable process of +Adjudication? + +I will not insist further on such topics, for I daresay that these +apparent enormities in principle are, in England where they have +operation, modified and corrected in practice by circumstances unknown +to me; so that, in passing judgment on them, I may myself fall into +the error I deprecate, of judging of foreign laws without being aware +of all the premisses. Neither do I mean that we should struggle with +illiberality against any improvements which can be borrowed from +English principle. I would only desire that such ameliorations were +adopted, not merely because they are English, but because they are +suited to be assimilated with the laws of Scotland, and lead, in +short, _to her evident utility_; and this on the principle, that in +transplanting a tree, little attention need be paid to the character +of the climate and soil from which it is brought, although the +greatest care must be taken that those of the situation to which it is +transplanted are fitted to receive it. It would be no reason for +planting mulberry-trees in Scotland, that they luxuriate in the south +of England. There is sense in the old proverb, 'Ilk land has its ain +lauch.' + +In the present case, it is impossible to believe the extension of +these restrictions to Scotland can be for the _evident utility_ of the +country, which has prospered so long and so uniformly under directly +the contrary system. + +It is very probable I may be deemed illiberal in all this reasoning; +but if to look for information to practical results, rather than to +theoretical principles, and to argue from the effect of the experience +of a century, rather than the deductions of a modern hypothesis, be +illiberal, I must sit down content with a censure, which will include +wiser men than I. The philosophical tailors of Laputa, who wrought by +mathematical calculation, had, no doubt, a supreme contempt for those +humble fashioners who went to work by measuring the person of their +customer; but Gulliver tells us, that the worst clothes he ever wore, +were constructed upon abstract principles; and truly, I think, we have +seen some laws, and may see more, not much better adapted to existing +circumstances, than the Captain's philosophical uniform to his actual +person. + +It is true, that every wise statesman keeps sound and general +political principles in his eye, as the pilot looks upon his compass +to discover his true course. But this true course cannot always be +followed out straight and diametrically; it must be altered from time +to time, nay sometimes apparently abandoned, on account of shoals, +breakers, and headlands, not to mention contrary winds. The same +obstacles occur to the course of the statesman. The point at which he +aims may be important, the principle on which he steers may be just; +yet the obstacles arising from rooted prejudices, from intemperate +passions, from ancient practices, from a different character of +people, from varieties in climate and soil, may cause a direct +movement upon his ultimate object to be attended with distress to +individuals, and loss to the community, which no good man would wish +to occasion, and with dangers which no wise man would voluntarily +choose to encounter. + +Although I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been rather +precipitate in the decided opinion which he is represented to have +expressed on this occasion, I am far from entertaining the slightest +disrespect for the right honourable gentleman. 'I hear as good +exclamation upon him as on any man in Messina, and though I am but a +poor man, I am glad to hear it.' But a decided attachment to abstract +principle, and to a spirit of generalising, is--like a rash rider on a +headstrong horse--very apt to run foul of local obstacles, which might +have been avoided by a more deliberate career, where the nature of the +ground had been previously considered. + +I make allowance for the temptation natural to an ingenious and active +mind. There is a natural pride in following out an universal and +levelling principle. It seems to augur genius, force of conception, +and steadiness of purpose; qualities which every legislator is +desirous of being thought to possess. On the other hand, the study of +local advantages and impediments demands labour and inquiry, and is +rewarded after all only with the cold and parsimonious praise due to +humble industry. It is no less true, however, that measures which go +straight and direct to a great general object, without noticing +intervening impediments, must often resemble the fierce progress of +the thunderbolt or the cannon-ball, those dreadful agents, which, in +rushing right to their point, care not what ruin they make by the way. +The sounder and more moderate policy, accommodating its measures to +exterior circumstances, rather resembles the judicious course of a +well-conducted highway, which, turning aside frequently from its +direct course, + + 'Winds round the corn-field and the hill of vines,' + +and becomes devious, that it may respect property and avoid obstacles; +thus escaping even temporary evils, and serving the public no less in +its more circuitous, than it would have done in its direct course. + +Can you tell me, sir, if this _uniformity_ of civil institutions, +which calls for such sacrifices, be at all descended from, or related +to, a doctrine nearly of the same nature, called Conformity in +religious doctrine, very fashionable about one hundred and fifty years +since, which undertook to unite the jarring creeds of the United +Kingdom to one common standard, and excited a universal strife by the +vain attempt, and a thousand fierce disputes, in which she + + '----umpire sate, + And by decision more embroiled the fray'? + +Should Uniformity have the same pedigree, Malachi Malagrowther +proclaims her 'a hawk of a very bad nest.' + +The universal opinion of a whole kingdom, founded upon a century's +experience, ought not to be lightly considered as founded in ignorance +and prejudice. I am something of an agriculturist; and in travelling +through the country I have often had occasion to wonder that the +inhabitants of particular districts had not adopted certain obvious +improvements in cultivation. But, upon inquiry, I have usually found +out that appearances had deceived me, and that I had not reckoned on +particular local circumstances, which either prevented the execution +of the system I should have theoretically recommended, or rendered +some other more advantageous in the particular circumstances. + +I do not therefore resist theoretical innovation in general; I only +humbly desire it may not outrun the suggestions arising from the +experience of ages. I would have the necessity felt and acknowledged +before old institutions are demolished--the _evident utility_ of every +alteration demonstrated before it is adopted upon mere speculation. I +submit our ancient system to the primary knife of the legislature, but +would not willingly see our reformers employ a weapon, which, like the +sword of Jack the Giant-Killer, _cuts before the point_. + +It is always to be considered, that in human affairs, the very best +imaginable result is seldom to be obtained, and that it is wise to +content ourselves with the best which can be got. This principle +speaks with a voice of thunder against violent innovation, for the +sake of possible improvement, where things are already well. We ought +not to desire better bread than is made of wheat. Our Scotch proverb +warns us to _Let weel bide_; and all the world has heard of the +untranslatable Italian epitaph upon the man, who died of taking physic +to make him better, when he was already in health.--I am, Mr. +Journalist, yours, + +MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT + + +Since writing these hasty thoughts, I hear it reported that we are to +have an extension of our precarious reprieve, and that our six months +are to be extended to six years. I would not have Scotland trust to +this hollow truce. The measure ought, like all others, to be canvassed +on its merits, and frankly admitted or rejected; it has been stirred +and ought to be decided. I request my countrymen not to be soothed +into inactivity by that temporising, and, I will say, unmanly +vacillation. Government is pledged to nothing by taking an open +course; for if the bill, so far as applicable to Scotland, is at +present absolutely laid aside, there can be no objection to their +resuming it at any period, when from change of circumstances, it may +be advantageous to Scotland, and when, for what I know, it may be +welcomed as a boon. + +But if held over our heads as a minatory measure, to take place within +a certain period, what can the event be but to cripple and ultimately +destroy the present system, on which a direct attack is found at +present inexpedient? Can the bankers continue to conduct their +profession on the same secure footing, with an abrogation of it in +prospect? Must it not cease to be what it has hitherto been--a +business carried on both for their own profit, and for the +accommodation of the country? Instead of employing their capital in +the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming +others? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from +that species of commerce? And may not the place of these be supplied +by men of daring adventure, without corresponding capital, who will +take a chance of wealth or ruin in the chances of the game? + +If it is the absolute and irrevocable determination that the bill is +to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the +better; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of +life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and +protracted suspense. + + + + +NOTES + +[Transcriber's note: I have added the pamphlet headings, since the +original page numbers are not helpful.] + + +I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. + +_The exclusion_--of James from the succession. + +_The rebellion_--Monmouth's. + +_The Quakers_.--A hit, of course, at Penn. + +_Piqueer_, 'do outpost duty,' 'raid.' + +_Lords of the Articles_.--A well-known body in the older Scottish +Constitution, through whom only legislation could be originated, and who +thus almost nullified the powers of Parliament. + +_Squeaziness_ = 'squeamishness,' 'queasiness.' + +_It is impossible_.--Another form of 'No bishop no king.' + +_The new converts_.--After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. + +_T.W._ is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for +'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William +Temple. + + +II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS. + +_Neither_, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the +famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in _Hamlet_. + + +III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. + +I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics +with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the +vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described as '_a mean ordinary man, +a hard-ware dealer_.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly +independent of them. + +_Written_--by Swift himself. + +_Bere_, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated +in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, +and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher +climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought +to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted. + +_Conolly_.--Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. + +_Pistole_--about ten shillings. + +_Brought to the bullion_ seems here to have the meaning of the +French _billonner_ or _envoyer au billon_, 'to melt for recoining.' + +_Our Caesar's statue_.--The statue of George I. on Essex Bridge, +Dublin. + + +IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. + +_Contignation_.--This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite +obsolete word (from _tignum_, 'beam') means 'having a common or +continuous roof.' + +The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendean and Chouan +movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully +explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of +the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and +though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little +positive evidence to support them. + +_But when the possibility ... that the_.--It will probably seem +to a modern reader that either 'that' or 'the' has crept in improperly. +It might be so; but Burke still maintained the authoritative but rather +inelegant tradition by which 'that,' like the French _que_, could +replace any such antecedent word as 'when,' 'because,' etc. + +_Louis the Sixteenth_.--To this is appended a note in the editions +beginning, 'It may be right to do justice to Louis XVI. He did what he +could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.' The subject has of +late years received considerable illustration in the Duke of Broglie's +_Le Secret du Roi_, and other works by the same author. + +_Montalembert_.--Marc Rene, Marquis de (1714-1800), a voluminous +military writer. + +_Harrington_--of the _Oceana_. + + +V. PETER PLYMLEY'S LETTERS. + +_Dear Abraham_.--'Peter Plymley' addresses his _Letters_ to +'my brother Abraham, who lives in the country,' and is a +parson. + +_Baron Maseres_.--Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, a descendant +of Huguenots, very well thought of by his contemporaries. Dr. Rennel I +know not, unless he was the Herodotus man. + +_C----_, Canning. + +_Dr. Duigenan_.--A delightful person who, in his hot youth, as a +junior Fellow of T.C., D., threatened to 'bulge the Provost's' [Provost +Hely Hutchinson's] 'eye,' and was afterwards a pillar of Protestantism. + +This _light and frivolous jester_ was _not_ the Rev. Sydney +Smith, but George Canning, Esq. + +_The pecuniary Rose_.--'Old George' Rose, Pitt's right hand. He +was rather heavily rewarded with places and pensions; but even Liberals +now admit that the country has hardly had an abler official. + +_Lord Hawkesbury_, Jenkinson, better known as Lord Liverpool. + +_Tickell_--the _Rolliad_ Tickell. + +_Joel_--Peter's nephew and Abraham's son. + + +VI. LETTER TO THE JOURNEYMEN AND LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, WALES, +SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. LETTER TO JACK HARROW. + +_Paint in the most horrid colours_.--See, for instance, _The +Bloody Buoy_ and _The Cannibal's Progress_, by William Cobbett. + +_Flogging_.--Some of the militia mutinied at Ely, and were +punished, the guard on the occasion being furnished by the cavalry of +the German Legion. Cobbett noticed this in the most inflammatory +manner, and it being war time, was indicted, tried, found guilty, and +sentenced as he describes. + +_Monks and friars_.--A time came when Cobbett thought and wrote +very differently of these persons. But that was his way. + +_Foundal_.--I do not know whether Cobbett invented this equivalent +for _trouvaille_, 'windfall,' or not. His notable scheme for breaking +the Bank is a good example of him in his insaner moods. + + +VII. FIRST LETTER OF MALACHI MALAGROWTHER. + +_The Duenna_--Sheridan's. + +_The Jury Court_.--Trial by jury in _civil_ cases was only introduced +into Scotland in 1815. + +_Evasive answer_--to the effect that each queen was the fairest +woman in her own country. + +_Doer_ = 'factor' or agent. + +_Them_--as if 'Scotsmen' had been written for 'Scotland.' + +_Chosen Five and Forty_--the original number of members +assigned to Scotland. + +_Political pamphlet_--'The Public Spirit of the Whigs.' + +_Durk, sic_ in original. + +_Cessio, sc. bonorum_, whereby a debtor on giving up his property +could be relieved of liabilities. + +_Adjudication_, whereby a creditor could attach landed as +well as personal property. + +_Lauch_ = 'laugh.' + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Political Pamphlets, by George Saintsbury + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL PAMPHLETS *** + +***** This file should be named 13943.txt or 13943.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/4/13943/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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